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This is a topic from the The Writing on the Walrus forum on inthe00s.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/16/11 at 8:08 pm
The person of the day...B.B. King
Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King ("B.B." short for Blues Boy), is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and fluid, complex guitar playing.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time". According to Edward M. Komara, King "introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." King has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which did not chart well. "My very first recordings were for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalls. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas Branch, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player. The Newborn family were the house band at the famous Plantation Inn in West Memphis."
Performing with his famous guitar, Lucille
King assembled his own band; the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. The band initially consisted of Calvin Owens and Kenneth Sands (trumpet), Lawrence Burdin (alto saxophone), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Floyd Newman (baritone saxophone), Millard Lee (piano), George Joyner (bass) and Earl Forest and Ted Curry (drums). Onzie Horne was a trained musician elicited as an arranger to assist King with his compositions. By his own admission, he cannot play chords well and always relies on improvisation. This was followed by tours across the USA with performances in major theaters in cities such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and St. Louis, as well as numerous gigs in small clubs and juke joints of the southern US states.
In the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. In order to heat the hall, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit, a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the burning barrel and sending burning fuel across the floor. The hall burst into flames, which triggered an evacuation. Once outside, King realized that he had left his guitar inside the burning building. He entered the blaze to retrieve his beloved $30 guitar, a Gibson semi-hollow electric. Two people died in the fire. The next day, King learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. King named that first guitar Lucille, as well as every one he owned since that near-fatal experience, as a reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over women.
King meanwhile toured the entire "Chitlin' circuit" and 1956 became a record-breaking year, with 342 concerts booked. The same year he founded his own record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, with headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. There, among other projects, he produced artists such as Millard Lee and Levi Seabury.
In the 1950s, B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an impressive list of hits including "3 O'Clock Blues", "You Know I Love You," "Woke Up This Morning," "Please Love Me," "When My Heart Beats like a Hammer," "Whole Lotta Love," "You Upset Me Baby," "Every Day I Have the Blues", "Sneakin' Around," "Ten Long Years," "Bad Luck," "Sweet Little Angel", "On My Word of Honor," and "Please Accept My Love." In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and then his current label, Geffen Records. In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
King won a Grammy Award for a tune called "The Thrill Is Gone"; his version became a hit on both the pop and R&B charts, which was rare during that time for an R&B artist. It also gained the number 183 spot in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. He gained further visibility among rock audiences as an opening act on The Rolling Stones' 1969 American Tour. King's mainstream success continued throughout the 1970s with songs like "To Know You is to Love You" and "I Like to Live the Love".
King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. In 2004 he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music."
B.B. King in concert in France 1989
From the 1980s onward he has continued to maintain a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and performing 300 nights a year. In 1988, King reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort between King and the Irish band U2 on their Rattle and Hum album. In 2000, King teamed up with guitarist Eric Clapton to record Riding With the King. In 1998, King appeared in The Blues Brothers 2000, playing the part of the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys, along with Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley.
2006–present: farewell tour and later activities
Aged 80 at the time, on March 29, 2006, King played at Hallam Arena in Sheffield, England. This was the first date of his United Kingdom and European farewell tour. He played this tour supported by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, with whom King had previously toured and recorded, including the song "Since I Met You Baby". The British leg of the tour ended on April 4 with a concert at Wembley Arena. And on June 28, 2009 King returned to Wembley arena to end a tour around Great Britain with British blues icon John Mayall. When questioned as to why he was embarking on another tour after already completing his farewell stint, King jokingly remarked that he had never actually said the farewell tour would be his last.
In July King went back to Europe, playing twice (July 2 and 3) in the 40th edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival and also in Zürich at the Blues at Sunset on July 14. During his show in Montreux at the Stravinski Hall he jammed with Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Gladys Knight, Lella James, Earl Thomas, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Barbara Hendricks and George Duke. The European leg of the Farewell Tour ended in Luxembourg on September 19, 2006, at the D'Coque Arena (support act: Todd Sharpville).
In November and December, King played six times in Brazil. During a press conference on November 29 in São Paulo, a journalist asked King if that would be the actual farewell tour. He answered: "One of my favorite actors is a man from Scotland named Sean Connery. Most of you know him as James Bond, 007. He made a movie called Never Say Never Again."
In June 2006, King was present at a memorial of his first radio broadcast at the Three Deuces Building in Greenwood, Mississippi, where an official marker of the Mississippi Blues Trail was erected. The same month, a groundbreaking was held for a new museum, dedicated to King. in Indianola, Mississippi. The museum opened on September 13, 2008.
B.B. King at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Ontario (May 2007)
In late October 2006, he recorded a concert CD and DVD entitled B.B. King: Live at his B.B. King Blues Clubs in Nashville and Memphis. The four night production featured his regular B.B. King Blues Band and captured his show as he performs it nightly around the world. It was his first live performance recording in 14 years.
On July 28, 2007, King played at Eric Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival with 20 other guitarists to raise money for the Crossroads Centre for addictive disorders. Performing in Chicago, he played "Paying the Cost to Be the Boss", "Rock Me Baby" and "Thrill is Gone" (although the latter was not published on the DVD release) with Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan and Hubert Sumlin. In a poignant moment during the live broadcast, he offered a toast to the concert's host, Eric Clapton, and also reflected upon his own life and seniority. Adding to the poignancy, the four-minute speech — which had been underlaid with a mellow chord progression by Robert Cray throughout — made a transition to an emotional rendition of "Thrill is Gone". Parts of this performance were subsequently aired in a PBS broadcast and released on the Crossroads II DVD.
Also in 2007, King accepted an invitation to contribute to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard Records). With Ivan Neville's DumpstaPhunk, King contributed his version of the title song, "Goin' Home".
In 2007 King performed "One Shoe Blues" on the Sandra Boynton children's album Blue Moo, accompanied by a pair of sock puppets in the video.
In June 2008, King played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee; he was also the final performer at the 25th annual Chicago Blues Festival on June 8, 2008, and at the Monterey Blues Festival, following Taj Mahal. Another June 2008 event was King's induction into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame alongside Liza Minnelli and Sir James Galway.
In July 2008, Sirius XM Radio's Bluesville channel was re-named B.B. King's Bluesville.
On December 1, 2008, King performed at the Maryland Theater in Hagerstown, Maryland. On December 3, King and John Mayer were the closing act at the 51st Grammy Nomination Concert, playing "Let the Good Times Roll" by Louis Jordan. On December 30, 2008, King played at The Kennedy Center Honors Awards Show; his performance was in honor of actor Morgan Freeman.
European Tour 2009, Vienna, July 2009
In Summer 2009 B.B. King started a European Tour with concerts in France, Germany, Belgium, Finland and Denmark.
In March 2010, King contributed to Cyndi Lauper's album Memphis Blues, which was released on June 22, 2010.
King performed at the Mawazine festival in Rabat, Morocco, on May 27, 2010.
On June 25, 2011 BB King played the pyramid stage at The Glastonbury Music Festival. On the June 28 he opened his new European tour at The Royal Albert Hall, London, supported by Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Ronnie Wood, Mick Hucknall and Slash.
Over a period of 62 years, B.B. King has played in excess of 15,000 performances.
In 1980, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1990, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
In 1991, he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA.
A commemorative guitar pick honoring "B.B. King Day" in Portland, Maine.
King was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995. This is given to recognize "the lifelong accomplishments and extraordinary talents of our nation's most prestigious artists."
In 2004, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music awarded him the Polar Music Prize for his "significant contributions to the blues".
On December 15, 2006, President George W. Bush awarded King the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On May 27, 2007, King was awarded an honorary doctorate in music by Brown University.
On May 14, 2008, King was presented with the keys to the city of Utica, New York; and on May 18, 2008, the mayor of Portland, Maine, Edward Suslovic, declared the day "B.B. King Day" in the city. Prior to King's performance at the Merrill Auditorium, Suslovic presented King with the keys to the city.
In 2009, TIME named B.B. King No.3 on its list of the 10 best electric guitarists of all time.
Each year during the first week in June, a B.B. King Homecoming Festival is held in Indianola, Mississippi.
A Mississippi Blues Trail marker was added for B.B. King, commemorating his birthplace.
On May 29, 2010, Sabrosa Park (at the small town of Sabrosa, north of Portugal) was renamed B.B. King Park in honor of King and the free concert he played before 20,000 people.
Grammy Awards
King was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. As of 2009, he has won 15 Grammy Awards, of which ten have been the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album: in 2009 (for One Kind Favor), 2005 (B. B. King & Friends: 80), 2003 (for A Christmas Celebration of Hope), 2001 (for Riding with the King), 2000 (for Blues on the Bayou), 1994 (for Blues Summit), 1992 (for Live at the Apollo), 1991 (for Live at San Quentin), 1986 (for My Guitar Sings the Blues) and 1984 (for Blues 'N' Jazz). In 1982, he won the Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording (for There Must Be a Better World Somewhere). The Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk was last given in 1986; the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was first given in 1983. In 1997, he won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (with other artists, for "SRV Shuffle"). In 1971, he won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "The Thrill Is Gone"). A Grammy Hall of Fame Award was given to "The Thrill is Gone" in 1998, an award given to recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3/nirvana1fan7/BB_King.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff235/Kapten_Panda/bb_king.jpg
BB King is great always carrying around his trusty guitar.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/17/11 at 10:33 am
The person of the day...Anne Bancroft
Anne Bancroft (September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress associated with the Method acting school, which she had studied under Lee Strasberg.
She made her film debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and, following a string of supporting film roles during the 1950s, won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Miracle Worker (1962), receiving subsequent nominations for her roles in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), The Graduate (1967), The Turning Point (1977), and Agnes of God (1985). Bancroft's other acclaimed movies as a lead actress include Young Winston (1972), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), To Be or Not to Be (1983), and 84 Charing Cross Road (1987).
Later in her career, she made the transition back to supporting roles in theatrical films such as Point of No Return (1993), Home for the Holidays (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Antz (1998),Keeping the Faith (2000), and Heartbreakers (2001). She also starred in seven television films, the last of which was The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003) for which she received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Bancroft died of uterine cancer, age 73, in 2005. Among her survivors was her husband of 40 years, Mel Brooks, and their son Max Brooks.
Bancroft was a contract player in the early days of her career just as the studio contract system was ending. She left Hollywood because of the poor quality of roles she was being offered and returned to New York.
In 1958, Bancroft made her Broadway debut as lovelorn, Bronx-talkin' Gittel Mosca opposite Henry Fonda (as the married man Gittel loves) in William Gibson's two-character play Two for the Seesaw, directed by Arthur Penn. For Gittel, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. (Though her role was quite equal to Fonda's, he, an established film actor, was the star, and so she was eligible in the featured category).
She subsequently won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1960, again with playwright Gibson and director Penn, when she played Annie Sullivan, the sight-impaired, heroically indefatigable Irish girl who teaches the child Helen Keller to communicate in The Miracle Worker. She took the latter role to Hollywood, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress, with Patty Duke repeating her own success as Helen alongside Bancroft in the 1962 film version of the play. Bancroft had returned to Broadway to star in Mother Courage and Her Children, so Joan Crawford accepted Bancroft's Oscar on her behalf, and later presented the award to her in New York. She is one of the very distinct few to have won an Academy Award and Tony Award for the same role. Bancroft also co-starred as a medieval nun obsessed with a priest opposite Jason Robards in the 1965 Broadway production of John Whiting's play The Devils. Produced by Alexander H. Cohen and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, it ran for a total of 63 performances.
Bancroft received a second Academy Award nomination in 1965 for her performance in The Pumpkin Eater. Her best-known role during this period was as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), for which she received a third Academy Award nomination. In the film, she played an unhappily married woman who seduces the much-younger recent college graduate played by Dustin Hoffman. Bancroft was ambivalent about her appearance in The Graduate; she stated in several interviews that the role overshadowed all of her other work. Although her status as the "older woman" in the film is iconic, Bancroft was actually only 36 years old to Dustin Hoffman's 30 when the film was released.
A CBS television special, Annie: the Women in the Life of a Man (1970), won Bancroft an Emmy Award for her singing and acting. Bancroft is one of a very select few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony award. She followed that success with a second television special, Annie and The Hoods (1974), which was telecast on ABC and featured her husband Mel Brooks as a guest star. She made an uncredited cameo in the film Blazing Saddles (1974), directed by Brooks. She received a fourth Academy Award nomination for her performance in The Turning Point (1977) opposite Shirley Maclaine, and a fifth nomination for her performance in Agnes of God (1985) opposite Jane Fonda.
Bancroft made her debut as a screenwriter and director in Fatso (1980), in which she starred along with Dom DeLuise. Bancroft was also the original choice to play Joan Crawford in the film Mommie Dearest (1981), but backed out at the eleventh hour, and was replaced by Faye Dunaway. She was also a front-runner for the role of Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment (1983), but declined in order to act in the remake of To Be or Not to Be (1983).
During the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, Bancroft took supporting roles in a number of films in which she co-starred with major film stars, including Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) with Nicolas Cage; Love Potion No. 9 (1992) with Sandra Bullock; Malice (1993) with Nicole Kidman; Point of No Return (1993) with Bridget Fonda; Home for the Holidays (1995) with Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jodie Foster; How to Make an American Quilt (1995) with Winona Ryder, G.I. Jane (1997) with Demi Moore; Great Expectations (1998) with Gwyneth Paltrow; Keeping the Faith (2000) with Ben Stiller; and Heartbreakers (2001) with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman. She also lent her voice to the animated film Antz (1998) which also featured performances from Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone, and Woody Allen.
Bancroft also starred in several television movies and miniseries, receiving six Emmy Award nominations (winning twice), eight Golden Globe nominations (winning twice), and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her final screen appearance was in the television film The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003) for which she received critical acclaim. Her last project was the animated feature Delgo, released posthumously in 2008.
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6368 Hollywood Boulevard for her work in television, although she was primarily a stage and film actress.
Marriage and family
Bancroft was married to Martin May from July 1, 1953, to February 13, 1957. They had no children.
In 1961, Bancroft met Mel Brooks at a rehearsal for the Perry Como variety show. Bancroft and Brooks married on August 5, 1964, at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau near New York City Hall and were together until her death. In 1972 Bancroft gave birth to her only child, Maximillian Brooks.
They were seen three times on the screen together: once dancing a tango in Brooks's Silent Movie (1976); in his remake of To Be or Not to Be (1983); and in the episode entitled "Opening Night" (2004) of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. They were also in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), but never appeared together. Brooks produced the film The Elephant Man (1980), in which Bancroft acted. He also was executive-producer for the film 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) in which she starred. Both Brooks and Bancroft appeared in season six of The Simpsons. According to the DVD commentary, when Bancroft came to record her lines for the episode "Fear of Flying", the Simpsons writers asked if Brooks had come with her (which he had); she joked, "I can't get rid of him!" In 2010, Brooks credited Bancroft as being the guiding force behind his involvement in developing The Producers and Young Frankenstein for the musical theatre, citing an early meeting as "From that day, until her death on June 5, 2005, we were glued together."
In April 2005, two months before her death, Bancroft became a grandmother when her daughter-in-law Michelle gave birth to a boy, Henry Michael Brooks.
Death
Anne Bancroft's grave in Kensico Cemetery
Anne Bancroft died, age 73, of uterine cancer on June 6, 2005, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Her death surprised many, even some of her friends. She was intensely private and had not released details of her illness. She is interred at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, near her parents, Mildred (who died in April 2010, five years after her daughter) and Michael Italiano. A white marble monument with a weeping angel adorns her grave.
Work
Theatre
Year↓ Title↓ Role↓
1958 Two for the Seesaw Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
1959 The Miracle Worker Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
1963 Mother Courage and Her Children
1965 The Devils
1967 The Little Foxes
1968 A Cry of Players
1977 Golda Nominated—Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
1981 Duet for One
2002 Occupant
Film
Year↓ Title↓ Role↓ Notes
1952 Don't Bother to Knock Lyn Lesley
1953 Tonight We Sing Emma Hurok
1953 Treasure of the Golden Condor Marie, Comtesse de St. Malo
1953 The Kid from Left Field Marian Foley
1954 Gorilla at Large Laverne Miller
1954 Demetrius and the Gladiators Paula
1955 The Raid Katie Bishop
1955 New York Confidential Kathy Lupo
1955 A Life in the Balance María Ibinia
1955 The Naked Street Rosalie Regalzyk
1955 The Last Frontier Corinna Marston
1956 Walk the Proud Land Tianay
1957 Nightfall Marie Gardner
1957 The Restless Breed Angelita
1957 The Girl in Black Stockings Beth Dixon
1962 The Miracle Worker Annie Sullivan Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
San Sebastián International Film Festival Prize San Sebastián
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1964 The Pumpkin Eater Jo Armitage Oscar BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
1965 The Slender Thread Inga Dyson
1966 7 Women Dr. D.R. Cartwright
1967 The Graduate Mrs. Robinson Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1972 Young Winston Lady Randolph Churchill Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1974 Blazing Saddles Extra in Church Congregation uncredited
1975 The Prisoner of Second Avenue Edna Edison Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1975 The Hindenburg Ursula, The Countess
1976 Lipstick Carla Bondi
1976 Silent Movie Herself
1977 The Turning Point Emma Jacklin National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1977 Jesus of Nazareth Mary Magdalene
1980 Fatso Antoinette also director and writer
1980 The Elephant Man Mrs. Kendal
1983 To Be or Not to Be Anna Bronski Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1984 Garbo Talks Estelle Rolfe Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1985 Agnes of God Mother Miriam Ruth Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1986 'night, Mother Thelma Cates Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1987 84 Charing Cross Road Helene Hanff BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1988 Torch Song Trilogy Ma Beckoff
1989 Bert Rigby, You're a Fool Meredith Perlestein
1992 Honeymoon in Vegas Bea Singer
1992 Love Potion No. 9 Madame Ruth
1993 Point of No Return Amanda
1993 Malice Mrs. Kennsinger
1993 Mr. Jones Dr. Catherine Holland
1995 How to Make an American Quilt Glady Joe Cleary Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1995 Home for the Holidays Adele Larson
1995 Dracula: Dead and Loving It Madame Ouspenskaya (Gypsy Woman)
1996 The Sunchaser Dr. Renata Baumbauer
1997 G.I. Jane Sen. Lillian DeHaven
1997 Critical Care Nun
1998 Great Expectations Ms. Dinsmoor
1998 Mark Twain's America in 3D Narrator
1998 Antz Queen voice
2000 Keeping the Faith Ruth Schram
2000 Up at the Villa Princess San Ferdinando
2001 Heartbreakers Gloria Vogal/Barbara
2001 In Search of Peace Golda Meir voice
2008 Delgo Sedessa voice
Television
Year↓ Title↓ Role↓ Notes
1967 ABC Stage 67 – I'm Getting Married Virginia
1970 Annie: The Women in the Life of a Man Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety or Musical Program – Variety and Popular Music
1974 Annie and the Hoods
1977 Jesus of Nazareth Mary Magdalene Miniseries
1982 Marco Polo Marco's mother Miniseries
1990 Freddie and Max Maxine (Max) Chandler Six episodes
1992 Broadway Bound Kate Jerome Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1992 Mrs. Cage Lillian Cage Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1994 Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All Lucy Marsden (age 99–100) Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1994 Great Performances – The Mother Mrs. Fanning
1994 The Simpsons Dr. Zweig Voice role, episode: "Fear of Flying"
1996 Homecoming Abigail Tillerman Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
1999 Deep in My Heart Gerry Eileen Cummins Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
2001 Haven Mama Gruber Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
2003 The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone Contessa Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2004 Curb Your Enthusiasm Herself
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f257/tallulahbankhead/movie%20stars/annebancroft.jpg
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff357/JoannaGreenleaf/Stories/bancroft_200x300.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/17/11 at 2:58 pm
BB King is great always carrying around his trusty guitar.
Yes, he's certainly a great musician.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/18/11 at 3:25 am
Yes, he's certainly a great musician.
I liked the single "When Love Comes to Town" he made with U2.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/21/11 at 11:12 am
I liked the single "When Love Comes to Town" he made with U2.
I haven't heard that one yet, but I'm sure it's a good song.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 09/21/11 at 11:32 am
Haven't had a Person of the Day for the last few days. I hope ninny is ok.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/21/11 at 11:36 am
Haven't had a Person of the Day for the last few days. I hope ninny is ok.
Cat
I hope so too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/21/11 at 11:36 am
I haven't heard that one yet, but I'm sure it's a good song.
It must be on YouTube.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/21/11 at 8:17 pm
I hope so too.
Me too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/23/11 at 7:57 am
Haven't had a Person of the Day for the last few days. I hope ninny is ok.
Cat
I hope so too.
Me too.
Thanks everyone between Tim having a few extra days off this week and a pounding headache(I still have) I've neglected to do the person of the day :-[ SORRY!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/23/11 at 8:04 am
The person of the day...Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 200 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the 23rd greatest artist of all time in its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard #23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard #83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations. The songwriting and recording was more disciplined than before, while still maintaining an epic feel. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, Born to Run is considered by some fans to be among the best rock and roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock and roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.
A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, his new songs had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first two albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows.
Springsteen at Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Ivory Coast during Amnesty International's 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour.
By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. number one pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit number two in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire".
In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.
Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart". This album marked a shift in Springsteen's music toward a pop-rock sound that was all but missing from any of his earlier work.This is apparent in the stylistic adoption of certain eighties pop-rock hallmarks like the reverberating-tenor drums, very basic percussion/guitar and repetitive lyrics apparent in many of the tracks. The title song pointed to Springsteen's intellectual direction, while a couple of the lesser-known tracks presaged his musical direction. The album sold well, becoming his first topper on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.
The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. Recording sessions had been held to expand on a demo tape Springsteen had made at his home on a simple, low-tech four-track tape deck. However during the recording process Springsteen and producer Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers than full band renditions and the original demo tape was released as the album. Although the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from these sessions would later be released, including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days". According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen's two previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.
1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon
Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with seven singles hitting the Top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways. The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song in a car commercial. (In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song's original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at number 2 on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were made by noted film directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen was featured on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985. His live single "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on U.S. Top 40 stations as well as reaching #1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.
During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips, whom he would marry in 1985.
Springsteen performing on the Tunnel of Love Express at the Radrennbahn Weißensee in East Berlin on July 19, 1988.
The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at number 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. Live/1975–85 summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Despite its popularity, some fans and critics felt the album's song selection could have been better. Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.
During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine, which started in Seattle and continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website.
After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band. It presaged the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips and described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship. Reflecting the challenges of love in "Brilliant Disguise", Springsteen sang:
“ I heard somebody call your name, from underneath our willow. I saw something tucked in shame, underneath your pillow. Well I've tried so hard baby, but I just can't see. What a woman like you is doing with me. ”
The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements. During the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with backup singer Patti Scialfa became public and Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988. Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In late 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California, marrying in 1991.
Bruce Springsteen draws on many musical influences from the reservoir of traditional American popular music, folk, blues and country. From the beginning, rock and roll has been the dominant influence. On his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, the folk-influence is clear to hear. An example of the influence of this music genre to Springsteen's music is his song "This Hard Land" which demonstrates a clear influence of the style of Woody Guthrie.
He expanded the range of his musical compositions on his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Elements of Latin American music, jazz, soul, and funk influences can be heard; the song "New York City Serenade" is even reminiscent of the music of George Gershwin. These two records prominently featured pianist David Sancious, who left the band shortly into the recording of Springsteen's third album, Born To Run. This album, however, also emphasized the piano, the responsibility now of Roy Bittan.
Earlier in his career, Springsteen has focused more on the rock elements of his music. He initially compressed the sound and developed Darkness On The Edge Of Town just as straightforward as concise musical idiom, for the simple riffs and clearly recognizable song structures are dominant. His music has been categorized as heartland rock, a style typified by Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp. This music has a lyrical reference to the U.S. everyday and the music is kept rather simple and straightforward. This development culminated with Springsteen's hit album Born in the U.S.A., the title song of which has a constantly repeating, fanfare-like keyboard riff and a pounding drum beat. These sounds fit with Springsteen's voice: it cries to the listener the unsentimental story of a disenchanted angry figure. Even songs that can be argued to be album tracks proved to be singles that enjoyed some chart success, such as "My Hometown" and "I'm on Fire", in which the drum line is formed from subtle hi-hat and rim-clicks-shock (shock at the edge of the snare drum).
In recent years, Springsteen has changed his music further. There are more folk elements up to the gospel to be heard. His last solo album, Devils and Dust, drew rave reviews not only for Springsteen's complex songwriting, but also for his expressive and sensitive singing.
On the album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Springsteen performs folk classics with a folk band, rather than his usual E Street Band. On his ensuing tour he also interpreted some of his own rock songs in a folk style.
The 2007 album Magic was a reflection on the old stadium rock attitude and with its lush arrangements was almost designed to be performed at large stadiums, which also succeeded on the corresponding tour.
Springsteen's music has been used in many films and he has also written and performed several works specifically for films, examples include Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, Jerry Maguire, and The Wrestler.
Film↓ Year of film release↓ Song(s)↓ Notes↓
Dead End Street 1982 "Point Blank", "Hungry Heart" and "Jungleland" First use of Springsteen's music in film
Risky Business 1983 Hungry Heart
Baby, It's You 1983 "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "She's The One" and "Adam Raised A Cain" Film directed by John Sayles who later directed music videos for songs from Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love.
Light of Day 1987 "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day" Song written for the film.
In Country 1989 "I'm On Fire" Film also contained many Springsteen references.
Thunderheart 1992 "Badlands" (instrumental version)
Honeymoon in Vegas 1992 "Viva Las Vegas" A 1964 song recorded by Elvis Presley.
Philadelphia 1993 "Streets of Philadelphia" Song written for film. Won an Oscar.
Dead Man Walking 1995 "Dead Man Walkin'" Song written for film. Nominated for a Oscar.
The Crossing Guard 1995 "Missing" Song was later released in 2003 on The Essential Bruce Springsteen.
Jerry Maguire 1996 "Secret Garden"
Cop Land 1997 "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car" Sylvester Stallone's character plays the songs on his turntable.
The Wedding Singer 1998 "Hungry Heart"
A Night at the Roxbury 1998 "Secret Garden"
Big Daddy 1999 "Growin' Up" Played over a montage near the end of the film.
Limbo 1999 "Lift Me Up" Another John Sayles film.
High Fidelity 2000 "The River" and Blues Guitar Riff Blues riff played by Springsteen, on-screen during his cameo appearance. "Nebraska" played from vinyl on turntable.
The Perfect Storm 2000 "Hungry Heart"
25th Hour 2002 "The Fuse"
Grand Theft Parsons 2003 "Blood Brothers"
Jersey Girl 2004 "Jersey Girl" Cover of the Tom Waits version
Reign Over Me 2007 "Drive All Night" and "Out In The Street" The album The River was also well mentioned in the movie.
In the Land of Women 2007 "Iceman"
The Heartbreak Kid 2007 "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
Lucky You 2007 "Lucky Town"
The Wrestler 2008 "The Wrestler" Written for the film. The song was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and nominated for the MTV Movie Award as "Best Song From a Movie".
Food, Inc. 2009 "This Land Is Your Land" Live version, Bruce Springsteen's performance of the Woody Guthrie song.
Films inspired by music
In turn, films have been inspired by his music, including The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn, which Penn has specifically noted as being inspired by Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman".
In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness on The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Kevin Smith is an admitted "big fan" of fellow New Jersey native Springsteen and named his film Jersey Girl after the Tom Waits song which Springsteen made famous. The song was also used on the soundtrack.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant said Springsteen's "Thunder Road" to have been a heavy influence on their 2010 film "Cemetery Junction," employing the song's themes of escape and optimism into their story of 1970s England.
In 2011, Springsteen appears in an independent film made by a local musician Chris Vaughn from New Jersey entitled "Jerseyboy Hero" where the songwriter/filmmaker documents his journey to get his music out to the world by attempting to reach one of his two local New Jersey legends, Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi.
Acting
Springsteen made his first on-screen appearance in a brief cameo as himself in High Fidelity in 2000 and it was voted "Best Cameo in a Movie" at the MTV Movie Awards.
Discography
Main article: Bruce Springsteen discography
Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):
1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (#60)
1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (#59)
1975: Born to Run (#3)
1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (#5)
1980: The River (#1)
1982: Nebraska (#3)
1984: Born in the U.S.A. (#1)
1987: Tunnel of Love (#1)
1992: Human Touch (#2)
1992: Lucky Town (#3)
1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (#11)
1998: Tracks (#64)
2002: The Rising (#1)
2005: Devils & Dust (#1)
2006: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (#3)
2007: Magic (#1)
2009: Working on a Dream (#1)
2010: The Promise (#16)
Awards and recognition
Grammy Awards
Springsteen has won 20 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"
Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad
Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising
Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"
Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"
Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006, The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome
Best Long Form Music Video, 2006, Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born to Run
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
Best Rock Song, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2007, "Once Upon a Time in the West"
Best Rock Song, 2008, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2009, "Working on a Dream"
Only one of these awards has been one of the cross-genre "major" ones (Song, Record, or Album of the Year); he has been nominated a number of other times for the majors, but failed to win.
Golden Globe Awards
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" in 1994.
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "The Wrestler" in 2009.
Academy Awards
Academy Award for Best Original Song, 1993, "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.
Emmy Awards
The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.
Other recognition
October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of 'Newsweek' and 'Time'
Polar Music Prize in 1997.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999.
Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2007.
"Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature; something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey".
The minor planet 23990, discovered September 4, 1999, by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor.
Ranked #23 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Ranked #36 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time.
Made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Of The Year 2008 list.
Won Critic's Choice Award for Best Song with "The Wrestler" in 2009.
Performed at the Super Bowl XLIII half time show.
Kennedy Center Honors, 2009.
Rolling Stone magazine also ranked 8 out of 16 Springsteen's studio albums in their 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Born to Run and Thunder Road in its 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, in 21st and 86th, respectively.
Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100 in 2009
John Steinbeck Award
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss313/LaChicaDeAyer/Bruce%20Springsteen/bruce_springsteen.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/23/11 at 11:38 am
Thanks everyone between Tim having a few extra days off this week and a pounding headache(I still have) I've neglected to do the person of the day :-[ SORRY!
Welcome back, and hope the head clears soon.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/23/11 at 11:39 am
The person of the day...Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 200 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the 23rd greatest artist of all time in its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard #23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard #83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations. The songwriting and recording was more disciplined than before, while still maintaining an epic feel. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, Born to Run is considered by some fans to be among the best rock and roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock and roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.
A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, his new songs had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first two albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows.
Springsteen at Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Ivory Coast during Amnesty International's 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour.
By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. number one pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit number two in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire".
In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.
Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart". This album marked a shift in Springsteen's music toward a pop-rock sound that was all but missing from any of his earlier work.This is apparent in the stylistic adoption of certain eighties pop-rock hallmarks like the reverberating-tenor drums, very basic percussion/guitar and repetitive lyrics apparent in many of the tracks. The title song pointed to Springsteen's intellectual direction, while a couple of the lesser-known tracks presaged his musical direction. The album sold well, becoming his first topper on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.
The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. Recording sessions had been held to expand on a demo tape Springsteen had made at his home on a simple, low-tech four-track tape deck. However during the recording process Springsteen and producer Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers than full band renditions and the original demo tape was released as the album. Although the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from these sessions would later be released, including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days". According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen's two previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.
1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon
Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with seven singles hitting the Top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways. The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song in a car commercial. (In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song's original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at number 2 on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were made by noted film directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen was featured on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985. His live single "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on U.S. Top 40 stations as well as reaching #1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.
During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips, whom he would marry in 1985.
Springsteen performing on the Tunnel of Love Express at the Radrennbahn Weißensee in East Berlin on July 19, 1988.
The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at number 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. Live/1975–85 summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Despite its popularity, some fans and critics felt the album's song selection could have been better. Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.
During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine, which started in Seattle and continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website.
After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band. It presaged the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips and described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship. Reflecting the challenges of love in "Brilliant Disguise", Springsteen sang:
“ I heard somebody call your name, from underneath our willow. I saw something tucked in shame, underneath your pillow. Well I've tried so hard baby, but I just can't see. What a woman like you is doing with me. ”
The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements. During the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with backup singer Patti Scialfa became public and Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988. Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In late 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California, marrying in 1991.
Bruce Springsteen draws on many musical influences from the reservoir of traditional American popular music, folk, blues and country. From the beginning, rock and roll has been the dominant influence. On his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, the folk-influence is clear to hear. An example of the influence of this music genre to Springsteen's music is his song "This Hard Land" which demonstrates a clear influence of the style of Woody Guthrie.
He expanded the range of his musical compositions on his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Elements of Latin American music, jazz, soul, and funk influences can be heard; the song "New York City Serenade" is even reminiscent of the music of George Gershwin. These two records prominently featured pianist David Sancious, who left the band shortly into the recording of Springsteen's third album, Born To Run. This album, however, also emphasized the piano, the responsibility now of Roy Bittan.
Earlier in his career, Springsteen has focused more on the rock elements of his music. He initially compressed the sound and developed Darkness On The Edge Of Town just as straightforward as concise musical idiom, for the simple riffs and clearly recognizable song structures are dominant. His music has been categorized as heartland rock, a style typified by Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp. This music has a lyrical reference to the U.S. everyday and the music is kept rather simple and straightforward. This development culminated with Springsteen's hit album Born in the U.S.A., the title song of which has a constantly repeating, fanfare-like keyboard riff and a pounding drum beat. These sounds fit with Springsteen's voice: it cries to the listener the unsentimental story of a disenchanted angry figure. Even songs that can be argued to be album tracks proved to be singles that enjoyed some chart success, such as "My Hometown" and "I'm on Fire", in which the drum line is formed from subtle hi-hat and rim-clicks-shock (shock at the edge of the snare drum).
In recent years, Springsteen has changed his music further. There are more folk elements up to the gospel to be heard. His last solo album, Devils and Dust, drew rave reviews not only for Springsteen's complex songwriting, but also for his expressive and sensitive singing.
On the album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Springsteen performs folk classics with a folk band, rather than his usual E Street Band. On his ensuing tour he also interpreted some of his own rock songs in a folk style.
The 2007 album Magic was a reflection on the old stadium rock attitude and with its lush arrangements was almost designed to be performed at large stadiums, which also succeeded on the corresponding tour.
Springsteen's music has been used in many films and he has also written and performed several works specifically for films, examples include Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, Jerry Maguire, and The Wrestler.
Film↓ Year of film release↓ Song(s)↓ Notes↓
Dead End Street 1982 "Point Blank", "Hungry Heart" and "Jungleland" First use of Springsteen's music in film
Risky Business 1983 Hungry Heart
Baby, It's You 1983 "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "She's The One" and "Adam Raised A Cain" Film directed by John Sayles who later directed music videos for songs from Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love.
Light of Day 1987 "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day" Song written for the film.
In Country 1989 "I'm On Fire" Film also contained many Springsteen references.
Thunderheart 1992 "Badlands" (instrumental version)
Honeymoon in Vegas 1992 "Viva Las Vegas" A 1964 song recorded by Elvis Presley.
Philadelphia 1993 "Streets of Philadelphia" Song written for film. Won an Oscar.
Dead Man Walking 1995 "Dead Man Walkin'" Song written for film. Nominated for a Oscar.
The Crossing Guard 1995 "Missing" Song was later released in 2003 on The Essential Bruce Springsteen.
Jerry Maguire 1996 "Secret Garden"
Cop Land 1997 "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car" Sylvester Stallone's character plays the songs on his turntable.
The Wedding Singer 1998 "Hungry Heart"
A Night at the Roxbury 1998 "Secret Garden"
Big Daddy 1999 "Growin' Up" Played over a montage near the end of the film.
Limbo 1999 "Lift Me Up" Another John Sayles film.
High Fidelity 2000 "The River" and Blues Guitar Riff Blues riff played by Springsteen, on-screen during his cameo appearance. "Nebraska" played from vinyl on turntable.
The Perfect Storm 2000 "Hungry Heart"
25th Hour 2002 "The Fuse"
Grand Theft Parsons 2003 "Blood Brothers"
Jersey Girl 2004 "Jersey Girl" Cover of the Tom Waits version
Reign Over Me 2007 "Drive All Night" and "Out In The Street" The album The River was also well mentioned in the movie.
In the Land of Women 2007 "Iceman"
The Heartbreak Kid 2007 "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
Lucky You 2007 "Lucky Town"
The Wrestler 2008 "The Wrestler" Written for the film. The song was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and nominated for the MTV Movie Award as "Best Song From a Movie".
Food, Inc. 2009 "This Land Is Your Land" Live version, Bruce Springsteen's performance of the Woody Guthrie song.
Films inspired by music
In turn, films have been inspired by his music, including The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn, which Penn has specifically noted as being inspired by Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman".
In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness on The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Kevin Smith is an admitted "big fan" of fellow New Jersey native Springsteen and named his film Jersey Girl after the Tom Waits song which Springsteen made famous. The song was also used on the soundtrack.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant said Springsteen's "Thunder Road" to have been a heavy influence on their 2010 film "Cemetery Junction," employing the song's themes of escape and optimism into their story of 1970s England.
In 2011, Springsteen appears in an independent film made by a local musician Chris Vaughn from New Jersey entitled "Jerseyboy Hero" where the songwriter/filmmaker documents his journey to get his music out to the world by attempting to reach one of his two local New Jersey legends, Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi.
Acting
Springsteen made his first on-screen appearance in a brief cameo as himself in High Fidelity in 2000 and it was voted "Best Cameo in a Movie" at the MTV Movie Awards.
Discography
Main article: Bruce Springsteen discography
Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):
1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (#60)
1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (#59)
1975: Born to Run (#3)
1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (#5)
1980: The River (#1)
1982: Nebraska (#3)
1984: Born in the U.S.A. (#1)
1987: Tunnel of Love (#1)
1992: Human Touch (#2)
1992: Lucky Town (#3)
1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (#11)
1998: Tracks (#64)
2002: The Rising (#1)
2005: Devils & Dust (#1)
2006: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (#3)
2007: Magic (#1)
2009: Working on a Dream (#1)
2010: The Promise (#16)
Awards and recognition
Grammy Awards
Springsteen has won 20 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"
Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad
Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising
Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"
Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"
Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006, The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome
Best Long Form Music Video, 2006, Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born to Run
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
Best Rock Song, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2007, "Once Upon a Time in the West"
Best Rock Song, 2008, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2009, "Working on a Dream"
Only one of these awards has been one of the cross-genre "major" ones (Song, Record, or Album of the Year); he has been nominated a number of other times for the majors, but failed to win.
Golden Globe Awards
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" in 1994.
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "The Wrestler" in 2009.
Academy Awards
Academy Award for Best Original Song, 1993, "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.
Emmy Awards
The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.
Other recognition
October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of 'Newsweek' and 'Time'
Polar Music Prize in 1997.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999.
Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2007.
"Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature; something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey".
The minor planet 23990, discovered September 4, 1999, by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor.
Ranked #23 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Ranked #36 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time.
Made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Of The Year 2008 list.
Won Critic's Choice Award for Best Song with "The Wrestler" in 2009.
Performed at the Super Bowl XLIII half time show.
Kennedy Center Honors, 2009.
Rolling Stone magazine also ranked 8 out of 16 Springsteen's studio albums in their 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Born to Run and Thunder Road in its 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, in 21st and 86th, respectively.
Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100 in 2009
John Steinbeck Award
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss313/LaChicaDeAyer/Bruce%20Springsteen/bruce_springsteen.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd176/The-South-Is-On-Fire/bruce_springsteen.jpg
What was he on about with the lyrics of Blinded By The Light?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/23/11 at 3:00 pm
Thanks everyone between Tim having a few extra days off this week and a pounding headache(I still have) I've neglected to do the person of the day :-[ SORRY!
I'm so sorry about that; I hope you feel better as soon as possible!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/23/11 at 3:02 pm
What was he on about with the lyrics of Blinded By The Light?
I have never heard his version, but I do know that Manfred Mann changed at least one particular line of it for their version.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/23/11 at 3:03 pm
I have never heard his version, but I do know that Manfred Mann changed at least one particular line of it for their version.
There is a thread somewhere on that song.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: King Tut on 09/23/11 at 3:48 pm
Born in the USA was a huge album, but I think his best work is still the "Born to run" album.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 09/23/11 at 4:04 pm
Brucie Baby was elected Vice President of my high school French Club. In the classroom, one of the students hung a HUGE poster of the Boss. When we were electing our officers and when it came time to elect V.P., I think it was the same student who hung the poster yells, "I NOMINATE BRUCIE BABY!" as he pointed at the poster. We ALL agreed so Brucie Baby was unanimously elected to the post. Unfortunately, he never really executed the post he was elected to but I think that may have something to do with the fact that he never knew he was V.P. of our French Club.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: King Tut on 09/23/11 at 4:27 pm
Brucie Baby was elected Vice President of my high school French Club. In the classroom, one of the students hung a HUGE poster of the Boss. When we were electing our officers and when it came time to elect V.P., I think it was the same student who hung the poster yells, "I NOMINATE BRUCIE BABY!" as he pointed at the poster. We ALL agreed so Brucie Baby was unanimously elected to the post. Unfortunately, he never really executed the post he was elected to but I think that may have something to do with the fact that he never knew he was V.P. of our French Club.
Cat
You didn't do the Marsha Brady thing and tell him you were president of his fan club & go to his hotel.
http://files.sharenator.com/a_shame_Most_Random_Flash_Ever-s403x338-80052-580.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 09/23/11 at 5:00 pm
You didn't do the Marsha Brady thing and tell him you were president of his fan club & go to his hotel.
http://files.sharenator.com/a_shame_Most_Random_Flash_Ever-s403x338-80052-580.jpg
Naaa-not moi.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/23/11 at 7:55 pm
Thanks everyone between Tim having a few extra days off this week and a pounding headache(I still have) I've neglected to do the person of the day :-[ SORRY!
That's ok hope you're feeling better. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/23/11 at 7:56 pm
The person of the day...Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949), nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band. Springsteen is widely known for his brand of heartland rock, poetic lyrics, and Americana sentiments centered on his native New Jersey.
Springsteen's recordings have included both commercially accessible rock albums and more somber folk-oriented works. His most successful studio albums, Born in the U.S.A. and Born to Run, showcase a talent for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily American life; he has sold more than 65 million albums in the United States and 200 million worldwide and he has earned numerous awards for his work, including 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. He is widely regarded by many as one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century, and in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the 23rd greatest artist of all time in its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
On August 13, 1975, Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The engagement attracted major media attention, was broadcast live on WNEW-FM, and convinced many skeptics that Springsteen was for real. (Decades later, Rolling Stone magazine would name the stand as one of the 50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll.) With the release of Born to Run on August 25, 1975, Springsteen finally found success. The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, and while there were no hit singles, "Born to Run" (Billboard #23), "Thunder Road", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (Billboard #83), and "Jungleland" all received massive album-oriented rock airplay and remain perennial favorites on many classic rock stations. The songwriting and recording was more disciplined than before, while still maintaining an epic feel. With its panoramic imagery, thundering production and desperate optimism, Born to Run is considered by some fans to be among the best rock and roll albums of all time and Springsteen's finest work. It established him as a sincere and dynamic rock and roll personality who spoke for and in the voice of a large part of the rock audience. To cap off the triumph, Springsteen appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek in the same week, on October 27 of that year. So great did the wave of publicity become that Springsteen eventually rebelled against it during his first venture overseas, tearing down promotional posters before a concert appearance in London.
A legal battle with former manager Mike Appel kept Springsteen out of the studio for nearly a year, during which time he kept the E Street Band together through extensive touring across the U.S. Despite the optimistic fervor with which he often performed, his new songs had taken a more somber tone than much of his previous work. Reaching settlement with Appel in 1977, Springsteen returned to the studio, and the subsequent sessions produced Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). Musically, this album was a turning point in Springsteen's career. Gone were the raw, rapid-fire lyrics, outsized characters and long, multi-part musical compositions of the first two albums; now the songs were leaner and more carefully drawn and began to reflect Springsteen's growing intellectual and political awareness. The cross-country 1978 tour to promote the album would become legendary for the intensity and length of its shows.
Springsteen at Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Ivory Coast during Amnesty International's 1988 Human Rights Now! Tour.
By the late 1970s, Springsteen had earned a reputation in the pop world as a songwriter whose material could provide hits for other bands. Manfred Mann's Earth Band had achieved a U.S. number one pop hit with a heavily rearranged version of Greetings' "Blinded by the Light" in early 1977. Patti Smith reached number 13 with her take on Springsteen's unreleased "Because the Night" (with revised lyrics by Smith) in 1978, while The Pointer Sisters hit number two in 1979 with Springsteen's also unreleased "Fire".
In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer's No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen's fabled live act, as well as Springsteen's first tentative dip into political involvement.
Springsteen continued to consolidate his thematic focus on working-class life with the 20-song double album The River in 1980, which included an intentionally paradoxical range of material from good-time party rockers to emotionally intense ballads, and finally yielded his first hit Top Ten single as a performer, "Hungry Heart". This album marked a shift in Springsteen's music toward a pop-rock sound that was all but missing from any of his earlier work.This is apparent in the stylistic adoption of certain eighties pop-rock hallmarks like the reverberating-tenor drums, very basic percussion/guitar and repetitive lyrics apparent in many of the tracks. The title song pointed to Springsteen's intellectual direction, while a couple of the lesser-known tracks presaged his musical direction. The album sold well, becoming his first topper on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and a long tour in 1980 and 1981 followed, featuring Springsteen's first extended playing of Europe and ending with a series of multi-night arena stands in major cities in the U.S.
The River was followed in 1982 by the stark solo acoustic Nebraska. Recording sessions had been held to expand on a demo tape Springsteen had made at his home on a simple, low-tech four-track tape deck. However during the recording process Springsteen and producer Landau realized the songs worked better as solo acoustic numbers than full band renditions and the original demo tape was released as the album. Although the recordings of the E Street Band were shelved, other songs from these sessions would later be released, including "Born in the U.S.A." and "Glory Days". According to the Marsh biographies, Springsteen was in a depressed state when he wrote this material, and the result is a brutal depiction of American life. While Nebraska did not sell as well as Springsteen's two previous albums, it garnered widespread critical praise (including being named "Album of the Year" by Rolling Stone magazine's critics) and influenced later significant works by other major artists, including U2's album The Joshua Tree. It helped inspire the musical genre known as lo-fi music, becoming a cult favorite among indie-rockers. Springsteen did not tour in conjunction with Nebraska's release.
1984–1991: Commercial and popular phenomenon
Springsteen probably is best known for his album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), which sold 15 million copies in the U.S. and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, with seven singles hitting the Top 10, and the massively successful world tour that followed it. The title track was a bitter commentary on the treatment of Vietnam veterans, some of whom were Springsteen's friends and bandmates. The lyrics in the verses were entirely unambiguous when listened to, but the anthemic music and the title of the song made it hard for many, from politicians to the common person, to get the lyrics—except those in the chorus, which could be read many ways. The song was widely misinterpreted as jingoistic, and in connection with the 1984 presidential campaign became the subject of considerable folklore. Springsteen also turned down several million dollars offered by the Chrysler Corporation to use the song in a car commercial. (In later years, to eliminate the bombast and make the song's original meaning more explicitly clear, Springsteen performed the song accompanied only by acoustic guitar. An acoustic version also appeared on Tracks, a later album.) "Dancing in the Dark" was the biggest of seven hit singles from Born in the U.S.A., peaking at number 2 on the Billboard music charts. The music video for the song featured a young Courteney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen, an appearance which helped kickstart the actress's career. The song "Cover Me" was written by Springsteen for Donna Summer, but his record company persuaded him to keep it for the new album. A big fan of Summer's work, Springsteen wrote another song for her, "Protection". Videos for the album were made by noted film directors Brian De Palma and John Sayles. Springsteen was featured on the "We Are the World" song and album in 1985. His live single "Trapped" from that album received moderate airplay on U.S. Top 40 stations as well as reaching #1 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart.
During the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, Springsteen met actress Julianne Phillips, whom he would marry in 1985.
Springsteen performing on the Tunnel of Love Express at the Radrennbahn Weißensee in East Berlin on July 19, 1988.
The Born in the U.S.A. period represented the height of Springsteen's visibility in popular culture and the broadest audience demographic he would ever reach (aided by the release of Arthur Baker's dance mixes of three of the singles). Live/1975–85, a five-record box set (also on three cassettes or three CDs), was released near the end of 1986 and became the first box set to debut at number 1 on the U.S. album charts. It is one of the most commercially successful live albums of all time, ultimately selling 13 million units in the U.S. Live/1975–85 summed up Springsteen's career to that point and displayed some of the elements that made his shows so powerful to his fans: the switching from mournful dirges to party rockers and back; the communal sense of purpose between artist and audience; the long, intense spoken passages before songs, including those describing Springsteen's difficult relationship with his father; and the instrumental prowess of the E Street Band, such as in the long coda to "Racing in the Street". Despite its popularity, some fans and critics felt the album's song selection could have been better. Springsteen concerts are the subjects of frequent bootleg recording and trading among fans.
During the 1980s, several Springsteen fanzines were launched, including Backstreets magazine, which started in Seattle and continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website.
After this commercial peak, Springsteen released the much more sedate and contemplative Tunnel of Love album (1987), a mature reflection on the many faces of love found, lost and squandered, which only selectively used the E Street Band. It presaged the breakup of his marriage to Julianne Phillips and described some of his unhappinesses in the relationship. Reflecting the challenges of love in "Brilliant Disguise", Springsteen sang:
“ I heard somebody call your name, from underneath our willow. I saw something tucked in shame, underneath your pillow. Well I've tried so hard baby, but I just can't see. What a woman like you is doing with me. ”
The subsequent Tunnel of Love Express tour shook up fans with changes to the stage layout, favorites dropped from the set list, and horn-based arrangements. During the European leg in 1988, Springsteen's relationship with backup singer Patti Scialfa became public and Phillips and Springsteen filed for divorce in 1988. Later in 1988, Springsteen headlined the worldwide Human Rights Now! tour for Amnesty International. In late 1989 he dissolved the E Street Band, and he and Scialfa relocated to California, marrying in 1991.
Bruce Springsteen draws on many musical influences from the reservoir of traditional American popular music, folk, blues and country. From the beginning, rock and roll has been the dominant influence. On his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey, the folk-influence is clear to hear. An example of the influence of this music genre to Springsteen's music is his song "This Hard Land" which demonstrates a clear influence of the style of Woody Guthrie.
He expanded the range of his musical compositions on his second album, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Elements of Latin American music, jazz, soul, and funk influences can be heard; the song "New York City Serenade" is even reminiscent of the music of George Gershwin. These two records prominently featured pianist David Sancious, who left the band shortly into the recording of Springsteen's third album, Born To Run. This album, however, also emphasized the piano, the responsibility now of Roy Bittan.
Earlier in his career, Springsteen has focused more on the rock elements of his music. He initially compressed the sound and developed Darkness On The Edge Of Town just as straightforward as concise musical idiom, for the simple riffs and clearly recognizable song structures are dominant. His music has been categorized as heartland rock, a style typified by Springsteen, John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and John Mellencamp. This music has a lyrical reference to the U.S. everyday and the music is kept rather simple and straightforward. This development culminated with Springsteen's hit album Born in the U.S.A., the title song of which has a constantly repeating, fanfare-like keyboard riff and a pounding drum beat. These sounds fit with Springsteen's voice: it cries to the listener the unsentimental story of a disenchanted angry figure. Even songs that can be argued to be album tracks proved to be singles that enjoyed some chart success, such as "My Hometown" and "I'm on Fire", in which the drum line is formed from subtle hi-hat and rim-clicks-shock (shock at the edge of the snare drum).
In recent years, Springsteen has changed his music further. There are more folk elements up to the gospel to be heard. His last solo album, Devils and Dust, drew rave reviews not only for Springsteen's complex songwriting, but also for his expressive and sensitive singing.
On the album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Springsteen performs folk classics with a folk band, rather than his usual E Street Band. On his ensuing tour he also interpreted some of his own rock songs in a folk style.
The 2007 album Magic was a reflection on the old stadium rock attitude and with its lush arrangements was almost designed to be performed at large stadiums, which also succeeded on the corresponding tour.
Springsteen's music has been used in many films and he has also written and performed several works specifically for films, examples include Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, Jerry Maguire, and The Wrestler.
Film↓ Year of film release↓ Song(s)↓ Notes↓
Dead End Street 1982 "Point Blank", "Hungry Heart" and "Jungleland" First use of Springsteen's music in film
Risky Business 1983 Hungry Heart
Baby, It's You 1983 "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", "The E Street Shuffle", "She's The One" and "Adam Raised A Cain" Film directed by John Sayles who later directed music videos for songs from Born in the U.S.A. and Tunnel of Love.
Light of Day 1987 "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day" Song written for the film.
In Country 1989 "I'm On Fire" Film also contained many Springsteen references.
Thunderheart 1992 "Badlands" (instrumental version)
Honeymoon in Vegas 1992 "Viva Las Vegas" A 1964 song recorded by Elvis Presley.
Philadelphia 1993 "Streets of Philadelphia" Song written for film. Won an Oscar.
Dead Man Walking 1995 "Dead Man Walkin'" Song written for film. Nominated for a Oscar.
The Crossing Guard 1995 "Missing" Song was later released in 2003 on The Essential Bruce Springsteen.
Jerry Maguire 1996 "Secret Garden"
Cop Land 1997 "Drive All Night" and "Stolen Car" Sylvester Stallone's character plays the songs on his turntable.
The Wedding Singer 1998 "Hungry Heart"
A Night at the Roxbury 1998 "Secret Garden"
Big Daddy 1999 "Growin' Up" Played over a montage near the end of the film.
Limbo 1999 "Lift Me Up" Another John Sayles film.
High Fidelity 2000 "The River" and Blues Guitar Riff Blues riff played by Springsteen, on-screen during his cameo appearance. "Nebraska" played from vinyl on turntable.
The Perfect Storm 2000 "Hungry Heart"
25th Hour 2002 "The Fuse"
Grand Theft Parsons 2003 "Blood Brothers"
Jersey Girl 2004 "Jersey Girl" Cover of the Tom Waits version
Reign Over Me 2007 "Drive All Night" and "Out In The Street" The album The River was also well mentioned in the movie.
In the Land of Women 2007 "Iceman"
The Heartbreak Kid 2007 "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
Lucky You 2007 "Lucky Town"
The Wrestler 2008 "The Wrestler" Written for the film. The song was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and nominated for the MTV Movie Award as "Best Song From a Movie".
Food, Inc. 2009 "This Land Is Your Land" Live version, Bruce Springsteen's performance of the Woody Guthrie song.
Films inspired by music
In turn, films have been inspired by his music, including The Indian Runner, written and directed by Sean Penn, which Penn has specifically noted as being inspired by Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman".
In September 2010, a documentary about the making of his 1978 album "Darkness on The Edge of Town" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Kevin Smith is an admitted "big fan" of fellow New Jersey native Springsteen and named his film Jersey Girl after the Tom Waits song which Springsteen made famous. The song was also used on the soundtrack.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant said Springsteen's "Thunder Road" to have been a heavy influence on their 2010 film "Cemetery Junction," employing the song's themes of escape and optimism into their story of 1970s England.
In 2011, Springsteen appears in an independent film made by a local musician Chris Vaughn from New Jersey entitled "Jerseyboy Hero" where the songwriter/filmmaker documents his journey to get his music out to the world by attempting to reach one of his two local New Jersey legends, Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi.
Acting
Springsteen made his first on-screen appearance in a brief cameo as himself in High Fidelity in 2000 and it was voted "Best Cameo in a Movie" at the MTV Movie Awards.
Discography
Main article: Bruce Springsteen discography
Major studio albums (along with their chart positions in the U.S. Billboard 200 at the time of release):
1973: Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (#60)
1973: The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (#59)
1975: Born to Run (#3)
1978: Darkness on the Edge of Town (#5)
1980: The River (#1)
1982: Nebraska (#3)
1984: Born in the U.S.A. (#1)
1987: Tunnel of Love (#1)
1992: Human Touch (#2)
1992: Lucky Town (#3)
1995: The Ghost of Tom Joad (#11)
1998: Tracks (#64)
2002: The Rising (#1)
2005: Devils & Dust (#1)
2006: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (#3)
2007: Magic (#1)
2009: Working on a Dream (#1)
2010: The Promise (#16)
Awards and recognition
Grammy Awards
Springsteen has won 20 Grammy Awards, as follows (years shown are the year the award was given for, not the year in which the ceremony was held):
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1984, "Dancing in the Dark"
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, 1987, "Tunnel of Love"
Song of the Year, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Rock Song, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1994, "Streets of Philadelphia"
Best Contemporary Folk Album, 1996, The Ghost of Tom Joad
Best Rock Album, 2002, The Rising
Best Rock Song, 2002, "The Rising"
Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, 2002, "The Rising"
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, 2003, "Disorder in the House" (with Warren Zevon)
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2004, "Code of Silence"
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2005, "Devils & Dust"
Best Traditional Folk Album, 2006, The Seeger Sessions: We Shall Overcome
Best Long Form Music Video, 2006, Wings For Wheels: The Making Of Born to Run
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
Best Rock Song, 2007, "Radio Nowhere"
Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 2007, "Once Upon a Time in the West"
Best Rock Song, 2008, "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, 2009, "Working on a Dream"
Only one of these awards has been one of the cross-genre "major" ones (Song, Record, or Album of the Year); he has been nominated a number of other times for the majors, but failed to win.
Golden Globe Awards
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "Streets of Philadelphia" in 1994.
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "The Wrestler" in 2009.
Academy Awards
Academy Award for Best Original Song, 1993, "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.
Emmy Awards
The Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City HBO special won two technical Emmy Awards in 2001.
Other recognition
October 27, 1975: Bruce Springsteen appears simultaneously on the covers of 'Newsweek' and 'Time'
Polar Music Prize in 1997.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1999.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1999.
Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, 2007.
"Born to Run" named "The unofficial youth anthem of New Jersey" by the New Jersey state legislature; something Springsteen always found to be ironic, considering that the song "is about leaving New Jersey".
The minor planet 23990, discovered September 4, 1999, by I. P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand, was officially named in his honor.
Ranked #23 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Ranked #36 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time.
Made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People Of The Year 2008 list.
Won Critic's Choice Award for Best Song with "The Wrestler" in 2009.
Performed at the Super Bowl XLIII half time show.
Kennedy Center Honors, 2009.
Rolling Stone magazine also ranked 8 out of 16 Springsteen's studio albums in their 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked Born to Run and Thunder Road in its 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time list, in 21st and 86th, respectively.
Forbes ranked him 6th in The Celebrity 100 in 2009
John Steinbeck Award
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss313/LaChicaDeAyer/Bruce%20Springsteen/bruce_springsteen.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd176/The-South-Is-On-Fire/bruce_springsteen.jpg
I loved his hits in the 80's.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/24/11 at 5:33 am
I loved his hits in the 80's.
Yes, he had some really good songs then. "Glory Days", "Hungry Heart", "I'm On Fire", "Born In The USA", "Dancing In The Dark", among others.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/24/11 at 6:54 am
Yes, he had some really good songs then. "Glory Days", "Hungry Heart", "I'm On Fire", "Born In The USA", "Dancing In The Dark", among others.
His version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" is a favourite of mine.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/24/11 at 7:09 am
His version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" is a favourite of mine.
always comes on at Christmas Time.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/24/11 at 7:11 am
His version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" is a favourite of mine.
always comes on at Christmas Time.
I should have the single somewhere.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/24/11 at 7:12 am
I was reading he's trying to find a replacement for the loss of Clarence Clemons.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/24/11 at 10:32 am
I'm so sorry about that; I hope you feel better as soon as possible!
Welcome back, and hope the head clears soon.
That's ok hope you're feeling better. :)
Thanks :) I still have a slight headache, but it's a lot better than it was.
I'm skipping doing a person today..if anyone finds a person they want to do it's find with me :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/24/11 at 10:37 am
Thanks :) I still have a slight headache, but it's a lot better than it was.
Take it easy.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/24/11 at 10:37 am
I'm skipping doing a person today..if anyone finds a person they want to do it's find with me :)
I did look, but let me look again.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/24/11 at 10:55 am
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and creator of advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He died of Streptococcus pyogenes on May 16, 1990.
Henson, who was born in Mississippi, and educated at University of Maryland, College Park, was one of the most widely known puppeteers in history. He created Sam and Friends as a freshman in College Park. After suffering struggles with programs that he created, he eventually was selected to participate in Sesame Street. During this time, he also participated in the comedy series Saturday Night Live. The success of Sesame Street spawned The Muppet Show, which featured Muppets created by Henson. He also co-created with Michael Jacobs the television show Dinosaurs during his final years. In 1992, he posthumously received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey, and on June 16, 2011, he posthumously received the Disney Legends Award.
Early life
Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, the younger of two boys. His parents were Betty Marcella (née Brown) and Paul Ransom Henson, an agronomist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, moving with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, DC, in the late 1940s. He later remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence," having been heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom (on Kukla, Fran, and Ollie) and Bil and Cora Baird.
In 1954, while attending Northwestern High School, he began working for WTOP-TV, creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show. After graduating from high school, Henson enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, as a studio arts major, thinking he might become a commercial artist. A puppetry class offered in the applied arts department introduced him to the craft and textiles courses in the College of Home Economics, and he graduated in 1960 with a B.S. in home economics. As a freshman, he had been asked to create Sam and Friends, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV. The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of Muppets, and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character: Kermit the Frog.
In the show, he began experimenting with techniques that would change the way puppetry had been used on television, including using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppeteer to work from off-camera. Believing that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity," Henson began making characters from flexible, fabric-covered foam rubber, allowing them to express a wider array of emotions at a time when many puppets were made of carved wood. A marionette's arms are manipulated by strings, but Henson used rods to move his Muppets' arms, allowing greater control of expression. Additionally, Henson wanted the Muppet characters to "speak" more creatively than was possible for previous puppets – which had seemed to have random mouth movements – so he used precise mouth movements to match the dialogue.
When Henson began work on Sam and Friends, he asked fellow University of Maryland freshman Jane Nebel to assist him. The show was a financial success, but after graduating from college, Jim began to have doubts about going into a career as a puppeteer. He wandered off to Europe for several months, where he was inspired by European puppeteers who look on their work as an art form. Upon Henson's return to the United States, he and Jane began dating. They were married in 1959 and had five children, Lisa (b. 1960), Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1962), John (b. 1965), and Heather (b. 1970).
Struggles and projects in the 1960s
Despite the success of Sam and Friends, which ran for six years, Henson spent much of the next two decades working in commercials, talk shows, and children's projects before being able to realize his dream of the Muppets as "entertainment for everybody". The popularity of his work on Sam and Friends in the late fifties led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. Henson himself appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show. This greatly increased exposure led to hundreds of commercial appearances by Henson characters throughout the sixties.
Among the most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, D.C., in which his Muppets were able to get away with a greater level of slapstick violence than might have been acceptable with human actors. In the first Wilkins ad, a Muppet named Wilkins (with Kermit's voice) is poised behind a cannon seen in profile. Another Muppet named Wontkins (with Rowlf's voice) is in front of its barrel. Wilkins asks, "What do you think of Wilkins Coffee?" and Wontkins responds gruffly, "Never tasted it!" Wilkins fires the cannon and blows Wontkins away, then turns the cannon directly toward the viewer and ends the ad with, "Now, what do you think of Wilkins?" Henson later explained, "Till then, agencies believed that the hard sell was the only way to get their message over on television. We took a very different approach. We tried to sell things by making people laugh." The first seven-second commercial for Wilkins was an immediate hit and was syndicated and reshot by Henson for local coffee companies across the United States; he ultimately produced more than 300 coffee ads. The same setup was used to pitch Kraml Milk in the Chicago, Il., area and Red Diamond coffee.
In 1963, Henson and his wife moved to New York City, where the newly formed Muppets, Inc. would reside for some time. Jane quit muppeteering to raise their children. Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppeteer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her. Henson later credited both writers with developing much of the humor and character of his Muppets. Henson and Oz developed a close friendship and a performing partnership that lasted 27 years; their teamwork is particularly evident in their portrayals of the characters of Bert and Ernie and Kermit and Fozzie Bear.
Henson's sixties talk show appearances culminated when he devised Rowlf, a piano-playing anthropomorphic dog. Rowlf became the first Muppet to make regular appearances on a network show, The Jimmy Dean Show. From 1963 to 1966, Henson began exploring film-making and produced a series of experimental films. His nine-minute Time Piece was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Oscar for Short Film in 1966. The year 1969 saw the production of the NBC-TV movie The Cube – another Henson-produced experimental film.
Sesame Street
In 1969, Joan Ganz Cooney and the team at the Children's Television Workshop asked Henson to work on Sesame Street, a visionary children's program for public television. Part of the show was set aside for a series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on the titular street. These included Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley, and Kermit, who appeared as a roving television news reporter. It was around this time that a frill was added around Kermit's neck to make him more frog-like. The collar was functional as well: it covered the joint where the Muppet's neck and body met.
At first, Henson's Muppets appeared separately from the realistic segments on the Street, but after a poor test-screening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the show was revamped to integrate the two, placing much greater emphasis on Henson's work. Though Henson would often downplay his role in Sesame Street's success, Cooney frequently praised Jim's work and, in 1990, the Public Broadcasting Service called him "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service." The success of Sesame Street also allowed Henson to stop producing commercials. He later remembered that "it was a pleasure to get out of that world".
In addition to creating and performing Muppet characters, Henson was involved in producing various film and animation insets during the first two seasons. During the first, Henson produced a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10, which always ended with a baker (voiced by Henson) falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. For seasons two to seven, Henson worked on a variety of inserts for the numbers 2 through 12, in a number of different styles – including film ("Dollhouse", "Number Three Ball Film"), stop-motion ("King of Eight", "Queen of Six"), cut-out animation ("Eleven Cheer"), and computer animation ("Nobody Counts To 10").
Concurrently with the first years of Sesame Street, Henson directed Tales From Muppetland, a short series of TV movie specials – in the form of comedic tellings of classic fairy tales – aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. The series included Hey, Cinderella!, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen.
Later career
Though he was still engaged in creating children's programming, such as the successful eighties shows Fraggle Rock and the animated Muppet Babies, Henson continued to explore darker, mature themes with the folk tale and mythology oriented show The Storyteller (1988). The Storyteller won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program but was canceled after nine episodes. The next year, Henson returned to television with The Jim Henson Hour, which mixed lighthearted Muppet fare with riskier material. The show was critically well-received and won Henson another Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program, but was canceled after 13 episodes due to low ratings. Henson blamed its failure on NBC's constant rescheduling.
In late 1989, Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company for almost $150 million, hoping that, with Disney handling business matters he would "be able to spend a lot more of my time on the creative side of things." By 1990, he had completed production on a television special, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, and a Disney World (Later Disney's California Adventure as well) attraction, Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D, and was developing film ideas and a television series titled Muppet High.
Transition to the big screen
Three years after the start of The Muppet Show, the Muppets appeared in their first theatrical feature film, 1979's The Muppet Movie. The film was both a critical and financial success; it made US$65.2 million domestically and (at the time) was the 61st highest-grossing film ever made.
A song from the film, "The Rainbow Connection", sung by Henson as Kermit, hit #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1981, a Henson-directed sequel, The Great Muppet Caper, followed, and Henson decided to end the still-popular Muppet Show to concentrate on making films. From time to time, the Muppet characters continued to appear in made-for-TV-movies and television specials.
In addition to his own puppetry projects, Henson also aided others in their work. In 1979, he was asked by the producers of the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in the creation and articulation of enigmatic Jedi Master Yoda. Henson suggested to Star Wars creator George Lucas that he use Frank Oz as the puppeteer and voice of Yoda. Oz voiced Yoda in Empire and each of the four subsequent Star Wars films, and the naturalistic, lifelike Yoda became one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars films. Lucas even lobbied unsuccessfully to have Oz nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
In 1982, Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States. Around that time, he also began creating darker and more realistic fantasy films that did not feature the Muppets and displayed "a growing, brooding interest in mortality." With 1982's The Dark Crystal, which he co-directed with Frank Oz and also co-wrote, Henson said he was "trying to go toward a sense of realism—toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to the thing itself." To provide a visual style distinct from the Muppets, the puppets in The Dark Crystal were based on conceptual artwork by Brian Froud.
The Dark Crystal was a financial and critical success, and, a year later, the Muppet-starring The Muppets Take Manhattan (directed by Frank Oz) did fair box-office business, grossing $25.5 million domestically and ranking as one of the top 40 films of 1984. However, 1986's Labyrinth, a Crystal-like fantasy that Henson directed by himself, was considered (in part due to its cost) a commercial disappointment. Despite some positive reviews (The New York Times called it "a fabulous film"), the commercial failure of Labyrinth demoralized Henson to the point that son Brian Henson remembered the time of its release as being "the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed." The film later became a cult classic. Henson and his wife also separated the same year, although they remained close for the rest of his life. Jane later said that Jim was so involved with his work that he had very little time to spend with her or their children. All five of his children began working with Muppets at an early age, partly because, Cheryl Henson remembered, "One of the best ways of being around him was to work with him".
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 09/24/11 at 11:10 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irC9WUp94EM
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/24/11 at 8:05 pm
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and creator of advanced puppets for projects like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He died of Streptococcus pyogenes on May 16, 1990.
Henson, who was born in Mississippi, and educated at University of Maryland, College Park, was one of the most widely known puppeteers in history. He created Sam and Friends as a freshman in College Park. After suffering struggles with programs that he created, he eventually was selected to participate in Sesame Street. During this time, he also participated in the comedy series Saturday Night Live. The success of Sesame Street spawned The Muppet Show, which featured Muppets created by Henson. He also co-created with Michael Jacobs the television show Dinosaurs during his final years. In 1992, he posthumously received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey, and on June 16, 2011, he posthumously received the Disney Legends Award.
Early life
Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, the younger of two boys. His parents were Betty Marcella (née Brown) and Paul Ransom Henson, an agronomist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was raised as a Christian Scientist and spent his early childhood in Leland, Mississippi, moving with his family to Hyattsville, Maryland, near Washington, DC, in the late 1940s. He later remembered the arrival of the family's first television as "the biggest event of his adolescence," having been heavily influenced by radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the early television puppets of Burr Tillstrom (on Kukla, Fran, and Ollie) and Bil and Cora Baird.
In 1954, while attending Northwestern High School, he began working for WTOP-TV, creating puppets for a Saturday morning children's show called The Junior Morning Show. After graduating from high school, Henson enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, as a studio arts major, thinking he might become a commercial artist. A puppetry class offered in the applied arts department introduced him to the craft and textiles courses in the College of Home Economics, and he graduated in 1960 with a B.S. in home economics. As a freshman, he had been asked to create Sam and Friends, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV. The characters on Sam and Friends were forerunners of Muppets, and the show included a prototype of Henson's most famous character: Kermit the Frog.
In the show, he began experimenting with techniques that would change the way puppetry had been used on television, including using the frame defined by the camera shot to allow the puppeteer to work from off-camera. Believing that television puppets needed to have "life and sensitivity," Henson began making characters from flexible, fabric-covered foam rubber, allowing them to express a wider array of emotions at a time when many puppets were made of carved wood. A marionette's arms are manipulated by strings, but Henson used rods to move his Muppets' arms, allowing greater control of expression. Additionally, Henson wanted the Muppet characters to "speak" more creatively than was possible for previous puppets – which had seemed to have random mouth movements – so he used precise mouth movements to match the dialogue.
When Henson began work on Sam and Friends, he asked fellow University of Maryland freshman Jane Nebel to assist him. The show was a financial success, but after graduating from college, Jim began to have doubts about going into a career as a puppeteer. He wandered off to Europe for several months, where he was inspired by European puppeteers who look on their work as an art form. Upon Henson's return to the United States, he and Jane began dating. They were married in 1959 and had five children, Lisa (b. 1960), Cheryl (b. 1961), Brian (b. 1962), John (b. 1965), and Heather (b. 1970).
Struggles and projects in the 1960s
Despite the success of Sam and Friends, which ran for six years, Henson spent much of the next two decades working in commercials, talk shows, and children's projects before being able to realize his dream of the Muppets as "entertainment for everybody". The popularity of his work on Sam and Friends in the late fifties led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. Henson himself appeared as a guest on many shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show. This greatly increased exposure led to hundreds of commercial appearances by Henson characters throughout the sixties.
Among the most popular of Henson's commercials was a series for the local Wilkins Coffee company in Washington, D.C., in which his Muppets were able to get away with a greater level of slapstick violence than might have been acceptable with human actors. In the first Wilkins ad, a Muppet named Wilkins (with Kermit's voice) is poised behind a cannon seen in profile. Another Muppet named Wontkins (with Rowlf's voice) is in front of its barrel. Wilkins asks, "What do you think of Wilkins Coffee?" and Wontkins responds gruffly, "Never tasted it!" Wilkins fires the cannon and blows Wontkins away, then turns the cannon directly toward the viewer and ends the ad with, "Now, what do you think of Wilkins?" Henson later explained, "Till then, agencies believed that the hard sell was the only way to get their message over on television. We took a very different approach. We tried to sell things by making people laugh." The first seven-second commercial for Wilkins was an immediate hit and was syndicated and reshot by Henson for local coffee companies across the United States; he ultimately produced more than 300 coffee ads. The same setup was used to pitch Kraml Milk in the Chicago, Il., area and Red Diamond coffee.
In 1963, Henson and his wife moved to New York City, where the newly formed Muppets, Inc. would reside for some time. Jane quit muppeteering to raise their children. Henson hired writer Jerry Juhl in 1961 and puppeteer Frank Oz in 1963 to replace her. Henson later credited both writers with developing much of the humor and character of his Muppets. Henson and Oz developed a close friendship and a performing partnership that lasted 27 years; their teamwork is particularly evident in their portrayals of the characters of Bert and Ernie and Kermit and Fozzie Bear.
Henson's sixties talk show appearances culminated when he devised Rowlf, a piano-playing anthropomorphic dog. Rowlf became the first Muppet to make regular appearances on a network show, The Jimmy Dean Show. From 1963 to 1966, Henson began exploring film-making and produced a series of experimental films. His nine-minute Time Piece was nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Oscar for Short Film in 1966. The year 1969 saw the production of the NBC-TV movie The Cube – another Henson-produced experimental film.
Sesame Street
In 1969, Joan Ganz Cooney and the team at the Children's Television Workshop asked Henson to work on Sesame Street, a visionary children's program for public television. Part of the show was set aside for a series of funny, colorful puppet characters living on the titular street. These included Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster and Big Bird. Henson performed the characters of Ernie, game-show host Guy Smiley, and Kermit, who appeared as a roving television news reporter. It was around this time that a frill was added around Kermit's neck to make him more frog-like. The collar was functional as well: it covered the joint where the Muppet's neck and body met.
At first, Henson's Muppets appeared separately from the realistic segments on the Street, but after a poor test-screening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the show was revamped to integrate the two, placing much greater emphasis on Henson's work. Though Henson would often downplay his role in Sesame Street's success, Cooney frequently praised Jim's work and, in 1990, the Public Broadcasting Service called him "the spark that ignited our fledgling broadcast service." The success of Sesame Street also allowed Henson to stop producing commercials. He later remembered that "it was a pleasure to get out of that world".
In addition to creating and performing Muppet characters, Henson was involved in producing various film and animation insets during the first two seasons. During the first, Henson produced a series of counting films for the numbers 1 through 10, which always ended with a baker (voiced by Henson) falling down the stairs while carrying the featured number of desserts. For seasons two to seven, Henson worked on a variety of inserts for the numbers 2 through 12, in a number of different styles – including film ("Dollhouse", "Number Three Ball Film"), stop-motion ("King of Eight", "Queen of Six"), cut-out animation ("Eleven Cheer"), and computer animation ("Nobody Counts To 10").
Concurrently with the first years of Sesame Street, Henson directed Tales From Muppetland, a short series of TV movie specials – in the form of comedic tellings of classic fairy tales – aimed at a young audience and hosted by Kermit the Frog. The series included Hey, Cinderella!, The Frog Prince, and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen.
Later career
Though he was still engaged in creating children's programming, such as the successful eighties shows Fraggle Rock and the animated Muppet Babies, Henson continued to explore darker, mature themes with the folk tale and mythology oriented show The Storyteller (1988). The Storyteller won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program but was canceled after nine episodes. The next year, Henson returned to television with The Jim Henson Hour, which mixed lighthearted Muppet fare with riskier material. The show was critically well-received and won Henson another Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program, but was canceled after 13 episodes due to low ratings. Henson blamed its failure on NBC's constant rescheduling.
In late 1989, Henson entered into negotiations to sell his company to The Walt Disney Company for almost $150 million, hoping that, with Disney handling business matters he would "be able to spend a lot more of my time on the creative side of things." By 1990, he had completed production on a television special, The Muppets at Walt Disney World, and a Disney World (Later Disney's California Adventure as well) attraction, Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D, and was developing film ideas and a television series titled Muppet High.
Transition to the big screen
Three years after the start of The Muppet Show, the Muppets appeared in their first theatrical feature film, 1979's The Muppet Movie. The film was both a critical and financial success; it made US$65.2 million domestically and (at the time) was the 61st highest-grossing film ever made.
A song from the film, "The Rainbow Connection", sung by Henson as Kermit, hit #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1981, a Henson-directed sequel, The Great Muppet Caper, followed, and Henson decided to end the still-popular Muppet Show to concentrate on making films. From time to time, the Muppet characters continued to appear in made-for-TV-movies and television specials.
In addition to his own puppetry projects, Henson also aided others in their work. In 1979, he was asked by the producers of the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back to aid make-up artist Stuart Freeborn in the creation and articulation of enigmatic Jedi Master Yoda. Henson suggested to Star Wars creator George Lucas that he use Frank Oz as the puppeteer and voice of Yoda. Oz voiced Yoda in Empire and each of the four subsequent Star Wars films, and the naturalistic, lifelike Yoda became one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars films. Lucas even lobbied unsuccessfully to have Oz nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.
In 1982, Henson founded the Jim Henson Foundation to promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States. Around that time, he also began creating darker and more realistic fantasy films that did not feature the Muppets and displayed "a growing, brooding interest in mortality." With 1982's The Dark Crystal, which he co-directed with Frank Oz and also co-wrote, Henson said he was "trying to go toward a sense of realism—toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to the thing itself." To provide a visual style distinct from the Muppets, the puppets in The Dark Crystal were based on conceptual artwork by Brian Froud.
The Dark Crystal was a financial and critical success, and, a year later, the Muppet-starring The Muppets Take Manhattan (directed by Frank Oz) did fair box-office business, grossing $25.5 million domestically and ranking as one of the top 40 films of 1984. However, 1986's Labyrinth, a Crystal-like fantasy that Henson directed by himself, was considered (in part due to its cost) a commercial disappointment. Despite some positive reviews (The New York Times called it "a fabulous film"), the commercial failure of Labyrinth demoralized Henson to the point that son Brian Henson remembered the time of its release as being "the closest I've seen him to turning in on himself and getting quite depressed." The film later became a cult classic. Henson and his wife also separated the same year, although they remained close for the rest of his life. Jane later said that Jim was so involved with his work that he had very little time to spend with her or their children. All five of his children began working with Muppets at an early age, partly because, Cheryl Henson remembered, "One of the best ways of being around him was to work with him".
One of the best from the 70's and 80's.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: King Tut on 09/24/11 at 8:10 pm
One of the best creators today.
He died over 20 years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOxe8u8Y9R8&list=FLofToPLnHNt0UbJAaS_xc3w&index=41
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/24/11 at 8:11 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOxe8u8Y9R8&list=FLofToPLnHNt0UbJAaS_xc3w&index=41
This was when Sesame Street was at it's best.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/24/11 at 8:12 pm
He died over 20 years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOxe8u8Y9R8&list=FLofToPLnHNt0UbJAaS_xc3w&index=41
I meant of the 70's and 80's.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/25/11 at 6:27 am
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter and author. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, including his notable motion picture portrayal of the fictional superhero Superman.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse in an equestrian competition in Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research afterward. He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Reeve married Dana Morosini in April 1992, and they had a son, William, born that June. Reeve had two children, Matthew (born 1979) and Alexandra (born 1983), from his previous relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Gae Exton.
http://topnews.in/light/files/Christopher-Reeve.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/dcmovies/images/6/6a/Christopher_Reeve.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/25/11 at 6:28 am
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter and author. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, including his notable motion picture portrayal of the fictional superhero Superman.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse in an equestrian competition in Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research afterward. He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Reeve married Dana Morosini in April 1992, and they had a son, William, born that June. Reeve had two children, Matthew (born 1979) and Alexandra (born 1983), from his previous relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Gae Exton.
http://topnews.in/light/files/Christopher-Reeve.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/dcmovies/images/6/6a/Christopher_Reeve.jpg
:\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/25/11 at 7:32 am
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter and author. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, including his notable motion picture portrayal of the fictional superhero Superman.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse in an equestrian competition in Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries, and for human embryonic stem cell research afterward. He founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
Reeve married Dana Morosini in April 1992, and they had a son, William, born that June. Reeve had two children, Matthew (born 1979) and Alexandra (born 1983), from his previous relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Gae Exton.
http://topnews.in/light/files/Christopher-Reeve.jpg
http://images.wikia.com/dcmovies/images/6/6a/Christopher_Reeve.jpg
:\'( I miss them both.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/25/11 at 1:54 pm
His version of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" is a favourite of mine.
I have heard that version a few times.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/25/11 at 1:55 pm
Thanks :) I still have a slight headache, but it's a lot better than it was.
I'm skipping doing a person today..if anyone finds a person they want to do it's find with me :)
On a related note, I had one on Friday for most of the afternoon and it precluded me from doing what I wanted to do that day. :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/25/11 at 1:56 pm
One of the best from the 70's and 80's.
He would have turned 75 yesterday. I had not realized it until I saw the Google homepage yesterday morning.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/25/11 at 2:12 pm
Thanks Phil for doing Jim Henson and Christopher Reeve two great choices. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/25/11 at 2:13 pm
On a related note, I had one on Friday for most of the afternoon and it precluded me from doing what I wanted to do that day. :-\\
I know I hate when they are so bad it stops you from doing things.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/25/11 at 2:15 pm
Thanks Phil for doing Jim Henson and Christopher Reeve two great choices. :)
Two people that deserved to be in this topic and should not have missed out.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/25/11 at 2:22 pm
The person of the day...Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in music, television and film. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards.
In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years (1990–1996) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and the only one to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at #1 spot in the domestic box office tally.
Fourteen of the 19 fiction films he has acted in have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million, and four took in over $500 million in global box office receipts. As of 2011, his films have grossed $5.7 billion in global box office. His most financially successful films have been Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I, Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, Shark Tale, Hitch and Seven Pounds. He also earned critical praise for his performances in Six Degrees of Separation, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, receiving Best Actor Oscar nominations for the latter two.
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes as turntablist and producer as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime". They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988). He had a line in "Voices That Care", a 1991 Gulf War song by a celebrity group. Smith spent money freely during his early career and underpaid his income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith, took many of his possessions, and garnished his income. Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990 when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him. The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming "the biggest movie star in the world," studying box office successes' common characteristics.
Breakthrough (1996–2000)
In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. Smith turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West. Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbors no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves's performance as Neo was superior to what he himself (Smith) would have achieved.
International success (2001–present)
Smith in September 2009
In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending a record breaking three premieres in a 24-hour time span.
He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief.
On December 10, 2007, Smith was recognized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world renowned theater in front of many fans. Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be "aggressively unique". A reviewer said that the film's commercial success "cemented standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood." On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith has been selected as one of America’s top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.
Smith is currently developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, in which he will star as Taharqa.
President Barack Obama has stated that if a film were to ever be made about his life, he would have Smith play his part, because "he has the ears". Obama stated that the two have discussed a possibility of a film based on the 2008 election, but this may not happen until the end of the Obama presidency.
He is currently filming Men in Black III for a 2012 release playing Agent J one of his more popular earlier roles, making this his first major starring role in four years.
On August 19, 2011, it was announced that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to make a new album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game.
With DJ Jazzy Jeff
Main article: Will Smith discography
Rock the House (1987)
He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper (1988)
And in This Corner... (1989)
Homebase (1991)
Code Red (1993)
Solo
Big Willie Style (1997)
Willennium (1999)
Born to Reign (2002)
Lost and Found (2005)
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1990 Saturday Morning Videos Host TV
ABC Afterschool Special – "The Perfect Date" Hawker TV
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air William "Will" Smith TV (1990–1996)
1992 Blossom Fresh Prince TV, Cameo, episode 18 "I'm with the Band"
Where the Day Takes You Manny
1993 Made in America Tea Cake Walters
Six Degrees of Separation Paul
1995 Bad Boys Detective Mike Lowrey
1996 Independence Day Captain Steven "Steve" Hiller, USMC MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
1997 Men in Black James Darrell Edwards / Agent J MTV Movie Award for Best Fight
MTV Movie Award for Best Song From a Movie
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child Pinocchio TV Series;Episode 14 of Season 2 which aired on April 13, 1997.Episode also starred Chris Rock and Della Reese
1998 Enemy of the State Robert Clayton Dean Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
1999 Torrance Rises Cameo
Wild Wild West Captain James "Jim" West
2000 Welcome to Hollywood Himself
The Legend of Bagger Vance Bagger Vance Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2001 Ali Muhammad Ali MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2002 Men in Black II James Darrell Edwards / Agent J BET Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Actor
Girlfriend by B2K Himself Music video
2003 Bad Boys II Detective Mike Lowrey Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
All of Us Johnny TV, 3 episodes (2003–2004); Creator/Executive Producer
2004 A Closer Walk Narrator Documentary
Jersey Girl Himself Uncredited Cameo
American Chopper Himself TV, Cameo
I, Robot Detective Del Spooner Producer
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
The Seat Filler Executive Producer; Independent Film
Shark Tale Oscar Voice
2005 There's a God on the Mic Documentary
Hitch Alex "Hitch" Hitchens Producer
Nominated—BET Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Movie Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Actor
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2006 The Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner Producer
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
2007 I Am Legend Dr. Robert Neville Producer
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—BET Award for Best Actor
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2008 Hancock John Hancock Producer
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor
Lakeview Terrace Producer
The Secret Life of Bees Producer
Seven Pounds Ben Thomas Producer
2010 The Karate Kid Producer
2012 This Means War Producer
Post-production
Men in Black III James Darrell Edwards / Agent J Post-production
2013 The Last Pharaoh Taharqa Pre-production
Box office grosses
Year Title Budget U.S. gross Worldwide gross
1992 Where the Day Takes You N/A $390,152 $390,152
1993 Made in America $44,942,695 $104,942,695
Six Degrees of Separation $6,284,090 $6,284,090
1995 Bad Boys $23m $65,647,413 $141,247,413
1996 Independence Day $75m $306,169,255 $817,400,878
1997 Men in Black $90m $250,690,539 $587,790,539
1998 Enemy of the State $111,549,836 $250,649,836
1999 Wild Wild West $170m $113,805,681 $222,105,681
2000 The Legend of Bagger Vance $80m $30,695,227 $39,235,486
2001 Ali $107m $58,183,966 $84,383,966
2002 Men in Black II $140m $190,418,803 $441,818,803
2003 Bad Boys II $60m $138,540,870 $272,940,870
2004 I, Robot $120m $144,801,023 $348,601,023
Shark Tale $75m $161,192,000 $367,192,000
2005 Hitch $70m $177,784,257 $366,784,257
2006 The Pursuit of Happyness $55m $162,586,036 $306,086,036
2007 I Am Legend $150m $256,393,010 $585,055,701
2008 Hancock $227,946,274 $624,346,274
Seven Pounds $55m $69,369,933 $166,617,328
http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc511/fonkyninja33/tumblr_lp4w57wTkT1qbxvun.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/25/11 at 2:27 pm
Thanks Phil for doing Jim Henson and Christopher Reeve two great choices. :)
By the way, in my past job, I did get to meet both of these two.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/26/11 at 7:25 am
The person of the day...Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in music, television and film. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards.
In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years (1990–1996) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office and the only one to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at #1 spot in the domestic box office tally.
Fourteen of the 19 fiction films he has acted in have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million, and four took in over $500 million in global box office receipts. As of 2011, his films have grossed $5.7 billion in global box office. His most financially successful films have been Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I, Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, Shark Tale, Hitch and Seven Pounds. He also earned critical praise for his performances in Six Degrees of Separation, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, receiving Best Actor Oscar nominations for the latter two.
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes as turntablist and producer as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime". They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988). He had a line in "Voices That Care", a 1991 Gulf War song by a celebrity group. Smith spent money freely during his early career and underpaid his income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith, took many of his possessions, and garnished his income. Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990 when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him. The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming "the biggest movie star in the world," studying box office successes' common characteristics.
Breakthrough (1996–2000)
In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. Smith turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West. Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbors no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves's performance as Neo was superior to what he himself (Smith) would have achieved.
International success (2001–present)
Smith in September 2009
In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending a record breaking three premieres in a 24-hour time span.
He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief.
On December 10, 2007, Smith was recognized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world renowned theater in front of many fans. Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be "aggressively unique". A reviewer said that the film's commercial success "cemented standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood." On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith has been selected as one of America’s top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.
Smith is currently developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, in which he will star as Taharqa.
President Barack Obama has stated that if a film were to ever be made about his life, he would have Smith play his part, because "he has the ears". Obama stated that the two have discussed a possibility of a film based on the 2008 election, but this may not happen until the end of the Obama presidency.
He is currently filming Men in Black III for a 2012 release playing Agent J one of his more popular earlier roles, making this his first major starring role in four years.
On August 19, 2011, it was announced that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to make a new album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game.
With DJ Jazzy Jeff
Main article: Will Smith discography
Rock the House (1987)
He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper (1988)
And in This Corner... (1989)
Homebase (1991)
Code Red (1993)
Solo
Big Willie Style (1997)
Willennium (1999)
Born to Reign (2002)
Lost and Found (2005)
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1990 Saturday Morning Videos Host TV
ABC Afterschool Special – "The Perfect Date" Hawker TV
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air William "Will" Smith TV (1990–1996)
1992 Blossom Fresh Prince TV, Cameo, episode 18 "I'm with the Band"
Where the Day Takes You Manny
1993 Made in America Tea Cake Walters
Six Degrees of Separation Paul
1995 Bad Boys Detective Mike Lowrey
1996 Independence Day Captain Steven "Steve" Hiller, USMC MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
1997 Men in Black James Darrell Edwards / Agent J MTV Movie Award for Best Fight
MTV Movie Award for Best Song From a Movie
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child Pinocchio TV Series;Episode 14 of Season 2 which aired on April 13, 1997.Episode also starred Chris Rock and Della Reese
1998 Enemy of the State Robert Clayton Dean Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
1999 Torrance Rises Cameo
Wild Wild West Captain James "Jim" West
2000 Welcome to Hollywood Himself
The Legend of Bagger Vance Bagger Vance Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2001 Ali Muhammad Ali MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2002 Men in Black II James Darrell Edwards / Agent J BET Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Actor
Girlfriend by B2K Himself Music video
2003 Bad Boys II Detective Mike Lowrey Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
All of Us Johnny TV, 3 episodes (2003–2004); Creator/Executive Producer
2004 A Closer Walk Narrator Documentary
Jersey Girl Himself Uncredited Cameo
American Chopper Himself TV, Cameo
I, Robot Detective Del Spooner Producer
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
The Seat Filler Executive Producer; Independent Film
Shark Tale Oscar Voice
2005 There's a God on the Mic Documentary
Hitch Alex "Hitch" Hitchens Producer
Nominated—BET Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Movie Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Actor
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2006 The Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner Producer
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
2007 I Am Legend Dr. Robert Neville Producer
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—BET Award for Best Actor
Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
2008 Hancock John Hancock Producer
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor
Lakeview Terrace Producer
The Secret Life of Bees Producer
Seven Pounds Ben Thomas Producer
2010 The Karate Kid Producer
2012 This Means War Producer
Post-production
Men in Black III James Darrell Edwards / Agent J Post-production
2013 The Last Pharaoh Taharqa Pre-production
Box office grosses
Year Title Budget U.S. gross Worldwide gross
1992 Where the Day Takes You N/A $390,152 $390,152
1993 Made in America $44,942,695 $104,942,695
Six Degrees of Separation $6,284,090 $6,284,090
1995 Bad Boys $23m $65,647,413 $141,247,413
1996 Independence Day $75m $306,169,255 $817,400,878
1997 Men in Black $90m $250,690,539 $587,790,539
1998 Enemy of the State $111,549,836 $250,649,836
1999 Wild Wild West $170m $113,805,681 $222,105,681
2000 The Legend of Bagger Vance $80m $30,695,227 $39,235,486
2001 Ali $107m $58,183,966 $84,383,966
2002 Men in Black II $140m $190,418,803 $441,818,803
2003 Bad Boys II $60m $138,540,870 $272,940,870
2004 I, Robot $120m $144,801,023 $348,601,023
Shark Tale $75m $161,192,000 $367,192,000
2005 Hitch $70m $177,784,257 $366,784,257
2006 The Pursuit of Happyness $55m $162,586,036 $306,086,036
2007 I Am Legend $150m $256,393,010 $585,055,701
2008 Hancock $227,946,274 $624,346,274
Seven Pounds $55m $69,369,933 $166,617,328
http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc511/fonkyninja33/tumblr_lp4w57wTkT1qbxvun.gif
I watch Fresh Prince in reruns every day I hardly ever miss it. ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/26/11 at 2:22 pm
The person of the day...Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE (born 26 September 1945, Washington, County Durham, UK) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in the United Kingdom. Ferry began his solo career in 1973, while still a member of Roxy Music, which continues to the present day.
Ferry formed Roxy Music with a group of friends and acquaintances, beginning with Graham Simpson, in November 1970. The line-up expanded to include saxophonist/oboist Andy Mackay and his acquaintance Brian Eno, who owned tape recorders and played Mackay's synthesiser. Other early members included timpanist Dexter Lloyd and ex-Nice guitarist David O'List, who were replaced respectively by Paul Thompson and Phil Manzanera before the band recorded its first album. (Early Peel sessions for UK radio station Radio 1 feature O'List's playing.)
Roxy Music's first hit, "Virginia Plain", just missed topping the charts, and was followed up with several hit singles and albums, with Ferry as vocalist and occasional instrumentalist (he taught himself piano in his mid-twenties) and Eno contributing synthesiser backing.
For many years, Ferry has collaborated with fashion designer Antony Price for clothing and image consultations. Price is famous for his shop on London's Kings Road. He created suits recognised worldwide for their elegance, and gained fame when celebrities and rock stars dressed in his designs. Indeed, one comment by Nicky Haslam about Ferry was that he was more likely to redecorate a hotel room than to trash it.
Cover of The Bride Stripped Bare (1978)
After their second album, Brian Eno left Roxy Music, leaving Ferry its undisputed leader. Ferry had already started a parallel solo career in 1973, initially performing cover versions of old standards on albums such as These Foolish Things (1973) and Another Time, Another Place (1974), both of which reached the UK Top 5. After the concert tours in support of Siren, Roxy Music temporarily disbanded in 1976 though band-members Paul Thompson, Phil Manzanera and Eddie Jobson took part in recording Ferry's subsequent solo material. In 1976, Ferry covered a Beatles song, “She's Leaving Home” for the transitory musical documentary All This and World War II. He went on to release three solo albums during this period, Let's Stick Together (1976), In Your Mind (1977) and The Bride Stripped Bare (1978), but by this time his career had begun to wane.
Roxy Music reconvened in 1979, with Ferry, Manzanera, Thompson and Mackay (Jobson was no longer a member). The band recorded the albums Manifesto (1979), Flesh + Blood (1980) and Avalon (1982), the latter two reaching number one in the UK album charts. The band also achieved their first and only UK number one single, "Jealous Guy", released in 1981 as a posthumous tribute to its author John Lennon who had been murdered some months earlier. It was the only one of their singles not written by Ferry.
After lengthy tours to promote the Avalon album in 1982, Ferry decided to put Roxy Music on hold and continue as a solo artist.
After Roxy Music (1984–2001)
Ferry continued to record, and released his sixth solo album, Boys and Girls, in 1985. The album reached number one in the UK, his first and only solo recording to do so, and also became his biggest selling album in the US.
In July 1985, Ferry performed at the London Live Aid show, again accompanied by David Gilmour. He was hit with technical difficulties on sound, the drummer's drumstick broke at the start of the first song "Sensation" and Gilmour's Fender Stratocaster went dead, so he had to switch to his candy-apple red Stratocaster for the rest of the performance. The difficulties in sound were overcome for "Slave to Love" (featured on the soundtrack to 9½ Weeks) and "Jealous Guy". As with other successful Live Aid acts, his current album, Boys and Girls, remained in the chart for almost a year.
After the Avalon promotional tours, Ferry was rather reluctant to return to life on the road; however, a change of management persuaded him to try touring again in 1988 to promote the previous year's Bête Noire release. Following the tour, Ferry teamed up again with Brian Eno for Mamouna (collaborating with Robin Trower on guitar and as producer). The album took more than five years to produce, and was created under the working title Horoscope. During production, Ferry simultaneously recorded and released another covers album, Taxi in 1993, which proved to be a greater commercial and critical success than Mamouna would be when it was finally released in 1994. In 1996, Ferry performed the song "Dance With Life" for the Phenomenon soundtrack, which was written by Bernie Taupin and Martin Page. In 1999 Ferry appeared with Alan Partridge (played by Steve Coogan) on BBC's Comic Relief.
After taking some time off from music, Ferry returned in 1999. He began to perform a mix of 1930s songs and songs of his own, including several from the Roxy collection, and recorded them on the album As Time Goes By, which was nominated for a Grammy award.
Roxy Music reunion 2001 and after
Ferry on tour in the Netherlands, 2006
Ferry, Manzanera, Mackay and Thompson re-reformed Roxy Music in 2001 and toured extensively for a couple of years, though the band did not record any new material. In 2002, with the help of Manzanera and Thompson, Ferry returned with his next studio album, Frantic, which featured several tracks written by David A. Stewart as well as a collaboration with Brian Eno. The album was a mix of new original material and covers - something that Ferry had not attempted on a solo album since The Bride Stripped Bare in 1978.
In 2003, Ferry provided the entertainment for the Miss World election, a show with an expected 2 billion viewers worldwide. In 2004, Ferry starred in the short film The Porter. In 2005, it was confirmed that Roxy Music (Ferry, Eno, Mackay, Manzanera and Thompson) would be performing further shows at that year's Isle Of Wight festival and that they would also be recording a further album of new and original songs, with no indication of when such a project would reach completion. Brian Eno confirmed that he has worked in the studio with Roxy Music once more and has co-written songs for the new album. However, Ferry later debunked the idea of a new Roxy Music album and stated that the material from these sessions will most likely be released as part of his next solo album, and that "I don't think we'll record as Roxy again."
In October 2006, Ferry signed a contract with the British retailer Marks and Spencer to model their "Autograph" men's clothing range. In March 2007, Ferry released the album Dylanesque, a tribute album to Bob Dylan. The album charted in the UK Top 10, and Ferry undertook a UK tour. On October 7, 2008, Ferry was honoured as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI London Awards. He joined past Icons including Peter Gabriel, Ray Davies, Steve Winwood, and Van Morrison, amongst others.
In 2009, Ferry provided vocals on DJ Hell's record, U Can Dance. A new version of the track was recorded for Ferry's new studio album, Olympia, released in October 2010. The album contained the material he had been recorded with his former Roxy Music band members, and also featured an impressive cast of other musicians such as Nile Rodgers, David A. Stewart, Scissor Sisters, Groove Armada, Michael "Flea" Balzary, Johnny Greenwood and David Gilmour, and also featured model Kate Moss on the front cover. Despite this, and being released in multiple "deluxe" editions (one including a large format hardback book), the album was not a commercial success in comparison to Ferry's previous studio albums, barely making the UK Top 20 and dropping out of the chart altogether after only three weeks.
In June 2011, Ferry was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for his contribution to the British music industry.
Personal life
Several of the women Ferry had been involved with have appeared as cover models on the Roxy Music albums. Ferry dated singer and model Amanda Lear, who was photographed with a black jaguar for the cover of the For Your Pleasure album. She later went on to date David Bowie.
Ferry then began a relationship with model Jerry Hall. Hall appeared in several of Ferry's music videos, including "Let's Stick Together" and "The Price of Love." Ferry first met Hall when she posed for the Roxy Music album cover for Siren in Wales during the summer 1975. Hall's autobiography Tall Tales describes the photo session, and she elaborates on how the blue body paint she wore to look like a mythical siren would not wash off; Hall says that Ferry took her back to his house, claiming he would help her to remove the paint. Her stay at Ferry's Holland Park (London) home, following the album cover photo shoot, marked the start of their affair. Hall and Ferry moved in together, sharing homes in London and in the ritzy Bel Air section of Los Angeles. His relationship with Hall ended when she left him for Mick Jagger in late 1977. To this day, Ferry rarely speaks about Hall, but fans often speculate that his song "Kiss and Tell" from the Bête Noire album was Ferry's response to Hall's tell-all book about their relationship. Ferry often refuses to discuss his feelings about Hall or talk about their romantic history during interviews. Bryan Ferry's solo album The Bride Stripped Bare is widely believed to contain allusions to his break-up with Hall—particularly the song "When She Walks in the Room". Ferry's original songs on the album were in fact written some time before the relationship ended, although it was recorded afterwards.
Ferry eventually settled down to married life with Lucy Helmore, and they had four sons, including huntsman and political activist Otis, Isaac, Tara and Merlin. Tara was performing in a rock band called "Rubber Kiss Goodbye" and simultaneously studying at Chelsea College of Art and Design, according to the Sunday Times (28 Sept. 2008). Merlin studied electrical engineering and biochemical engineering at Marlborough College for his "A" Levels, he now plays guitar in his band Voltorb.
Ferry and Helmore split in the early 2000s and were divorced in 2003. After their separation, British newspapers photographed Ferry with Katie Turner, 35 years his junior, naming her as his new 'girlfriend'. Ferry and Turner met while she worked as one of the dancers on Roxy Music's concert tour in 2001 (and is featured on the DVD of the 2001 Hammersmith Odeon Show). She went on to appear with Ferry on several TV shows to promote the Frantic album, and also performed on the Frantic tour in 2002. After their break-up, Ferry had a relationship with Lady Emily Compton, a socialite. In 2006, he resumed his relationship with Katie Turner for some time. Ferry is now in a relationship with Amanda Sheppard, who previously worked in public relations, until she quit her job in 2009 after Ferry offered to financially support her.
Ferry was estimated to have a fortune of £30 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2010.
Nazi controversy
In 2007, a controversy arose after Ferry praised the imagery and iconography of the Nazi regime in an interview with the German newspaper, Welt Am Sonntag. Ferry stated "the way that the Nazis staged themselves and presented themselves, my Lord!...I'm talking about the films of Leni Riefenstahl...And the buildings of Albert Speer and the mass marches and the flags—just fantastic. Really beautiful." In the same interview, Ferry was also reported to have referred to his West London recording studio as "The Führerbunker" (Adolf Hitler's bunker during World War II).
Ferry's comments caused considerable controversy in the media and, the following month, he made a public apology, stating "I apologize unreservedly for any offence caused by my comments on Nazi iconography, which were solely made from an art history perspective. I, like every right-minded individual, find the Nazi regime, and all it stood for, evil and abhorrent." At the time of the controversy, Ferry was contracted to the British retailer Marks and Spencer to model their "Autograph" menswear line. However, despite Ferry's public apology for his comments, Marks and Spencer opted to sever their ties with him.
Discography
Main article: Bryan Ferry discography
Studio albums
These Foolish Things (October 1973, UK #5)
Another Time, Another Place (July 1974, UK #4)
Let's Stick Together (September 1976, UK #19, US #160)
In Your Mind (February 1977, UK #5, US #126, Aust.#1)
The Bride Stripped Bare (April 1978, UK #13, US #159)
Boys and Girls (May 1985, UK #1, US #63)
Bête Noire (October 1987, UK #9, US #63)
Taxi (13 April 1993, UK #2, US #79)
Mamouna (5 September 1994, UK #11, US #94)
As Time Goes By (15 October 1999, UK #16, US #199)
Frantic (18 May 2002, UK #6, US #189)
Dylanesque (5 March 2007, UK #5, US #117)
Olympia (26 October 2010, UK #19, US #71)
Honours
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f161/KatyT-G/Ferry1.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/26/11 at 7:52 pm
I watch Fresh Prince in reruns every day I hardly ever miss it. ;D
I had some favorite episodes of that show...and some that I didn't really care for. Will Smith is kinda funny on that show. His rap music partner, DJ Jazzy Jeff, made frequent guest appearances on that show as his best buddy, Jazz, and often got thrown out of the mansion by Uncle Phil.
I also enjoyed watching him in the movie "Men In Black"; he also sang the title song from that film. The sequel was not quite as good IMO.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/27/11 at 5:59 pm
The person of the day...Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947), better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor. He is noted for the Bat Out of Hell album trilogy consisting of Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. Bat Out of Hell has sold more than 43 million copies. After more than 30 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best selling albums of all time.
Although he enjoyed success with Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and earned a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for a track on the latter album, Meat Loaf experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within his native US. However, he has retained iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially the UK, where he ranks 23rd for the number of weeks overall spent on the charts. He ranked 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock."
Meat Loaf has also appeared in over 50 movies or television shows, sometimes as himself or as characters resembling his stage persona. His most notable roles include Eddie in the American premiere of The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Robert "Bob" Paulson in Fight Club.
During the winter of 1973, after returning from a short production of Rainbow in New York in Washington, D.C., Meat Loaf received a call asking him to be in The Rocky Horror Show asking him to play the parts of Eddie and Dr. Everett Scott. The success of the play led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where Meat Loaf played only Eddie, a decision he has said he felt was "a huge mistake." About the same time, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman started work on Bat out of Hell. Meat Loaf convinced Epic Records to shoot videos for four songs, "Bat Out Of Hell," "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth" and "Two out of Three Ain't Bad." He then convinced Lou Adler, the producer of Rocky Horror, to run the "Paradise" video as a trailer to the movie. Meat Loaf's final show in New York was Gower Champion's Rockabye Hamlet, a Hamlet musical. It closed two weeks into its initial run. Meat would later return occasionally to perform Hot Patootie for a special Rocky Horror reunion or convention and rarely at his own live shows (one performance of which was released in the 1996 Live Around the World CD set).
During his recording of the soundtrack for Rocky Horror, Meat Loaf recorded two more songs: "Stand By Me" (a Ben E. King cover), and "Clap Your Hands." They remained unreleased until 1984, when they appeared as B-sides to the "Nowhere Fast" single.
In 1976, Meat Loaf recorded lead vocals for Ted Nugent's Free-for-All album when regular Nugent lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes quit the band. Meat Loaf sang lead on five of the album's nine tracks.
Major success
Bat Out of Hell
Meat Loaf and friend/songwriter Jim Steinman started Bat Out of Hell in 1972, but did not get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf decided to leave theatre, and concentrate exclusively on music. Then, the National Lampoon Show opened on Broadway, and it needed an understudy for John Belushi, a close friend of Meat Loaf since 1972. It was at the Lampoon Show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley, the co-star who sang "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" with him on the album Bat Out of Hell.
After the Lampoon show ended, Meat Loaf and Steinman spent time seeking a record deal. Their approaches were rejected by each record company, because their songs did not fit any specific recognized music industry style. Finally, they performed the songs for Todd Rundgren, who decided to produce the album, as well as play lead guitar on it (other members of Todd's band Utopia also lent their musical talents). They then shopped the record around, but still had no takers until Cleveland International Records decided to take a chance. On October 21, 1977, Bat Out of Hell was released.
Meat Loaf and Steinman formed the band The Neverland Express to tour in support of Bat Out of Hell. Their first gig was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago. He gained national exposure as musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1978. Guest host Christopher Lee introduced him by saying, "And now ladies and gentlemen I would like you to meet Loaf. (pauses, looks dumbfounded) I beg your pardon, what? (he listens to the director's aside) Oh! Why...why I'm sorry, yes, of course...ah... Ladies and gentlemen, Meat Loaf!" The huge success of the album caused a rift to open up between Meat Loaf and Steinman: the group, named after Meat Loaf for ease of labeling, seemed to Steinman to sideline his work as creator, and Steinman started to resent the attention that his partner was getting.
During a show in Ottawa, Meat Loaf fell off the stage and broke his leg. He toured with the broken leg, performing from a wheel chair. During this time, Meat Loaf began heavy use of cocaine, had a nervous breakdown and threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the ledge of a building in New York. In the middle of recording his second album, Bad for Good, Meat Loaf lost the ability to sing; it is unclear as to the exact cause - the tour was a punishing one, and the vocals are energy intense. However, his doctors said that physically he was fine and that his problem was psychological. Nevertheless, Steinman decided to keep recording Bad for Good without Meat Loaf.
Bat Out of Hell has sold over 43 million copies worldwide, making it one of the highest selling albums of all time. In the UK alone, its 2.1 million sales put it in 38th place. Despite peaking at #9 and spending only two weeks in the top ten in 1981, it has now clocked up 474 weeks on the UK album chart, a figure bettered only by Rumours by Fleetwood Mac - 478 weeks. In Australia, it knocked the Bee Gees off the number #1 spot and went on to become the biggest-selling Australian album of all time (by a non-Australian). Bat Out of Hell is also one of only two albums that has never exited the Top 200 in the UK charts; this makes it the longest stay in any music chart in the world, although the published chart contains just 75 positions.
Life after Bat Out of Hell
In 1976, Meat Loaf appeared in the short-lived Broadway production of the rock musical Rockabye Hamlet. In 1980, he started working on Dead Ringer. Steinman wrote all of the songs, but had little else to do with the album. The tour they planned, to support the album, was cancelled after one show, because they ran out of the money that the studio advanced them. Sonnenberg also convinced CBS to advance more money for the making of the movie Dead Ringer, which was shown at the Toronto Film Festival and won some favorable reviews, but was poorly considered after Sonnenberg re-edited the movie.
On December 5, 1981, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express were the musical guests for Saturday Night Live where he was reunited with fellow Rocky Horror Picture Show alum Tim Curry. Curry and Meat Loaf teamed up in a skit depicting a One-Stop Rocky Horror Shop. Later, Tim Curry performed "The Zucchini Song" and Meat Loaf & The Neverland Express performed "Bat Out of Hell" and "Promised Land." In 1983, he released the self written Midnight at the Lost and Found. Meat Loaf, a poor songwriter by his own admission, did not care for the songs he wrote for the album.
In 1984, Meat Loaf went to England, to record the album Bad Attitude, which included a duet with Roger Daltrey and two songs written by Jim Steinman; the recording of the album was rushed. During the tour to support the album, Leslie (Meat Loaf's girlfriend) had a nervous breakdown and had to check into the Silver Hill Hospital rehab facility in Connecticut. Things finally looked like they were going to turn around in 1986, when Meat Loaf found a new writer, John Parr, and started recording a new album, Blind Before I Stop. Unfortunately, the producer put a dance beat underneath every song, which resulted in critical failure and Meat Loaf going bankrupt, eventually losing everything. His relationships with lifelong friend Jim Steinman and Leslie also deteriorated. In 1985, Meat Loaf did some comedy sketches in England with Hugh Laurie. At some point, Meat Loaf tried stand-up comedy, appearing several times in Connecticut.
Meat Loaf performed "Thrashin" for the soundtrack of the 1986 skateboarding cult classic film Thrashin' (directed by David Winters and starring Josh Brolin).
To try to get his career back off the ground, Meat Loaf started touring small venues, such as pubs and clubs. Slowly, he developed a faithful following which grew to the point where they were unable to fit into the venues that Meat Loaf was playing, and then they too began to grow. This carried on until the late '80s, where he began to sell out arenas and stadiums again, including over 10,000 tickets at Ohio State University. Leslie studied to be a travel agent, so they could save on travel expenses, and they toured all over the United States, Germany, England, Scandinavia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Bahrain. With the help of his New York collection of musicians — John Golden, Richard Raskin and Paul Jacobs — his European tours enjoyed immense popularity in the 1980s. Because of the success of the touring, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman began to work on Bat Out Of Hell II which was finally released in 1993, sixteen years after Bat Out Of Hell. The album was a huge success and is considered one of the greatest comebacks in music history.
Discography
Main article: Meat Loaf discography
Filmography
Title Release Year Character
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975 Eddie "An ex-delivery boy"
Americathon 1979 Oklahoma Devil, Roy Budnitz
Scavenger Hunt 1979 Scum
Roadie 1980 Travis W. Redfish
Dead Ringer 1981 Meat Loaf, Marvin
Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams 1981 Cameo
Out of Bounds 1986 Gil
The Squeeze 1987 Titus
Motorama 1991
Wayne's World 1992 Tiny
Leap of Faith 1992 Hoover
To Catch a Yeti 1993 Big Jake Grizzly
Angels in the Outfield 1993 Angel
Bean 1997 Cameo
Spiceworld: The Movie 1997 Dennis
Black Dog 1998 Red
The Mighty 1998 Iggy Lee
Crazy in Alabama 1999 Sheriff John Doggett
Fight Club 1999 Robert 'Bob' Paulson
Blacktop 2000 Jack
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple 2001 Amos "Rattlesnake Jake" Frogge
Face to Face 2001 Driver
Rustin 2001 Coach Trellingsby
Focus 2001 Fred
The 51st State 2002 The Lizard
Wishcraft 2002 Detective Sparky Shaw (as Michael Aday)
The Salton Sea 2002 Bo
A Hole in One 2004 Billy
BloodRayne 2005 Leonid
The Pleasure Drivers 2005 Dale (as Meat Loaf Aday)
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny 2006 JB's father
Pelts Masters of Horror 2006 Jake Feldman
History Rocks 2007 Himself
Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise 2008 Himself
Tiger Force Forever: Unleashed 2009
Burning Bright 2010 Howie
Beautiful Boy 2010
Television
Title Episode Title Release Year Character
Strike Force "MIA" 1985 Adams Family 1971
The Equalizer "Bump and Run" 1985
Tales from the Crypt "What's Cookin'?" 1992
The Dead Man's Gun "The Mail Order Bride" 1997
Nash Bridges "Wild Card" 1997
South Park "Chef Aid" 1998 Cameo
The Outer Limits "Gettysburg" 2000
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2007
Private Sessions 2007
Go-Phone Commercial 2007 Singing Father
The F Word 2008 Himself
Hannity 2009 Member of Panel
Tiger Force Forever: Unleashed 2009
Masters of Horror "Pelts" 2009 Jake
House, M.D. "Simple Explanation" 2009 Patient
Don't Forget the Lyrics 2009
Ghost Hunters "Bat Out of Hell" 2009 Himself
Monk "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse" 2009 Reverend Hadley Jorgensen
Citizen Jane 2009 Detective Jack Morris
Popstar to Operastar 2010 Judge
WWE Raw 2010 Himself
Glee "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" 2010 Barry Jeffries (Credited as: Meat Loaf Aday)
Ghost Hunters "Sloss Furnaces" 2010
This Week 2010 Himself
The Celebrity Apprentice 2011 Himself
http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww3/meatgirl_2009/Meat-Loaf.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o244/DEJA-VU2006/loaf.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/27/11 at 8:12 pm
The person of the day...Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947), better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor. He is noted for the Bat Out of Hell album trilogy consisting of Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. Bat Out of Hell has sold more than 43 million copies. After more than 30 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually and stayed on the charts for over nine years, making it one of the best selling albums of all time.
Although he enjoyed success with Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell and earned a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for a track on the latter album, Meat Loaf experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within his native US. However, he has retained iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially the UK, where he ranks 23rd for the number of weeks overall spent on the charts. He ranked 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock."
Meat Loaf has also appeared in over 50 movies or television shows, sometimes as himself or as characters resembling his stage persona. His most notable roles include Eddie in the American premiere of The Rocky Horror Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Robert "Bob" Paulson in Fight Club.
During the winter of 1973, after returning from a short production of Rainbow in New York in Washington, D.C., Meat Loaf received a call asking him to be in The Rocky Horror Show asking him to play the parts of Eddie and Dr. Everett Scott. The success of the play led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where Meat Loaf played only Eddie, a decision he has said he felt was "a huge mistake." About the same time, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman started work on Bat out of Hell. Meat Loaf convinced Epic Records to shoot videos for four songs, "Bat Out Of Hell," "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth" and "Two out of Three Ain't Bad." He then convinced Lou Adler, the producer of Rocky Horror, to run the "Paradise" video as a trailer to the movie. Meat Loaf's final show in New York was Gower Champion's Rockabye Hamlet, a Hamlet musical. It closed two weeks into its initial run. Meat would later return occasionally to perform Hot Patootie for a special Rocky Horror reunion or convention and rarely at his own live shows (one performance of which was released in the 1996 Live Around the World CD set).
During his recording of the soundtrack for Rocky Horror, Meat Loaf recorded two more songs: "Stand By Me" (a Ben E. King cover), and "Clap Your Hands." They remained unreleased until 1984, when they appeared as B-sides to the "Nowhere Fast" single.
In 1976, Meat Loaf recorded lead vocals for Ted Nugent's Free-for-All album when regular Nugent lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes quit the band. Meat Loaf sang lead on five of the album's nine tracks.
Major success
Bat Out of Hell
Meat Loaf and friend/songwriter Jim Steinman started Bat Out of Hell in 1972, but did not get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf decided to leave theatre, and concentrate exclusively on music. Then, the National Lampoon Show opened on Broadway, and it needed an understudy for John Belushi, a close friend of Meat Loaf since 1972. It was at the Lampoon Show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley, the co-star who sang "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" with him on the album Bat Out of Hell.
After the Lampoon show ended, Meat Loaf and Steinman spent time seeking a record deal. Their approaches were rejected by each record company, because their songs did not fit any specific recognized music industry style. Finally, they performed the songs for Todd Rundgren, who decided to produce the album, as well as play lead guitar on it (other members of Todd's band Utopia also lent their musical talents). They then shopped the record around, but still had no takers until Cleveland International Records decided to take a chance. On October 21, 1977, Bat Out of Hell was released.
Meat Loaf and Steinman formed the band The Neverland Express to tour in support of Bat Out of Hell. Their first gig was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago. He gained national exposure as musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1978. Guest host Christopher Lee introduced him by saying, "And now ladies and gentlemen I would like you to meet Loaf. (pauses, looks dumbfounded) I beg your pardon, what? (he listens to the director's aside) Oh! Why...why I'm sorry, yes, of course...ah... Ladies and gentlemen, Meat Loaf!" The huge success of the album caused a rift to open up between Meat Loaf and Steinman: the group, named after Meat Loaf for ease of labeling, seemed to Steinman to sideline his work as creator, and Steinman started to resent the attention that his partner was getting.
During a show in Ottawa, Meat Loaf fell off the stage and broke his leg. He toured with the broken leg, performing from a wheel chair. During this time, Meat Loaf began heavy use of cocaine, had a nervous breakdown and threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the ledge of a building in New York. In the middle of recording his second album, Bad for Good, Meat Loaf lost the ability to sing; it is unclear as to the exact cause - the tour was a punishing one, and the vocals are energy intense. However, his doctors said that physically he was fine and that his problem was psychological. Nevertheless, Steinman decided to keep recording Bad for Good without Meat Loaf.
Bat Out of Hell has sold over 43 million copies worldwide, making it one of the highest selling albums of all time. In the UK alone, its 2.1 million sales put it in 38th place. Despite peaking at #9 and spending only two weeks in the top ten in 1981, it has now clocked up 474 weeks on the UK album chart, a figure bettered only by Rumours by Fleetwood Mac - 478 weeks. In Australia, it knocked the Bee Gees off the number #1 spot and went on to become the biggest-selling Australian album of all time (by a non-Australian). Bat Out of Hell is also one of only two albums that has never exited the Top 200 in the UK charts; this makes it the longest stay in any music chart in the world, although the published chart contains just 75 positions.
Life after Bat Out of Hell
In 1976, Meat Loaf appeared in the short-lived Broadway production of the rock musical Rockabye Hamlet. In 1980, he started working on Dead Ringer. Steinman wrote all of the songs, but had little else to do with the album. The tour they planned, to support the album, was cancelled after one show, because they ran out of the money that the studio advanced them. Sonnenberg also convinced CBS to advance more money for the making of the movie Dead Ringer, which was shown at the Toronto Film Festival and won some favorable reviews, but was poorly considered after Sonnenberg re-edited the movie.
On December 5, 1981, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express were the musical guests for Saturday Night Live where he was reunited with fellow Rocky Horror Picture Show alum Tim Curry. Curry and Meat Loaf teamed up in a skit depicting a One-Stop Rocky Horror Shop. Later, Tim Curry performed "The Zucchini Song" and Meat Loaf & The Neverland Express performed "Bat Out of Hell" and "Promised Land." In 1983, he released the self written Midnight at the Lost and Found. Meat Loaf, a poor songwriter by his own admission, did not care for the songs he wrote for the album.
In 1984, Meat Loaf went to England, to record the album Bad Attitude, which included a duet with Roger Daltrey and two songs written by Jim Steinman; the recording of the album was rushed. During the tour to support the album, Leslie (Meat Loaf's girlfriend) had a nervous breakdown and had to check into the Silver Hill Hospital rehab facility in Connecticut. Things finally looked like they were going to turn around in 1986, when Meat Loaf found a new writer, John Parr, and started recording a new album, Blind Before I Stop. Unfortunately, the producer put a dance beat underneath every song, which resulted in critical failure and Meat Loaf going bankrupt, eventually losing everything. His relationships with lifelong friend Jim Steinman and Leslie also deteriorated. In 1985, Meat Loaf did some comedy sketches in England with Hugh Laurie. At some point, Meat Loaf tried stand-up comedy, appearing several times in Connecticut.
Meat Loaf performed "Thrashin" for the soundtrack of the 1986 skateboarding cult classic film Thrashin' (directed by David Winters and starring Josh Brolin).
To try to get his career back off the ground, Meat Loaf started touring small venues, such as pubs and clubs. Slowly, he developed a faithful following which grew to the point where they were unable to fit into the venues that Meat Loaf was playing, and then they too began to grow. This carried on until the late '80s, where he began to sell out arenas and stadiums again, including over 10,000 tickets at Ohio State University. Leslie studied to be a travel agent, so they could save on travel expenses, and they toured all over the United States, Germany, England, Scandinavia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Bahrain. With the help of his New York collection of musicians — John Golden, Richard Raskin and Paul Jacobs — his European tours enjoyed immense popularity in the 1980s. Because of the success of the touring, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman began to work on Bat Out Of Hell II which was finally released in 1993, sixteen years after Bat Out Of Hell. The album was a huge success and is considered one of the greatest comebacks in music history.
Discography
Main article: Meat Loaf discography
Filmography
Title Release Year Character
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975 Eddie "An ex-delivery boy"
Americathon 1979 Oklahoma Devil, Roy Budnitz
Scavenger Hunt 1979 Scum
Roadie 1980 Travis W. Redfish
Dead Ringer 1981 Meat Loaf, Marvin
Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams 1981 Cameo
Out of Bounds 1986 Gil
The Squeeze 1987 Titus
Motorama 1991
Wayne's World 1992 Tiny
Leap of Faith 1992 Hoover
To Catch a Yeti 1993 Big Jake Grizzly
Angels in the Outfield 1993 Angel
Bean 1997 Cameo
Spiceworld: The Movie 1997 Dennis
Black Dog 1998 Red
The Mighty 1998 Iggy Lee
Crazy in Alabama 1999 Sheriff John Doggett
Fight Club 1999 Robert 'Bob' Paulson
Blacktop 2000 Jack
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple 2001 Amos "Rattlesnake Jake" Frogge
Face to Face 2001 Driver
Rustin 2001 Coach Trellingsby
Focus 2001 Fred
The 51st State 2002 The Lizard
Wishcraft 2002 Detective Sparky Shaw (as Michael Aday)
The Salton Sea 2002 Bo
A Hole in One 2004 Billy
BloodRayne 2005 Leonid
The Pleasure Drivers 2005 Dale (as Meat Loaf Aday)
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny 2006 JB's father
Pelts Masters of Horror 2006 Jake Feldman
History Rocks 2007 Himself
Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise 2008 Himself
Tiger Force Forever: Unleashed 2009
Burning Bright 2010 Howie
Beautiful Boy 2010
Television
Title Episode Title Release Year Character
Strike Force "MIA" 1985 Adams Family 1971
The Equalizer "Bump and Run" 1985
Tales from the Crypt "What's Cookin'?" 1992
The Dead Man's Gun "The Mail Order Bride" 1997
Nash Bridges "Wild Card" 1997
South Park "Chef Aid" 1998 Cameo
The Outer Limits "Gettysburg" 2000
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2007
Private Sessions 2007
Go-Phone Commercial 2007 Singing Father
The F Word 2008 Himself
Hannity 2009 Member of Panel
Tiger Force Forever: Unleashed 2009
Masters of Horror "Pelts" 2009 Jake
House, M.D. "Simple Explanation" 2009 Patient
Don't Forget the Lyrics 2009
Ghost Hunters "Bat Out of Hell" 2009 Himself
Monk "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse" 2009 Reverend Hadley Jorgensen
Citizen Jane 2009 Detective Jack Morris
Popstar to Operastar 2010 Judge
WWE Raw 2010 Himself
Glee "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" 2010 Barry Jeffries (Credited as: Meat Loaf Aday)
Ghost Hunters "Sloss Furnaces" 2010
This Week 2010 Himself
The Celebrity Apprentice 2011 Himself
http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww3/meatgirl_2009/Meat-Loaf.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o244/DEJA-VU2006/loaf.jpg
My favorite is Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/27/11 at 11:38 pm
My favorite is Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad.
Mine too :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/28/11 at 1:24 am
Mine too :)
In the 90's he had a big hit with "I'd Do Anything For Love, But I Won't Do That", which I did sorta like.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/28/11 at 6:57 am
In the 90's he had a big hit with "I'd Do Anything For Love, But I Won't Do That", which I did sorta like.
That's good too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/28/11 at 11:05 am
That's good too.
In late 1995 he also had a minor hit with "I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)", which I remember hearing on Casey Kasem's American Top 20 countdown at the time.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 09/28/11 at 12:15 pm
I love Meatloaf (the singer-not the food). I saw him in concert around 1993-4 or so. He put on one hell of a show.
I love the entire album of Bat Out Of Hell-reminds me so much of high school. I think my favs on the album are probably the title song, "You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth", "All Revved Up with No Place to Go", and of course, "Paradise By The Dashboard Light". I have the follow-up, Back Into Hell which has "I Would Do Anything For Love." My favs from that album are "Life Is A Lemon" & "Objects In The Mirror."
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: King Tut on 09/28/11 at 1:28 pm
I love the entire album of Bat Out Of Hell-reminds me so much of high school.
oh god, me too.
On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
(yes)
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/06/men_ani.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 09/28/11 at 1:40 pm
oh god, me too.
On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?
(yes)
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/06/men_ani.gif
Will he offer me his mouth?
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/29/11 at 7:49 am
The person of the day...Ian McShane
Ian David McShane (born September 29, 1942) is an English actor, director, producer, voice artist, and comedian.
Despite appearing in numerous films, McShane is best known for his television roles, particularly the BBC's Lovejoy (1986–94) and HBO's Western drama Deadwood (2004–06). McShane starred as King Silas Benjamin in NBC series Kings, Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda and as Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
In the United Kingdom, McShane's best known role may be that of antiques dealer Lovejoy in the BBC drama series of the same name. He also enjoyed fame in the United States as English cad Don Lockwood in the soap opera Dallas and as an English cockfighting aficionado in the mini-series Roots. Even before Lovejoy, McShane was a pin-up as a result of appearances in television series such as Wuthering Heights (1967, as Heathcliff), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969 as Charlie), Jesus of Nazareth (1977, as Judas Iscariot), and Disraeli (1978) — as well as films like Sky West and Crooked (1965) and Battle of Britain (1969).
In the United States, he is perhaps best known for the role of historical figure Al Swearengen in the HBO series Deadwood. For his performance in this role as the lead of the series, he won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama and was also nominated for similar awards at the 2005 Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Other roles include voicing the role of Captain Hook in Shrek the Third; of Iofur Raknison (known as Ragnar Sturlusson in the film) in The Golden Compass; Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda (for which he received an Annie Award nomination); and Mr. Bobinsky, the strange Russian neighbor in Coraline. In live-action, he has performed in the comedy Hot Rod, the action/thriller Death Race, and The Seeker. He has appeared on US TV's The West Wing as a Russian diplomat.
During the 2007–08 season, he starred as Max in the 40th anniversary Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, co-starring Eve Best, Raul Esparza, and Michael McKean and directed by Daniel Sullivan, at the Cort Theatre (16 December 2007 through 13 April 2008).
In 2009, McShane appeared on the short-lived NBC television drama series Kings, which was based on the biblical story of David. His portrayal of King Silas Benjamin, an analogue of King Saul, was highly praised, with one critic saying "Whenever 'Kings' seems to falter, McShane appears to put bite marks all over the scenery."
In 2010, McShane starred in the TV miniseries The Pillars of the Earth as Bishop Waleran Bigod. The series was a historical drama set in England in the 12th Century, adapted from Ken Follett's novel of the same name.
Also in 2010, Disney confirmed that McShane would play Blackbeard in the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, On Stranger Tides. In March 2011, McShane was cast to play King Brahmwell in Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Killer.
Personal life
In 1977, McShane began a turbulent 5-year relationship with actress Sylvia Kristel after meeting her on the set of The Fifth Musketeer. He is married to actress Gwen Humble.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1962 The Wild and the Willing Harry Brown
1965 The Pleasure Girls Keith Dexter
1966 Sky West and Crooked Robin (Roibin) Released as Gypsy Girl in the U.S.
1967 Wuthering Heights Heathcliff
1969 If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium Charlie Cartwright
Battle of Britain Sgt. Pilot Andy
1970 Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You Fred C. Dobbs
The Ballad of Tam-Lin Tom Lynn Released as The Devil's Widow in the U.S. (1972)
1971 Freelance Mitch Released as CON MAN in the U.S. (1992)
Villain Wolfe Lissner
1972 Left Hand of Gemini
Sitting Target Birdy Williams
1973 The Last of Sheila Anthony
1975 Ransom Ray Petrie Released as The Terrorists in the U.S.
Journey into Fear Banat
1979 The Great Riviera Bank Robbery The Brain Alternate U.S. title – Sewers of Gold
The Fifth Musketeer Fouquet
Yesterday's Hero Rod Turner
1981 Cheaper to Keep Her Dr. Alfred Sunshine
1983 Exposed Greg Miller
1985 Ordeal by Innocence Philip Durant
Too Scared to Scream Vincent Hardwick
Torchlight Sidney
1987 Grand Larceny Flanagan
1999 Babylon 5: The River of Souls Robert Bryson, Ph.D.
2000 Sexy Beast Teddy Bass
2002 Bollywood Queen Frank
2003 Agent Cody Banks Dr. Brinkman
Nemesis Game Jeff Novak
2005 Nine Lives Larry Nominated - Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2006 Scoop Joe Strombel
We Are Marshall Paul Griffen
2007 Shrek the Third voice of Captain Hook
Hot Rod Frank Powell
The Seeker Merriman Lyon
The Golden Compass voice of Ragnar Sturlusson
2008 Kung Fu Panda Tai Lung Voice
Nominated - Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Death Race Coach
2009 Coraline Mr. Bobinsky Voice
Case 39 Detective Mike Barron
44 Inch Chest Meredith Also executive producer
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2010 The Sorcerer's Apprentice Narrator (uncredited)
2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blackbeard Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Villain
2012 Jack the Giant Killer King Brahmwell filming
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1975 Space: 1999 Anton Zoref
1977 Roots Sir Eric Russell
Jesus of Nazareth Judas Iscariot
1978 Will Shakespeare Christopher Marlowe
Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli
1981–82 Magnum, P.I. David Norman / Edwin Clutterbuck
1982 Marco Polo Ali Ben Yussouf
1983 Grace Kelly Prince Rainier of Monaco
1985 Evergreen Paul Lerner
A.D. Sejanus
1986–94 Lovejoy Lovejoy Also director of 4 episodes
1987 Miami Vice Esteban Montoya / Gen. Manuel Borbon
1988 War and Remembrance Philip Rule
1989 Dallas Don Lockwood
Minder Jack Last
2002 The West Wing:
"Enemies Foreign and Domestic" Russian Negotiator Nikolai Ivanovich
In Deep:
"Untouched" Jamie Lamb
2003 Trust Alan Cooper-Fozzard
2004–06 Deadwood Al Swearengen Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama (2004)
TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama (2004), also nominated in 2005
Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (2005)
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama (2005)
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (2005)
Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2006)
Nominated - TV Land Award for Character You REALLY Don't Want to Make Angry (2008)
2008 SpongeBob SquarePants Gordon
2009 Kings King Silas Benjamin
2010 The Pillars of the Earth Waleran Bigod Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated - Monte Carlo TV Festival: Golden Nymph for Mini-Series - Best Performance by an Actor
Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special Tai Lung Made for television
Voice
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/bonemonkey/ianmcshane.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x102/happikali/celebrities/ian_mcshane.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 09/30/11 at 5:31 am
The person of the day...Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis ( born September 30, 1935)is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts. According to Guinness Book of World Records writer and charts music historian Paul Gambaccini, Johnny Mathis has sold 350 million records worldwide.
He has received three Grammy awards. In 1979, his hit duet "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from the film Same Time, Next Year was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis and Jane Olivor sang the song at the Oscar ceremony. This was his second performance at the Academy Awards. He has taped twelve of his own television specials and made over 300 television guest appearances with 33 of them being on The Tonight Show. Through the years his songs (or parts of them) have been heard in 100 plus television shows and films around the globe. His appearance on the Live by Request broadcast in May 1998 on the A&E Network had the largest television viewing audience of the series. Also in 1989, Johnny sang the theme for the ABC daytime soap opera Loving.
Mathis continues to perform but from 2000 onwards has limited his concert engagements to fifty to sixty appearances per year. In 2006, his schedule included a UK tour that included his annual Scottish golf vacation and attendance at the 2006 Ryder Cup, two stints at his favourite Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Tonight Show host Johnny Carson said: "Johnny Mathis is the best ballad singer in the world." He appeared on the NBC Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a guest on March 29, 2007 performing the classic "The Shadow of Your Smile" with saxophonist Dave Koz. Mathis returned to the UK Top 20 album chart in 2007 with the Sony BMG release "The Very Best of Johnny Mathis" and again in 2008 with the Columbia CD "A Night to Remember". Also in 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
A performance by Mathis in Florida in 2009 netted him $65,000 in artist fees and royalties.
Personal life
In a 1982 Us Magazine article, Mathis was quoted as having said, "Homosexuality is a way of life that I've grown accustomed to." Us Magazine later retracted the statement. After more than 20 years of silence on the subject, Mathis revealed in an interview, in 2006, that his silence was due to death threats he received as a result of that 1982 article. On April 13, 2006, Mathis granted a podcast interview with The Strip in which he talked about the subject once again, and how some of his reticence to speak of the subject was partially generational.
Despite missing the Olympic high jump trials, he has never abandoned his enthusiasm for sports and today is an avid golfer who has achieved six holes-in-one, and has hosted several Johnny Mathis Golf Tournaments in the United Kingdom and the USA. Since 1985 he has been hosting a charity golf tournament in Belfast sponsored by Shell corporation, and the annual Johnny Mathis Invitational Track & Field Meet has continued at San Francisco State University since it started in 1982.
In 1982 he published a cookbook, Cooking for You Alone.
Mathis has undergone rehab for both alcohol and prescription drug addictions.
He has supported many organizations through the years, including the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, the YWCA and YMCA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the NAACP.
Grammy history
Mathis received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording.
Grammy Hall of Fame
Johnny Mathis was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Grammy Hall of Fame Awards
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1957 "It's Not for Me to Say" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 2008
1959 "Misty" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 2002
1957 "Chances Are" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 1998
Discography
Singles
Year Single Chart positions
US US
AC US
R&B UK
1957 "Wonderful! Wonderful!" 14 - - —
"It's Not For Me To Say" 5 - - —
"Chances Are" 1 - 12 —
"The Twelfth of Never" 9 - - —
"No Love (But Your Love)" 21 - - —
"Wild Is the Wind" 22 - - —
1958 "Come To Me" 22 - - —
"All the Time" 21 - - —
"Teacher, Teacher" 21 - - 27
"A Certain Smile" 14 - - 4
"Call Me" 21 - - —
"Winter Wonderland" - - - 17
1959 "Let's Love" 44 - - —
"You Are Beautiful" 60 - - 38
"Someone" 35 - - 6
"Small World" 20 - - —
"You Are Everything To Me" 109 - - —
"Misty" 12 - 10 12
"The Story of Our Love" 93 - - —
"The Best of Everything" 62 - - 30
1960 "Starbright" 25 - - 47
"Maria" 78 - - —
"My Love For You" 47 - - 9
"How To Handle a Woman" 64 - - —
1961 "You Set My Heart To Music" 107 - - —
"Jenny" 118 - - —
"Wasn't the Summer Short?" 89 - - —
1962 "Sweet Thursday" 99 - - —
"Marianna" 86 - - —
"Gina" 6 2 - —
1963 "What Will Mary Say" 9 3 21 49
"Every Step of the Way" 30 10 - —
"Sooner or Later" 84 - - —
"Come Back" 61 - - —
"Your Teenage Dreams" 68 19 - —
"I'll Search My Heart" 90 - - —
1964 "Bye Bye Barbara" 53 17 - -
"The Fall of Love" 120 - - —
"Taste of Tears" 87 - - —
"Listen Lonely Girl" 62 11 - —
1965 "Take the Time" 104 32 - —
"Sweetheart Tree" 108 21 - —
"On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" 98 6 - —
1966 "So Nice (Samba de Verao)" - 17 - —
1967 "Two Tickets and a Candy Heart" - 38 - -
"Don't Talk To Me" - 21 - -
"Misty Roses" - 40 - -
1968 "Venus" 111 23 - —
"You Make Me Think About You" - 35 - —
1969 "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" - 39 - —
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" - 35 - —
"Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet (A Time For Us)" 96 8 - —
"Midnight Cowboy" - 20 - —
1970 "Odds and Ends" - 30 - —
"Wherefore and Why" - 17 - —
"Pieces of Dreams" - 9 - —
"Evil Ways" - 30 - —
1971 "Ten Times Forever More" - 32 - -
1972 "Make It Easy On Yourself" 103 16 - -
"Soul and Inspiration/For Once In My Life" - 37 - -
1973 "Take Good Care of Her" - 40 - -
"Show and Tell" - 36 - -
"I'm Coming Home" 75 1 92 -
"Life Is a Song Worth Singing" 54 8 65 —
1974 "Sweet Child" - 35 - -
1975 "Sail On White Moon" - 39 - -
"I'm Stone In Love With You" - 16 - 10
"Stardust" - 4 - -
1976 "One Day In Your Life" - 36 - -
"Yellow Roses On Her Gown" - 44 - -
"Do Me Wrong, But Do Me" - 25 - -
"When a Child Is Born" - - - 1
1977 "Loving You-Losing You" - 29 - -
"Arianne" - 24 - -
1978 "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" ** 1 1 1 3
"You're All I Need To Get By" ** 47 16 10 45
1979 "The Last Time I Felt Like This" *** - 15 - -
"Begin the Beguine" - 37 - -
"Gone, Gone, Gone" - - - 15
1980 "Different Kinda Different" # - - 81 -
1982 "Friends In Love" ## 38 5 22 —
1984 "Love Won't Let Me Wait" ** 106 14 32 —
"Simple" 81 6 43 —
1985 "Right From the Heart" - 38 - -
1988 "I'm On the Outside Looking In" - 27 - -
1992 "Better Together" ### - - 68 -
2003 "Frosty the Snowman" - 29 - -
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/hrstumpde/Soundtrack/Johnny%20Mathis/MV5BMTMwMTI5NzYwNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTY.jpg
http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu344/christina_coronado/MATHIS.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 09/30/11 at 7:05 am
The person of the day...Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis ( born September 30, 1935)is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts. According to Guinness Book of World Records writer and charts music historian Paul Gambaccini, Johnny Mathis has sold 350 million records worldwide.
He has received three Grammy awards. In 1979, his hit duet "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from the film Same Time, Next Year was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis and Jane Olivor sang the song at the Oscar ceremony. This was his second performance at the Academy Awards. He has taped twelve of his own television specials and made over 300 television guest appearances with 33 of them being on The Tonight Show. Through the years his songs (or parts of them) have been heard in 100 plus television shows and films around the globe. His appearance on the Live by Request broadcast in May 1998 on the A&E Network had the largest television viewing audience of the series. Also in 1989, Johnny sang the theme for the ABC daytime soap opera Loving.
Mathis continues to perform but from 2000 onwards has limited his concert engagements to fifty to sixty appearances per year. In 2006, his schedule included a UK tour that included his annual Scottish golf vacation and attendance at the 2006 Ryder Cup, two stints at his favourite Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Tonight Show host Johnny Carson said: "Johnny Mathis is the best ballad singer in the world." He appeared on the NBC Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a guest on March 29, 2007 performing the classic "The Shadow of Your Smile" with saxophonist Dave Koz. Mathis returned to the UK Top 20 album chart in 2007 with the Sony BMG release "The Very Best of Johnny Mathis" and again in 2008 with the Columbia CD "A Night to Remember". Also in 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
A performance by Mathis in Florida in 2009 netted him $65,000 in artist fees and royalties.
Personal life
In a 1982 Us Magazine article, Mathis was quoted as having said, "Homosexuality is a way of life that I've grown accustomed to." Us Magazine later retracted the statement. After more than 20 years of silence on the subject, Mathis revealed in an interview, in 2006, that his silence was due to death threats he received as a result of that 1982 article. On April 13, 2006, Mathis granted a podcast interview with The Strip in which he talked about the subject once again, and how some of his reticence to speak of the subject was partially generational.
Despite missing the Olympic high jump trials, he has never abandoned his enthusiasm for sports and today is an avid golfer who has achieved six holes-in-one, and has hosted several Johnny Mathis Golf Tournaments in the United Kingdom and the USA. Since 1985 he has been hosting a charity golf tournament in Belfast sponsored by Shell corporation, and the annual Johnny Mathis Invitational Track & Field Meet has continued at San Francisco State University since it started in 1982.
In 1982 he published a cookbook, Cooking for You Alone.
Mathis has undergone rehab for both alcohol and prescription drug addictions.
He has supported many organizations through the years, including the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, the YWCA and YMCA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the NAACP.
Grammy history
Mathis received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording.
Grammy Hall of Fame
Johnny Mathis was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Grammy Hall of Fame Awards
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1957 "It's Not for Me to Say" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 2008
1959 "Misty" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 2002
1957 "Chances Are" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 1998
Discography
Singles
Year Single Chart positions
US US
AC US
R&B UK
1957 "Wonderful! Wonderful!" 14 - - —
"It's Not For Me To Say" 5 - - —
"Chances Are" 1 - 12 —
"The Twelfth of Never" 9 - - —
"No Love (But Your Love)" 21 - - —
"Wild Is the Wind" 22 - - —
1958 "Come To Me" 22 - - —
"All the Time" 21 - - —
"Teacher, Teacher" 21 - - 27
"A Certain Smile" 14 - - 4
"Call Me" 21 - - —
"Winter Wonderland" - - - 17
1959 "Let's Love" 44 - - —
"You Are Beautiful" 60 - - 38
"Someone" 35 - - 6
"Small World" 20 - - —
"You Are Everything To Me" 109 - - —
"Misty" 12 - 10 12
"The Story of Our Love" 93 - - —
"The Best of Everything" 62 - - 30
1960 "Starbright" 25 - - 47
"Maria" 78 - - —
"My Love For You" 47 - - 9
"How To Handle a Woman" 64 - - —
1961 "You Set My Heart To Music" 107 - - —
"Jenny" 118 - - —
"Wasn't the Summer Short?" 89 - - —
1962 "Sweet Thursday" 99 - - —
"Marianna" 86 - - —
"Gina" 6 2 - —
1963 "What Will Mary Say" 9 3 21 49
"Every Step of the Way" 30 10 - —
"Sooner or Later" 84 - - —
"Come Back" 61 - - —
"Your Teenage Dreams" 68 19 - —
"I'll Search My Heart" 90 - - —
1964 "Bye Bye Barbara" 53 17 - -
"The Fall of Love" 120 - - —
"Taste of Tears" 87 - - —
"Listen Lonely Girl" 62 11 - —
1965 "Take the Time" 104 32 - —
"Sweetheart Tree" 108 21 - —
"On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" 98 6 - —
1966 "So Nice (Samba de Verao)" - 17 - —
1967 "Two Tickets and a Candy Heart" - 38 - -
"Don't Talk To Me" - 21 - -
"Misty Roses" - 40 - -
1968 "Venus" 111 23 - —
"You Make Me Think About You" - 35 - —
1969 "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" - 39 - —
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" - 35 - —
"Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet (A Time For Us)" 96 8 - —
"Midnight Cowboy" - 20 - —
1970 "Odds and Ends" - 30 - —
"Wherefore and Why" - 17 - —
"Pieces of Dreams" - 9 - —
"Evil Ways" - 30 - —
1971 "Ten Times Forever More" - 32 - -
1972 "Make It Easy On Yourself" 103 16 - -
"Soul and Inspiration/For Once In My Life" - 37 - -
1973 "Take Good Care of Her" - 40 - -
"Show and Tell" - 36 - -
"I'm Coming Home" 75 1 92 -
"Life Is a Song Worth Singing" 54 8 65 —
1974 "Sweet Child" - 35 - -
1975 "Sail On White Moon" - 39 - -
"I'm Stone In Love With You" - 16 - 10
"Stardust" - 4 - -
1976 "One Day In Your Life" - 36 - -
"Yellow Roses On Her Gown" - 44 - -
"Do Me Wrong, But Do Me" - 25 - -
"When a Child Is Born" - - - 1
1977 "Loving You-Losing You" - 29 - -
"Arianne" - 24 - -
1978 "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" ** 1 1 1 3
"You're All I Need To Get By" ** 47 16 10 45
1979 "The Last Time I Felt Like This" *** - 15 - -
"Begin the Beguine" - 37 - -
"Gone, Gone, Gone" - - - 15
1980 "Different Kinda Different" # - - 81 -
1982 "Friends In Love" ## 38 5 22 —
1984 "Love Won't Let Me Wait" ** 106 14 32 —
"Simple" 81 6 43 —
1985 "Right From the Heart" - 38 - -
1988 "I'm On the Outside Looking In" - 27 - -
1992 "Better Together" ### - - 68 -
2003 "Frosty the Snowman" - 29 - -
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/hrstumpde/Soundtrack/Johnny%20Mathis/MV5BMTMwMTI5NzYwNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTY.jpg
http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu344/christina_coronado/MATHIS.jpg
I remember he did a duet with Deniece Williams.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/30/11 at 11:20 am
I remember he did a duet with Deniece Williams.
That was "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" from 1978. ;)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: King Tut on 09/30/11 at 3:06 pm
The person of the day...Johnny Mathis
It's not for me to say but, chances are I knew you were going to post this. It's just wonderfdul wonderful.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 09/30/11 at 10:21 pm
The person of the day...Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis ( born September 30, 1935)is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts. According to Guinness Book of World Records writer and charts music historian Paul Gambaccini, Johnny Mathis has sold 350 million records worldwide.
He has received three Grammy awards. In 1979, his hit duet "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from the film Same Time, Next Year was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Mathis and Jane Olivor sang the song at the Oscar ceremony. This was his second performance at the Academy Awards. He has taped twelve of his own television specials and made over 300 television guest appearances with 33 of them being on The Tonight Show. Through the years his songs (or parts of them) have been heard in 100 plus television shows and films around the globe. His appearance on the Live by Request broadcast in May 1998 on the A&E Network had the largest television viewing audience of the series. Also in 1989, Johnny sang the theme for the ABC daytime soap opera Loving.
Mathis continues to perform but from 2000 onwards has limited his concert engagements to fifty to sixty appearances per year. In 2006, his schedule included a UK tour that included his annual Scottish golf vacation and attendance at the 2006 Ryder Cup, two stints at his favourite Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Tonight Show host Johnny Carson said: "Johnny Mathis is the best ballad singer in the world." He appeared on the NBC Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a guest on March 29, 2007 performing the classic "The Shadow of Your Smile" with saxophonist Dave Koz. Mathis returned to the UK Top 20 album chart in 2007 with the Sony BMG release "The Very Best of Johnny Mathis" and again in 2008 with the Columbia CD "A Night to Remember". Also in 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
A performance by Mathis in Florida in 2009 netted him $65,000 in artist fees and royalties.
Personal life
In a 1982 Us Magazine article, Mathis was quoted as having said, "Homosexuality is a way of life that I've grown accustomed to." Us Magazine later retracted the statement. After more than 20 years of silence on the subject, Mathis revealed in an interview, in 2006, that his silence was due to death threats he received as a result of that 1982 article. On April 13, 2006, Mathis granted a podcast interview with The Strip in which he talked about the subject once again, and how some of his reticence to speak of the subject was partially generational.
Despite missing the Olympic high jump trials, he has never abandoned his enthusiasm for sports and today is an avid golfer who has achieved six holes-in-one, and has hosted several Johnny Mathis Golf Tournaments in the United Kingdom and the USA. Since 1985 he has been hosting a charity golf tournament in Belfast sponsored by Shell corporation, and the annual Johnny Mathis Invitational Track & Field Meet has continued at San Francisco State University since it started in 1982.
In 1982 he published a cookbook, Cooking for You Alone.
Mathis has undergone rehab for both alcohol and prescription drug addictions.
He has supported many organizations through the years, including the American Cancer Society, the March of Dimes, the YWCA and YMCA, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the NAACP.
Grammy history
Mathis received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording.
Grammy Hall of Fame
Johnny Mathis was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Grammy Hall of Fame Awards
Year Recorded Title Genre Label Year Inducted
1957 "It's Not for Me to Say" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 2008
1959 "Misty" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 2002
1957 "Chances Are" Traditional Pop (Single) Columbia 1998
Discography
Singles
Year Single Chart positions
US US
AC US
R&B UK
1957 "Wonderful! Wonderful!" 14 - - —
"It's Not For Me To Say" 5 - - —
"Chances Are" 1 - 12 —
"The Twelfth of Never" 9 - - —
"No Love (But Your Love)" 21 - - —
"Wild Is the Wind" 22 - - —
1958 "Come To Me" 22 - - —
"All the Time" 21 - - —
"Teacher, Teacher" 21 - - 27
"A Certain Smile" 14 - - 4
"Call Me" 21 - - —
"Winter Wonderland" - - - 17
1959 "Let's Love" 44 - - —
"You Are Beautiful" 60 - - 38
"Someone" 35 - - 6
"Small World" 20 - - —
"You Are Everything To Me" 109 - - —
"Misty" 12 - 10 12
"The Story of Our Love" 93 - - —
"The Best of Everything" 62 - - 30
1960 "Starbright" 25 - - 47
"Maria" 78 - - —
"My Love For You" 47 - - 9
"How To Handle a Woman" 64 - - —
1961 "You Set My Heart To Music" 107 - - —
"Jenny" 118 - - —
"Wasn't the Summer Short?" 89 - - —
1962 "Sweet Thursday" 99 - - —
"Marianna" 86 - - —
"Gina" 6 2 - —
1963 "What Will Mary Say" 9 3 21 49
"Every Step of the Way" 30 10 - —
"Sooner or Later" 84 - - —
"Come Back" 61 - - —
"Your Teenage Dreams" 68 19 - —
"I'll Search My Heart" 90 - - —
1964 "Bye Bye Barbara" 53 17 - -
"The Fall of Love" 120 - - —
"Taste of Tears" 87 - - —
"Listen Lonely Girl" 62 11 - —
1965 "Take the Time" 104 32 - —
"Sweetheart Tree" 108 21 - —
"On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" 98 6 - —
1966 "So Nice (Samba de Verao)" - 17 - —
1967 "Two Tickets and a Candy Heart" - 38 - -
"Don't Talk To Me" - 21 - -
"Misty Roses" - 40 - -
1968 "Venus" 111 23 - —
"You Make Me Think About You" - 35 - —
1969 "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" - 39 - —
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" - 35 - —
"Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet (A Time For Us)" 96 8 - —
"Midnight Cowboy" - 20 - —
1970 "Odds and Ends" - 30 - —
"Wherefore and Why" - 17 - —
"Pieces of Dreams" - 9 - —
"Evil Ways" - 30 - —
1971 "Ten Times Forever More" - 32 - -
1972 "Make It Easy On Yourself" 103 16 - -
"Soul and Inspiration/For Once In My Life" - 37 - -
1973 "Take Good Care of Her" - 40 - -
"Show and Tell" - 36 - -
"I'm Coming Home" 75 1 92 -
"Life Is a Song Worth Singing" 54 8 65 —
1974 "Sweet Child" - 35 - -
1975 "Sail On White Moon" - 39 - -
"I'm Stone In Love With You" - 16 - 10
"Stardust" - 4 - -
1976 "One Day In Your Life" - 36 - -
"Yellow Roses On Her Gown" - 44 - -
"Do Me Wrong, But Do Me" - 25 - -
"When a Child Is Born" - - - 1
1977 "Loving You-Losing You" - 29 - -
"Arianne" - 24 - -
1978 "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" ** 1 1 1 3
"You're All I Need To Get By" ** 47 16 10 45
1979 "The Last Time I Felt Like This" *** - 15 - -
"Begin the Beguine" - 37 - -
"Gone, Gone, Gone" - - - 15
1980 "Different Kinda Different" # - - 81 -
1982 "Friends In Love" ## 38 5 22 —
1984 "Love Won't Let Me Wait" ** 106 14 32 —
"Simple" 81 6 43 —
1985 "Right From the Heart" - 38 - -
1988 "I'm On the Outside Looking In" - 27 - -
1992 "Better Together" ### - - 68 -
2003 "Frosty the Snowman" - 29 - -
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/hrstumpde/Soundtrack/Johnny%20Mathis/MV5BMTMwMTI5NzYwNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTY.jpg
http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu344/christina_coronado/MATHIS.jpg
Latest tour dates:
Wednesday Oct 12, 2011 London, England The O2 Arena
Friday Oct 14, 2011 Birmingham, England LG Arena
Sunday Oct 16, 2011 Manchester, England Manchester Evening News Arena
Friday Nov 4, 2011 Altoona, IA Prairie Meadows Event Center
Sunday Nov 6, 2011 Omaha, NE Orpheum Theatre
Friday Nov 18, 2011 Branson, MO The Mansion
Saturday Nov 19, 2011 Branson, MO
The Mansion
Friday Dec 2, 2011 Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
Sunday Dec 4, 2011 Costa Mesa, CA
Segerstrom Center For The Arts
Friday Dec 23, 2011 Cupertino, CA Flint Center For Performing Arts
Saturday Jan 7, 2012 Melbourne, FL King Center For the Performing Arts
Monday Jan 9, 2012 Naples, FL
Philharmonic Center For the Arts
Saturday Feb 11, 2012 Rancho Mirage, CA Agua Caliente Casino
Tuesday Feb 14, 2012 Nashville, TN Schermerhorn Symphony Center
Friday Mar 2, 2012 West Palm Beach, FL Kravis Center - Dreyfoos Hall
Sunday Mar 4, 2012 Daytona Beach, FL Peabody Auditorium
Saturday Mar 24, 2012 Coumbus, OH
Ohio Theatre
Thursday Apr 5, 2012 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
Saturday Apr 7, 2012 Greenville, SC
Peace Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday April 19, 2012 Easton, PA State Theatre Center For the Arts
Saturday Apr 21, 2012 New Brunswick, NJ State Theatre
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 09/30/11 at 11:59 pm
Latest tour dates:
Wednesday Oct 12, 2011 London, England The O2 Arena
Friday Oct 14, 2011 Birmingham, England LG Arena
Sunday Oct 16, 2011 Manchester, England Manchester Evening News Arena
Friday Nov 4, 2011 Altoona, IA Prairie Meadows Event Center
Sunday Nov 6, 2011 Omaha, NE Orpheum Theatre
Friday Nov 18, 2011 Branson, MO The Mansion
Saturday Nov 19, 2011 Branson, MO The Mansion
Friday Dec 2, 2011 Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
Sunday Dec 4, 2011 Costa Mesa, CA Segerstrom Center For The Arts
Friday Dec 23, 2011 Cupertino, CA Flint Center For Performing Arts
Saturday Jan 7, 2012 Melbourne, FL King Center For the Performing Arts
Monday Jan 9, 2012 Naples, FL Philharmonic Center For the Arts
Saturday Feb 11, 2012 Rancho Mirage, CA Agua Caliente Casino
Tuesday Feb 14, 2012 Nashville, TN Schermerhorn Symphony Center
Friday Mar 2, 2012 West Palm Beach, FL Kravis Center - Dreyfoos Hall
Sunday Mar 4, 2012 Daytona Beach, FL Peabody Auditorium
Saturday Mar 24, 2012 Coumbus, OH Ohio Theatre
Thursday Apr 5, 2012 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall
Saturday Apr 7, 2012 Greenville, SC Peace Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday April 19, 2012 Easton, PA State Theatre Center For the Arts
Saturday Apr 21, 2012 New Brunswick, NJ State Theatre
So the closest he'll be to me is Costa Mesa, which is in Orange County.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/01/11 at 4:43 am
So the closest he'll be to me is Costa Mesa, which is in Orange County.
In London om October 12th, probably sold out.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/01/11 at 5:34 pm
Let's see... today is the 87th birthday of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who served a single term as president (1977-81), and has remained politically active in his 30 years since leaving office.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/01/11 at 5:36 pm
Let's see... today is the 87th birthday of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who served a single term as president (1977-81), and has remained politically active in his 30 years since leaving office.
You forgot: Recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/01/11 at 5:42 pm
You forgot: Recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Cat
Oh yes, that too!
I wasn't quite sure of the year for some reason.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/02/11 at 3:20 am
Let's see... today is the 87th birthday of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who served a single term as president (1977-81), and has remained politically active in his 30 years since leaving office.
Is he still a peanut farmer?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/02/11 at 2:24 pm
Is he still a peanut farmer?
He could be. He still lives in Plains, Georgia, where he plans to stay for the rest of his life, according to what I've read on Wikopedia.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/03/11 at 3:28 pm
The person of the day...Clive Owen
Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He then garnered critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes (1991) before getting international notice for his performance as a struggling writer in Croupier (1998). In 2005, Owen won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance in the drama Closer (2004). He has since played leading as well as supporting roles in films such as Sin City (2005), Inside Man (2006), Children of Men (2006), and The International (2009).
Initially, Owen carved out a career in television. In 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC production of Precious Bane and the Channel 4 film Vroom before the 1990s saw him become a regular on stage and television in the UK, notably his lead role in the ITV series Chancer, followed by an appearance in the Thames Television production of Lorna Doone.
He won critical acclaim for his performances in the 1991 Stephen Poliakoff film Close My Eyes – in which he has a full frontal nude scene – about a brother and sister who embark on an incestuous love affair. He subsequently appeared in The Magician, Class of '61, Century, Nobody's Children, An Evening with Gary Lineker, Doomsday Gun, Return of the Native and then a Carlton production called Sharman, about a private detective. In 1996, he appeared in his first major Hollywood film The Rich Man's Wife alongside Halle Berry before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called Croupier (1998). In Croupier, he played the title role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work, only to get caught up in a robbery scheme. In 1999, he appeared as an accident-prone driver in Split Second, his first BBC production in a decade.
He then starred in The Echo, a BBC1 drama. He starred in a film called Greenfingers about a criminal who goes to work in a garden, before appearing in the BBC1 mystery series Second Sight. In 2001, he provided the voice-over for a BBC2 documentary about popular music through the years called Walk On By, as well as starring in a highly-acclaimed theatre production called A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, about a couple with a severely handicapped daughter.
He became well known to North American audiences in the summer of 2001 after starring as The Driver in The Hire, a series of short films sponsored by BMW and made by prominent directors. He then appeared in Robert Altman's Gosford Park, alongside an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Phillippe. He appeared in the 2002 hit The Bourne Identity. In 2003, he teamed up with Hodges again to make I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. He starred in Beyond Borders and took on the title role in King Arthur, for which he took riding lessons.
Owen appeared in the West End and Broadway hit play Closer, by Patrick Marber, which was produced as a film, and was released in 2005. He played "Dan" in the play, but was "Larry" the dermatologist in the film version. His portrayal of Larry in the film version earned him a lot of recognition as well as the Golden Globe and BAFTA award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He noted that the expectations of him since the Oscar nomination have not changed the way he approaches film-making, stating "I try, every film I do, to be as good as I can and that's all I can do."
After Closer, he appeared in Derailed alongside Jennifer Aniston, the comic book thriller Sin City as the noir antihero Dwight McCarthy and as a mysterious bank robber in Inside Man. Despite public denials, Owen had long been rumoured to be a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond. A public opinion poll in the United Kingdom in October 2005 (SkyNews) found that he was the public's number one choice to star in the next installment of the series. In that same month, however, it was announced that fellow British actor Daniel Craig would become the next James Bond. In an interview in the September 2007 issue of Details, he claimed that he was never offered or even approached concerning the role. In 2006, Owen spoofed the Bond connection by making an appearance in the remake of The Pink Panther in which he plays a character named "Nigel Boswell, Agent 006" (when he introduces himself to Inspector Clouseau, he quips that Owen's character is "one short of the big time").
Owen at the Children of Men Premiere in Mexico City, 2006
In 2006, Owen starred in the highly acclaimed Children of Men, for which he received widespread praise. The film was nominated for various awards, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Owen worked on the screenplay, although he was uncredited. The next year he starred alongside Paul Giamatti in the film Shoot 'Em Up and appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I of England in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He appeared in the Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as revealed in the video podcast teaser. Owen starred in The International (2009), a film which he described as a "paranoid political thriller". He then played the lead in The Boys Are Back, an Australian adaptation of the book The Boys Are Back In Town by Simon Carr.
In April 2010, he was cast as the lead in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's horror-thriller Intruders.
In June 2010 it was announced that Owen and Nicole Kidman will star in an HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn entitled Hemingway & Gellhorn. James Gandolfini will serve as executive producer to the film written by Barbara Turner and Jerry Stahl. The film will be directed by Philip Kaufman and will reportedly begin shooting next year.
Clive is currently shooting 'Shadow Dancer' joint Irish UK production about a young mother who is heavily involved with the Irish republican Movement. She is arrested in London following an aborted bombing attempt and must either choose to inform on her family or spend the rest of her life behind bars. The Film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson and Aidan Gillen and is being directed by James Marsh.
Personal life
In an incident he later described as "very schmaltzy", Owen met his future wife, actress Sarah-Jane Fenton, when they performed the leads in Romeo and Juliet at the Young Vic. The couple married on 6 March 1995 and live in Highgate, London and Wrabness, north Essex, with their two daughters – Hannah and Eve.
In November 2006, he became patron of the Electric Palace Cinema in Harwich, Essex, England and launched an appeal for funds to repair deteriorating elements of the fabric.
He enjoys the music of indie rock band Hard-Fi and has been seen at two of their concerts, Brixton Academy, 15 May 2006 and Wembley Arena, 18 December 2007. He is also an avid Liverpool F.C fan.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1988 Vroom Jake
Boon Geoff Boon – TV Series 3 – Episode 8 "Peacemaker"
1989 Precious Bane Gideon Sarn TV movie
1990 Chancer Stephen Crane/Derek Love TV series: 20 Episodes
Lorna Doone John Ridd TV Movie
1991 Close My Eyes Richard
1993 Class of '61 Devin O'Neil TV Movie
Century Paul Reisner
The Magician Det. Con. George Byrne TV Movie
1994 The Return of the Native Damon Wildeve TV Movie
Doomsday Gun Dov TV Movie
An Evening with Gary Lineker Bill TV Movie
Nobody's Children Bratu TV Movie
The Turnaround Nick Sharman Pilot for TV series Sharman
1995 Bad Boy Blues Paul TV Movie
1996 Privateer 2: The Darkening Ser Lev Aris Video game
The Rich Man's Wife Jake Golden
Sharman Nick Sharman TV series: 4 Episodes
1997 Croupier Jack Manfred
Bent Max
1998 The Echo Michael Deacon Television series
1999 Split Second Michael Anderson TV Movie
Second Sight DCI Ross Tanner Television series
2000 Greenfingers Colin Briggs
Second Sight series two DCI Ross Tanner Television series
2001 The Hire The Driver
Gosford Park Robert Parks Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated – Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Walk On By Narrator TV documentary
Voice Only
2002 The Bourne Identity The Professor
2003 Beyond Borders Nick Callahan
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Will
2004 Closer Larry BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Toronto Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year
Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Nominated — Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
King Arthur Arthur
2005 Derailed Charles Schine
Sin City Dwight McCarthy
2006 Children of Men Theo Faron Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award Best Actor
Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
Inside Man Dalton Russell
The Pink Panther Nigel Boswell/Agent 006 Uncredited Cameo
2007 Elizabeth: The Golden Age Sir Walter Raleigh
Shoot 'Em Up Smith Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2009 The International Louis Salinger
Duplicity Ray Koval
The Boys Are Back Joe Warr Also Executive Producer
2011 Trust Will Cameron
Killer Elite Spike
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn323/bestiesfromthewesties/clive.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f358/greendee07/clive_owen_99.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/04/11 at 1:18 am
The person of the day...Clive Owen
Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor, who has worked on television, stage and film. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for portraying the lead in the ITV series Chancer from 1990 to 1991. He then garnered critical acclaim for his work in the film Close My Eyes (1991) before getting international notice for his performance as a struggling writer in Croupier (1998). In 2005, Owen won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his appearance in the drama Closer (2004). He has since played leading as well as supporting roles in films such as Sin City (2005), Inside Man (2006), Children of Men (2006), and The International (2009).
Initially, Owen carved out a career in television. In 1988 Owen starred as Gideon Sarn in a BBC production of Precious Bane and the Channel 4 film Vroom before the 1990s saw him become a regular on stage and television in the UK, notably his lead role in the ITV series Chancer, followed by an appearance in the Thames Television production of Lorna Doone.
He won critical acclaim for his performances in the 1991 Stephen Poliakoff film Close My Eyes – in which he has a full frontal nude scene – about a brother and sister who embark on an incestuous love affair. He subsequently appeared in The Magician, Class of '61, Century, Nobody's Children, An Evening with Gary Lineker, Doomsday Gun, Return of the Native and then a Carlton production called Sharman, about a private detective. In 1996, he appeared in his first major Hollywood film The Rich Man's Wife alongside Halle Berry before finding international acclaim in a Channel 4 film directed by Mike Hodges called Croupier (1998). In Croupier, he played the title role of a struggling writer who takes a job in a London casino as inspiration for his work, only to get caught up in a robbery scheme. In 1999, he appeared as an accident-prone driver in Split Second, his first BBC production in a decade.
He then starred in The Echo, a BBC1 drama. He starred in a film called Greenfingers about a criminal who goes to work in a garden, before appearing in the BBC1 mystery series Second Sight. In 2001, he provided the voice-over for a BBC2 documentary about popular music through the years called Walk On By, as well as starring in a highly-acclaimed theatre production called A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, about a couple with a severely handicapped daughter.
He became well known to North American audiences in the summer of 2001 after starring as The Driver in The Hire, a series of short films sponsored by BMW and made by prominent directors. He then appeared in Robert Altman's Gosford Park, alongside an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Phillippe. He appeared in the 2002 hit The Bourne Identity. In 2003, he teamed up with Hodges again to make I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. He starred in Beyond Borders and took on the title role in King Arthur, for which he took riding lessons.
Owen appeared in the West End and Broadway hit play Closer, by Patrick Marber, which was produced as a film, and was released in 2005. He played "Dan" in the play, but was "Larry" the dermatologist in the film version. His portrayal of Larry in the film version earned him a lot of recognition as well as the Golden Globe and BAFTA award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He noted that the expectations of him since the Oscar nomination have not changed the way he approaches film-making, stating "I try, every film I do, to be as good as I can and that's all I can do."
After Closer, he appeared in Derailed alongside Jennifer Aniston, the comic book thriller Sin City as the noir antihero Dwight McCarthy and as a mysterious bank robber in Inside Man. Despite public denials, Owen had long been rumoured to be a possible successor to Pierce Brosnan in the role of James Bond. A public opinion poll in the United Kingdom in October 2005 (SkyNews) found that he was the public's number one choice to star in the next installment of the series. In that same month, however, it was announced that fellow British actor Daniel Craig would become the next James Bond. In an interview in the September 2007 issue of Details, he claimed that he was never offered or even approached concerning the role. In 2006, Owen spoofed the Bond connection by making an appearance in the remake of The Pink Panther in which he plays a character named "Nigel Boswell, Agent 006" (when he introduces himself to Inspector Clouseau, he quips that Owen's character is "one short of the big time").
Owen at the Children of Men Premiere in Mexico City, 2006
In 2006, Owen starred in the highly acclaimed Children of Men, for which he received widespread praise. The film was nominated for various awards, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Owen worked on the screenplay, although he was uncredited. The next year he starred alongside Paul Giamatti in the film Shoot 'Em Up and appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth I of England in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He appeared in the Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais show Extras, as revealed in the video podcast teaser. Owen starred in The International (2009), a film which he described as a "paranoid political thriller". He then played the lead in The Boys Are Back, an Australian adaptation of the book The Boys Are Back In Town by Simon Carr.
In April 2010, he was cast as the lead in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's horror-thriller Intruders.
In June 2010 it was announced that Owen and Nicole Kidman will star in an HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn entitled Hemingway & Gellhorn. James Gandolfini will serve as executive producer to the film written by Barbara Turner and Jerry Stahl. The film will be directed by Philip Kaufman and will reportedly begin shooting next year.
Clive is currently shooting 'Shadow Dancer' joint Irish UK production about a young mother who is heavily involved with the Irish republican Movement. She is arrested in London following an aborted bombing attempt and must either choose to inform on her family or spend the rest of her life behind bars. The Film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson and Aidan Gillen and is being directed by James Marsh.
Personal life
In an incident he later described as "very schmaltzy", Owen met his future wife, actress Sarah-Jane Fenton, when they performed the leads in Romeo and Juliet at the Young Vic. The couple married on 6 March 1995 and live in Highgate, London and Wrabness, north Essex, with their two daughters – Hannah and Eve.
In November 2006, he became patron of the Electric Palace Cinema in Harwich, Essex, England and launched an appeal for funds to repair deteriorating elements of the fabric.
He enjoys the music of indie rock band Hard-Fi and has been seen at two of their concerts, Brixton Academy, 15 May 2006 and Wembley Arena, 18 December 2007. He is also an avid Liverpool F.C fan.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1988 Vroom Jake
Boon Geoff Boon – TV Series 3 – Episode 8 "Peacemaker"
1989 Precious Bane Gideon Sarn TV movie
1990 Chancer Stephen Crane/Derek Love TV series: 20 Episodes
Lorna Doone John Ridd TV Movie
1991 Close My Eyes Richard
1993 Class of '61 Devin O'Neil TV Movie
Century Paul Reisner
The Magician Det. Con. George Byrne TV Movie
1994 The Return of the Native Damon Wildeve TV Movie
Doomsday Gun Dov TV Movie
An Evening with Gary Lineker Bill TV Movie
Nobody's Children Bratu TV Movie
The Turnaround Nick Sharman Pilot for TV series Sharman
1995 Bad Boy Blues Paul TV Movie
1996 Privateer 2: The Darkening Ser Lev Aris Video game
The Rich Man's Wife Jake Golden
Sharman Nick Sharman TV series: 4 Episodes
1997 Croupier Jack Manfred
Bent Max
1998 The Echo Michael Deacon Television series
1999 Split Second Michael Anderson TV Movie
Second Sight DCI Ross Tanner Television series
2000 Greenfingers Colin Briggs
Second Sight series two DCI Ross Tanner Television series
2001 The Hire The Driver
Gosford Park Robert Parks Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated – Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
Walk On By Narrator TV documentary
Voice Only
2002 The Bourne Identity The Professor
2003 Beyond Borders Nick Callahan
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Will
2004 Closer Larry BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Toronto Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Nominated — London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year
Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Nominated — Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
King Arthur Arthur
2005 Derailed Charles Schine
Sin City Dwight McCarthy
2006 Children of Men Theo Faron Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award Best Actor
Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
Inside Man Dalton Russell
The Pink Panther Nigel Boswell/Agent 006 Uncredited Cameo
2007 Elizabeth: The Golden Age Sir Walter Raleigh
Shoot 'Em Up Smith Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2009 The International Louis Salinger
Duplicity Ray Koval
The Boys Are Back Joe Warr Also Executive Producer
2011 Trust Will Cameron
Killer Elite Spike
http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn323/bestiesfromthewesties/clive.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f358/greendee07/clive_owen_99.jpg
He was once rumoured to be the next James Bond.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/09/11 at 3:40 am
British Person of the Day: Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim, CBE (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films. He was memorably described by comedian Ronnie Corbett as a "sad-faced actor, with the voice of a fastidious ghoul", in Corbett's autobiography High Hopes.
Early life
Alastair Sim was born in Edinburgh in 1900. His mother had been born on the island of Eigg, and when she came to the mainland in her teens she could speak only Gaelic. His father, Alexander Sim, was a prosperous businessman with property in Braemar and Edinburgh. He designed and paid for the construction of the Earl Haig Gardens in Edinburgh for the use of returning servicemen to sit in during the day.
Alastair Sim was educated at the independent George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. He became an elocution and drama lecturer at the University of Edinburgh from 1925 until 1930, where he was later rector from 1948 until 1951. He once remarked to an interviewer, "As I passed imperceptibly from a beautiful child to a strong and handsome lad, I wanted more than anything else in the world to be, of all things, a hypnotist. I practised on gentle dogs."
Acting career
Preferring the stage, Sim made his London debut in Othello in 1930. He also appeared for a season at the Old Vic. He notably portrayed Captain Hook in six different stage productions of Peter Pan between 1941 and 1968.
He made his film debut in 1935 in The Case of Gabriel Perry, and spent the remainder of the decade playing supporting roles in films, often being credited with "stealing the scene" from the star. As a supporting actor, his most notable success was as Detective Sergeant Bingham, a light comedy role played opposite Gordon Harker, in the popular Inspector Hornleigh film series: Inspector Hornleigh (1939), Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday (1939), and Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941). He outshone Harker to the extent that it was frequently unclear who was actually the star.
As a result, by the 1940s he had progressed to leading roles; and in 1950 he was voted the most popular film actor in Britain in a national cinema poll. His earliest successes as a leading man included the police detective in the thriller Green for Danger (1946); as the headmaster of Nutbourne College, co-starring with Margaret Rutherford, in the comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950); and as a writer of lurid crime fiction in the comedy Laughter in Paradise (1951).
Also in 1951, he gave his most celebrated performance: playing the title role of Scrooge in a film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.
In 1971, he revisited the character, voicing an Academy Award-winning animated film version of Dickens's story.
He is perhaps best remembered for portraying the headmistress, Miss Fritton, in two of the St Trinian's film comedies, principally the first, The Belles of St Trinian's (1954), in which he also played her shady brother, Clarence Fritton. He later reprised the role (albeit in a cameo part) of Miss Fritton in Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957). Though Scottish, he turned down the lead role in Whisky Galore! saying "I can't bear professional Scotsmen".
Other notable film roles included Waterloo Road (1944), Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), Folly to be Wise (1953), and An Inspector Calls (1954). His performance as Mr Squales in London Belongs to Me (1948) impressed Alec Guinness so much that he based his own performance in The Ladykillers (1955) on it, and is often mistaken for Sim as a consequence.
Later film roles included The Ruling Class (1972) with Peter O'Toole, and a cameo in Richard Lester's Royal Flash (1975) with Malcolm McDowell.
On stage, he had particular success in the last decade of his life in two plays by Arthur Wing Pinero, playing Mr Posket in The Magistrate and Augustin Jedd in Dandy Dick both at the Chichester Festival Theatre and in the West End of London. In both productions Sim co-starred with Patricia Routledge.
On television, his best remembered performance was playing a Mr. Justice Swallow, in the 1967-1971 comedy series Misleading Cases, written by A. P. Herbert. It co-starred Roy Dotrice as the mischievous, bumbling Mr Albert Haddock, who always ended up in court over some comedic, petty misdemeanour.
Private life
He was married to Naomi Plaskitt (1913–1999) from 1932 until his death in 1976. They had one child, a daughter named Merlith.
Sim was keen to promote and encourage young acting talent, and, having seen a young talent in the making, the Sims invited George Cole to live with them in 1940, when he was 15 years old. Cole lived with the couple for 14 years. They are credited with mentoring the young actor. Sim appeared with Cole in the films Cottage to Let (1941), The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), Scrooge (1951), Laughter in Paradise (1951), The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), An Inspector Calls (1954), The Green Man (1956) and Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957).
He always remained ambivalent about fame, and never signed autographs. In a rare interview to the magazine Focus on Film he said, "I stand or fall in my profession by the public's judgment of my performances. No amount of publicity can dampen a good one or gloss over a bad one." He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1953, but (emulating his father) he later refused a knighthood.
In 1959, he successfully sued the makers of a televised baked beans commercial (which had a voiceover sounding uncannily like him), claiming he would not "prostitute his art" by advertising anything.
He died in 1976, aged 75, in London, England, from lung cancer. An English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled at his former home at 8 Frognal Gardens, Hampstead, London on 23 July 2008.
Filmography
The Riverside Murder (1935)
The Private Secretary (1935)
Late Extra (1935)
A Fire Has Been Arranged (1935)
The Case of Gabriel Perry (1935)
Wedding Group (1936)
Troubled Waters (1936)
Man in the Mirror (1936)
Keep Your Seats, Please (1936)
The Big Noise (1936)
Strange Experiment (1937)
A Romance in Flanders (1937)
Melody and Romance (1937)
Clothes and the Woman (1937)
Gangway (1937)
The Squeaker (1937)
This Man Is News (1938)
The Terror (1938)
Sailing Along (1938)
Alf's Button Afloat (1938)
Climbing High (1938)
This Man in Paris (1939)
The Mysterious Mr. Davis (1939)
Inspector Hornleigh (1939)
Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday (1939)
Law and Disorder (1940)
Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941)
Cottage to Let (1941)
Let the People Sing (1942)
Waterloo Road (1945)
Green for Danger (1946)
Captain Boycott (1947)
Hue and Cry (1947)
London Belongs to Me (1948)
Stage Fright (1950)
The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)
Laughter in Paradise (1951)
Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951)
Scrooge (1951)
Innocents in Paris (1952)
Folly to Be Wise (1953)
The Belles of St Trinian's (1954)
An Inspector Calls (1954)
Geordie (1955)
Escapade (1955)
The Green Man (1956)
Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957)
The Doctor's Dilemma 1958)
Left Right and Centre (1959)
The Millionairess (1960)
School for Scoundrels (1960)
The Anatomist (1961)
Misleading Cases (1967)
Cold Comfort Farm (1968)
A Christmas Carol (1971)
The Ruling Class (1972)
The General's Day (1972)
Royal Flash (1975)
Rogue Male (1976)
Escape from the Dark (1976)
http://www.gbscreenstars.co.uk/communities/5/004/007/484/295/images/4537680889.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/09/11 at 3:42 am
British Person of the Day: Alastair Sim
An English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled at his former home at 8 Frognal Gardens, Hampstead, London on 23 July 2008.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4625018878_fcffdc57a5.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/09/11 at 11:13 am
He was born 40 years to the day before another famous British man, John Lennon, who would have turned 71 today. :\'( :\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/09/11 at 11:15 am
He was born 40 years to the day before another famous British man, John Lennon, who would have turned 71 today. :\'( :\'(
I left the opinion open for Janine to post John Lennon for today, but she may be not now?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/09/11 at 11:28 am
I left the opinion open for Janine to post John Lennon for today, but she may be not now?
She hasn't been on here in about a week; I hope she's doing ok.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/09/11 at 11:29 am
She hasn't been on here in about a week; I hope she's doing ok.
That is true...
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/09/11 at 11:30 am
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Along with fellow Beatle Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager, forming his first band, The Quarrymen evolving into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his infant son Sean, but re-emerged in 1980 with a new album, Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.
Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, his writing, his drawings, on film, and in interviews, becoming controversial through his political and peace activism. He moved to New York City in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him, while his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement.
As of 2010, Lennon's solo album sales in the United States exceed 14 million units, and as writer, co-writer or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all-time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Lie_In_15_--_John_rehearses_Give_Peace_A_Chance.jpg/250px-Lie_In_15_--_John_rehearses_Give_Peace_A_Chance.jpg
Lennon rehearses "Give Peace a Chance" in Montreal, Canada, in 1969
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/09/11 at 6:34 pm
She hasn't been on here in about a week; I hope she's doing ok.
I hope so too. :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/09/11 at 6:36 pm
http://www.dlwaldron.com/JohnLennon70small.jpg
John Lennon at 70
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: King Tut on 10/09/11 at 7:07 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jtCyv9oob8&feature=related
A most wonderful song with John's haunting vocals.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/10/11 at 7:15 am
David Lee Roth turns 56 today.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/10/11 at 11:42 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jtCyv9oob8&feature=related
A most wonderful song with John's haunting vocals.
Great song from a great album.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/12/11 at 1:46 pm
She hasn't been on here in about a week; I hope she's doing ok.
Sorry. I have been sick, but I also broke my computer :-[ Yes i learned the hard way what Ethernet was(I removed mine) so I had to wait to get it repaired.
I'll be back tomorrow. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/12/11 at 1:52 pm
Sorry. I have been sick, but I also broke my computer :-[ Yes i learned the hard way what Ethernet was(I removed mine) so I had to wait to get it repaired.
I'll be back tomorrow. :)
Welcome back, and I wish you well.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/12/11 at 3:02 pm
Welcome back, and I wish you well.
Thank you :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/12/11 at 5:02 pm
Sorry. I have been sick, but I also broke my computer :-[ Yes i learned the hard way what Ethernet was(I removed mine) so I had to wait to get it repaired.
I'll be back tomorrow. :)
Ah yes... the Ethernet cable thingy. I've had to deal with that at least once.
All the best, and I hope you get well asap!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/12/11 at 7:58 pm
Sorry. I have been sick, but I also broke my computer :-[ Yes i learned the hard way what Ethernet was(I removed mine) so I had to wait to get it repaired.
I'll be back tomorrow. :)
NINNY! :) :-* Glad to see you back, see you tomorrow.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/13/11 at 12:46 pm
Ah yes... the Ethernet cable thingy. I've had to deal with that at least once.
All the best, and I hope you get well asap!
My computer was running slow so i went to my programs and it said rarely used, so i thought ok lets remove this. Then we I tried to get back on I couldn't so i asked Timmy and he's like that's because you removed your network connection.duh.The good news is I have a new HP Pavilion now
Still sick with a bad cold that has made it so I can't eat solid foods.
NINNY! :) :-* Glad to see you back, see you tomorrow.
Thanks :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/13/11 at 12:48 pm
My computer was running slow so i went to my programs and it said rarely used, so i thought ok lets remove this. Then we I tried to get back on I couldn't so i asked Timmy and he's like that's because you removed your network connection.duh.The good news is I have a new HP Pavilion now
Still sick with a bad cold that has made it so I can't eat solid foods.Thanks :)
feel better.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/13/11 at 12:51 pm
The person of the day...Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles charts, "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". In 1970, at the height of their popularity, the duo split, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly-acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music that helped fuel the anti-apartheid movement. Besides music, Simon wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Through his solo and collaborative work, Simon has earned 13 Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was named the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.
In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis was impressed enough to sign the duo to a contract to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called simply "Simon & Garfunkel", a replacement for the group's previous name "Tom and Jerry". Simon claimed in 2003 that this renaming as "Simon & Garfunkel" was the first time that artists' ethnic names had been used in pop music.
Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was released on October 19, 1964 and consisted of twelve songs in the folk vein, five of them written by Simon. The album initially flopped, but East Coast radio stations began receiving requests for one of the tracks, Simon's "The Sounds of Silence". Their producer, Tom Wilson, overdubbed the track with electric guitar, bass, and drums, releasing it as a single that eventually went to number one on the pop charts in the US.
Simon had gone to England in 1965 after the initial failure of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., pursuing a solo career. He returned to the United States, however, to reunite with Garfunkel after "The Sounds of Silence" had started to enjoy commercial success. Together they recorded four more influential albums: Sounds of Silence; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Bookends; and the hugely successful Bridge over Troubled Water. Simon and Garfunkel also contributed extensively to the soundtrack of the Mike Nichols film The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. While writing "Mrs. Robinson", Simon originally toyed with the title "Mrs. Roosevelt". When Garfunkel reported this indecision over the song's name to the director, Nichols replied: "Don't be ridiculous! We're making a movie here! It's Mrs. Robinson!" Simon and Garfunkel returned to England in the Fall of 1968 and did a church concert appearance at Kraft Hall, which was broadcast on the BBC, and which also featured Paul's brother Ed sitting in on a performance of the instrumental "Anji".
Simon pursued solo projects after the duo released their popular album Bridge over Troubled Water. Occasionally, he and Garfunkel did reunite, such as in 1975 for their Top Ten single "My Little Town", which Simon originally wrote for Garfunkel, claiming Garfunkel's solo output was lacking "bite". The song was included on their respective solo albums: Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years; and Garfunkel's Breakaway. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not at all autobiographical of Simon's early life in New York City. In 1981, they got together again for the famous concert in Central Park, followed by a world tour and an aborted reunion album, to have been entitled Think Too Much, which was eventually released (without Garfunkel) as Hearts and Bones. Together, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
In 2003, Simon and Garfunkel reunited once again when they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This reunion led to a US tour—the acclaimed "Old Friends" concert series—followed by a 2004 international encore, which culminated in a free concert at the Colosseum in Rome. That final concert drew 600,000 people. In 2005, the pair sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Aaron Neville in a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims.
In 2010, the pair reunited in New Orleans for their first concert in six years, at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
1971–1976
After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon began to write and record solo material. His eponymous album Paul Simon was released in January 1972, preceded by his first experiment with world music, the Jamaican-inspired "Mother and Child Reunion", considered one of the first examples of reggae attempted by a white musician. The single was a hit, reaching both the American and British Top 5. The album was particularly well received, with critics praising the variety of styles and the confessional lyrics, reaching No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK and Japan. It later spawned another Top 30 hit with "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard".
Simon's next project was the pop-folk masterpiece, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, released in May 1973. It contained some of his most popular and polished recordings - the lead single, "Kodachrome", was a No. 2 hit in America, and the follow-up, the gospel-flavored "Loves Me Like a Rock" was even bigger, topping the Cashbox charts. Other songs, like the weary "American Tune" or the melancholic "Something So Right" – a tribute to Simon's first wife, Peggy – became standards in the musician's catalogue. Critical and commercial reception for this second album were even stronger than for his debut. At the time, it was remarked how the songs were very fresh and unworried on the surface while they were exploring socially and politically conscious themes on a deeper level. The album reached No. 1 on the Cashbox album charts. As a souvenir for the tour that came next, in 1974 it was released as a live album, Live Rhymin', which was moderately successful and displayed some changes in Simon's music style, adopting world and religious music.
Highly anticipated, Still Crazy After All These Years was his next album. Released in October 1975 and produced by Simon and Phil Ramone, it marked another departure. The mood of the album was darker, as he wrote and recorded it in the wake of his divorce. Preceded by the feel-good duet with Phoebe Snow, "Gone at Last" (a Top 25 hit) and the Simon & Garfunkel reunion track "My Little Town" (a No. 9 on Billboard), the album managed to be his only No. 1 on the Billboard charts to date. The 18th Grammy Awards named it the Album of the Year and Simon's performance the year's Best Male Pop Vocal. With Simon in the forefront of popular music, the third single from the album, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" reached the top spot of the Billboard charts, his only single to reach No. 1 on this list. Also, on May 3, 1976, Simon put together a benefit show at Madison Square Garden to raise money for the New York Public Library. Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and the Brecker Brothers also performed. The concert produced over $30,000 for the Library.
1977–1985
After three back-to-back successful studio albums, Simon became less productive during the second half of the 1970s. He dabbled in various projects, including writing music for the film Shampoo and acting (he was cast as Tony Lacey in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall). He achieved another hit in this decade, with the lead single of his 1977 compilation, Greatest Hits, Etc., "Slip Slidin' Away", reaching No. 5 in the United States.
In 1980 he released One Trick Pony, his debut album with Warner Bros. Records and his first in almost five years. It was paired with the motion picture of the same name, which Simon wrote and starred in. Although it produced his last Top 10 hit with the upbeat "Late in the Evening" (also a No. 1 hit on the Radio & Records American charts), the album did not sell well, in a music market dominated by disco music. Simon recorded Hearts and Bones, a polished and confessional album that was eventually viewed as one of his best works, but that marked a lull in his commercial popularity; both the album and the lead single, "Allergies", missed the American Top 40. Hearts and Bones included "The Late Great Johnny Ace", a song partly about Johnny Ace, an American R&B singer, and partly about slain Beatle John Lennon. A successful US solo tour featured Simon and his guitar, with a recording of the rhythm track and horns for "Late In The Evening." In January 1985, Simon lent his talent to USA for Africa and performed on the relief fundraising single "We Are the World".
1986–1992
Graceland (1986) album cover.
As he commented years later, after the disappointing commercial performance of Hearts and Bones, Simon felt he had lost his inspiration to a point of no return, and that his commercial fortunes were unlikely to change. While driving his car in late 1984 in this state of frustration, Simon listened to a cassette of the Boyoyo Boys' instrumental "Gumboots: Accordion Jive Volume II". Interested by the unusual sound, he wrote lyrics to the number which he sang over a re-recording of the song. It was the first composition of a new musical project that became the celebrated album Graceland, an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga. Simon felt that he had nothing to lose. He traveled to South Africa in an attempt to embrace the culture and find the most comfortable environment for recording the album. Sessions in Johannesburg took place in February 1985. Overdubbing and additional recording was done in April, 1986, in New York. The sessions featured many South African musicians and groups, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon also collaborated with several artists of his own culture, singing a memorable duet with Linda Ronstadt in "Under African Skies", and playing with Los Lobos in "All Around the World or The Myth of the Fingerprints". Warner Bros. Records had serious doubts about releasing an album of this eclecticism to the mainstream, but when it did in August 1986, Graceland was praised by critics and the public and became Simon's most successful solo album. Slowly climbing the worldwide charts, it reached #1 in many countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and peaked at #3 in the US It was the second-best-selling album of 1987 in the US, selling five million copies and eventually reaching 5x Platinum certification. Another seven million copies were sold internationally to become his best-selling album. Much of the success of the album was due to the lead single, the upbeat "You Can Call Me Al", whose lyrics describe a man experiencing an identity crisis. The track featured many memorable elements – a catchy synthesizer riff, an easy whistle solo, and an unusual bass run in which the second half was a reversed recording of the first half. "You Can Call Me Al" was accompanied with a humorous video featuring actor Chevy Chase, which introduced Simon to a new audience through MTV. In the end, the track reached UK Top 5 and the US Top 25. Further singles, including the title track, "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", were not commercial hits but became radio standards and were highly praised.
At age 45, Simon found himself back at the forefront of popular music. He received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1987 and also Grammy Award for Record of the Year for the title track one year later. He also embarked on the very successful Graceland Tour, which was documented on music video. Simon found himself embracing new sounds, a fact that some critics viewed negatively – however, Simon reportedly felt it as a very natural artistic experiment, considering that "world music" was already present on much of his early work, including such Simon & Garfunkel hits as "El Condor Pasa" and his early solo recording "Mother and Child Reunion", which was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica. One way or another, Warner Bros. Records (who by this time now controlled and reissued all his previous Columbia albums) re-established Simon as one of their most successful artists. In an attempt to capitalize on his renewed success, WB Records released the album Negotiations and Love Songs in November 1988, a mixture of popular hits and personal favorites that covered Simon's entire career and became an enduring seller in his catalog.
After Graceland, Simon decided to extend his roots with the Brazilian music-flavored The Rhythm of the Saints. Sessions for the album began in December 1989, and took place in Rio de Janeiro and New York, featuring guitarist J. J. Cale and many Brazilian and African musicians. The tone of the album was more introspective and relatively low-key compared to the mostly upbeat numbers of Graceland. Released on October 1990, the album received excellent critical reviews and achieved very respectable sales, peaking at #4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK. The lead single, "The Obvious Child", featuring the Grupo Cultural Olodum, was a Top 20 hit in the UK and appeared near the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100. Although not as successful as Graceland, The Rhythm of the Saints was received as a competent successor and consistent complement on Simon's attempts to explore (and popularize) world music, and also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Here are also more songs about past loves; his ex-wife Carrie Fisher says in her autobiography Wishful Drinking that the song "She Moves On" is about her. It's one of several she claims, followed by the line, "If you can get Paul Simon to write a song about you, do it. Because he is so brilliant at it."
The importance of both albums allowed Simon to stage another New York concert, and on August 15, 1991, almost a decade after his concert with Garfunkel, Simon staged another concert in Central Park with both African and South American bands. The success of the concert surpassed all expectations, and reportedly over 750,000 people attended, becoming one of the largest concert audiences in history. He later remembered the concert as the "most memorable moment in my career". The success of the show led to both a live album and an Emmy-winning TV special. In the middle, Simon embarked on the successful Born at the Right Time Tour and promoted the album with further singles, including "Proof" – accompanied with a humorous video featuring, again, Chevy Chase. On March 4, 1992 he appeared on his own MTV Unplugged, offering renditions of many of his most famous compositions. Broadcast in June, the show was a success, though it did not receive an album release.
1993–1998
After Unplugged, Simon's place in the forefront of popular music dropped notably. A Simon & Garfunkel reunion took place in 1993, and in another attempt to capitalize on the occasion, Columbia released Paul Simon 1964/1993 in September, a three-disc compilation that received a reduced version on the two-disc album The Paul Simon Anthology one month later. In 1995 he only made news for appearing at The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he performed the song "Ten Years", which he composed specially for the tenth anniversary of the show. Also that year, he was featured on the Annie Lennox version of his 1973 song "Something So Right", which appeared briefly on the UK Top 50 once it was released as a single in November.
Since the early stages of the nineties, Simon was fully involved on The Capeman, a musical that finally opened on January 29, 1998. Simon worked enthusiastically on the project for many years and described it as "a New York Puerto Rican story based on events that happened in 1959—events that I remembered." The musical tells the story of real-life Puerto Rican youth Salvador Agron, who wore a cape while committing two murders in 1959 New York, and who went on to become a writer in prison. Featuring Marc Anthony as the young Agron and Ruben Blades as the older Agron, the play received terrible reviews and very poor box office receipts from the very beginning, and ended up closing on March 28 after just 68 performances, becoming a failure from which Simon reportedly lost 11 million dollars. Simon recorded an album of songs from the show, which was released in November 1997. It was received with very mixed reviews, though many critics praised the combination of doo-wop, rockabilly and Caribbean music that the album reflected. In commercial terms, Songs from The Capeman was a failure—it found Simon missing the Top 40 of the Billboard charts for the first time in his career. The cast album was never released on CD but eventually became available online
Film and television
Simon has also dabbled in acting. He played music producer Tony Lacey in the 1977 Woody Allen film Annie Hall, and wrote and starred in 1980's One Trick Pony as Jonah Levin, a journeyman rock and roller. Simon also wrote all the songs in the film. Paul Simon also appeared on The Muppet Show (the only episode to use only the songs of one songwriter, Simon). In 1990, he played the character of—appropriately enough—Simple Simon on the Disney channel TV movie, Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme.
Simon has also appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) either as host or musical guest for a total of 13 times. On one appearance in the late 1980s, he worked with his political namesake, Illinois Senator Paul Simon. Simon's most recent SNL appearance was on the May 14, 2011 episode hosted by Ed Helms.
In one SNL skit from 1986 (when he was promoting Graceland), Simon plays himself, waiting in line with a friend to get into a movie. He amazes his friend by remembering intricate details about prior meetings with passers-by, but draws a complete blank when approached by Art Garfunkel, despite the latter's numerous memory prompts.
Simon also appeared alongside George Harrison as musical guest on the Thanksgiving Day episode of SNL (November 20, 1976). The two performed "Here Comes the Sun" and "Homeward Bound"" together, while Simon performed "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" solo earlier in the show. On that episode, Simon opened the show performing "Still Crazy After All These Years" in a turkey outfit, since Thanksgiving was the following week. About halfway through the song, Simon tells the band to stop playing because of his embarrassment. After giving a frustrating speech to the audience, he leaves the stage, backed by applause. Lorne Michaels positively greets him backstage, but Simon is still upset, yelling at him because of the humiliating turkey outfit. This is one of SNL's most played sketches.
On September 29, 2001, Simon made a special appearance on the first SNL to air after the September 11, 2001 attacks. On that show, he performed "The Boxer" to the audience and the NYC firefighters and police officers. He is also friends with former SNL star Chevy Chase, who appeared in his video for "You Can Call Me Al" lip synching the song while Simon looks disgruntled and mimes backing vocals and the playing of various instruments beside him. He is a close friend of SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who produced the 1977 TV show The Paul Simon Special, as well as the Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park four years later. Simon and Lorne Michaels were the subjects of a 2006 episode of the Sundance channel documentary series, Iconoclasts.
He has been the subject of two films by Jeremy Marre, the first on Graceland, the second on The Capeman.
On November 18, 2008, Simon was a guest on The Colbert Report promoting his book Lyrics 1964-2008. He did an interview with Stephen Colbert and then performed "American Tune".
Simon performed a Stevie Wonder song at the White House in 2009, at an event honoring Wonder's musical career and contributions.
In May 2009, The Library of Congress: Paul Simon and Friends Live Concert was released on DVD, via Shout! Factory. The PBS concert was recorded in 2007.
In April 2011 Simon was confirmed to appear at the Glastonbury music festival in England.
Awards and honors
Simon won 12 Grammy Awards (one of them a Lifetime Achievement Award) and five Grammy nominations, the most recent for his album You're the One in 2001. In 1998 he received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for the Simon & Garfunkel album Bridge over Troubled Water. He received an Oscar nomination for the song "Father and Daughter" in 2002. He is also a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; as a solo artist in 2001, and in 1990 as half of Simon & Garfunkel.
In 2001, Simon was honored as MusiCares Person Of The Year. The following year, he was one of the five recipients of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest tribute to performing and cultural artists.
In 2005, Simon was saluted as a BMI Icon at the 53rd Annual BMI Pop Awards. Simon's songwriting catalog has earned 39 BMI Awards including multiple citations for "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Mrs. Robinson," "Scarborough Fair" and "The Sound of Silence". As of 2005, he has amassed nearly 75 million broadcast airplays, according to BMI surveys.
In 2006, Simon was selected by Time Magazine as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World."
In 2007, Simon received the first annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney were to follow in 2009 and 2010. Named in honor of George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. Upon being notified of receiving this honor, Simon said, “I am grateful to be the recipient of the Gershwin Prize and doubly honored to be the first. I look forward to spending an evening in the company of artists I admire at the award ceremony in May. I can think of a few who have expressed my words and music far better than I. I’m excited at the prospect of that happening again. It’s a songwriter’s dream come true." Among the performers who paid tribute to Simon were Stevie Wonder, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Marc Anthony, Yolanda Adams, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The event was professionally filmed and broadcast and is now available as Paul Simon and Friends.
In 2010, Simon received an honorary degree from Brandeis University, where he also performed "The Boxer" at the main commencement ceremony.
In October 2011, Simon was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science. At the induction ceremony, he performed "American Tune".
Simon is a proponent of music education for children. In 1970, after recording his "Bridge Over Troubled Water," at the invitation of the NYU School of the Arts, Simon held auditions for a young songwriter's workshop. Advertised in the Village Voice, the auditions brought hundreds of hopefuls to perform for Simon. Among the six teenage songwriters Simon selected for tutelage were Melissa Manchester, Tom Mandell and rock/beat poet Joe Linus, with Maggie and Terre Roche (the Roche Sisters), who later sang back-up for Simon, joining the workshop in progress through an impromptu appearance.
Simon invited the six teens to experience recording at Columbia studios with engineer Roy Halee at the board. During these sessions, Bob Dylan was downstairs recording the album Self-Portrait, which included a version of Simon's "The Boxer". Violinist Isaac Stern also visited the group with a CBS film crew, speaking to the young musicians about lyrics and music after Joe Linus performed his song "Circus Lion" for Stern.
Manchester later paid homage to Simon, on her recorded song, "Ode to Paul." Other younger musicians Simon has mentored include Nick Laird-Clowes, who later co-founded the band The Dream Academy. Laird-Clowes has credited Simon with helping to shape the band's biggest hit, "Life In A Northern Town".
In 2003, Simon signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the US He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.
Simon is also a major benefactor and one of the co-founders, with Dr. Irwin Redlener, of the Children's Health Project and The Children's Health Fund which started by creating specially equipped "buses" to take medical care to children in medically underserved areas, urban and rural. Their first bus was in the impoverished South Bronx of New York City but they now operate in 12 states, including the Gulf Coast. It has expanded greatly, partnering with major hospitals, local public schools and medical schools and advocating policy for children's health and medical care.
Main article: Paul Simon discography
Number-one albums
1972 – Paul Simon (UK, Japan, Norway)
1973 – There Goes Rhymin' Simon (US Cashbox)
1975 – Still Crazy After All These Years (US)
1986 – Graceland (UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland)
1990 – The Rhythm of the Saints (UK)
See also: Simon & Garfunkel discography
Work on Broadway
Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years (1982) - revue - featured songwriter for Mrs. Robinson
Asinamali! (1987) - play - co-producer
Mike Nichols and Elaine May: Together Again on Broadway (1992) - concert - performer
The Capeman (1998) - composer, co-lyricist and music arranger - Tony Nomination for Best Original Score
The Graduate (2002) - play - featured songwriter
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k546/JDHathaway99/PaulSimon.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/bowlburn420/Simon%20and%20Garfunkel/Paul%20Simon/paul14.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/13/11 at 12:51 pm
feel better.
Thanks :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/13/11 at 1:01 pm
Thanks :)
Good to hear you are better.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/13/11 at 1:01 pm
The person of the day...Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles charts, "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". In 1970, at the height of their popularity, the duo split, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly-acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music that helped fuel the anti-apartheid movement. Besides music, Simon wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Through his solo and collaborative work, Simon has earned 13 Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was named the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.
In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis was impressed enough to sign the duo to a contract to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called simply "Simon & Garfunkel", a replacement for the group's previous name "Tom and Jerry". Simon claimed in 2003 that this renaming as "Simon & Garfunkel" was the first time that artists' ethnic names had been used in pop music.
Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was released on October 19, 1964 and consisted of twelve songs in the folk vein, five of them written by Simon. The album initially flopped, but East Coast radio stations began receiving requests for one of the tracks, Simon's "The Sounds of Silence". Their producer, Tom Wilson, overdubbed the track with electric guitar, bass, and drums, releasing it as a single that eventually went to number one on the pop charts in the US.
Simon had gone to England in 1965 after the initial failure of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., pursuing a solo career. He returned to the United States, however, to reunite with Garfunkel after "The Sounds of Silence" had started to enjoy commercial success. Together they recorded four more influential albums: Sounds of Silence; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Bookends; and the hugely successful Bridge over Troubled Water. Simon and Garfunkel also contributed extensively to the soundtrack of the Mike Nichols film The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. While writing "Mrs. Robinson", Simon originally toyed with the title "Mrs. Roosevelt". When Garfunkel reported this indecision over the song's name to the director, Nichols replied: "Don't be ridiculous! We're making a movie here! It's Mrs. Robinson!" Simon and Garfunkel returned to England in the Fall of 1968 and did a church concert appearance at Kraft Hall, which was broadcast on the BBC, and which also featured Paul's brother Ed sitting in on a performance of the instrumental "Anji".
Simon pursued solo projects after the duo released their popular album Bridge over Troubled Water. Occasionally, he and Garfunkel did reunite, such as in 1975 for their Top Ten single "My Little Town", which Simon originally wrote for Garfunkel, claiming Garfunkel's solo output was lacking "bite". The song was included on their respective solo albums: Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years; and Garfunkel's Breakaway. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not at all autobiographical of Simon's early life in New York City. In 1981, they got together again for the famous concert in Central Park, followed by a world tour and an aborted reunion album, to have been entitled Think Too Much, which was eventually released (without Garfunkel) as Hearts and Bones. Together, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
In 2003, Simon and Garfunkel reunited once again when they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This reunion led to a US tour—the acclaimed "Old Friends" concert series—followed by a 2004 international encore, which culminated in a free concert at the Colosseum in Rome. That final concert drew 600,000 people. In 2005, the pair sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Aaron Neville in a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims.
In 2010, the pair reunited in New Orleans for their first concert in six years, at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
1971–1976
After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon began to write and record solo material. His eponymous album Paul Simon was released in January 1972, preceded by his first experiment with world music, the Jamaican-inspired "Mother and Child Reunion", considered one of the first examples of reggae attempted by a white musician. The single was a hit, reaching both the American and British Top 5. The album was particularly well received, with critics praising the variety of styles and the confessional lyrics, reaching No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK and Japan. It later spawned another Top 30 hit with "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard".
Simon's next project was the pop-folk masterpiece, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, released in May 1973. It contained some of his most popular and polished recordings - the lead single, "Kodachrome", was a No. 2 hit in America, and the follow-up, the gospel-flavored "Loves Me Like a Rock" was even bigger, topping the Cashbox charts. Other songs, like the weary "American Tune" or the melancholic "Something So Right" – a tribute to Simon's first wife, Peggy – became standards in the musician's catalogue. Critical and commercial reception for this second album were even stronger than for his debut. At the time, it was remarked how the songs were very fresh and unworried on the surface while they were exploring socially and politically conscious themes on a deeper level. The album reached No. 1 on the Cashbox album charts. As a souvenir for the tour that came next, in 1974 it was released as a live album, Live Rhymin', which was moderately successful and displayed some changes in Simon's music style, adopting world and religious music.
Highly anticipated, Still Crazy After All These Years was his next album. Released in October 1975 and produced by Simon and Phil Ramone, it marked another departure. The mood of the album was darker, as he wrote and recorded it in the wake of his divorce. Preceded by the feel-good duet with Phoebe Snow, "Gone at Last" (a Top 25 hit) and the Simon & Garfunkel reunion track "My Little Town" (a No. 9 on Billboard), the album managed to be his only No. 1 on the Billboard charts to date. The 18th Grammy Awards named it the Album of the Year and Simon's performance the year's Best Male Pop Vocal. With Simon in the forefront of popular music, the third single from the album, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" reached the top spot of the Billboard charts, his only single to reach No. 1 on this list. Also, on May 3, 1976, Simon put together a benefit show at Madison Square Garden to raise money for the New York Public Library. Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and the Brecker Brothers also performed. The concert produced over $30,000 for the Library.
1977–1985
After three back-to-back successful studio albums, Simon became less productive during the second half of the 1970s. He dabbled in various projects, including writing music for the film Shampoo and acting (he was cast as Tony Lacey in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall). He achieved another hit in this decade, with the lead single of his 1977 compilation, Greatest Hits, Etc., "Slip Slidin' Away", reaching No. 5 in the United States.
In 1980 he released One Trick Pony, his debut album with Warner Bros. Records and his first in almost five years. It was paired with the motion picture of the same name, which Simon wrote and starred in. Although it produced his last Top 10 hit with the upbeat "Late in the Evening" (also a No. 1 hit on the Radio & Records American charts), the album did not sell well, in a music market dominated by disco music. Simon recorded Hearts and Bones, a polished and confessional album that was eventually viewed as one of his best works, but that marked a lull in his commercial popularity; both the album and the lead single, "Allergies", missed the American Top 40. Hearts and Bones included "The Late Great Johnny Ace", a song partly about Johnny Ace, an American R&B singer, and partly about slain Beatle John Lennon. A successful US solo tour featured Simon and his guitar, with a recording of the rhythm track and horns for "Late In The Evening." In January 1985, Simon lent his talent to USA for Africa and performed on the relief fundraising single "We Are the World".
1986–1992
Graceland (1986) album cover.
As he commented years later, after the disappointing commercial performance of Hearts and Bones, Simon felt he had lost his inspiration to a point of no return, and that his commercial fortunes were unlikely to change. While driving his car in late 1984 in this state of frustration, Simon listened to a cassette of the Boyoyo Boys' instrumental "Gumboots: Accordion Jive Volume II". Interested by the unusual sound, he wrote lyrics to the number which he sang over a re-recording of the song. It was the first composition of a new musical project that became the celebrated album Graceland, an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga. Simon felt that he had nothing to lose. He traveled to South Africa in an attempt to embrace the culture and find the most comfortable environment for recording the album. Sessions in Johannesburg took place in February 1985. Overdubbing and additional recording was done in April, 1986, in New York. The sessions featured many South African musicians and groups, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon also collaborated with several artists of his own culture, singing a memorable duet with Linda Ronstadt in "Under African Skies", and playing with Los Lobos in "All Around the World or The Myth of the Fingerprints". Warner Bros. Records had serious doubts about releasing an album of this eclecticism to the mainstream, but when it did in August 1986, Graceland was praised by critics and the public and became Simon's most successful solo album. Slowly climbing the worldwide charts, it reached #1 in many countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and peaked at #3 in the US It was the second-best-selling album of 1987 in the US, selling five million copies and eventually reaching 5x Platinum certification. Another seven million copies were sold internationally to become his best-selling album. Much of the success of the album was due to the lead single, the upbeat "You Can Call Me Al", whose lyrics describe a man experiencing an identity crisis. The track featured many memorable elements – a catchy synthesizer riff, an easy whistle solo, and an unusual bass run in which the second half was a reversed recording of the first half. "You Can Call Me Al" was accompanied with a humorous video featuring actor Chevy Chase, which introduced Simon to a new audience through MTV. In the end, the track reached UK Top 5 and the US Top 25. Further singles, including the title track, "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", were not commercial hits but became radio standards and were highly praised.
At age 45, Simon found himself back at the forefront of popular music. He received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1987 and also Grammy Award for Record of the Year for the title track one year later. He also embarked on the very successful Graceland Tour, which was documented on music video. Simon found himself embracing new sounds, a fact that some critics viewed negatively – however, Simon reportedly felt it as a very natural artistic experiment, considering that "world music" was already present on much of his early work, including such Simon & Garfunkel hits as "El Condor Pasa" and his early solo recording "Mother and Child Reunion", which was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica. One way or another, Warner Bros. Records (who by this time now controlled and reissued all his previous Columbia albums) re-established Simon as one of their most successful artists. In an attempt to capitalize on his renewed success, WB Records released the album Negotiations and Love Songs in November 1988, a mixture of popular hits and personal favorites that covered Simon's entire career and became an enduring seller in his catalog.
After Graceland, Simon decided to extend his roots with the Brazilian music-flavored The Rhythm of the Saints. Sessions for the album began in December 1989, and took place in Rio de Janeiro and New York, featuring guitarist J. J. Cale and many Brazilian and African musicians. The tone of the album was more introspective and relatively low-key compared to the mostly upbeat numbers of Graceland. Released on October 1990, the album received excellent critical reviews and achieved very respectable sales, peaking at #4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK. The lead single, "The Obvious Child", featuring the Grupo Cultural Olodum, was a Top 20 hit in the UK and appeared near the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100. Although not as successful as Graceland, The Rhythm of the Saints was received as a competent successor and consistent complement on Simon's attempts to explore (and popularize) world music, and also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Here are also more songs about past loves; his ex-wife Carrie Fisher says in her autobiography Wishful Drinking that the song "She Moves On" is about her. It's one of several she claims, followed by the line, "If you can get Paul Simon to write a song about you, do it. Because he is so brilliant at it."
The importance of both albums allowed Simon to stage another New York concert, and on August 15, 1991, almost a decade after his concert with Garfunkel, Simon staged another concert in Central Park with both African and South American bands. The success of the concert surpassed all expectations, and reportedly over 750,000 people attended, becoming one of the largest concert audiences in history. He later remembered the concert as the "most memorable moment in my career". The success of the show led to both a live album and an Emmy-winning TV special. In the middle, Simon embarked on the successful Born at the Right Time Tour and promoted the album with further singles, including "Proof" – accompanied with a humorous video featuring, again, Chevy Chase. On March 4, 1992 he appeared on his own MTV Unplugged, offering renditions of many of his most famous compositions. Broadcast in June, the show was a success, though it did not receive an album release.
1993–1998
After Unplugged, Simon's place in the forefront of popular music dropped notably. A Simon & Garfunkel reunion took place in 1993, and in another attempt to capitalize on the occasion, Columbia released Paul Simon 1964/1993 in September, a three-disc compilation that received a reduced version on the two-disc album The Paul Simon Anthology one month later. In 1995 he only made news for appearing at The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he performed the song "Ten Years", which he composed specially for the tenth anniversary of the show. Also that year, he was featured on the Annie Lennox version of his 1973 song "Something So Right", which appeared briefly on the UK Top 50 once it was released as a single in November.
Since the early stages of the nineties, Simon was fully involved on The Capeman, a musical that finally opened on January 29, 1998. Simon worked enthusiastically on the project for many years and described it as "a New York Puerto Rican story based on events that happened in 1959—events that I remembered." The musical tells the story of real-life Puerto Rican youth Salvador Agron, who wore a cape while committing two murders in 1959 New York, and who went on to become a writer in prison. Featuring Marc Anthony as the young Agron and Ruben Blades as the older Agron, the play received terrible reviews and very poor box office receipts from the very beginning, and ended up closing on March 28 after just 68 performances, becoming a failure from which Simon reportedly lost 11 million dollars. Simon recorded an album of songs from the show, which was released in November 1997. It was received with very mixed reviews, though many critics praised the combination of doo-wop, rockabilly and Caribbean music that the album reflected. In commercial terms, Songs from The Capeman was a failure—it found Simon missing the Top 40 of the Billboard charts for the first time in his career. The cast album was never released on CD but eventually became available online
Film and television
Simon has also dabbled in acting. He played music producer Tony Lacey in the 1977 Woody Allen film Annie Hall, and wrote and starred in 1980's One Trick Pony as Jonah Levin, a journeyman rock and roller. Simon also wrote all the songs in the film. Paul Simon also appeared on The Muppet Show (the only episode to use only the songs of one songwriter, Simon). In 1990, he played the character of—appropriately enough—Simple Simon on the Disney channel TV movie, Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme.
Simon has also appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) either as host or musical guest for a total of 13 times. On one appearance in the late 1980s, he worked with his political namesake, Illinois Senator Paul Simon. Simon's most recent SNL appearance was on the May 14, 2011 episode hosted by Ed Helms.
In one SNL skit from 1986 (when he was promoting Graceland), Simon plays himself, waiting in line with a friend to get into a movie. He amazes his friend by remembering intricate details about prior meetings with passers-by, but draws a complete blank when approached by Art Garfunkel, despite the latter's numerous memory prompts.
Simon also appeared alongside George Harrison as musical guest on the Thanksgiving Day episode of SNL (November 20, 1976). The two performed "Here Comes the Sun" and "Homeward Bound"" together, while Simon performed "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" solo earlier in the show. On that episode, Simon opened the show performing "Still Crazy After All These Years" in a turkey outfit, since Thanksgiving was the following week. About halfway through the song, Simon tells the band to stop playing because of his embarrassment. After giving a frustrating speech to the audience, he leaves the stage, backed by applause. Lorne Michaels positively greets him backstage, but Simon is still upset, yelling at him because of the humiliating turkey outfit. This is one of SNL's most played sketches.
On September 29, 2001, Simon made a special appearance on the first SNL to air after the September 11, 2001 attacks. On that show, he performed "The Boxer" to the audience and the NYC firefighters and police officers. He is also friends with former SNL star Chevy Chase, who appeared in his video for "You Can Call Me Al" lip synching the song while Simon looks disgruntled and mimes backing vocals and the playing of various instruments beside him. He is a close friend of SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who produced the 1977 TV show The Paul Simon Special, as well as the Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park four years later. Simon and Lorne Michaels were the subjects of a 2006 episode of the Sundance channel documentary series, Iconoclasts.
He has been the subject of two films by Jeremy Marre, the first on Graceland, the second on The Capeman.
On November 18, 2008, Simon was a guest on The Colbert Report promoting his book Lyrics 1964-2008. He did an interview with Stephen Colbert and then performed "American Tune".
Simon performed a Stevie Wonder song at the White House in 2009, at an event honoring Wonder's musical career and contributions.
In May 2009, The Library of Congress: Paul Simon and Friends Live Concert was released on DVD, via Shout! Factory. The PBS concert was recorded in 2007.
In April 2011 Simon was confirmed to appear at the Glastonbury music festival in England.
Awards and honors
Simon won 12 Grammy Awards (one of them a Lifetime Achievement Award) and five Grammy nominations, the most recent for his album You're the One in 2001. In 1998 he received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for the Simon & Garfunkel album Bridge over Troubled Water. He received an Oscar nomination for the song "Father and Daughter" in 2002. He is also a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; as a solo artist in 2001, and in 1990 as half of Simon & Garfunkel.
In 2001, Simon was honored as MusiCares Person Of The Year. The following year, he was one of the five recipients of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest tribute to performing and cultural artists.
In 2005, Simon was saluted as a BMI Icon at the 53rd Annual BMI Pop Awards. Simon's songwriting catalog has earned 39 BMI Awards including multiple citations for "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Mrs. Robinson," "Scarborough Fair" and "The Sound of Silence". As of 2005, he has amassed nearly 75 million broadcast airplays, according to BMI surveys.
In 2006, Simon was selected by Time Magazine as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World."
In 2007, Simon received the first annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney were to follow in 2009 and 2010. Named in honor of George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. Upon being notified of receiving this honor, Simon said, “I am grateful to be the recipient of the Gershwin Prize and doubly honored to be the first. I look forward to spending an evening in the company of artists I admire at the award ceremony in May. I can think of a few who have expressed my words and music far better than I. I’m excited at the prospect of that happening again. It’s a songwriter’s dream come true." Among the performers who paid tribute to Simon were Stevie Wonder, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Marc Anthony, Yolanda Adams, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The event was professionally filmed and broadcast and is now available as Paul Simon and Friends.
In 2010, Simon received an honorary degree from Brandeis University, where he also performed "The Boxer" at the main commencement ceremony.
In October 2011, Simon was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science. At the induction ceremony, he performed "American Tune".
Simon is a proponent of music education for children. In 1970, after recording his "Bridge Over Troubled Water," at the invitation of the NYU School of the Arts, Simon held auditions for a young songwriter's workshop. Advertised in the Village Voice, the auditions brought hundreds of hopefuls to perform for Simon. Among the six teenage songwriters Simon selected for tutelage were Melissa Manchester, Tom Mandell and rock/beat poet Joe Linus, with Maggie and Terre Roche (the Roche Sisters), who later sang back-up for Simon, joining the workshop in progress through an impromptu appearance.
Simon invited the six teens to experience recording at Columbia studios with engineer Roy Halee at the board. During these sessions, Bob Dylan was downstairs recording the album Self-Portrait, which included a version of Simon's "The Boxer". Violinist Isaac Stern also visited the group with a CBS film crew, speaking to the young musicians about lyrics and music after Joe Linus performed his song "Circus Lion" for Stern.
Manchester later paid homage to Simon, on her recorded song, "Ode to Paul." Other younger musicians Simon has mentored include Nick Laird-Clowes, who later co-founded the band The Dream Academy. Laird-Clowes has credited Simon with helping to shape the band's biggest hit, "Life In A Northern Town".
In 2003, Simon signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the US He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.
Simon is also a major benefactor and one of the co-founders, with Dr. Irwin Redlener, of the Children's Health Project and The Children's Health Fund which started by creating specially equipped "buses" to take medical care to children in medically underserved areas, urban and rural. Their first bus was in the impoverished South Bronx of New York City but they now operate in 12 states, including the Gulf Coast. It has expanded greatly, partnering with major hospitals, local public schools and medical schools and advocating policy for children's health and medical care.
Main article: Paul Simon discography
Number-one albums
1972 – Paul Simon (UK, Japan, Norway)
1973 – There Goes Rhymin' Simon (US Cashbox)
1975 – Still Crazy After All These Years (US)
1986 – Graceland (UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland)
1990 – The Rhythm of the Saints (UK)
See also: Simon & Garfunkel discography
Work on Broadway
Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years (1982) - revue - featured songwriter for Mrs. Robinson
Asinamali! (1987) - play - co-producer
Mike Nichols and Elaine May: Together Again on Broadway (1992) - concert - performer
The Capeman (1998) - composer, co-lyricist and music arranger - Tony Nomination for Best Original Score
The Graduate (2002) - play - featured songwriter
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k546/JDHathaway99/PaulSimon.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/bowlburn420/Simon%20and%20Garfunkel/Paul%20Simon/paul14.jpg
Singer Paul Simon has announced plans to celebrate his 1986 album Graceland by touring the record next year.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/13/11 at 1:35 pm
Singer Paul Simon has announced plans to celebrate his 1986 album Graceland by touring the record next year.
I would like to see him live in concert.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/13/11 at 1:36 pm
Singer Paul Simon has announced plans to celebrate his 1986 album Graceland by touring the record next year.
Yeah I heard that somewhere.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/13/11 at 1:36 pm
I would like to see him live in concert.
That would be nice.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/13/11 at 1:37 pm
Yeah I heard that somewhere.
I still need to get the album.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/13/11 at 1:37 pm
That would be nice.
Would Art Garfunkel turn up?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/13/11 at 2:48 pm
Still sick with a bad cold that has made it so I can't eat solid foods.
so sorry to hear that :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/13/11 at 2:50 pm
Singer Paul Simon has announced plans to celebrate his 1986 album Graceland by touring the record next year.
How nice. :)
Happy 70th bday Paul Simon. http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/14/occasion15.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/14/11 at 7:23 am
The person of the day...Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles charts, "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". In 1970, at the height of their popularity, the duo split, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly-acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music that helped fuel the anti-apartheid movement. Besides music, Simon wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Through his solo and collaborative work, Simon has earned 13 Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was named the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.
In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis was impressed enough to sign the duo to a contract to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called simply "Simon & Garfunkel", a replacement for the group's previous name "Tom and Jerry". Simon claimed in 2003 that this renaming as "Simon & Garfunkel" was the first time that artists' ethnic names had been used in pop music.
Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was released on October 19, 1964 and consisted of twelve songs in the folk vein, five of them written by Simon. The album initially flopped, but East Coast radio stations began receiving requests for one of the tracks, Simon's "The Sounds of Silence". Their producer, Tom Wilson, overdubbed the track with electric guitar, bass, and drums, releasing it as a single that eventually went to number one on the pop charts in the US.
Simon had gone to England in 1965 after the initial failure of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., pursuing a solo career. He returned to the United States, however, to reunite with Garfunkel after "The Sounds of Silence" had started to enjoy commercial success. Together they recorded four more influential albums: Sounds of Silence; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Bookends; and the hugely successful Bridge over Troubled Water. Simon and Garfunkel also contributed extensively to the soundtrack of the Mike Nichols film The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. While writing "Mrs. Robinson", Simon originally toyed with the title "Mrs. Roosevelt". When Garfunkel reported this indecision over the song's name to the director, Nichols replied: "Don't be ridiculous! We're making a movie here! It's Mrs. Robinson!" Simon and Garfunkel returned to England in the Fall of 1968 and did a church concert appearance at Kraft Hall, which was broadcast on the BBC, and which also featured Paul's brother Ed sitting in on a performance of the instrumental "Anji".
Simon pursued solo projects after the duo released their popular album Bridge over Troubled Water. Occasionally, he and Garfunkel did reunite, such as in 1975 for their Top Ten single "My Little Town", which Simon originally wrote for Garfunkel, claiming Garfunkel's solo output was lacking "bite". The song was included on their respective solo albums: Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years; and Garfunkel's Breakaway. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not at all autobiographical of Simon's early life in New York City. In 1981, they got together again for the famous concert in Central Park, followed by a world tour and an aborted reunion album, to have been entitled Think Too Much, which was eventually released (without Garfunkel) as Hearts and Bones. Together, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
In 2003, Simon and Garfunkel reunited once again when they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This reunion led to a US tour—the acclaimed "Old Friends" concert series—followed by a 2004 international encore, which culminated in a free concert at the Colosseum in Rome. That final concert drew 600,000 people. In 2005, the pair sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Aaron Neville in a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims.
In 2010, the pair reunited in New Orleans for their first concert in six years, at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
1971–1976
After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon began to write and record solo material. His eponymous album Paul Simon was released in January 1972, preceded by his first experiment with world music, the Jamaican-inspired "Mother and Child Reunion", considered one of the first examples of reggae attempted by a white musician. The single was a hit, reaching both the American and British Top 5. The album was particularly well received, with critics praising the variety of styles and the confessional lyrics, reaching No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK and Japan. It later spawned another Top 30 hit with "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard".
Simon's next project was the pop-folk masterpiece, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, released in May 1973. It contained some of his most popular and polished recordings - the lead single, "Kodachrome", was a No. 2 hit in America, and the follow-up, the gospel-flavored "Loves Me Like a Rock" was even bigger, topping the Cashbox charts. Other songs, like the weary "American Tune" or the melancholic "Something So Right" – a tribute to Simon's first wife, Peggy – became standards in the musician's catalogue. Critical and commercial reception for this second album were even stronger than for his debut. At the time, it was remarked how the songs were very fresh and unworried on the surface while they were exploring socially and politically conscious themes on a deeper level. The album reached No. 1 on the Cashbox album charts. As a souvenir for the tour that came next, in 1974 it was released as a live album, Live Rhymin', which was moderately successful and displayed some changes in Simon's music style, adopting world and religious music.
Highly anticipated, Still Crazy After All These Years was his next album. Released in October 1975 and produced by Simon and Phil Ramone, it marked another departure. The mood of the album was darker, as he wrote and recorded it in the wake of his divorce. Preceded by the feel-good duet with Phoebe Snow, "Gone at Last" (a Top 25 hit) and the Simon & Garfunkel reunion track "My Little Town" (a No. 9 on Billboard), the album managed to be his only No. 1 on the Billboard charts to date. The 18th Grammy Awards named it the Album of the Year and Simon's performance the year's Best Male Pop Vocal. With Simon in the forefront of popular music, the third single from the album, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" reached the top spot of the Billboard charts, his only single to reach No. 1 on this list. Also, on May 3, 1976, Simon put together a benefit show at Madison Square Garden to raise money for the New York Public Library. Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and the Brecker Brothers also performed. The concert produced over $30,000 for the Library.
1977–1985
After three back-to-back successful studio albums, Simon became less productive during the second half of the 1970s. He dabbled in various projects, including writing music for the film Shampoo and acting (he was cast as Tony Lacey in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall). He achieved another hit in this decade, with the lead single of his 1977 compilation, Greatest Hits, Etc., "Slip Slidin' Away", reaching No. 5 in the United States.
In 1980 he released One Trick Pony, his debut album with Warner Bros. Records and his first in almost five years. It was paired with the motion picture of the same name, which Simon wrote and starred in. Although it produced his last Top 10 hit with the upbeat "Late in the Evening" (also a No. 1 hit on the Radio & Records American charts), the album did not sell well, in a music market dominated by disco music. Simon recorded Hearts and Bones, a polished and confessional album that was eventually viewed as one of his best works, but that marked a lull in his commercial popularity; both the album and the lead single, "Allergies", missed the American Top 40. Hearts and Bones included "The Late Great Johnny Ace", a song partly about Johnny Ace, an American R&B singer, and partly about slain Beatle John Lennon. A successful US solo tour featured Simon and his guitar, with a recording of the rhythm track and horns for "Late In The Evening." In January 1985, Simon lent his talent to USA for Africa and performed on the relief fundraising single "We Are the World".
1986–1992
Graceland (1986) album cover.
As he commented years later, after the disappointing commercial performance of Hearts and Bones, Simon felt he had lost his inspiration to a point of no return, and that his commercial fortunes were unlikely to change. While driving his car in late 1984 in this state of frustration, Simon listened to a cassette of the Boyoyo Boys' instrumental "Gumboots: Accordion Jive Volume II". Interested by the unusual sound, he wrote lyrics to the number which he sang over a re-recording of the song. It was the first composition of a new musical project that became the celebrated album Graceland, an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga. Simon felt that he had nothing to lose. He traveled to South Africa in an attempt to embrace the culture and find the most comfortable environment for recording the album. Sessions in Johannesburg took place in February 1985. Overdubbing and additional recording was done in April, 1986, in New York. The sessions featured many South African musicians and groups, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon also collaborated with several artists of his own culture, singing a memorable duet with Linda Ronstadt in "Under African Skies", and playing with Los Lobos in "All Around the World or The Myth of the Fingerprints". Warner Bros. Records had serious doubts about releasing an album of this eclecticism to the mainstream, but when it did in August 1986, Graceland was praised by critics and the public and became Simon's most successful solo album. Slowly climbing the worldwide charts, it reached #1 in many countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and peaked at #3 in the US It was the second-best-selling album of 1987 in the US, selling five million copies and eventually reaching 5x Platinum certification. Another seven million copies were sold internationally to become his best-selling album. Much of the success of the album was due to the lead single, the upbeat "You Can Call Me Al", whose lyrics describe a man experiencing an identity crisis. The track featured many memorable elements – a catchy synthesizer riff, an easy whistle solo, and an unusual bass run in which the second half was a reversed recording of the first half. "You Can Call Me Al" was accompanied with a humorous video featuring actor Chevy Chase, which introduced Simon to a new audience through MTV. In the end, the track reached UK Top 5 and the US Top 25. Further singles, including the title track, "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", were not commercial hits but became radio standards and were highly praised.
At age 45, Simon found himself back at the forefront of popular music. He received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1987 and also Grammy Award for Record of the Year for the title track one year later. He also embarked on the very successful Graceland Tour, which was documented on music video. Simon found himself embracing new sounds, a fact that some critics viewed negatively – however, Simon reportedly felt it as a very natural artistic experiment, considering that "world music" was already present on much of his early work, including such Simon & Garfunkel hits as "El Condor Pasa" and his early solo recording "Mother and Child Reunion", which was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica. One way or another, Warner Bros. Records (who by this time now controlled and reissued all his previous Columbia albums) re-established Simon as one of their most successful artists. In an attempt to capitalize on his renewed success, WB Records released the album Negotiations and Love Songs in November 1988, a mixture of popular hits and personal favorites that covered Simon's entire career and became an enduring seller in his catalog.
After Graceland, Simon decided to extend his roots with the Brazilian music-flavored The Rhythm of the Saints. Sessions for the album began in December 1989, and took place in Rio de Janeiro and New York, featuring guitarist J. J. Cale and many Brazilian and African musicians. The tone of the album was more introspective and relatively low-key compared to the mostly upbeat numbers of Graceland. Released on October 1990, the album received excellent critical reviews and achieved very respectable sales, peaking at #4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK. The lead single, "The Obvious Child", featuring the Grupo Cultural Olodum, was a Top 20 hit in the UK and appeared near the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100. Although not as successful as Graceland, The Rhythm of the Saints was received as a competent successor and consistent complement on Simon's attempts to explore (and popularize) world music, and also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Here are also more songs about past loves; his ex-wife Carrie Fisher says in her autobiography Wishful Drinking that the song "She Moves On" is about her. It's one of several she claims, followed by the line, "If you can get Paul Simon to write a song about you, do it. Because he is so brilliant at it."
The importance of both albums allowed Simon to stage another New York concert, and on August 15, 1991, almost a decade after his concert with Garfunkel, Simon staged another concert in Central Park with both African and South American bands. The success of the concert surpassed all expectations, and reportedly over 750,000 people attended, becoming one of the largest concert audiences in history. He later remembered the concert as the "most memorable moment in my career". The success of the show led to both a live album and an Emmy-winning TV special. In the middle, Simon embarked on the successful Born at the Right Time Tour and promoted the album with further singles, including "Proof" – accompanied with a humorous video featuring, again, Chevy Chase. On March 4, 1992 he appeared on his own MTV Unplugged, offering renditions of many of his most famous compositions. Broadcast in June, the show was a success, though it did not receive an album release.
1993–1998
After Unplugged, Simon's place in the forefront of popular music dropped notably. A Simon & Garfunkel reunion took place in 1993, and in another attempt to capitalize on the occasion, Columbia released Paul Simon 1964/1993 in September, a three-disc compilation that received a reduced version on the two-disc album The Paul Simon Anthology one month later. In 1995 he only made news for appearing at The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he performed the song "Ten Years", which he composed specially for the tenth anniversary of the show. Also that year, he was featured on the Annie Lennox version of his 1973 song "Something So Right", which appeared briefly on the UK Top 50 once it was released as a single in November.
Since the early stages of the nineties, Simon was fully involved on The Capeman, a musical that finally opened on January 29, 1998. Simon worked enthusiastically on the project for many years and described it as "a New York Puerto Rican story based on events that happened in 1959—events that I remembered." The musical tells the story of real-life Puerto Rican youth Salvador Agron, who wore a cape while committing two murders in 1959 New York, and who went on to become a writer in prison. Featuring Marc Anthony as the young Agron and Ruben Blades as the older Agron, the play received terrible reviews and very poor box office receipts from the very beginning, and ended up closing on March 28 after just 68 performances, becoming a failure from which Simon reportedly lost 11 million dollars. Simon recorded an album of songs from the show, which was released in November 1997. It was received with very mixed reviews, though many critics praised the combination of doo-wop, rockabilly and Caribbean music that the album reflected. In commercial terms, Songs from The Capeman was a failure—it found Simon missing the Top 40 of the Billboard charts for the first time in his career. The cast album was never released on CD but eventually became available online
Film and television
Simon has also dabbled in acting. He played music producer Tony Lacey in the 1977 Woody Allen film Annie Hall, and wrote and starred in 1980's One Trick Pony as Jonah Levin, a journeyman rock and roller. Simon also wrote all the songs in the film. Paul Simon also appeared on The Muppet Show (the only episode to use only the songs of one songwriter, Simon). In 1990, he played the character of—appropriately enough—Simple Simon on the Disney channel TV movie, Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme.
Simon has also appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) either as host or musical guest for a total of 13 times. On one appearance in the late 1980s, he worked with his political namesake, Illinois Senator Paul Simon. Simon's most recent SNL appearance was on the May 14, 2011 episode hosted by Ed Helms.
In one SNL skit from 1986 (when he was promoting Graceland), Simon plays himself, waiting in line with a friend to get into a movie. He amazes his friend by remembering intricate details about prior meetings with passers-by, but draws a complete blank when approached by Art Garfunkel, despite the latter's numerous memory prompts.
Simon also appeared alongside George Harrison as musical guest on the Thanksgiving Day episode of SNL (November 20, 1976). The two performed "Here Comes the Sun" and "Homeward Bound"" together, while Simon performed "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" solo earlier in the show. On that episode, Simon opened the show performing "Still Crazy After All These Years" in a turkey outfit, since Thanksgiving was the following week. About halfway through the song, Simon tells the band to stop playing because of his embarrassment. After giving a frustrating speech to the audience, he leaves the stage, backed by applause. Lorne Michaels positively greets him backstage, but Simon is still upset, yelling at him because of the humiliating turkey outfit. This is one of SNL's most played sketches.
On September 29, 2001, Simon made a special appearance on the first SNL to air after the September 11, 2001 attacks. On that show, he performed "The Boxer" to the audience and the NYC firefighters and police officers. He is also friends with former SNL star Chevy Chase, who appeared in his video for "You Can Call Me Al" lip synching the song while Simon looks disgruntled and mimes backing vocals and the playing of various instruments beside him. He is a close friend of SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who produced the 1977 TV show The Paul Simon Special, as well as the Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park four years later. Simon and Lorne Michaels were the subjects of a 2006 episode of the Sundance channel documentary series, Iconoclasts.
He has been the subject of two films by Jeremy Marre, the first on Graceland, the second on The Capeman.
On November 18, 2008, Simon was a guest on The Colbert Report promoting his book Lyrics 1964-2008. He did an interview with Stephen Colbert and then performed "American Tune".
Simon performed a Stevie Wonder song at the White House in 2009, at an event honoring Wonder's musical career and contributions.
In May 2009, The Library of Congress: Paul Simon and Friends Live Concert was released on DVD, via Shout! Factory. The PBS concert was recorded in 2007.
In April 2011 Simon was confirmed to appear at the Glastonbury music festival in England.
Awards and honors
Simon won 12 Grammy Awards (one of them a Lifetime Achievement Award) and five Grammy nominations, the most recent for his album You're the One in 2001. In 1998 he received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for the Simon & Garfunkel album Bridge over Troubled Water. He received an Oscar nomination for the song "Father and Daughter" in 2002. He is also a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; as a solo artist in 2001, and in 1990 as half of Simon & Garfunkel.
In 2001, Simon was honored as MusiCares Person Of The Year. The following year, he was one of the five recipients of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest tribute to performing and cultural artists.
In 2005, Simon was saluted as a BMI Icon at the 53rd Annual BMI Pop Awards. Simon's songwriting catalog has earned 39 BMI Awards including multiple citations for "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Mrs. Robinson," "Scarborough Fair" and "The Sound of Silence". As of 2005, he has amassed nearly 75 million broadcast airplays, according to BMI surveys.
In 2006, Simon was selected by Time Magazine as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World."
In 2007, Simon received the first annual Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney were to follow in 2009 and 2010. Named in honor of George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world’s culture. Upon being notified of receiving this honor, Simon said, “I am grateful to be the recipient of the Gershwin Prize and doubly honored to be the first. I look forward to spending an evening in the company of artists I admire at the award ceremony in May. I can think of a few who have expressed my words and music far better than I. I’m excited at the prospect of that happening again. It’s a songwriter’s dream come true." Among the performers who paid tribute to Simon were Stevie Wonder, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Marc Anthony, Yolanda Adams, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The event was professionally filmed and broadcast and is now available as Paul Simon and Friends.
In 2010, Simon received an honorary degree from Brandeis University, where he also performed "The Boxer" at the main commencement ceremony.
In October 2011, Simon was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Science. At the induction ceremony, he performed "American Tune".
Simon is a proponent of music education for children. In 1970, after recording his "Bridge Over Troubled Water," at the invitation of the NYU School of the Arts, Simon held auditions for a young songwriter's workshop. Advertised in the Village Voice, the auditions brought hundreds of hopefuls to perform for Simon. Among the six teenage songwriters Simon selected for tutelage were Melissa Manchester, Tom Mandell and rock/beat poet Joe Linus, with Maggie and Terre Roche (the Roche Sisters), who later sang back-up for Simon, joining the workshop in progress through an impromptu appearance.
Simon invited the six teens to experience recording at Columbia studios with engineer Roy Halee at the board. During these sessions, Bob Dylan was downstairs recording the album Self-Portrait, which included a version of Simon's "The Boxer". Violinist Isaac Stern also visited the group with a CBS film crew, speaking to the young musicians about lyrics and music after Joe Linus performed his song "Circus Lion" for Stern.
Manchester later paid homage to Simon, on her recorded song, "Ode to Paul." Other younger musicians Simon has mentored include Nick Laird-Clowes, who later co-founded the band The Dream Academy. Laird-Clowes has credited Simon with helping to shape the band's biggest hit, "Life In A Northern Town".
In 2003, Simon signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the US He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.
Simon is also a major benefactor and one of the co-founders, with Dr. Irwin Redlener, of the Children's Health Project and The Children's Health Fund which started by creating specially equipped "buses" to take medical care to children in medically underserved areas, urban and rural. Their first bus was in the impoverished South Bronx of New York City but they now operate in 12 states, including the Gulf Coast. It has expanded greatly, partnering with major hospitals, local public schools and medical schools and advocating policy for children's health and medical care.
Main article: Paul Simon discography
Number-one albums
1972 – Paul Simon (UK, Japan, Norway)
1973 – There Goes Rhymin' Simon (US Cashbox)
1975 – Still Crazy After All These Years (US)
1986 – Graceland (UK, Australia, Canada, Switzerland)
1990 – The Rhythm of the Saints (UK)
See also: Simon & Garfunkel discography
Work on Broadway
Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years (1982) - revue - featured songwriter for Mrs. Robinson
Asinamali! (1987) - play - co-producer
Mike Nichols and Elaine May: Together Again on Broadway (1992) - concert - performer
The Capeman (1998) - composer, co-lyricist and music arranger - Tony Nomination for Best Original Score
The Graduate (2002) - play - featured songwriter
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k546/JDHathaway99/PaulSimon.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/bowlburn420/Simon%20and%20Garfunkel/Paul%20Simon/paul14.jpg
You Can Call Me Al is my favorite. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/14/11 at 8:07 am
You Can Call Me Al is my favorite. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA&ob=av2e
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/14/11 at 11:17 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA&ob=av2e
I LOVE that song but I have absolutely no idea what it means. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/14/11 at 2:52 pm
The person of the day...Stacy Keibler....(Just for you Howie :))
Stacy Keibler (born October 14, 1979) is an American actress, model, and former professional wrestler and valet, best known for her work with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Keibler was a contestant on the second season of Dancing with the Stars, where she placed third. She has also appeared on other American Broadcasting Company (ABC) shows such as What About Brian, George Lopez, and October Road, as well as the 100th episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as a bartender and on the USA Network show Psych. In addition she has modeled appearing in both Maxim and Stuff magazines.
She began her professional wrestling career as a part of the Nitro Girls in WCW. She quickly moved on to a more prominent role in the company as the manager, Miss Hancock (sometimes "Handcock"). As Miss Hancock she was known for doing table dances, her relationship with David Flair, and a pregnancy angle. After WCW was purchased by WWE, she moved to the new company, taking part in the Invasion storyline and managing the Dudley Boyz. Keibler also managed Test and Scott Steiner. Before her departure she was affiliated with The Hurricane and Rosey and nicknamed "Super Stacy."
Keibler is known for her unusually long legs, making her the tallest WWE Diva. She has been known as both "The Legs of WCW" and "The Legs of WWE". During her time on Dancing with the Stars, judge Bruno Tonioli nicknamed her "The Weapon of Mass Seduction" because of her hot dancing skills and long legs.
As the Fitness Editor at Stuff magazine during 2005 and 2006, Keibler wrote and modeled for her own occasional column, entitled Getting Fit with Stacy Keibler. She has appeared on the cover of that magazine twice: in June 2005 and March 2006. Maxim named Keibler #5 in its 2006 Hot 100 issue, and #70 in its 2007 Hot 100. In 2008, she was named #89 in Maxim's annual Hot 100 list. The following year, she was #77. Keibler has declined each of two invitations from Playboy to pose in the nude for its magazine.
Keibler starred in a commercial for AT&T alongside Carrot Top. She also auditioned and earned a role in Big Momma's House 2, but she did not appear.
She competed in the second season of Dancing with the Stars, alongside her dance partner, Tony Dovolani. Keibler received a perfect score of 30 from the three judges for her samba dance routine in week five. This prompted judge Bruno Tonioli to nickname her a "weapon of mass seduction." Overall, Keibler and Dovolani received four perfect scores. Keibler was eliminated in the final episode, coming in third to Jerry Rice, who placed second in the final round of the competition, and Drew Lachey, the winner of the season. Two of the judges, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, felt she should have at least placed second. Oddsmakers had considered her the favorite to win the competition.
Keibler has appeared on MTV's Punk'd twice. In season five Keibler took part in helping prank fellow WWE Superstar, Triple H, which also included Stephanie McMahon. In season seven, however, Keibler was seen as a victim of a prank by her then boyfriend, Geoff Stults.
In February 2007 Keibler began a recurring role in ABC's What About Brian. She played the role of Brian's new neighbor and love interest. This was Keibler's first major acting role, following her previous minor roles in both Bubble Boy and Pecker. Keibler guest starred on The George Lopez Show on ABC. In the fall of 2007 Keibler appeared in both The Comebacks and on ABC's drama October Road.
In April 2008 she was named #64 in FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women list. Keibler was featured in an advertisement in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Keibler appeared on ABC Family's mini television series, Samurai Girl as the character Karen that September. On November 23, 2008, Stacy was named the "World's Hottest Athlete" by a sixty-four contestant bracket on InGameNow.
Stacy recently hosted the E! Special Maxim's Celebrity Beach Watch: 15 Hottest Bodies on September 16, 2009, and The Ultimate Spike Girl 2009 Finale on Spike TV on October 1, 2009. On January 11, 2010, Stacy appeared as "the hot bartender", a new conquest for Barney, in the How I Met Your Mother 100th episode, "Girls Versus Suits". On February 3, 2010, Stacy appeared on an episode of the USA Network show "Psych".
Professional wrestling career
Stacy Keibler
Ring name(s) Stacy Keibler
Nitro Girl Skye
Miss Hancock
Super Stacy
Billed height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Billed weight 136 lb (62 kg)
Born October 14, 1979 (age 32)
Baltimore, Maryland
Resides Los Angeles, California
Billed from Baltimore, Maryland
Debut September 1999
Retired 2006
World Championship Wrestling (1999–2001)
Keibler began watching wrestling with her boyfriend at the time, Kris Cumberland. In late 1999, Keibler entered a contest held by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to find a new member of the Nitro Girls dance troupe. In November, she defeated 300 other girls for a spot on the dance troupe and $10,000. Her winning routine was watched by 4.4 million viewers. Keibler performed dance routines every week on WCW's flagship show Monday Nitro under the name Skye. By 2000, Keibler was appearing on WCW as a Nitro Girl, attending school full-time, and cheering for the Baltimore Ravens.
She soon accepted a larger role and became a valet using the stage name Miss Hancock (some weeks spelled "Handcock"), briefly serving as an associate for the tag team of Lenny Lane and Lodi dubbed Standards and Practices. Despite wearing business suits, her character was known to climb on top of the announcers' table and dance sensually. It was also during this period that she began using what would become her trademark ring entrance: slowly putting her forty-two inch legs through the second tier of ropes, pausing to let the crowd momentarily see her panties. At 5 feet 11 inches, Keibler was one of few women in professional wrestling tall enough to step over the middle of three ropes that surround the ring.
For a brief period, she dated David Flair (both on-screen and off), who was already involved in an on-screen relationship with Daffney. This led to Keibler's in-ring debut at the Bash at the Beach in a Wedding Gown match, which she lost after she removed her own gown. Hancock next briefly feuded with Kimberly Page, but the storyline ended abruptly when Page quit the company. Keibler and Flair then began a feud with the Misfits In Action stable, including a mud wrestling singles match against Major Gunns at New Blood Rising. During the match, she was kicked in the stomach, and she revealed herself to be pregnant the next night, beginning a new angle for herself and Flair. Two proposed endings to the storyline were for either Ric Flair or Vince Russo to be the father of her child. The angle, however, ended prematurely, as she revealed the pregnancy to be false, broke up with David Flair, and was taken off of television. When she returned, she was known by her real name on-screen.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2001–2006, 2011)
The Invasion and Duchess of Dudleyville (2001–2002)
Keibler, the "Duchess of Dudleyville", managed the Dudley Boyz at WrestleMania X8.
When WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2001, Keibler's contract was retained by the WWF. She portrayed a heel character in The Alliance. She made her WWF television debut on the June 14, 2001 episode of SmackDown! when then-heel, Shane McMahon brought her to the ring to distract then-babyface, Rhyno, causing him to lose a match. Keibler originally teamed up with real-life friend, then-heel, Torrie Wilson, and the pair feuded with Divas, Trish Stratus and Lita. During this feud the four Divas competed in the first-ever tag team Bra and Panties match at the InVasion pay-per-view, which Trish and Lita won by stripping their opponents.
Towards the end of the WCW/ECW Invasion, Keibler managed the heel gimmicks of The Dudley Boyz and was nicknamed the "Duchess of Dudleyville". Keibler made her WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania X8 alongside The Dudleyz. During this time, she began an on-screen rivalry with former ally Torrie Wilson after Wilson left The Alliance, with Keibler helping The Dudley Boyz put Wilson through a table. Wilson, however, got her revenge after pulling her skirt down on an episode of SmackDown!. She then defeated Keibler in the first-ever lingerie match, a match wrestled in lingerie, at No Mercy. At the end of the storyline, Keibler's role with the Dudley Boyz came to an abrupt end when she was powerbombed through a table after accidentally costing the team a match. She then set her sights on the WWE Women's Championship at Judgment Day, facing Trish Stratus in a losing effort. She faced Stratus several more times in the proceeding weeks, but she never won a match against her.
On-screen relationships (2002–2003)
Keibler was originally drafted to the SmackDown! brand in 2002, where her character showed an interest in becoming the personal assistant to WWE Chairman, then-heel, Vince McMahon. McMahon was ready to hire another attractive female until Keibler interrupted and performed a table dance in the ring. Keibler became McMahon's personal assistant, as well as his on-screen mistress. She was frequently shown flirting and 'making out' with him in backstage segments, until Stephanie McMahon became general manager of the SmackDown! brand. then-babyface, Dawn Marie made her debut on SmackDown! as McMahon's legal assistant, who competed with Keibler for McMahon's affections.
A key storyline for Keibler's on-screen character occurred when she left SmackDown! for Raw. Keibler made her official Raw debut on August 12, 2002. She later turned face after then-heel, Victoria, attacked her. During her ensuing time on Raw, Keibler managed then-babyfaces, Scott Steiner and Test. As Test's on-screen marketing agent, she came up with the idea that Test should call his fans "Testicles," cut his hair, and reshape his image. Test, however, became jealous of Keibler also wanting to be Steiner's manager. As part of the angle, during a match on Raw, Test turned heel by verbally abusing Keibler. Steiner defeated Test for Keibler's services, and Keibler seemed happy as Steiner's new manager, as the two alluded to having more than a professional relationship. Test, however, petitioned for an Intergender tag team match, pitting himself and former rival Chris Jericho against Steiner and Keibler, to win back Keibler's services. Test faked a leg injury to pick up the win. A match was then set for Unforgiven with the stipulation that if Test won, he would not only retain Keibler's services, but would acquire Steiner's services as well. During the match, Keibler's interference backfired, and Test won the match. Steiner then turned heel by attacking Keibler after her interference in his match on the next episode of Raw backfired. For a time, Test and Steiner worked as a tag team, sharing the services of Keibler as their on-screen sex slave. The storyline ended when general manager Mick Foley freed Keibler from her obligatory contracts with Test and Steiner by temporarily firing them.
Feuding with the Divas and Randy Orton (2004–2005)
Keibler in 2005
Keibler was chosen to record a track on the album WWE Originals. She and WWE music producer Jim Johnston recorded the song "Why Can't We Just Dance?" for the album. She was then placed in a feud involving SmackDown! divas Torrie Wilson and then-babyface, Sable, who both had recently posed for a Playboy cover. Keibler aligned with Miss Jackie, neither of whom had posed for the magazine, claiming that they deserved to be in Playboy over Sable and Wilson. Keibler and Jackie challenged Sable and Wilson to a Tag Team Evening Gown match at WrestleMania XX, which they lost when Jackie was pinned by Wilson, and the feud was dropped afterward. Before the feud was dropped, all divas were playing face characters at the time.
She took over the 2004 Raw Diva Search for a few weeks, which led to several tag matches against the heel gimmicks of Gail Kim, Trish Stratus, and Molly Holly and with partners Nidia and the face gimmick of Victoria. Keibler got upset victories over Kim, Stratus, and Holly. She earned a Women's Championship title match on October 11, 2004, but she was defeated by Stratus, who retained the title. Keibler also competed in the first-ever Fulfill your Fantasy Diva Battle Royal for the WWE Women's Championship at Taboo Tuesday along with Victoria, Nidia, Gail Kim, Molly Holly, Jazz, and then-champion Stratus. She was eliminated second to last after jumping over the top rope to avoid hitting the turnbuckle, followed by Holly knocking her off the apron to eliminate her.
Keibler began appearing in backstage segments with then-babyface, Randy Orton. When Orton challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania 21, Orton ended the relationship and the storyline by performing an RKO on her. He justified it by claiming he was demonstrating how ruthless he could be in order to defeat The Undertaker.
Super Stacy and departure (2005–2006)
Keibler then joined forces with Rosey and The Hurricane. She became one-third of the trio as a superhero sidekick nicknamed Super Stacy, complete with her own superhero costume. She was ringside during several matches as they defended their World Tag Team Championship. During this time, Keibler feuded on-screen with then-heel, Victoria, including confrontations on Raw and a match on Heat.
After a long tenure on Monday nights, Keibler and fellow Raw Diva, Christy Hemme, were moved to SmackDown! as part of a trade that brought Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle to Raw. On SmackDown! Keibler participated in lingerie matches and bikini contests. After a short absence Keibler began a short feud with Jillian Hall, which led to the two having a match on Velocity. The match was Keibler's final match with WWE. Keibler then asked for time off to appear on Dancing with the Stars. After completing her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Keibler left WWE to move on to other endeavors.
Tough Enough (2011)
After a 5-year absence with the WWE franchise, Keibler made a special guest appearance for WWE's Reality Show, WWE Tough Enough. Being a former NFL Cheerleader, she helped prepare the contestants to perform publicly in Universal Studios.
Personal life
In 2000 after winning the $10,000 in the contest to become a part of the Nitro Girls, Keibler used the money to buy season tickets for the Baltimore Ravens, the team for which she used to cheer. During her days with WCW, Keibler was romantically linked with David Flair, the son of wrestler Ric Flair. While in the WWE she also dated wrestler Andrew "Test" Martin both on and off screen.
Keibler moved to Los Angeles in 2004, where she was a roommate with her friend, Torrie Wilson. In June 2005 Keibler was reported to be in a relationship with actor, Geoff Stults, best known for his appearances on 7th Heaven. The pair appeared together on MTV's Punk'd, with Keibler as the recipient of the prank. Keibler and Stults were part-owners of the now defunct Hollywood Fame, a 2006 expansion franchise of the new American Basketball Association. Stults and Keibler split in the middle of 2010. In late 2011 Keibler made several public appearances with actor George Clooney as was widely reported to be romantically involved with him.
Keibler was the only WWE Diva who ranked many times in the listed of Maxim's Hot 100, starting on 2008 at 89, then 2009 – 77, 2010 – 82 and 2011 – 72.
In wrestling
Finishing moves
Spinning heel kick
Signature moves
Cartwheel evasion
Corner foot choke
Hair-pull snapmare
Big boot out of the corner to an oncoming opponent
Side Kick
Wrestlers managed
Standards and Practices
Los Fabulosos (El Dandy and Silver King)
David Flair
Shawn Stasiak
Dudley Boyz
Test
Scott Steiner
Rosey and The Hurricane
Randy Orton
Nicknames
"The Legs of WCW/WWE"
"The Duchess of Dudleyville"
"Super Stacy"
Entrance themes
"Legs" by Kid Rock (WWF/E)
Championships and accomplishments
World Wrestling Entertainment
WWE Babe of the Year (2004)
http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx190/clgomez54/Stacy-Keibler.jpg
http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc359/divagrl6543/Stacy.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/14/11 at 8:00 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA&ob=av2e
Thanks Phil.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/14/11 at 8:01 pm
The person of the day...Stacy Keibler....(Just for you Howie :))
Stacy Keibler (born October 14, 1979) is an American actress, model, and former professional wrestler and valet, best known for her work with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Keibler was a contestant on the second season of Dancing with the Stars, where she placed third. She has also appeared on other American Broadcasting Company (ABC) shows such as What About Brian, George Lopez, and October Road, as well as the 100th episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as a bartender and on the USA Network show Psych. In addition she has modeled appearing in both Maxim and Stuff magazines.
She began her professional wrestling career as a part of the Nitro Girls in WCW. She quickly moved on to a more prominent role in the company as the manager, Miss Hancock (sometimes "Handcock"). As Miss Hancock she was known for doing table dances, her relationship with David Flair, and a pregnancy angle. After WCW was purchased by WWE, she moved to the new company, taking part in the Invasion storyline and managing the Dudley Boyz. Keibler also managed Test and Scott Steiner. Before her departure she was affiliated with The Hurricane and Rosey and nicknamed "Super Stacy."
Keibler is known for her unusually long legs, making her the tallest WWE Diva. She has been known as both "The Legs of WCW" and "The Legs of WWE". During her time on Dancing with the Stars, judge Bruno Tonioli nicknamed her "The Weapon of Mass Seduction" because of her hot dancing skills and long legs.
As the Fitness Editor at Stuff magazine during 2005 and 2006, Keibler wrote and modeled for her own occasional column, entitled Getting Fit with Stacy Keibler. She has appeared on the cover of that magazine twice: in June 2005 and March 2006. Maxim named Keibler #5 in its 2006 Hot 100 issue, and #70 in its 2007 Hot 100. In 2008, she was named #89 in Maxim's annual Hot 100 list. The following year, she was #77. Keibler has declined each of two invitations from Playboy to pose in the nude for its magazine.
Keibler starred in a commercial for AT&T alongside Carrot Top. She also auditioned and earned a role in Big Momma's House 2, but she did not appear.
She competed in the second season of Dancing with the Stars, alongside her dance partner, Tony Dovolani. Keibler received a perfect score of 30 from the three judges for her samba dance routine in week five. This prompted judge Bruno Tonioli to nickname her a "weapon of mass seduction." Overall, Keibler and Dovolani received four perfect scores. Keibler was eliminated in the final episode, coming in third to Jerry Rice, who placed second in the final round of the competition, and Drew Lachey, the winner of the season. Two of the judges, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, felt she should have at least placed second. Oddsmakers had considered her the favorite to win the competition.
Keibler has appeared on MTV's Punk'd twice. In season five Keibler took part in helping prank fellow WWE Superstar, Triple H, which also included Stephanie McMahon. In season seven, however, Keibler was seen as a victim of a prank by her then boyfriend, Geoff Stults.
In February 2007 Keibler began a recurring role in ABC's What About Brian. She played the role of Brian's new neighbor and love interest. This was Keibler's first major acting role, following her previous minor roles in both Bubble Boy and Pecker. Keibler guest starred on The George Lopez Show on ABC. In the fall of 2007 Keibler appeared in both The Comebacks and on ABC's drama October Road.
In April 2008 she was named #64 in FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women list. Keibler was featured in an advertisement in the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Keibler appeared on ABC Family's mini television series, Samurai Girl as the character Karen that September. On November 23, 2008, Stacy was named the "World's Hottest Athlete" by a sixty-four contestant bracket on InGameNow.
Stacy recently hosted the E! Special Maxim's Celebrity Beach Watch: 15 Hottest Bodies on September 16, 2009, and The Ultimate Spike Girl 2009 Finale on Spike TV on October 1, 2009. On January 11, 2010, Stacy appeared as "the hot bartender", a new conquest for Barney, in the How I Met Your Mother 100th episode, "Girls Versus Suits". On February 3, 2010, Stacy appeared on an episode of the USA Network show "Psych".
Professional wrestling career
Stacy Keibler
Ring name(s) Stacy Keibler
Nitro Girl Skye
Miss Hancock
Super Stacy
Billed height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Billed weight 136 lb (62 kg)
Born October 14, 1979 (age 32)
Baltimore, Maryland
Resides Los Angeles, California
Billed from Baltimore, Maryland
Debut September 1999
Retired 2006
World Championship Wrestling (1999–2001)
Keibler began watching wrestling with her boyfriend at the time, Kris Cumberland. In late 1999, Keibler entered a contest held by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to find a new member of the Nitro Girls dance troupe. In November, she defeated 300 other girls for a spot on the dance troupe and $10,000. Her winning routine was watched by 4.4 million viewers. Keibler performed dance routines every week on WCW's flagship show Monday Nitro under the name Skye. By 2000, Keibler was appearing on WCW as a Nitro Girl, attending school full-time, and cheering for the Baltimore Ravens.
She soon accepted a larger role and became a valet using the stage name Miss Hancock (some weeks spelled "Handcock"), briefly serving as an associate for the tag team of Lenny Lane and Lodi dubbed Standards and Practices. Despite wearing business suits, her character was known to climb on top of the announcers' table and dance sensually. It was also during this period that she began using what would become her trademark ring entrance: slowly putting her forty-two inch legs through the second tier of ropes, pausing to let the crowd momentarily see her panties. At 5 feet 11 inches, Keibler was one of few women in professional wrestling tall enough to step over the middle of three ropes that surround the ring.
For a brief period, she dated David Flair (both on-screen and off), who was already involved in an on-screen relationship with Daffney. This led to Keibler's in-ring debut at the Bash at the Beach in a Wedding Gown match, which she lost after she removed her own gown. Hancock next briefly feuded with Kimberly Page, but the storyline ended abruptly when Page quit the company. Keibler and Flair then began a feud with the Misfits In Action stable, including a mud wrestling singles match against Major Gunns at New Blood Rising. During the match, she was kicked in the stomach, and she revealed herself to be pregnant the next night, beginning a new angle for herself and Flair. Two proposed endings to the storyline were for either Ric Flair or Vince Russo to be the father of her child. The angle, however, ended prematurely, as she revealed the pregnancy to be false, broke up with David Flair, and was taken off of television. When she returned, she was known by her real name on-screen.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2001–2006, 2011)
The Invasion and Duchess of Dudleyville (2001–2002)
Keibler, the "Duchess of Dudleyville", managed the Dudley Boyz at WrestleMania X8.
When WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2001, Keibler's contract was retained by the WWF. She portrayed a heel character in The Alliance. She made her WWF television debut on the June 14, 2001 episode of SmackDown! when then-heel, Shane McMahon brought her to the ring to distract then-babyface, Rhyno, causing him to lose a match. Keibler originally teamed up with real-life friend, then-heel, Torrie Wilson, and the pair feuded with Divas, Trish Stratus and Lita. During this feud the four Divas competed in the first-ever tag team Bra and Panties match at the InVasion pay-per-view, which Trish and Lita won by stripping their opponents.
Towards the end of the WCW/ECW Invasion, Keibler managed the heel gimmicks of The Dudley Boyz and was nicknamed the "Duchess of Dudleyville". Keibler made her WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania X8 alongside The Dudleyz. During this time, she began an on-screen rivalry with former ally Torrie Wilson after Wilson left The Alliance, with Keibler helping The Dudley Boyz put Wilson through a table. Wilson, however, got her revenge after pulling her skirt down on an episode of SmackDown!. She then defeated Keibler in the first-ever lingerie match, a match wrestled in lingerie, at No Mercy. At the end of the storyline, Keibler's role with the Dudley Boyz came to an abrupt end when she was powerbombed through a table after accidentally costing the team a match. She then set her sights on the WWE Women's Championship at Judgment Day, facing Trish Stratus in a losing effort. She faced Stratus several more times in the proceeding weeks, but she never won a match against her.
On-screen relationships (2002–2003)
Keibler was originally drafted to the SmackDown! brand in 2002, where her character showed an interest in becoming the personal assistant to WWE Chairman, then-heel, Vince McMahon. McMahon was ready to hire another attractive female until Keibler interrupted and performed a table dance in the ring. Keibler became McMahon's personal assistant, as well as his on-screen mistress. She was frequently shown flirting and 'making out' with him in backstage segments, until Stephanie McMahon became general manager of the SmackDown! brand. then-babyface, Dawn Marie made her debut on SmackDown! as McMahon's legal assistant, who competed with Keibler for McMahon's affections.
A key storyline for Keibler's on-screen character occurred when she left SmackDown! for Raw. Keibler made her official Raw debut on August 12, 2002. She later turned face after then-heel, Victoria, attacked her. During her ensuing time on Raw, Keibler managed then-babyfaces, Scott Steiner and Test. As Test's on-screen marketing agent, she came up with the idea that Test should call his fans "Testicles," cut his hair, and reshape his image. Test, however, became jealous of Keibler also wanting to be Steiner's manager. As part of the angle, during a match on Raw, Test turned heel by verbally abusing Keibler. Steiner defeated Test for Keibler's services, and Keibler seemed happy as Steiner's new manager, as the two alluded to having more than a professional relationship. Test, however, petitioned for an Intergender tag team match, pitting himself and former rival Chris Jericho against Steiner and Keibler, to win back Keibler's services. Test faked a leg injury to pick up the win. A match was then set for Unforgiven with the stipulation that if Test won, he would not only retain Keibler's services, but would acquire Steiner's services as well. During the match, Keibler's interference backfired, and Test won the match. Steiner then turned heel by attacking Keibler after her interference in his match on the next episode of Raw backfired. For a time, Test and Steiner worked as a tag team, sharing the services of Keibler as their on-screen sex slave. The storyline ended when general manager Mick Foley freed Keibler from her obligatory contracts with Test and Steiner by temporarily firing them.
Feuding with the Divas and Randy Orton (2004–2005)
Keibler in 2005
Keibler was chosen to record a track on the album WWE Originals. She and WWE music producer Jim Johnston recorded the song "Why Can't We Just Dance?" for the album. She was then placed in a feud involving SmackDown! divas Torrie Wilson and then-babyface, Sable, who both had recently posed for a Playboy cover. Keibler aligned with Miss Jackie, neither of whom had posed for the magazine, claiming that they deserved to be in Playboy over Sable and Wilson. Keibler and Jackie challenged Sable and Wilson to a Tag Team Evening Gown match at WrestleMania XX, which they lost when Jackie was pinned by Wilson, and the feud was dropped afterward. Before the feud was dropped, all divas were playing face characters at the time.
She took over the 2004 Raw Diva Search for a few weeks, which led to several tag matches against the heel gimmicks of Gail Kim, Trish Stratus, and Molly Holly and with partners Nidia and the face gimmick of Victoria. Keibler got upset victories over Kim, Stratus, and Holly. She earned a Women's Championship title match on October 11, 2004, but she was defeated by Stratus, who retained the title. Keibler also competed in the first-ever Fulfill your Fantasy Diva Battle Royal for the WWE Women's Championship at Taboo Tuesday along with Victoria, Nidia, Gail Kim, Molly Holly, Jazz, and then-champion Stratus. She was eliminated second to last after jumping over the top rope to avoid hitting the turnbuckle, followed by Holly knocking her off the apron to eliminate her.
Keibler began appearing in backstage segments with then-babyface, Randy Orton. When Orton challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania 21, Orton ended the relationship and the storyline by performing an RKO on her. He justified it by claiming he was demonstrating how ruthless he could be in order to defeat The Undertaker.
Super Stacy and departure (2005–2006)
Keibler then joined forces with Rosey and The Hurricane. She became one-third of the trio as a superhero sidekick nicknamed Super Stacy, complete with her own superhero costume. She was ringside during several matches as they defended their World Tag Team Championship. During this time, Keibler feuded on-screen with then-heel, Victoria, including confrontations on Raw and a match on Heat.
After a long tenure on Monday nights, Keibler and fellow Raw Diva, Christy Hemme, were moved to SmackDown! as part of a trade that brought Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle to Raw. On SmackDown! Keibler participated in lingerie matches and bikini contests. After a short absence Keibler began a short feud with Jillian Hall, which led to the two having a match on Velocity. The match was Keibler's final match with WWE. Keibler then asked for time off to appear on Dancing with the Stars. After completing her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Keibler left WWE to move on to other endeavors.
Tough Enough (2011)
After a 5-year absence with the WWE franchise, Keibler made a special guest appearance for WWE's Reality Show, WWE Tough Enough. Being a former NFL Cheerleader, she helped prepare the contestants to perform publicly in Universal Studios.
Personal life
In 2000 after winning the $10,000 in the contest to become a part of the Nitro Girls, Keibler used the money to buy season tickets for the Baltimore Ravens, the team for which she used to cheer. During her days with WCW, Keibler was romantically linked with David Flair, the son of wrestler Ric Flair. While in the WWE she also dated wrestler Andrew "Test" Martin both on and off screen.
Keibler moved to Los Angeles in 2004, where she was a roommate with her friend, Torrie Wilson. In June 2005 Keibler was reported to be in a relationship with actor, Geoff Stults, best known for his appearances on 7th Heaven. The pair appeared together on MTV's Punk'd, with Keibler as the recipient of the prank. Keibler and Stults were part-owners of the now defunct Hollywood Fame, a 2006 expansion franchise of the new American Basketball Association. Stults and Keibler split in the middle of 2010. In late 2011 Keibler made several public appearances with actor George Clooney as was widely reported to be romantically involved with him.
Keibler was the only WWE Diva who ranked many times in the listed of Maxim's Hot 100, starting on 2008 at 89, then 2009 – 77, 2010 – 82 and 2011 – 72.
In wrestling
Finishing moves
Spinning heel kick
Signature moves
Cartwheel evasion
Corner foot choke
Hair-pull snapmare
Big boot out of the corner to an oncoming opponent
Side Kick
Wrestlers managed
Standards and Practices
Los Fabulosos (El Dandy and Silver King)
David Flair
Shawn Stasiak
Dudley Boyz
Test
Scott Steiner
Rosey and The Hurricane
Randy Orton
Nicknames
"The Legs of WCW/WWE"
"The Duchess of Dudleyville"
"Super Stacy"
Entrance themes
"Legs" by Kid Rock (WWF/E)
Championships and accomplishments
World Wrestling Entertainment
WWE Babe of the Year (2004)
http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/xx190/clgomez54/Stacy-Keibler.jpg
http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc359/divagrl6543/Stacy.jpg
Thanks Ninny,I liked her in the WWE but she was more eye candy than just a diva.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/15/11 at 7:32 am
The person of the day...Penny Marshall
Penny Marshall (born October 15, 1942) is an American actress, producer and director.
After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley. A ratings success, the show ran from 1976 until 1983, and Marshall received three Golden Globe award nominations for her performance.
She progressed to directing films such as Big (1988), the first film directed by a woman to gross in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office, Awakenings (1990), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and A League of Their Own (1992). In more recent years, she has produced Cinderella Man (2005) and Bewitched (2005), as well as episodes of According to Jim (2009). She most recently directed an episode of the Showtime original series United States of Tara.
One of her first jobs was for a TV commercial for a beautifying shampoo. She was hired to play a girl with stringy, unattractive hair, and Farrah Fawcett was hired to play a girl with thick, bouncy hair. As the crew was lighting the set, Marshall's stand-in wore a placard that read "Homely Girl" and Fawcett's stand-in wore a placard that said "Pretty Girl". Farrah Fawcett, sensing Marshall's insecurity about her looks, crossed out "Homely" on the Marshall stand-in placard and wrote "Plain".
Marshall first gained prominence as a television actress with a recurring guest role of Myrna Turner on The Odd Couple (1971–1975). In Marshall's penultimate appearance as Myrna Turner, Myrna married her boyfriend, Sheldn ("They forgot the 'o' on his birth certificate; legally, it's 'Sheldn'"), played by her then-real-life husband, Rob Reiner, and briefly introduced her brother and sister, Werner Turner and Verna Turner (played by, respectively, Marshall's brother, Garry, and her sister, Ronny). Right before appearing on The Odd Couple, Marshall was being considered to play the role of Gloria Bunker Stivic on All In The Family. She ultimately lost the part to Sally Struthers while Rob Reiner was cast as Gloria's husband, Michael "Meathead" Stivic. During that time, Marshall also made a very small, uncredited appearance as an extra in the pilot for the 1971-1972 CBS sitcom Funny Face starring actress-comedienne Sandy Duncan.
In 1974, James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, executive producers of the hit situation comedy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, cast Marshall as Janice Dreyfuss, sister-in-law to Paul Dreyfuss (played by actor Paul Sand). In the series, called Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers, Paul was a bachelor, who was a bass violinist for The Boston Symphony Orchestra. It aired on CBS-TV Saturday nights beginning September 14, 1974, as part of the powerhouse lineup of All In The Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and The Carol Burnett Show. Despite good reviews and decent ratings, it was canceled in mid-season. Ironically, at the end of the 1974-1975 season, Paul Sand in Friends And Lovers placed among the top thirty programs, ranking #25 in the ratings. Both Brooks and Burns, along with Grant Tinker at MTM were so impressed with Marshall's comedic talent that the following season, they hired Marshall and actress Mary Kay Place to play Mary Richards' new neighbors (Paula and Sally Jo, respectively) on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, when Mary moved out of her old apartment into a high-rise. After appearing as "guest stars" on a few episodes of the series, Marshall and Place were slated to become regulars on the show when fate stepped in for both of them. First, Place was hired by Norman Lear for the role of Loretta on the syndicated comedy, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Then, Garry Marshall, who was the creator and part-time writer for the hit TV series Happy Days with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler cast his sister and actress Cindy Williams to guest on an episode of that show. The installment, titled "A Date with Fonzie", aired on November 11, 1975 and introduced the characters LaVerne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney (played by Marshall and Williams, respectively). In that episode, Laverne and Shirley were a pair of wise-cracking brewery workers, who were dates for Fonzie (played by Winkler) and Richie (played by Howard). The pair were such a hit with the studio audience that Garry Marshall decided to co-create and star them in a hit spin-off, Laverne and Shirley (1976–1983). The characters of Laverne and Shirley also appeared in five more episodes of Happy Days. In 1983, while still filming Laverne and Shirley, she guest-starred on another popular sitcom, Taxi, in a cameo appearance as herself. In the Taxi episode "Louie Moves Uptown", Marshall is turned down for residency in a new high-rise condo in New York City. The Laverne and Shirley episode "Lost in Spacesuits" is referenced in the scene.
Because male actors such as co-star Ron Howard and husband Rob Reiner later became directors, and at the encouragement of her brother, Marshall became interested in directing. She directed two episodes of Laverne and Shirley and other TV assignments. She soon moved on to theatrical films, her first film being Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) starring Whoopi Goldberg. Marshall has directed several successful feature films since the mid-1980s, including 1988's Big starring Tom Hanks (the first film directed by a woman to gross over US$100 million), Awakenings (1990) starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, and A League of Their Own (1992) with Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell. In 1991, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. She has also lent her voice to Ms. Botz a/k/a Ms. Botzukowski, the "babysitter bandit", on the first produced episode of The Simpsons, and played a cameo role as herself in HBO's series Entourage.
Personal life
While attending the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Marshall met Michael Henry, a football player. She quit college after three years, married him in 1961, and they had a daughter, Tracy, who later guest-starred on Laverne & Shirley opposite Marshall. Marshall worked as a secretary and later as a tap dance teacher. The marriage lasted two years. On April 10, 1971, Marshall married actor/director Rob Reiner, and her daughter took the name of Tracy Reiner. The marriage would last until 1981. In the mid-1980s she was romantically linked with Art Garfunkel.
Marshall is an avid collector of sports memorabilia and a season ticket holder for the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers. She is also a diehard fan of the New York Yankees.
Filmography
As actress
The Savage Seven (1968)
How Sweet It Is! (1968)
The Grasshopper (1970)
The Odd Couple (1970)
Where's Poppa? (1970) (uncredited)
The Christian Licorice Store (1971) (scenes deleted)
How Come Nobody's on Our Side? (1975)
1941 (1979) (uncredited)
Movers & Shakers (1985)
She's Having a Baby (1988) (cameo)
Alice Upside Down (2007)
The Hard Way (1991)
Hocus Pocus (1993) (uncredited)
Get Shorty (1995) (cameo)
One Vision (1998) (documentary)
Special Delivery (1999)
Stateside (2004) (uncredited)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005) (cameo)
Everybody Wants to Be Italian (2007)
Alice Upside Down (2007) (Mrs. Plotkin)
Blonde Ambition (2007) (bolo excutive)
Television
That Girl (2 episodes, 1968–1969)
Then Came Bronson (1 episode, 1969)
Love, American Style (1 episode, 1970)
Barefoot in the Park (1 episode, 1970)
Wacky Zoo of Morgan City (1970)
Disneyland (2 episodes, 1970)
The Feminist and the Fuzz (1971)
Getting Together (1 episode, 1971)
Funny Face (TV series) (pilot, 1971) (uncredited)
The Odd Couple (26 episodes, 1971–1975)
Evil Roy Slade (1972)
The Super (1 episode, 1972)
The Bob Newhart Show (1 episode, 1972)
The Crooked Hearts (1972)
The Couple Takes a Wife (1972)
Banacek (1 episode, 1973)
Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers (14 episodes, 1974-1975)
Mary Tyler Moore (3 episodes, 1974–1976)
Let's Switch! (1975)
Wives (1975)
Chico and the Man (1 episode, 1975)
Happy Days (6 episodes, 1975–1979)
Good Heavens (1 episode, 1976)
Laverne & Shirley (178 episodes,, 1976–1983)
Blansky's Beauties (1 episode, 1977)
Saturday Night Live (2 episodes, 1977–1996)
Mork & Mindy (1 episode, 1978)
More Than Friends (1978)
Laverne & Shirley in the Army (1981)
The Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour (1982) (voice)
The New Show (1 episode, 1984)
Love Thy Neighbor (1984)
Challenge of a Lifetime (1985)
The Simpsons TV series, episode "Some Enchanted Evening" (1990) (voice)
The Odd Couple: Together Again (1993)
Nash Bridges (1 episode, 1998)
Frasier (1 episode, 2004)
Campus Ladies (1 episode, 2006)
The Game (1 episode, 2008)
United States Of Tara (episode 8 "Expolsive Diorama" (Season 2,2010)
(episode 4 "Wheels" and episode 5 "Dr.Hatteras Miracle Elivir" (Season 3,2011)
As Director
Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986)
Big (1988)
Awakenings (1990)
A League of Their Own (1992)
Renaissance Man (1994)
The Preacher's Wife (1996)
Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
http://i1225.photobucket.com/albums/ee389/FordhamUnitez/Bronx%20Native/PennyMarshall.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/15/11 at 7:34 am
Starting in January, I'm thinking of changing it to someone who died on that day.
What do you think about that?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/15/11 at 10:42 am
Starting in January, I'm thinking of changing it to someone who died on that day.
What do you think about that?
Post whomever you like. Born/died/in the news/whatever. It is YOUR thread.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/15/11 at 7:57 pm
Starting in January, I'm thinking of changing it to someone who died on that day.
What do you think about that?
Sounds good,I like it. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/16/11 at 1:24 pm
Starting in January, I'm thinking of changing it to someone who died on that day.
What do you think about that?
Janine, it is your topic, and it is to be your choice.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/16/11 at 2:29 pm
Starting in January, I'm thinking of changing it to someone who died on that day.
What do you think about that?
Sure, why not? Although I think you have done that in the past.
Post whomever you like. Born/died/in the news/whatever. It is YOUR thread.
Cat
Exactly what Cat said.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/17/11 at 6:04 am
Post whomever you like. Born/died/in the news/whatever. It is YOUR thread.
Cat
Sounds good,I like it. :)
Janine, it is your topic, and it is to be your choice.
Sure, why not? Although I think you have done that in the past.
Exactly what Cat said.
Okay, we will change in January.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/17/11 at 6:09 am
The person of the day...Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number one albums on the Billboard 200. He has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 39.6 million albums in the United States alone.
Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.
Eminem has opened other ventures since the beginning of his success. He founded his own record label, Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45. Eminem began an acting career in 2002, when he starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile in which he won The Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award. He is also set to star in the 2013 films Shady Talez and Have Gun, Will Travel. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and television series Entourage.
The Slim Shady EP is a debut extended play by Eminem, published by Web Entertainment in 1997. The Slim Shady EP was released on cassette, vinyl, and CD. The vinyl and CD versions were released in 1998. Eminem first introduced his "Slim Shady" persona on this EP, and his lyrics are a marked departure from those found on Infinite, featuring constant references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability, and over-the-top violence. Another departure was his exploration of more serious themes of dealing with poverty, his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism, and of marital and family difficulties. His flow is also noticeably different than on Infinite; whereas critics claimed he sounded too much like Nas and AZ on that album. Eminem also began utilizing story telling on this EP. The production value of the music on the tracks — from previous collaborators DJ Head, The Bass Brothers, and Mr. Porter — was also noticeably higher than on prior album efforts. According to Billboard, at this point in his life Eminem had "realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life". After being signed to Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records in 1998, Eminem released his first major studio album, The Slim Shady LP, heavily based on the production by Dr. Dre, one year later in 1999. Billboard praised the album as "light years ahead of the material he had been writing beforehand". It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year. With the album's popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", he describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of his wife's body. Another song, "Guilty Conscience", ends with his encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" marked the beginning of the friendship and musical bond that Dr. Dre and Eminem would share. The two label-mates would later collaborate on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse. Dr. Dre would go on to make at least one guest appearance on all of Eminem's studio albums under the label Aftermath. The album has now been certified 4× platinum by the RIAA. With the release of it, Eminem was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapper Cage.
2000–02: The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It went on to sell 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking the records set by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle as the fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time as the fastest-selling solo album in United States history. The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success and created some controversy by insulting celebrities and making dubious claims about them; he states, among other things, that Christina Aguilera performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly. In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals to his fans the pressures from his record company to top "My Name Is" and sell more records. Although Eminem had parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the video "My Name Is", the artists are reportedly on good terms. They performed a remix of the song "The Way I Am" together in concert. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on The Slim Shady LP. In the music video of "Stan", Eminem was shown writing with his left hand, ending the fan debate over his dominant hand. Q magazine named "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time, and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine. This album has been certified 10× Platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001; the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an organization that perceived Eminem's lyrics to be homophobic, condemned the openly gay John's decision to perform with Eminem. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context." On February 21, the day of the ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center, the venue where the Grammy ceremony was held. Music tours that he participated in for 2001 included the Up in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Ice Cube and Family Values Tour with the band Limp Bizkit.
Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show, was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another hit for the rapper reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1 million copies in its first week of release. It featured the single "Without Me", in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, and Moby, among others. The Eminem Show has been certified 10× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album reflected on the impact of his rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter, and his status in the hip-hop community. He also addresses the charges he faced over assaulting a bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic felt that while there was clear anger present on several tracks, this album was considerably less inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP. However, L. Brent Bozell III, who previously criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for perceived misogynistic lyrics in the album, noted The Eminem Show for its extensive use of obscene language, giving Eminem the nickname "Eminef" for the bowdlerization of motherfudgeer, an obscenity prevalent in the album. The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.
2003–05: Encore
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States. The lyrics in question: "fudge money/I don't rap for dead presidents/I'd rather see the president dead/It's never been said, but I set precedents ..." The song in question, "We As Americans", wound up on a bonus CD accompanying the album.
In 2004, Eminem released his fourth major album, Encore. The album was another chart-topper, as it was driven by the single "Just Lose It", notable for being disrespectful towards Michael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Eminem's first single off Encore, Michael Jackson called into the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. The lyrics to "Just Lose It" refer to Jackson's legal troubles, however he does state in his song "... and that's not a stab at Michael/That's just a metaphor/I'm just psycho...." Many of Jackson's supporters and friends spoke out about the video, including Stevie Wonder, who called the video "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullsheesh", and Steve Harvey, who declared, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back." In the video, Eminem parodied Pee-wee Herman, MC Hammer, and "Blond Ambition"-era Madonna. Regarding Jackson's protest, "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on a track titled "Couch Potato" on his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my "Lose Yourself" parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career. So the irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me." Black Entertainment Television was the first channel to stop airing the video. MTV, however, announced it would continue airing the video. The Source, through its CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, wanted not only the video to be pulled, but the song off the album, and a public apology to Jackson from Eminem. In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.
Despite the comedic theme of the lead single, Encore had its fair share of serious subject matter, including the anti-war track "Mosh". On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet. The song featured a very strong anti-Bush message, with lyrics such as "fudge Bush" and "this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president". The video features Eminem gathering up an army of people, including rapper Lloyd Banks, presented as victims of the Bush administration and leading them to the White House. However, once the army breaks in, it is revealed that they are there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words "VOTE Tuesday November 2" on the screen. After Bush was re-elected, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading while Bush was giving a speech.
2005–08: Musical hiatus
Eminem performing live on the Anger Management Tour in August 2005
In 2005, some industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Speculation began in early 2005 about a double-disc album to be released late that year, rumored to be titled The Funeral. The album later manifested itself as a greatest hits album under the name Curtain Call: The Hits in December. In July 2005, the Detroit Free Press broke news of a potential final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inside circle who said that he will begin to fully embrace the role of producer and label executive. On the same day of the release of the compilation album, Eminem denied that he was retiring on Detroit-based WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" radio show, but implied that he would at least be taking a break as an artist, saying "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know." He released The Re-Up with the members of his record label, Shady Records. It was released in 2006.
In 2005, Eminem was a subject of Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America; he ranked No. 58. Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times claiming, "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them." Goldberg cited Eminem's song "No One's Iller" from The Slim Shady EP as an example of misogyny in his music. In summer 2005, Eminem embarked on his first US concert run in three years, the Anger Management 3 Tour, featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon, D12, Obie Trice, The Alchemist, and others. In August 2005, Eminem canceled the European leg of the tour and subsequently announced that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication". Curtain Call: The Hits was released on December 6, 2005, under Aftermath Entertainment. In its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US and was Eminem's fourth straight No. 1 album on the Billboard Hot 200. The album has been certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA.
In September 2007, Eminem called into New York radio station Hot 97 during an interview with 50 Cent and said he was "in limbo" and "debating" about when and if he would release another album. He said, "I'm always working – I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio ... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things it feels good."
Although he had a cameo in the 2001 film, The Wash, Eminem made his official Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile, released in November 2002. He has said the movie is not an account of his life, but a representation of growing up in Detroit. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself," which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running No. 1 hip hop single. However, the song was not performed at the ceremony, due to Eminem's absence at the ceremony. His collaborator, Luis Resto, who co-wrote the song, accepted the award.
Eminem has participated in various voice acting roles. Some of these include the video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof, where he voices an aging corrupt police officer who speaks in Ebonics and guest spots on the Comedy Central television show Crank Yankers, and a web cartoon called The Slim Shady Show, which has since been pulled off-line and is instead sold on DVD. He will be involved in either the soundtrack or scoring. He was also in the running for the part of David Rice in 2008's film Jumper after Tom Sturridge was dropped just two weeks before filming. Concerns over not having a more prominent actor prompted the director, Doug Liman, to consider other actors for the role. He eventually selected Hayden Christensen over Eminem. He also had a cameo appearance in the 2009 movie Funny People, in which he is involved in an argument with Ray Romano.
It was reported on November 8, 2009, that Eminem will star in the upcoming 3D horror anthology, Shady Talez, to be produced by John Davis. A four-issue comic book series based on the film was expected to be published sometime in 2010.
Eminem appeared alongside Christina Aguilera on the Entourage Season 7 finale titled 'Lose Yourself' as himself. David Schiff will executive produce the film, and Antoine Fuqua was confirmed to direct the film. In January 2011, a report surfaced that Eminem will star in the upcoming thriller, Random Acts of Violence.
Memoir
On October 21, 2008, Eminem released a tell-all autobiography entitled The Way I Am, which details his struggles with poverty, drugs, fame, heartbreak and depression, along with stories about his rise to fame and commentary on past controversies. This book also contains some of the original lyric sheets from songs such as "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady."
Advertising
Eminem was featured in two commercials that aired during Super Bowl XLV. The first, for Lipton's Brisk Iced Tea, was a one-minute spot that featured him as a claymation figure. The other was a two-minute ad, the longest in Super Bowl history, for the Chrysler 200. It featured Eminem driving through Detroit and ended with him taking the stage at the Fox Theatre with "Lose Yourself" playing as the soundtrack.
Eminem has spoken openly about his addiction to prescription drugs, including Vicodin, Ambien, Valium and Methadone. His group-mate Proof from D12 stated that Mathers "sobered up" in 2002 from drug and alcohol dependence. However, he did turn to zolpidem (Ambien) sleeping pills for relief from sleeping troubles. This caused Mathers to cancel the European leg of the Anger Management Tour in August 2005 and eventually go into rehab for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication". In a 2009 interview with British talk-show host Jonathan Ross, Mathers admitted that at the height of his addiction, he considered suicide, saying that, "I just wasn't taking care of myself, at times I wanted to just give it up." He also confirmed that he is now sober, commenting that, "ap was my drug ... Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that. Now rap's getting me high again."
Proof's death
On April 11, 2006, Eminem’s best friend and fellow D12 member, Proof was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest at the CCC Club by club bouncer Mario Etheridge on 8 Mile Road in Detroit, Michigan after fatally shooting Keith Bender, Jr. On April 19, 2006, Eminem, D12, 50 Cent, and thousands of others attended the funeral of Proof at The Fellowship Chapel, Detroit. Eminem made two songs about Proof's death on his album Recovery titled "Going Through Changes" and "You're Never Over", and mentions him in songs on Relapse ("Deja Vu" and "Beautiful").
Charity work
Eminem has also founded his own donation charity named The Marshall Mathers Foundation. The charity helps disadvantaged youth in his home state of Michigan. It has made donations to food banks and youth groups and participates in fundraisers with organizations such as Eight Mile Boulevard Association. Eminem has worked exclusively with Norman Yatooma, a high profile attorney in Detroit, Michigan. Mathers will not engage in charitable work without direct partnership with Yatooma and his foundation.
Feuds
Throughout his career, Eminem created a large number of rivals in the music industry, including Ja Rule, Benzino, Everlast, Insane Clown Posse, Canibus and others.
Main articles: Eminem discography and Eminem production discography
Infinite (1996)
The Slim Shady LP (1999)
The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
The Eminem Show (2002)
Encore (2004)
Relapse (2009)
Recovery (2010)
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
2000 Da Hip Hop Witch Himself
Up in Smoke Tour
The Slim Shady Show Various
2001 The Wash Chris Uncredited
2002 8 Mile Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith, Jr. Academy Award for Best Original Song
MTV Movie Award for Best Video from a Film – Lose Yourself
MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance
MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Male Performance
ASCAP Award for Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture – Lose Yourself
Critics Choice Award for Best Song – Lose Yourself
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama/Action Adventure
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Star – Male
BMI Film Award for Music
BMI Film Award for Most Performed Song from a Film – Lose Yourself
Nominated – Golden Globe for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture – Lose Yourself
Nominated – CFCA Award for Most Promising Performer
Nominated – Golden Satellite for Best Original Song – Lose Yourself
Nominated – OFCS for Best Breakthrough Performance
Nominated – PFCS for Best Original Song – Lose Yourself
Nominated – Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media – Lose Yourself
2003 50 Cent: The New Breed Himself
2004 Crank Yankers Billy Fletcher TV guest role; voice
2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Himself Inducted Run-D.M.C.
Funny People Cameo
2010 Entourage TV guest spot
Saturday Night Live Performed alongside Lil Wayne a medley of songs including "No Love"
2013 Shady Talez Unknown In Development, Script currently being written by Kevin Grevioux and Dallas Jackson
Have Gun, Will Travel Paladin In Development
Awards and nominations
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Eminem
Eminem has thirteen Grammy Awards. He has been praised for having "verbal energy", high quality of lyricism and has been ranked number nine on MTV's list of The Greatest MCs of All Time. In 2003 he was listed as number thirteen on MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music and number 82 on Rolling Stone's "The Immortals". In 2008, the readers of Vibe Magazine voted him "The Best Rapper Alive". He was also named "Best Rapper Ever" in a poll conducted by music fans on the Vibe website.
Ironically, "The Real Slim Shady", one of the songs from his second Grammy-winning album, The Marshall Mathers LP, slammed the Grammy Awards in its second verse, and stated the opinion that negative feelings about his material would keep him from ever winning one.
Business ventures
Shady Records
Shade 45 Sirius
Shady Ltd. Clothing
Shady Games
Eight Mile Style LLC
The Marshall Mathers Foundation
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/17/11 at 7:21 am
The person of the day...Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number one albums on the Billboard 200. He has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 39.6 million albums in the United States alone.
Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.
Eminem has opened other ventures since the beginning of his success. He founded his own record label, Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45. Eminem began an acting career in 2002, when he starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile in which he won The Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award. He is also set to star in the 2013 films Shady Talez and Have Gun, Will Travel. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and television series Entourage.
The Slim Shady EP is a debut extended play by Eminem, published by Web Entertainment in 1997. The Slim Shady EP was released on cassette, vinyl, and CD. The vinyl and CD versions were released in 1998. Eminem first introduced his "Slim Shady" persona on this EP, and his lyrics are a marked departure from those found on Infinite, featuring constant references to drug use, sexual acts, mental instability, and over-the-top violence. Another departure was his exploration of more serious themes of dealing with poverty, his direct and self-deprecating response to criticism, and of marital and family difficulties. His flow is also noticeably different than on Infinite; whereas critics claimed he sounded too much like Nas and AZ on that album. Eminem also began utilizing story telling on this EP. The production value of the music on the tracks — from previous collaborators DJ Head, The Bass Brothers, and Mr. Porter — was also noticeably higher than on prior album efforts. According to Billboard, at this point in his life Eminem had "realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life". After being signed to Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records in 1998, Eminem released his first major studio album, The Slim Shady LP, heavily based on the production by Dr. Dre, one year later in 1999. Billboard praised the album as "light years ahead of the material he had been writing beforehand". It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year. With the album's popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", he describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of his wife's body. Another song, "Guilty Conscience", ends with his encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" marked the beginning of the friendship and musical bond that Dr. Dre and Eminem would share. The two label-mates would later collaborate on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse. Dr. Dre would go on to make at least one guest appearance on all of Eminem's studio albums under the label Aftermath. The album has now been certified 4× platinum by the RIAA. With the release of it, Eminem was accused of imitating the style and subject matter of underground rapper Cage.
2000–02: The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show
The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It went on to sell 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking the records set by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle as the fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time as the fastest-selling solo album in United States history. The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success and created some controversy by insulting celebrities and making dubious claims about them; he states, among other things, that Christina Aguilera performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly. In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals to his fans the pressures from his record company to top "My Name Is" and sell more records. Although Eminem had parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the video "My Name Is", the artists are reportedly on good terms. They performed a remix of the song "The Way I Am" together in concert. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on The Slim Shady LP. In the music video of "Stan", Eminem was shown writing with his left hand, ending the fan debate over his dominant hand. Q magazine named "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time, and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine. This album has been certified 10× Platinum by the RIAA.
Eminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards ceremony in 2001; the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an organization that perceived Eminem's lyrics to be homophobic, condemned the openly gay John's decision to perform with Eminem. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context." On February 21, the day of the ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center, the venue where the Grammy ceremony was held. Music tours that he participated in for 2001 included the Up in Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Ice Cube and Family Values Tour with the band Limp Bizkit.
Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show, was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another hit for the rapper reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1 million copies in its first week of release. It featured the single "Without Me", in which he makes derogatory comments about boy bands, Limp Bizkit, Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, and Moby, among others. The Eminem Show has been certified 10× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album reflected on the impact of his rise to fame, his relationship with his wife and daughter, and his status in the hip-hop community. He also addresses the charges he faced over assaulting a bouncer he saw kissing his wife in 2000. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic felt that while there was clear anger present on several tracks, this album was considerably less inflammatory than The Marshall Mathers LP. However, L. Brent Bozell III, who previously criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for perceived misogynistic lyrics in the album, noted The Eminem Show for its extensive use of obscene language, giving Eminem the nickname "Eminef" for the bowdlerization of motherfudgeer, an obscenity prevalent in the album. The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.
2003–05: Encore
On December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States. The lyrics in question: "fudge money/I don't rap for dead presidents/I'd rather see the president dead/It's never been said, but I set precedents ..." The song in question, "We As Americans", wound up on a bonus CD accompanying the album.
In 2004, Eminem released his fourth major album, Encore. The album was another chart-topper, as it was driven by the single "Just Lose It", notable for being disrespectful towards Michael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Eminem's first single off Encore, Michael Jackson called into the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. The lyrics to "Just Lose It" refer to Jackson's legal troubles, however he does state in his song "... and that's not a stab at Michael/That's just a metaphor/I'm just psycho...." Many of Jackson's supporters and friends spoke out about the video, including Stevie Wonder, who called the video "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullsheesh", and Steve Harvey, who declared, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back." In the video, Eminem parodied Pee-wee Herman, MC Hammer, and "Blond Ambition"-era Madonna. Regarding Jackson's protest, "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on a track titled "Couch Potato" on his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my "Lose Yourself" parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career. So the irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me." Black Entertainment Television was the first channel to stop airing the video. MTV, however, announced it would continue airing the video. The Source, through its CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, wanted not only the video to be pulled, but the song off the album, and a public apology to Jackson from Eminem. In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.
Despite the comedic theme of the lead single, Encore had its fair share of serious subject matter, including the anti-war track "Mosh". On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet. The song featured a very strong anti-Bush message, with lyrics such as "fudge Bush" and "this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president". The video features Eminem gathering up an army of people, including rapper Lloyd Banks, presented as victims of the Bush administration and leading them to the White House. However, once the army breaks in, it is revealed that they are there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words "VOTE Tuesday November 2" on the screen. After Bush was re-elected, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading while Bush was giving a speech.
2005–08: Musical hiatus
Eminem performing live on the Anger Management Tour in August 2005
In 2005, some industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Speculation began in early 2005 about a double-disc album to be released late that year, rumored to be titled The Funeral. The album later manifested itself as a greatest hits album under the name Curtain Call: The Hits in December. In July 2005, the Detroit Free Press broke news of a potential final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inside circle who said that he will begin to fully embrace the role of producer and label executive. On the same day of the release of the compilation album, Eminem denied that he was retiring on Detroit-based WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" radio show, but implied that he would at least be taking a break as an artist, saying "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know." He released The Re-Up with the members of his record label, Shady Records. It was released in 2006.
In 2005, Eminem was a subject of Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America; he ranked No. 58. Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times claiming, "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them." Goldberg cited Eminem's song "No One's Iller" from The Slim Shady EP as an example of misogyny in his music. In summer 2005, Eminem embarked on his first US concert run in three years, the Anger Management 3 Tour, featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil Jon, D12, Obie Trice, The Alchemist, and others. In August 2005, Eminem canceled the European leg of the tour and subsequently announced that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication". Curtain Call: The Hits was released on December 6, 2005, under Aftermath Entertainment. In its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US and was Eminem's fourth straight No. 1 album on the Billboard Hot 200. The album has been certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA.
In September 2007, Eminem called into New York radio station Hot 97 during an interview with 50 Cent and said he was "in limbo" and "debating" about when and if he would release another album. He said, "I'm always working – I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio ... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things it feels good."
Although he had a cameo in the 2001 film, The Wash, Eminem made his official Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile, released in November 2002. He has said the movie is not an account of his life, but a representation of growing up in Detroit. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself," which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running No. 1 hip hop single. However, the song was not performed at the ceremony, due to Eminem's absence at the ceremony. His collaborator, Luis Resto, who co-wrote the song, accepted the award.
Eminem has participated in various voice acting roles. Some of these include the video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof, where he voices an aging corrupt police officer who speaks in Ebonics and guest spots on the Comedy Central television show Crank Yankers, and a web cartoon called The Slim Shady Show, which has since been pulled off-line and is instead sold on DVD. He will be involved in either the soundtrack or scoring. He was also in the running for the part of David Rice in 2008's film Jumper after Tom Sturridge was dropped just two weeks before filming. Concerns over not having a more prominent actor prompted the director, Doug Liman, to consider other actors for the role. He eventually selected Hayden Christensen over Eminem. He also had a cameo appearance in the 2009 movie Funny People, in which he is involved in an argument with Ray Romano.
It was reported on November 8, 2009, that Eminem will star in the upcoming 3D horror anthology, Shady Talez, to be produced by John Davis. A four-issue comic book series based on the film was expected to be published sometime in 2010.
Eminem appeared alongside Christina Aguilera on the Entourage Season 7 finale titled 'Lose Yourself' as himself. David Schiff will executive produce the film, and Antoine Fuqua was confirmed to direct the film. In January 2011, a report surfaced that Eminem will star in the upcoming thriller, Random Acts of Violence.
Memoir
On October 21, 2008, Eminem released a tell-all autobiography entitled The Way I Am, which details his struggles with poverty, drugs, fame, heartbreak and depression, along with stories about his rise to fame and commentary on past controversies. This book also contains some of the original lyric sheets from songs such as "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady."
Advertising
Eminem was featured in two commercials that aired during Super Bowl XLV. The first, for Lipton's Brisk Iced Tea, was a one-minute spot that featured him as a claymation figure. The other was a two-minute ad, the longest in Super Bowl history, for the Chrysler 200. It featured Eminem driving through Detroit and ended with him taking the stage at the Fox Theatre with "Lose Yourself" playing as the soundtrack.
Eminem has spoken openly about his addiction to prescription drugs, including Vicodin, Ambien, Valium and Methadone. His group-mate Proof from D12 stated that Mathers "sobered up" in 2002 from drug and alcohol dependence. However, he did turn to zolpidem (Ambien) sleeping pills for relief from sleeping troubles. This caused Mathers to cancel the European leg of the Anger Management Tour in August 2005 and eventually go into rehab for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication". In a 2009 interview with British talk-show host Jonathan Ross, Mathers admitted that at the height of his addiction, he considered suicide, saying that, "I just wasn't taking care of myself, at times I wanted to just give it up." He also confirmed that he is now sober, commenting that, "ap was my drug ... Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that. Now rap's getting me high again."
Proof's death
On April 11, 2006, Eminem’s best friend and fellow D12 member, Proof was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest at the CCC Club by club bouncer Mario Etheridge on 8 Mile Road in Detroit, Michigan after fatally shooting Keith Bender, Jr. On April 19, 2006, Eminem, D12, 50 Cent, and thousands of others attended the funeral of Proof at The Fellowship Chapel, Detroit. Eminem made two songs about Proof's death on his album Recovery titled "Going Through Changes" and "You're Never Over", and mentions him in songs on Relapse ("Deja Vu" and "Beautiful").
Charity work
Eminem has also founded his own donation charity named The Marshall Mathers Foundation. The charity helps disadvantaged youth in his home state of Michigan. It has made donations to food banks and youth groups and participates in fundraisers with organizations such as Eight Mile Boulevard Association. Eminem has worked exclusively with Norman Yatooma, a high profile attorney in Detroit, Michigan. Mathers will not engage in charitable work without direct partnership with Yatooma and his foundation.
Feuds
Throughout his career, Eminem created a large number of rivals in the music industry, including Ja Rule, Benzino, Everlast, Insane Clown Posse, Canibus and others.
Main articles: Eminem discography and Eminem production discography
Infinite (1996)
The Slim Shady LP (1999)
The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
The Eminem Show (2002)
Encore (2004)
Relapse (2009)
Recovery (2010)
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
2000 Da Hip Hop Witch Himself
Up in Smoke Tour
The Slim Shady Show Various
2001 The Wash Chris Uncredited
2002 8 Mile Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith, Jr. Academy Award for Best Original Song
MTV Movie Award for Best Video from a Film – Lose Yourself
MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance
MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Male Performance
ASCAP Award for Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture – Lose Yourself
Critics Choice Award for Best Song – Lose Yourself
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama/Action Adventure
Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Breakout Star – Male
BMI Film Award for Music
BMI Film Award for Most Performed Song from a Film – Lose Yourself
Nominated – Golden Globe for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture – Lose Yourself
Nominated – CFCA Award for Most Promising Performer
Nominated – Golden Satellite for Best Original Song – Lose Yourself
Nominated – OFCS for Best Breakthrough Performance
Nominated – PFCS for Best Original Song – Lose Yourself
Nominated – Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media – Lose Yourself
2003 50 Cent: The New Breed Himself
2004 Crank Yankers Billy Fletcher TV guest role; voice
2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Himself Inducted Run-D.M.C.
Funny People Cameo
2010 Entourage TV guest spot
Saturday Night Live Performed alongside Lil Wayne a medley of songs including "No Love"
2013 Shady Talez Unknown In Development, Script currently being written by Kevin Grevioux and Dallas Jackson
Have Gun, Will Travel Paladin In Development
Awards and nominations
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Eminem
Eminem has thirteen Grammy Awards. He has been praised for having "verbal energy", high quality of lyricism and has been ranked number nine on MTV's list of The Greatest MCs of All Time. In 2003 he was listed as number thirteen on MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music and number 82 on Rolling Stone's "The Immortals". In 2008, the readers of Vibe Magazine voted him "The Best Rapper Alive". He was also named "Best Rapper Ever" in a poll conducted by music fans on the Vibe website.
Ironically, "The Real Slim Shady", one of the songs from his second Grammy-winning album, The Marshall Mathers LP, slammed the Grammy Awards in its second verse, and stated the opinion that negative feelings about his material would keep him from ever winning one.
Business ventures
Shady Records
Shade 45 Sirius
Shady Ltd. Clothing
Shady Games
Eight Mile Style LLC
The Marshall Mathers Foundation
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/DJReeg21/em-shade45.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h302/DJReeg21/checktheblog/part2/INAD3.jpg
I like a few of his songs.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/17/11 at 7:22 am
I like a few of his songs.
It is the same for me, only a few of his songs I like.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/17/11 at 7:23 am
It is the same for me, only a few of his songs I like.
not crazy about the others.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/17/11 at 7:24 am
not crazy about the others.
In truth, it is his earlier songs.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/17/11 at 9:58 am
It is the same for me, only a few of his songs I like.
I have heard maybe one or two of his early songs, and they are okay IMO.
not crazy about the others.
ditto.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/18/11 at 8:05 am
The person of the day George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
Scott first rose to prominence for his work with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1958, he won an Obie Award for his performances in Children of Darkness (in which he made the first of many appearances opposite his future wife, actress Colleen Dewhurst), for As You Like It, and for playing the title character in William Shakespeare's Richard III (a performance one critic said was the "angriest" Richard III of all time). He was on Broadway the following year, winning critical acclaim for his portrayal of the prosecutor in The Andersonville Trial by Saul Levitt. This was based on the military trial of the commandant of the infamous Civil War prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. His performance earned him a mention in Time magazine. In 1970 Scott directed a highly acclaimed television version of this same play. It starred William Shatner, Richard Basehart, and Jack Cassidy, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance as the defense lawyer in this production.
In Dr. Strangelove
Scott continued to appear in and sometimes direct Broadway productions throughout the 1960s. The most commercially successful show he worked on was Neil Simon's Plaza Suite (1968), composed of three separate one-act plays all utilizing the same set, which ran for 1097 performances. Scott played a different lead role in each act.
Scott appeared in many television series, including the NBC western series The Virginian, in the episode "The Brazen Bell", in which he recites Oscar Wilde's poem "The Ballad Of Reading Gaol". That same year, he appeared in NBC's medical drama The Eleventh Hour, in the episode "I Don't Belong in a White-Painted House".
In 1961 he appeared opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and Julie Harris in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory for television.
In 1963, Scott was top billed in the CBS hour-long drama series East Side, West Side; he and co-star Cicely Tyson played urban social workers. The show lasted only one season. In 1966, Scott appeared as Jud Barker in the NBC western The Road West, starring Barry Sullivan, Kathryn Hays, Andrew Prine, and Glenn Corbett.
Scott won wide public recognition in the film Anatomy of a Murder, in which he played a wily prosecutor opposite James Stewart as the defense attorney. Scott was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Scott's most famous early role was in Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, where he played the part of General "Buck" Turgidson. It is revealed on the DVD documentary that after having shot many takes of any given scene, Stanley Kubrick would frequently ask Scott to redo it in an "over the top" fashion. Kubrick would then proceed to use this version in the final cut, which Scott supposedly resented.
In 1970, Scott portrayed George S. Patton in the 1970 film Patton. Scott had researched extensively for the role, studying films of the general and talking to those who knew him. Scott returned his Oscar for Patton, stating in a letter to the Academy that he didn't feel himself to be in competition with other actors. However, regarding this second rejection of the Academy Award, Scott famously said elsewhere, "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it." Sixteen years later, in 1986, Scott reprised his role in a made-for-television sequel, The Last Days of Patton. The movie was based on Patton's final weeks after being mortally injured in a car accident, with flashbacks of Patton's life. At the time that sequel was aired, Scott mentioned in a TV Guide interview that he had told the Academy to donate his Oscar to the Patton Museum; since the instructions were never put in writing, it was never delivered. The Oscar is currently displayed at the Virginia Military Institute museum in Lexington, Virginia, the same institution that generations of Pattons have attended. Scott did not turn down the New York Film Critics Award for his performance (of which his wife Colleen Dewhurst said, "George thinks this is the only film award worth having").
He continued to do stage work throughout the rest of his career, receiving Tony Award nominations for his performance as Astrov in a revival of Uncle Vanya (1973), his Willy Loman in a revival of Death of a Salesman (1975), and his performance as Henry Drummond in a revival of Inherit the Wind (1996). In the latter play, he had to miss an unusually large number of performances due to illness, with his role being taken over by National Actors Theatre artistic director Tony Randall. In 1996, he also won an honorary Drama Desk Award for a lifetime devotion to theatre.
Scott also starred in well-received productions of Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox (1976) (based on Ben Jonson's Volpone), which ran 495 performances, and a revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter (1982). He frequently directed on Broadway as well, including productions of All God's Chillun Got Wings (1975) and Design for Living (1985), as well as being an actor/director in Death of a Salesman, Present Laughter, and On Borrowed Time (1991).
In 1971, Scott gave two more critically acclaimed performances, as a de facto Sherlock Holmes in They Might Be Giants and as an alcoholic doctor in the black comedy The Hospital. Despite his repeated snubbing of the Academy, Scott was again nominated for Best Actor for the latter role. Scott excelled on television that year as well, appearing in an adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Price, an installment of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology. He was nominated for, and won, an Emmy Award for his role, which he accepted.
Scott also starred in the popular 1980 horror film The Changeling, with Melvyn Douglas. He received the Canadian Genie Award for Best Foreign Film Actor for his performance. In 1981, Scott appeared alongside 20-year-old Academy Award winning actor Timothy Hutton and rising stars Sean Penn and Tom Cruise in the coming-of-age film Taps. The following year, Scott was cast as Fagin in the CBS made-for-TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. In 1984, Scott portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in a television adaptation of A Christmas Carol. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role.
On Influences:
I think I learned to act from people like James Cagney and Paul Muni. And I'm sure I learned more from Bette Davis than anyone. She has enormous presence, a sense of surprise. She sets you up like a great boxer and BAM! she gives you something else. She does have a certain consistent style, but when you examine her work you find enormous variety of color and intelligence.
“
”
Scott on Some Aspects of Acting, Time Magazine, Mar. 22,1971.
In 1989, Scott starred in the television movie The Ryan White Story, as a lawyer defending Ryan White from discrimination.
In 1990, he voiced the villain Smoke in the TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, where his character was alongside popular cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny. That same year, he voiced the villain Percival McLeach in the Disney film The Rescuers Down Under and was featured in The Exorcist III. The following year, he hosted the TV series Weapons At War on A&E TV but was replaced after one season by Gerald McRaney for the last two seasons. Weapons At War moved to The History Channel with Scott still being shown as host for the first season. Scott was replaced by Robert Conrad in 2000 after his death in 1999.
Scott had a reputation for being moody and mercurial while on the set. "There is no question you get pumped up by the recognition," he once said, "Then a self-loathing sets in when you realize you're enjoying it." A famous anecdote relates that one of his stage costars, Maureen Stapleton, told the director of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, "I don't know what to do—I'm scared of him." The director, Mike Nichols, replied, "My dear, everyone is scared of George C. Scott."
Politics
In 1988, Scott appeared in a campaign commercial for liberal Republican U.S. Senator Lowell P. Weicker of Connecticut. Like Weicker, Scott was a resident of Greenwich, Connecticut. Scott's commercial became known as the "Patton ad." Weicker narrowly lost the election to then-Connecticut Attorney General Joseph Lieberman.
Personal life
Scott was married five times:
Carolyn Hughes (1951–1955) (one daughter, Victoria, born December 19, 1952)
Patricia Reed (1955–1960) (two children: Matthew – born May 27, 1957 – and actress Devon Scott – born November 29, 1958).
The Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst (1960–1965), by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott (born August 1960), and actor Campbell Scott (born July 19, 1961). Dewhurst nicknamed her husband "G.C."
He remarried Colleen Dewhurst on July 4, 1967, but they divorced for a second time on February 2, 1972.
The American actress Trish Van Devere on September 4, 1972, with whom he starred in several films, including the supernatural thriller The Changeling (1980). They remained married until his death in 1999.
Scott also had a daughter, Michelle, born August 21, 1954, with Karen Truesdell.
Death
Scott died on September 22, 1999 a month before his 72nd birthday from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. His remains were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, in an unmarked grave. Walter Matthau, who died less than a year later, was buried next to him.
Filmography
The Hanging Tree (1959)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
The Hustler (1961)
The Power and the Glory (1961) (TV)
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
The Car That Became a Star (1965) (short subject)
The Bible: In the Beginning (1966)
Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
The Flim-Flam Man (1967)
Petulia (1968)
Patton (1970)
Jane Eyre (1970)
They Might Be Giants (1971)
The Last Run (1971)
The Hospital (1971)
The New Centurions (1972)
Rage (1972)
Oklahoma Crude (1973)
The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
Bank Shot (1974)
The Savage Is Loose (1974)
The Hindenburg (1975)
Beauty and the Beast (Hallmark Hall of Fame) (1976)
Islands in the Stream (1977)
Crossed Swords (1977)
The Prince and the Pauper (1977)
Movie Movie (1978)
Hardcore (1979)
The Changeling (1980)
The Formula (1980)
Taps (1981)
Oliver Twist (TV film) (1982)
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Firestarter (1984)
Mussolini: The Untold Story (TV) (1985)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (TV) (1986)
The Last Days of Patton (TV) (1986)
Pals (1987)
Mr. President (TV series) (1987–1988)
Descending Angel(1990)
The Exorcist III (1990)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990) (voice)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (voice)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991) (documentary)
Malice (1993)
Curaçao released as CIA: Exiled (DVD) (1993)
Angus (1995)
Tyson (TV) (1995)
Titanic (TV) (1996)
12 Angry Men (1997 film)
Country Justice (TV) (1997)
Gloria (1999)
Rocky Marciano (1999)
Inherit the Wind (TV) (1999)
http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx97/JML9999/strangelove.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/popilisco/GeorgeCScott.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/18/11 at 8:15 am
The person of the day George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
Scott first rose to prominence for his work with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1958, he won an Obie Award for his performances in Children of Darkness (in which he made the first of many appearances opposite his future wife, actress Colleen Dewhurst), for As You Like It, and for playing the title character in William Shakespeare's Richard III (a performance one critic said was the "angriest" Richard III of all time). He was on Broadway the following year, winning critical acclaim for his portrayal of the prosecutor in The Andersonville Trial by Saul Levitt. This was based on the military trial of the commandant of the infamous Civil War prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. His performance earned him a mention in Time magazine. In 1970 Scott directed a highly acclaimed television version of this same play. It starred William Shatner, Richard Basehart, and Jack Cassidy, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance as the defense lawyer in this production.
In Dr. Strangelove
Scott continued to appear in and sometimes direct Broadway productions throughout the 1960s. The most commercially successful show he worked on was Neil Simon's Plaza Suite (1968), composed of three separate one-act plays all utilizing the same set, which ran for 1097 performances. Scott played a different lead role in each act.
Scott appeared in many television series, including the NBC western series The Virginian, in the episode "The Brazen Bell", in which he recites Oscar Wilde's poem "The Ballad Of Reading Gaol". That same year, he appeared in NBC's medical drama The Eleventh Hour, in the episode "I Don't Belong in a White-Painted House".
In 1961 he appeared opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and Julie Harris in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory for television.
In 1963, Scott was top billed in the CBS hour-long drama series East Side, West Side; he and co-star Cicely Tyson played urban social workers. The show lasted only one season. In 1966, Scott appeared as Jud Barker in the NBC western The Road West, starring Barry Sullivan, Kathryn Hays, Andrew Prine, and Glenn Corbett.
Scott won wide public recognition in the film Anatomy of a Murder, in which he played a wily prosecutor opposite James Stewart as the defense attorney. Scott was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Scott's most famous early role was in Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, where he played the part of General "Buck" Turgidson. It is revealed on the DVD documentary that after having shot many takes of any given scene, Stanley Kubrick would frequently ask Scott to redo it in an "over the top" fashion. Kubrick would then proceed to use this version in the final cut, which Scott supposedly resented.
In 1970, Scott portrayed George S. Patton in the 1970 film Patton. Scott had researched extensively for the role, studying films of the general and talking to those who knew him. Scott returned his Oscar for Patton, stating in a letter to the Academy that he didn't feel himself to be in competition with other actors. However, regarding this second rejection of the Academy Award, Scott famously said elsewhere, "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it." Sixteen years later, in 1986, Scott reprised his role in a made-for-television sequel, The Last Days of Patton. The movie was based on Patton's final weeks after being mortally injured in a car accident, with flashbacks of Patton's life. At the time that sequel was aired, Scott mentioned in a TV Guide interview that he had told the Academy to donate his Oscar to the Patton Museum; since the instructions were never put in writing, it was never delivered. The Oscar is currently displayed at the Virginia Military Institute museum in Lexington, Virginia, the same institution that generations of Pattons have attended. Scott did not turn down the New York Film Critics Award for his performance (of which his wife Colleen Dewhurst said, "George thinks this is the only film award worth having").
He continued to do stage work throughout the rest of his career, receiving Tony Award nominations for his performance as Astrov in a revival of Uncle Vanya (1973), his Willy Loman in a revival of Death of a Salesman (1975), and his performance as Henry Drummond in a revival of Inherit the Wind (1996). In the latter play, he had to miss an unusually large number of performances due to illness, with his role being taken over by National Actors Theatre artistic director Tony Randall. In 1996, he also won an honorary Drama Desk Award for a lifetime devotion to theatre.
Scott also starred in well-received productions of Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox (1976) (based on Ben Jonson's Volpone), which ran 495 performances, and a revival of Noel Coward's Present Laughter (1982). He frequently directed on Broadway as well, including productions of All God's Chillun Got Wings (1975) and Design for Living (1985), as well as being an actor/director in Death of a Salesman, Present Laughter, and On Borrowed Time (1991).
In 1971, Scott gave two more critically acclaimed performances, as a de facto Sherlock Holmes in They Might Be Giants and as an alcoholic doctor in the black comedy The Hospital. Despite his repeated snubbing of the Academy, Scott was again nominated for Best Actor for the latter role. Scott excelled on television that year as well, appearing in an adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Price, an installment of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology. He was nominated for, and won, an Emmy Award for his role, which he accepted.
Scott also starred in the popular 1980 horror film The Changeling, with Melvyn Douglas. He received the Canadian Genie Award for Best Foreign Film Actor for his performance. In 1981, Scott appeared alongside 20-year-old Academy Award winning actor Timothy Hutton and rising stars Sean Penn and Tom Cruise in the coming-of-age film Taps. The following year, Scott was cast as Fagin in the CBS made-for-TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. In 1984, Scott portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in a television adaptation of A Christmas Carol. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role.
On Influences:
I think I learned to act from people like James Cagney and Paul Muni. And I'm sure I learned more from Bette Davis than anyone. She has enormous presence, a sense of surprise. She sets you up like a great boxer and BAM! she gives you something else. She does have a certain consistent style, but when you examine her work you find enormous variety of color and intelligence.
“
”
Scott on Some Aspects of Acting, Time Magazine, Mar. 22,1971.
In 1989, Scott starred in the television movie The Ryan White Story, as a lawyer defending Ryan White from discrimination.
In 1990, he voiced the villain Smoke in the TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, where his character was alongside popular cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny. That same year, he voiced the villain Percival McLeach in the Disney film The Rescuers Down Under and was featured in The Exorcist III. The following year, he hosted the TV series Weapons At War on A&E TV but was replaced after one season by Gerald McRaney for the last two seasons. Weapons At War moved to The History Channel with Scott still being shown as host for the first season. Scott was replaced by Robert Conrad in 2000 after his death in 1999.
Scott had a reputation for being moody and mercurial while on the set. "There is no question you get pumped up by the recognition," he once said, "Then a self-loathing sets in when you realize you're enjoying it." A famous anecdote relates that one of his stage costars, Maureen Stapleton, told the director of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, "I don't know what to do—I'm scared of him." The director, Mike Nichols, replied, "My dear, everyone is scared of George C. Scott."
Politics
In 1988, Scott appeared in a campaign commercial for liberal Republican U.S. Senator Lowell P. Weicker of Connecticut. Like Weicker, Scott was a resident of Greenwich, Connecticut. Scott's commercial became known as the "Patton ad." Weicker narrowly lost the election to then-Connecticut Attorney General Joseph Lieberman.
Personal life
Scott was married five times:
Carolyn Hughes (1951–1955) (one daughter, Victoria, born December 19, 1952)
Patricia Reed (1955–1960) (two children: Matthew – born May 27, 1957 – and actress Devon Scott – born November 29, 1958).
The Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst (1960–1965), by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott (born August 1960), and actor Campbell Scott (born July 19, 1961). Dewhurst nicknamed her husband "G.C."
He remarried Colleen Dewhurst on July 4, 1967, but they divorced for a second time on February 2, 1972.
The American actress Trish Van Devere on September 4, 1972, with whom he starred in several films, including the supernatural thriller The Changeling (1980). They remained married until his death in 1999.
Scott also had a daughter, Michelle, born August 21, 1954, with Karen Truesdell.
Death
Scott died on September 22, 1999 a month before his 72nd birthday from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. His remains were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, in an unmarked grave. Walter Matthau, who died less than a year later, was buried next to him.
Filmography
The Hanging Tree (1959)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
The Hustler (1961)
The Power and the Glory (1961) (TV)
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
The Car That Became a Star (1965) (short subject)
The Bible: In the Beginning (1966)
Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
The Flim-Flam Man (1967)
Petulia (1968)
Patton (1970)
Jane Eyre (1970)
They Might Be Giants (1971)
The Last Run (1971)
The Hospital (1971)
The New Centurions (1972)
Rage (1972)
Oklahoma Crude (1973)
The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
Bank Shot (1974)
The Savage Is Loose (1974)
The Hindenburg (1975)
Beauty and the Beast (Hallmark Hall of Fame) (1976)
Islands in the Stream (1977)
Crossed Swords (1977)
The Prince and the Pauper (1977)
Movie Movie (1978)
Hardcore (1979)
The Changeling (1980)
The Formula (1980)
Taps (1981)
Oliver Twist (TV film) (1982)
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Firestarter (1984)
Mussolini: The Untold Story (TV) (1985)
The Murders in the Rue Morgue (TV) (1986)
The Last Days of Patton (TV) (1986)
Pals (1987)
Mr. President (TV series) (1987–1988)
Descending Angel(1990)
The Exorcist III (1990)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990) (voice)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (voice)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991) (documentary)
Malice (1993)
Curaçao released as CIA: Exiled (DVD) (1993)
Angus (1995)
Tyson (TV) (1995)
Titanic (TV) (1996)
12 Angry Men (1997 film)
Country Justice (TV) (1997)
Gloria (1999)
Rocky Marciano (1999)
Inherit the Wind (TV) (1999)
http://i745.photobucket.com/albums/xx97/JML9999/strangelove.jpg
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/popilisco/GeorgeCScott.jpg
He was good in Dr Stranglelove as General Buck Turgidson.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/19/11 at 8:48 am
The person of the day...Divine
Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, was an American actor, singer and drag queen. Described by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century", Divine often performed female roles in both cinema and theater and also appeared in women's clothing in musical performances. Even so, he considered himself to be a character actor and performed male roles in a number of his later films. He was often associated with independent filmmaker John Waters and starred in ten of Waters's films, usually in a leading role. Concurrent with his acting career, he also had a successful career as a disco singer during the 1980s, at one point being described as "the most successful and in-demand disco performer in the world."
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a conservative, wealthy middle class family, he became involved with John Waters and his acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, in the mid-1960s and starred in a number of Waters's early films such as Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. These films have since become cult classics. In the 1970s, Milstead made the transition to theater and appeared in a number of productions, including Women Behind Bars and The Neon Woman, while continuing to star in such films as Polyester, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray.
The New York Times said of Milstead's '80s films: "Those who could get past the unremitting weirdness of Divine's performance discovered that the actor/actress had genuine talent, including a natural sense of comic timing and an uncanny gift for slapstick." He was also described as "one of the few truly radical and essential artists of the century… was an audacious symbol of man's quest for liberty and freedom." Since his death, Divine has remained a cult figure, particularly with those in the LGBT community, of which he was a part, being openly gay.
It was in the mid-1960s that Milstead became acquainted with John Waters, who was his own age and lived in the same neighborhood. Waters was an aspiring filmmaker, intent on making "the trashiest motion pictures in cinema history" and had assembled an assortment of actors for the purpose, whom he termed the Dreamlanders. After meeting Milstead through mutual friend Carol, Waters invited him to appear as the Smoking Nun in his second short film, Roman Candles, which was produced in 1966 and featured Milstead and the other Dreamlanders shoplifting and then modeling their shoplifted clothes.
It was Waters who created the name "Divine" in reference to Milstead, who would adopt and use it for the rest of his life. Divine also appeared in Waters's third film, Eat Your Makeup, in 1968, in which he wore women's clothing (or drag) to play Jackie Kennedy, who was kidnapping models and forcing them to model and eat their own make-up. In 1969, he then appeared in Waters's next short film, The Diane Linkletter Story, in which Divine played the eponymous Diane Linkletter, a teenager who rebels against her parents and then commits suicide. Based upon a true story, the film was not publicly released at the time, largely for legal reasons. In 1969, soon after the production of The Diane Linkletter Story, Waters began filming a full-length motion picture, Mondo Trasho, which starred Divine as one of the main characters, a "portly blonde bombshell" who drives around town and runs over a hitchhiker.
In 1970, Divine played Lady Divine, the operator of an exhibit known as The Cavalcade of Perversion who turned to murdering visitors in Waters' film Multiple Maniacs. At the film's end, a scene was shot that involved Divine's being raped by a giant lobster named Lobstora, before she runs around Baltimore in a craze attempting to kill anyone who passed. Multiple Maniacs was the first of Waters's films to receive widespread attention, and, as such, so did Divine. KSFX remarked that "Divine is incredible! Could start a whole new trend in films."
Divine kept his involvement with Waters and these early underground films a secret from his conservative parents, whom he felt would not understand them or the reason for his involvement in such controversial and bad-taste films. Meanwhile, aged twenty-three, he moved away from his parents' home and opened up a short-lived vintage clothes shop, Divine Trash, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, using his parents' money to rent the premises. Divine later closed up his shop and spent some time in San Francisco, California, a city which at the time had a large gay subculture that attracted Divine, who was then embracing his homosexuality.
Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and theatre work: 1971–1979
Following his San Francisco sojourn, Divine returned to Baltimore and participated in John Waters's next project, the film Pink Flamingos. Designed by Waters to be "an exercise in bad taste," the film featured Divine as Babs Johnson, "the filthiest person alive," who is forced to prove her right to the title from challengers, jealous perverts Connie and Raymond Marble. At the film's end, Divine notoriously placed fresh dog feces in her mouth, symbolizing the character's right to the title. The movie became one of the biggest cult hits of the 1970s and made Divine somewhat famous in the underground circuit.
Whilst he had been keeping his involvement with Waters' underground film-making a secret from his parents, he had continued to rely on them financially, charging them for expensive parties that he held and writing bad cheques. After he charged them for a major repair to his car in 1972, his parents confiscated it from him and told him that they would not continue to financially support him in such a manner. In retaliation, he came by their house the following day, collected his two pet dogs and then disappeared, not seeing or speaking with them for the next nine years. Instead, he would send them over fifty postcards from all over the world, informing them that he was fine, but on none of them did he leave a return address so that they could contact him.
When the filming of Pink Flamingos finished, Divine returned to San Francisco, where, along with fellow Dreamlander Mink Stole, he became the star in a number of small-budget plays as part of a group known as The Cockettes, including Divine and Her Stimulating Studs, Divine Saves the World, Vice Palace, Journey to the Center of Uranus and The Heartbreak of Psoriasis.
In 1974, Divine returned to Baltimore again to film Waters's next motion picture, Female Trouble, in which he played the lead role, a teenage delinquent, Dawn Davenport, who holds to the idea that "crime is art" and who is eventually executed in the electric chair for her violent behavior. Divine also played his first on-screen male role, Earl Peterson, in the film, and Waters included a scene during which these two characters had sex as a joke on the fact that both characters were played by the same actor. Female Trouble would prove to be Divine's favorite part, because it both allowed him to develop his character and to finally play a male role, something he had always felt important because he did not want to be typecast as a female impersonator.
Soon after, he returned to theater, this time taking the role of prison matron Pauline in Tom Eyen's prison-based comedy Women Behind Bars. Produced in New York City, the play proved popular and for this reason was later taken to London, where it was less successful. Playwright Eyen was however particularly impressed with Divine's performance and decided to write a new play that would feature him in a starring role. The result was The Neon Woman, set in the 1960s, featuring Divine as Flash Storm, the owner of a Baltimore strip club.
Early disco work and Polyester: 1980–1983
After abandoning his former agent, Robert Hussong, for the British theater director Bernard Jay in 1979, Divine became involved in the club scene. He first appeared at a gay club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where his unscripted act included shouting "fudge you" repeatedly at the audience and then getting into a fight with another drag queen, a gimmick that proved popular with the club's clientele. Subsequently, he saw the commercial potential of including disco songs in with his act and, with composer Henry Krieger created the song "Born to be Cheap." He then joined forces with young American composer Bobby Orlando, who wrote a number of singles for Divine, including "Native Love (Step By Step)," "Shoot Your Shot" and "Love Reaction". To help publicize these singles, which proved to be successful in many discos across the world, Divine went on a series of tours and combined his musical performances with comedic stunts and routines that often played up to his characters' stereotype of being "trashy" and outrageous. Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Divine took his musical performances on tour across the world.
Meanwhile, in 1981 Divine appeared in John Waters's next film, Polyester, starring as Francine Fishpaw, a figure who, unlike earlier roles, was not a strong female but a meek and victimized woman who falls in love with her dream lover, Todd Tomorrow, played by Tab Hunter. In real life, tabloid publications claimed a romantic connection between them, an assertion both denied. The film was released in "odorama," accompanied by "scratch 'n' sniff" cards for the audience to smell at key points in the film. Soon after Polyester, Divine auditioned for a male role in Ridley Scott's upcoming science-fiction film Blade Runner. Even though Scott thought Divine unsuitable for the part, he claimed to be enthusiastic about Divine's work and was very interested in including him in another of his films, but ultimately this never came about.
That same year, Divine decided to get back in contact with his estranged parents. His mother had learned of his cinematic and disco career after reading an article about the films of John Waters in Life magazine, and had gone to see Female Trouble at the cinema, but had not felt emotionally able to get back in contact with her son until 1981. She got a friend of hers to hand Divine a note at one of his concerts, leading Divine to telephone her, and the family were subsequently reunited. The reconnection resulted in a mended relationship, and he bought them lavish gifts, informing them of how wealthy he was despite the fact that, according to his manager Bernard Jay, he was already heavily in debt due to his extravagant spending.
Later disco work, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray: 1984–1988
Whilst his career as a disco singer continued, Divine and his management felt that, despite the fact that Divine's records had sold well, they were not receiving their share of the profits, and so they went to court against Orlando and his company, O-Records. Successfully nullifying their contract, they went on to sign with Barry Evangeli's company, InTune Music Limited, for whom Divine released several new disco records, including "You Think You're A Man" and "I'm So Beautiful."
The next Divine film, Lust in the Dust (1985), reunited him with Tab Hunter and was Divine's first film not directed by John Waters. Set in the Wild West during the nineteenth century, the movie was a sex comedy that starred Divine as Rosie Velez, a "slut" who works as a singer in saloons and competes for the love of Abel Wood (Tab Hunter) against another woman. Divine followed this production with a very different role, that of male gangster Hilly Blue in Trouble in Mind (1985). The script was written with Divine in mind, and although not being a major character in the film, Divine had been eager to play the part, because he wished to perform in more male roles and leave behind the stereotype of simply being a female impersonator.
He again became involved with a John Waters project, the film Hairspray (1988), set in the 1960s. Divine played two roles, male and female, as in Waters's earlier Female Trouble.
He was originally cast as an airplane passenger in the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, but died before the film was in production.
Appearing on American television chat shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, Thicke of the Night and The Merv Griffin Show to promote both his music and his film appearances throughout the 1980s, Divine became a well-known celebrity, and Divine-themed merchandise was produced, including greeting cards and The Simple Divine Cut-Out Doll Book. Because of this, several famous artists, including David Hockney and Andy Warhol, both of whom were known for their works which dealt with popular culture, painted portraits of him.
Death
Milstead's grave at Prospect Hill Park Cemetery, Towson, Maryland.
On the evening of March 7, 1988, a week after Hairspray was released, Divine was staying at the Regency Hotel in Los Angeles. The next day, he was scheduled to film his part in the Fox network's television series Married... with Children. After dining with friends and returning to the hotel, he died in his sleep of an enlarged heart at age 42.
Drag persona and performance
Divine: "How much did you pay to get in tonight?"
Audience: "Ten dollars."
Divine: "Well now, that's eight dollars to see the show - and two dollars to fudge me right after. All line up outside the dressing room and I'll be here till Christmas!"
Divine to his audience
After developing a name for himself as a female impersonator known for "trashy" behavior in his early John Waters' films, Divine decided to capitalize on this image by appearing at his musical performances in his drag persona. In this role, he would be described as displaying "Trash. Filth. Obscenity. In bucket-loads." Divine himself would describe his stage performances as "just good, dirty fun, and if you find it offensive, honey, don't join in." As a part of his performance, he would constantly swear at the audience, often using his signature line of "fudge you very much", and at times would get audience members to come onstage, where he would fondle their buttocks, groins and breasts.
He became increasingly known for outlandish stunts onstage, each time trying to outdo what he had done before. At one performance, held in the Hippodrome in London, that coincided with American Independence Day, Divine rose up from the floor on a hydraulic lift, draped in the American flag, and declared that "I'm here representing Freedom, Liberty, Family Values and the fudgeing American Way of Life." When he performed at London Gay Pride parade, he sang on the roof of a hired pleasure boat that floated down the Thames past Jubilee Gardens, whilst at a performance he gave at the Hippodrome in the last year of his life, he appeared onstage riding an infant elephant, known as Bully the Elephant, who had been hired for the occasion. Nonetheless, Divine was not overly happy being known primarily for his drag act, and would tell an interviewer that "my favorite part of drag is getting out of it. Drag is my work clothes. I only put it on when someone pays me to."
Divine and his stage act proved particularly popular amongst gay audiences, and he appeared at some of the world’s biggest gay clubs, such as Heaven in London. According to Divine's manager, Bernard Jay, this was "not because Divine happened to be a gay person himself… but because it was the gay community that openly and proudly identified with the determination of the female character Divine".
Personal life
"I think I've always been respectable. What I do onstage is not what I do in my private life… It's an act… It's how I make my living. People laugh, and it's not hurting anyone."
Divine (1983)
Despite some claims made to the contrary, Divine always considered himself to be male, and was not transgender or transsexual. He used the term "Divine" as his personal name, telling one interviewer that both "Divine" and "Glenn Milstead" were "both just names. Glenn is the name I was brought up with, Divine is the name I've been using for the past twenty-three years. I guess it's always Glenn and it's always Divine. Do you mean the character Divine or the person Divine? You see, it gets very complicated. There's the Divine you're talking to now and there's the character Divine, which is just something I do to make a living. She doesn't really exist at all." At one point he had the name "Divine" officially recognized, as it appeared on his passport, and in keeping with his personal use of the name, his close friends nicknamed him "Divi".
Divine was homosexual, and during the 1980s had an extended relationship with a married man named Lee, who accompanied him almost everywhere that he went. They later separated, and Divine would go on to have a brief affair with the gay porn star Leo Ford, something that was widely written and gossiped about in the gay press. Divine would also regularly engage in sexual activities with young men that he would meet whilst performing, sometimes becoming infatuated with them: in one case, he met a young man in Israel who he slept with and subsequently wanted to bring back to the United States, something that his manager prevented him from doing. Divine initially avoided informing the media about his sexuality, even when questioned by interviewers, and would sometimes hint that he was bisexual, but in the latter part of the 1980s decided to change this attitude, and began being open about his homosexuality. Nonetheless, he avoided getting into discussions regarding gay rights, partially at the advice of his manager, realising that it would have had a negative effect on his career.
Divine's mother, Frances Milstead, remarked that whilst Divine "was blessed with many talents and abilities, he could be very moody and demanding." She went on to note that whilst he was "incredibly kind and generous", he always wanted to get things done the way that he wanted, and would "tune you out if you displeased him."
Despite his stature as a trend-setter in gay culture, Divine was also a big fan of what he called "macho action films". He told Terry Gross in an interview conducted shortly before his death that he was a fan of Sylvester Stallone films, and that his favorite actor was Charles Bronson.
Divine had suffered from problems with obesity ever since he was a child, for the reason that he "liked to eat - and eat - and eat - and drink gallons of Coca-Cola", with his hunger being increased by his smoking marijuana daily. In the last few years of his life, when Divine began to realize that his career in disco was coming to an end, and he was having difficulty finding acting jobs, he began to feel suicidal and threatened to kill himself on a number of occasions. Meanwhile, Dutch friends of Divine gave him two bulldogs in the 1980s, which he doted on, and named Beatrix and Klaus after the Queen Beatrix and her husband Prince Claus of the Netherlands. On numerous occasions he would have his photograph taken with them, and sometimes use these images for record covers and posters.
Legacy and influence
Two books have been published about Divine since his death. The first, which was entitled Not Simply Divine!, was written by his manager and friend Bernard Jay, and published in 1992 by Virgin Books. The second, My Son Divine (2001), was written by his mother, Frances Milstead, and dealt with her sometimes fractious relationship with her son. His mother's continued relationship with the gay community was later documented in a film Frances: A Mother Divine directed by Tim Dunn and Michael O'Quinn which was released in 2010.
Another book entitled "Postcards From Divine" is due for release from the Divine estate in 2012. It is a collection of more than 50 postcards Divine sent to his parents while traveling the world as a pop star between 1977 and 1987. The ibook version of the book includes a narration by a vocal impersonator which John Waters called "Spooky" and "channeling". It also includes quotes and stories from his friends and colleagues including John Waters, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Channing Wilroy, Susan Lowe, Jean Hill, Tab Hunter, Lainie Kazan, Alan J. Wendl, Ruth Brown, Deborah Harry, Jerry Stiller, Ricki Lake and more.
Divine was the inspiration for the design of Ursula the Sea-Witch, the villain in the Disney 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid.
Meanwhile, Divine has left an influence on a number of musicians as well. Antony Hegarty of the band Antony and the Johnsons wrote a song about Divine which was included in the group's self-titled debut album, released in 1998. The song, titled "Divine", was an ode to the actor, who was one of Antony's life-long heroes. His admiration is expressed in the lines: "He was my self-determined guru" and "I turn to think of you/Who walked the way with so much pain/Who holds the mirror up to fools". Another such example of Divine's influence on musicians appeared in 2008, when Irish electronic singer Róisín Murphy paid homage to Divine in her music video for her song "Movie Star" by reenacting the attack by Lobstora from his 1970 film Multiple Maniacs and by the appearance of Divine lookalikes.
Due to Divine's portrayal of Edna Turnblad in the original comedy-film version of Hairspray, later musical adaptations of Hairspray have commonly placed male actors in the role of Edna, including Harvey Fierstein and others in the 2002 Broadway musical and John Travolta in the 2007 musical film.
I Am Divine, a feature documentary on the life of Divine, is currently in production. It is produced and directed by Jeffrey Schwarz of Los Angeles based production company Automat Pictures.
A 12 foot tall statue in the likeness of Divine by Andrew Logan can be seen on permanent display at The American Visionary Art Museum in Divine's home town of Baltimore, Maryland.
Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1966 Roman Candles The Smoking Nun
1968 Eat Your Makeup Jacqueline Kennedy
1969 The Diane Linkletter Story Diane Linkletter
Mondo Trasho Divine
1970 Multiple Maniacs Lady Divine
1972 Pink Flamingos Divine / Babs Johnson
1974 Female Trouble Dawn Davenport / Earl Peterson
1981 Polyester Francine Fishpaw
1985 Lust in the Dust Rosie Velez Nominated - Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Trouble in Mind Hilly Blue
Divine Waters Himself Documentary
1988 Hairspray Edna Turnblad / Arvin Hodgepile Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1989 Out of the Dark Det. Langella
1998 Divine Trash Himself Archive footage used for documentary
2000 In Bad Taste
2002 The Cockettes
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1987 Tales from the Darkside Chia Fung 1 episode
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/baltoco/artists/170px-Actor_Devine.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/19/11 at 12:30 pm
The person of the day...Divine
Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, was an American actor, singer and drag queen. Described by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century", Divine often performed female roles in both cinema and theater and also appeared in women's clothing in musical performances. Even so, he considered himself to be a character actor and performed male roles in a number of his later films. He was often associated with independent filmmaker John Waters and starred in ten of Waters's films, usually in a leading role. Concurrent with his acting career, he also had a successful career as a disco singer during the 1980s, at one point being described as "the most successful and in-demand disco performer in the world."
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a conservative, wealthy middle class family, he became involved with John Waters and his acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, in the mid-1960s and starred in a number of Waters's early films such as Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. These films have since become cult classics. In the 1970s, Milstead made the transition to theater and appeared in a number of productions, including Women Behind Bars and The Neon Woman, while continuing to star in such films as Polyester, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray.
The New York Times said of Milstead's '80s films: "Those who could get past the unremitting weirdness of Divine's performance discovered that the actor/actress had genuine talent, including a natural sense of comic timing and an uncanny gift for slapstick." He was also described as "one of the few truly radical and essential artists of the century… was an audacious symbol of man's quest for liberty and freedom." Since his death, Divine has remained a cult figure, particularly with those in the LGBT community, of which he was a part, being openly gay.
It was in the mid-1960s that Milstead became acquainted with John Waters, who was his own age and lived in the same neighborhood. Waters was an aspiring filmmaker, intent on making "the trashiest motion pictures in cinema history" and had assembled an assortment of actors for the purpose, whom he termed the Dreamlanders. After meeting Milstead through mutual friend Carol, Waters invited him to appear as the Smoking Nun in his second short film, Roman Candles, which was produced in 1966 and featured Milstead and the other Dreamlanders shoplifting and then modeling their shoplifted clothes.
It was Waters who created the name "Divine" in reference to Milstead, who would adopt and use it for the rest of his life. Divine also appeared in Waters's third film, Eat Your Makeup, in 1968, in which he wore women's clothing (or drag) to play Jackie Kennedy, who was kidnapping models and forcing them to model and eat their own make-up. In 1969, he then appeared in Waters's next short film, The Diane Linkletter Story, in which Divine played the eponymous Diane Linkletter, a teenager who rebels against her parents and then commits suicide. Based upon a true story, the film was not publicly released at the time, largely for legal reasons. In 1969, soon after the production of The Diane Linkletter Story, Waters began filming a full-length motion picture, Mondo Trasho, which starred Divine as one of the main characters, a "portly blonde bombshell" who drives around town and runs over a hitchhiker.
In 1970, Divine played Lady Divine, the operator of an exhibit known as The Cavalcade of Perversion who turned to murdering visitors in Waters' film Multiple Maniacs. At the film's end, a scene was shot that involved Divine's being raped by a giant lobster named Lobstora, before she runs around Baltimore in a craze attempting to kill anyone who passed. Multiple Maniacs was the first of Waters's films to receive widespread attention, and, as such, so did Divine. KSFX remarked that "Divine is incredible! Could start a whole new trend in films."
Divine kept his involvement with Waters and these early underground films a secret from his conservative parents, whom he felt would not understand them or the reason for his involvement in such controversial and bad-taste films. Meanwhile, aged twenty-three, he moved away from his parents' home and opened up a short-lived vintage clothes shop, Divine Trash, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, using his parents' money to rent the premises. Divine later closed up his shop and spent some time in San Francisco, California, a city which at the time had a large gay subculture that attracted Divine, who was then embracing his homosexuality.
Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and theatre work: 1971–1979
Following his San Francisco sojourn, Divine returned to Baltimore and participated in John Waters's next project, the film Pink Flamingos. Designed by Waters to be "an exercise in bad taste," the film featured Divine as Babs Johnson, "the filthiest person alive," who is forced to prove her right to the title from challengers, jealous perverts Connie and Raymond Marble. At the film's end, Divine notoriously placed fresh dog feces in her mouth, symbolizing the character's right to the title. The movie became one of the biggest cult hits of the 1970s and made Divine somewhat famous in the underground circuit.
Whilst he had been keeping his involvement with Waters' underground film-making a secret from his parents, he had continued to rely on them financially, charging them for expensive parties that he held and writing bad cheques. After he charged them for a major repair to his car in 1972, his parents confiscated it from him and told him that they would not continue to financially support him in such a manner. In retaliation, he came by their house the following day, collected his two pet dogs and then disappeared, not seeing or speaking with them for the next nine years. Instead, he would send them over fifty postcards from all over the world, informing them that he was fine, but on none of them did he leave a return address so that they could contact him.
When the filming of Pink Flamingos finished, Divine returned to San Francisco, where, along with fellow Dreamlander Mink Stole, he became the star in a number of small-budget plays as part of a group known as The Cockettes, including Divine and Her Stimulating Studs, Divine Saves the World, Vice Palace, Journey to the Center of Uranus and The Heartbreak of Psoriasis.
In 1974, Divine returned to Baltimore again to film Waters's next motion picture, Female Trouble, in which he played the lead role, a teenage delinquent, Dawn Davenport, who holds to the idea that "crime is art" and who is eventually executed in the electric chair for her violent behavior. Divine also played his first on-screen male role, Earl Peterson, in the film, and Waters included a scene during which these two characters had sex as a joke on the fact that both characters were played by the same actor. Female Trouble would prove to be Divine's favorite part, because it both allowed him to develop his character and to finally play a male role, something he had always felt important because he did not want to be typecast as a female impersonator.
Soon after, he returned to theater, this time taking the role of prison matron Pauline in Tom Eyen's prison-based comedy Women Behind Bars. Produced in New York City, the play proved popular and for this reason was later taken to London, where it was less successful. Playwright Eyen was however particularly impressed with Divine's performance and decided to write a new play that would feature him in a starring role. The result was The Neon Woman, set in the 1960s, featuring Divine as Flash Storm, the owner of a Baltimore strip club.
Early disco work and Polyester: 1980–1983
After abandoning his former agent, Robert Hussong, for the British theater director Bernard Jay in 1979, Divine became involved in the club scene. He first appeared at a gay club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where his unscripted act included shouting "fudge you" repeatedly at the audience and then getting into a fight with another drag queen, a gimmick that proved popular with the club's clientele. Subsequently, he saw the commercial potential of including disco songs in with his act and, with composer Henry Krieger created the song "Born to be Cheap." He then joined forces with young American composer Bobby Orlando, who wrote a number of singles for Divine, including "Native Love (Step By Step)," "Shoot Your Shot" and "Love Reaction". To help publicize these singles, which proved to be successful in many discos across the world, Divine went on a series of tours and combined his musical performances with comedic stunts and routines that often played up to his characters' stereotype of being "trashy" and outrageous. Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Divine took his musical performances on tour across the world.
Meanwhile, in 1981 Divine appeared in John Waters's next film, Polyester, starring as Francine Fishpaw, a figure who, unlike earlier roles, was not a strong female but a meek and victimized woman who falls in love with her dream lover, Todd Tomorrow, played by Tab Hunter. In real life, tabloid publications claimed a romantic connection between them, an assertion both denied. The film was released in "odorama," accompanied by "scratch 'n' sniff" cards for the audience to smell at key points in the film. Soon after Polyester, Divine auditioned for a male role in Ridley Scott's upcoming science-fiction film Blade Runner. Even though Scott thought Divine unsuitable for the part, he claimed to be enthusiastic about Divine's work and was very interested in including him in another of his films, but ultimately this never came about.
That same year, Divine decided to get back in contact with his estranged parents. His mother had learned of his cinematic and disco career after reading an article about the films of John Waters in Life magazine, and had gone to see Female Trouble at the cinema, but had not felt emotionally able to get back in contact with her son until 1981. She got a friend of hers to hand Divine a note at one of his concerts, leading Divine to telephone her, and the family were subsequently reunited. The reconnection resulted in a mended relationship, and he bought them lavish gifts, informing them of how wealthy he was despite the fact that, according to his manager Bernard Jay, he was already heavily in debt due to his extravagant spending.
Later disco work, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray: 1984–1988
Whilst his career as a disco singer continued, Divine and his management felt that, despite the fact that Divine's records had sold well, they were not receiving their share of the profits, and so they went to court against Orlando and his company, O-Records. Successfully nullifying their contract, they went on to sign with Barry Evangeli's company, InTune Music Limited, for whom Divine released several new disco records, including "You Think You're A Man" and "I'm So Beautiful."
The next Divine film, Lust in the Dust (1985), reunited him with Tab Hunter and was Divine's first film not directed by John Waters. Set in the Wild West during the nineteenth century, the movie was a sex comedy that starred Divine as Rosie Velez, a "slut" who works as a singer in saloons and competes for the love of Abel Wood (Tab Hunter) against another woman. Divine followed this production with a very different role, that of male gangster Hilly Blue in Trouble in Mind (1985). The script was written with Divine in mind, and although not being a major character in the film, Divine had been eager to play the part, because he wished to perform in more male roles and leave behind the stereotype of simply being a female impersonator.
He again became involved with a John Waters project, the film Hairspray (1988), set in the 1960s. Divine played two roles, male and female, as in Waters's earlier Female Trouble.
He was originally cast as an airplane passenger in the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, but died before the film was in production.
Appearing on American television chat shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, Thicke of the Night and The Merv Griffin Show to promote both his music and his film appearances throughout the 1980s, Divine became a well-known celebrity, and Divine-themed merchandise was produced, including greeting cards and The Simple Divine Cut-Out Doll Book. Because of this, several famous artists, including David Hockney and Andy Warhol, both of whom were known for their works which dealt with popular culture, painted portraits of him.
Death
Milstead's grave at Prospect Hill Park Cemetery, Towson, Maryland.
On the evening of March 7, 1988, a week after Hairspray was released, Divine was staying at the Regency Hotel in Los Angeles. The next day, he was scheduled to film his part in the Fox network's television series Married... with Children. After dining with friends and returning to the hotel, he died in his sleep of an enlarged heart at age 42.
Drag persona and performance
Divine: "How much did you pay to get in tonight?"
Audience: "Ten dollars."
Divine: "Well now, that's eight dollars to see the show - and two dollars to fudge me right after. All line up outside the dressing room and I'll be here till Christmas!"
Divine to his audience
After developing a name for himself as a female impersonator known for "trashy" behavior in his early John Waters' films, Divine decided to capitalize on this image by appearing at his musical performances in his drag persona. In this role, he would be described as displaying "Trash. Filth. Obscenity. In bucket-loads." Divine himself would describe his stage performances as "just good, dirty fun, and if you find it offensive, honey, don't join in." As a part of his performance, he would constantly swear at the audience, often using his signature line of "fudge you very much", and at times would get audience members to come onstage, where he would fondle their buttocks, groins and breasts.
He became increasingly known for outlandish stunts onstage, each time trying to outdo what he had done before. At one performance, held in the Hippodrome in London, that coincided with American Independence Day, Divine rose up from the floor on a hydraulic lift, draped in the American flag, and declared that "I'm here representing Freedom, Liberty, Family Values and the fudgeing American Way of Life." When he performed at London Gay Pride parade, he sang on the roof of a hired pleasure boat that floated down the Thames past Jubilee Gardens, whilst at a performance he gave at the Hippodrome in the last year of his life, he appeared onstage riding an infant elephant, known as Bully the Elephant, who had been hired for the occasion. Nonetheless, Divine was not overly happy being known primarily for his drag act, and would tell an interviewer that "my favorite part of drag is getting out of it. Drag is my work clothes. I only put it on when someone pays me to."
Divine and his stage act proved particularly popular amongst gay audiences, and he appeared at some of the world’s biggest gay clubs, such as Heaven in London. According to Divine's manager, Bernard Jay, this was "not because Divine happened to be a gay person himself… but because it was the gay community that openly and proudly identified with the determination of the female character Divine".
Personal life
"I think I've always been respectable. What I do onstage is not what I do in my private life… It's an act… It's how I make my living. People laugh, and it's not hurting anyone."
Divine (1983)
Despite some claims made to the contrary, Divine always considered himself to be male, and was not transgender or transsexual. He used the term "Divine" as his personal name, telling one interviewer that both "Divine" and "Glenn Milstead" were "both just names. Glenn is the name I was brought up with, Divine is the name I've been using for the past twenty-three years. I guess it's always Glenn and it's always Divine. Do you mean the character Divine or the person Divine? You see, it gets very complicated. There's the Divine you're talking to now and there's the character Divine, which is just something I do to make a living. She doesn't really exist at all." At one point he had the name "Divine" officially recognized, as it appeared on his passport, and in keeping with his personal use of the name, his close friends nicknamed him "Divi".
Divine was homosexual, and during the 1980s had an extended relationship with a married man named Lee, who accompanied him almost everywhere that he went. They later separated, and Divine would go on to have a brief affair with the gay porn star Leo Ford, something that was widely written and gossiped about in the gay press. Divine would also regularly engage in sexual activities with young men that he would meet whilst performing, sometimes becoming infatuated with them: in one case, he met a young man in Israel who he slept with and subsequently wanted to bring back to the United States, something that his manager prevented him from doing. Divine initially avoided informing the media about his sexuality, even when questioned by interviewers, and would sometimes hint that he was bisexual, but in the latter part of the 1980s decided to change this attitude, and began being open about his homosexuality. Nonetheless, he avoided getting into discussions regarding gay rights, partially at the advice of his manager, realising that it would have had a negative effect on his career.
Divine's mother, Frances Milstead, remarked that whilst Divine "was blessed with many talents and abilities, he could be very moody and demanding." She went on to note that whilst he was "incredibly kind and generous", he always wanted to get things done the way that he wanted, and would "tune you out if you displeased him."
Despite his stature as a trend-setter in gay culture, Divine was also a big fan of what he called "macho action films". He told Terry Gross in an interview conducted shortly before his death that he was a fan of Sylvester Stallone films, and that his favorite actor was Charles Bronson.
Divine had suffered from problems with obesity ever since he was a child, for the reason that he "liked to eat - and eat - and eat - and drink gallons of Coca-Cola", with his hunger being increased by his smoking marijuana daily. In the last few years of his life, when Divine began to realize that his career in disco was coming to an end, and he was having difficulty finding acting jobs, he began to feel suicidal and threatened to kill himself on a number of occasions. Meanwhile, Dutch friends of Divine gave him two bulldogs in the 1980s, which he doted on, and named Beatrix and Klaus after the Queen Beatrix and her husband Prince Claus of the Netherlands. On numerous occasions he would have his photograph taken with them, and sometimes use these images for record covers and posters.
Legacy and influence
Two books have been published about Divine since his death. The first, which was entitled Not Simply Divine!, was written by his manager and friend Bernard Jay, and published in 1992 by Virgin Books. The second, My Son Divine (2001), was written by his mother, Frances Milstead, and dealt with her sometimes fractious relationship with her son. His mother's continued relationship with the gay community was later documented in a film Frances: A Mother Divine directed by Tim Dunn and Michael O'Quinn which was released in 2010.
Another book entitled "Postcards From Divine" is due for release from the Divine estate in 2012. It is a collection of more than 50 postcards Divine sent to his parents while traveling the world as a pop star between 1977 and 1987. The ibook version of the book includes a narration by a vocal impersonator which John Waters called "Spooky" and "channeling". It also includes quotes and stories from his friends and colleagues including John Waters, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Channing Wilroy, Susan Lowe, Jean Hill, Tab Hunter, Lainie Kazan, Alan J. Wendl, Ruth Brown, Deborah Harry, Jerry Stiller, Ricki Lake and more.
Divine was the inspiration for the design of Ursula the Sea-Witch, the villain in the Disney 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid.
Meanwhile, Divine has left an influence on a number of musicians as well. Antony Hegarty of the band Antony and the Johnsons wrote a song about Divine which was included in the group's self-titled debut album, released in 1998. The song, titled "Divine", was an ode to the actor, who was one of Antony's life-long heroes. His admiration is expressed in the lines: "He was my self-determined guru" and "I turn to think of you/Who walked the way with so much pain/Who holds the mirror up to fools". Another such example of Divine's influence on musicians appeared in 2008, when Irish electronic singer Róisín Murphy paid homage to Divine in her music video for her song "Movie Star" by reenacting the attack by Lobstora from his 1970 film Multiple Maniacs and by the appearance of Divine lookalikes.
Due to Divine's portrayal of Edna Turnblad in the original comedy-film version of Hairspray, later musical adaptations of Hairspray have commonly placed male actors in the role of Edna, including Harvey Fierstein and others in the 2002 Broadway musical and John Travolta in the 2007 musical film.
I Am Divine, a feature documentary on the life of Divine, is currently in production. It is produced and directed by Jeffrey Schwarz of Los Angeles based production company Automat Pictures.
A 12 foot tall statue in the likeness of Divine by Andrew Logan can be seen on permanent display at The American Visionary Art Museum in Divine's home town of Baltimore, Maryland.
Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1966 Roman Candles The Smoking Nun
1968 Eat Your Makeup Jacqueline Kennedy
1969 The Diane Linkletter Story Diane Linkletter
Mondo Trasho Divine
1970 Multiple Maniacs Lady Divine
1972 Pink Flamingos Divine / Babs Johnson
1974 Female Trouble Dawn Davenport / Earl Peterson
1981 Polyester Francine Fishpaw
1985 Lust in the Dust Rosie Velez Nominated - Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Trouble in Mind Hilly Blue
Divine Waters Himself Documentary
1988 Hairspray Edna Turnblad / Arvin Hodgepile Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1989 Out of the Dark Det. Langella
1998 Divine Trash Himself Archive footage used for documentary
2000 In Bad Taste
2002 The Cockettes
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1987 Tales from the Darkside Chia Fung 1 episode
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/baltoco/artists/170px-Actor_Devine.jpg
Not Divine Brown then?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/19/11 at 5:51 pm
Not Divine Brown then?
lol you would have to ask Hugh Grant if this Divine has ever serviced him.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/19/11 at 8:23 pm
The person of the day...Divine
Divine (October 19, 1945 – March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead, was an American actor, singer and drag queen. Described by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century", Divine often performed female roles in both cinema and theater and also appeared in women's clothing in musical performances. Even so, he considered himself to be a character actor and performed male roles in a number of his later films. He was often associated with independent filmmaker John Waters and starred in ten of Waters's films, usually in a leading role. Concurrent with his acting career, he also had a successful career as a disco singer during the 1980s, at one point being described as "the most successful and in-demand disco performer in the world."
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a conservative, wealthy middle class family, he became involved with John Waters and his acting troupe, the Dreamlanders, in the mid-1960s and starred in a number of Waters's early films such as Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. These films have since become cult classics. In the 1970s, Milstead made the transition to theater and appeared in a number of productions, including Women Behind Bars and The Neon Woman, while continuing to star in such films as Polyester, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray.
The New York Times said of Milstead's '80s films: "Those who could get past the unremitting weirdness of Divine's performance discovered that the actor/actress had genuine talent, including a natural sense of comic timing and an uncanny gift for slapstick." He was also described as "one of the few truly radical and essential artists of the century… was an audacious symbol of man's quest for liberty and freedom." Since his death, Divine has remained a cult figure, particularly with those in the LGBT community, of which he was a part, being openly gay.
It was in the mid-1960s that Milstead became acquainted with John Waters, who was his own age and lived in the same neighborhood. Waters was an aspiring filmmaker, intent on making "the trashiest motion pictures in cinema history" and had assembled an assortment of actors for the purpose, whom he termed the Dreamlanders. After meeting Milstead through mutual friend Carol, Waters invited him to appear as the Smoking Nun in his second short film, Roman Candles, which was produced in 1966 and featured Milstead and the other Dreamlanders shoplifting and then modeling their shoplifted clothes.
It was Waters who created the name "Divine" in reference to Milstead, who would adopt and use it for the rest of his life. Divine also appeared in Waters's third film, Eat Your Makeup, in 1968, in which he wore women's clothing (or drag) to play Jackie Kennedy, who was kidnapping models and forcing them to model and eat their own make-up. In 1969, he then appeared in Waters's next short film, The Diane Linkletter Story, in which Divine played the eponymous Diane Linkletter, a teenager who rebels against her parents and then commits suicide. Based upon a true story, the film was not publicly released at the time, largely for legal reasons. In 1969, soon after the production of The Diane Linkletter Story, Waters began filming a full-length motion picture, Mondo Trasho, which starred Divine as one of the main characters, a "portly blonde bombshell" who drives around town and runs over a hitchhiker.
In 1970, Divine played Lady Divine, the operator of an exhibit known as The Cavalcade of Perversion who turned to murdering visitors in Waters' film Multiple Maniacs. At the film's end, a scene was shot that involved Divine's being raped by a giant lobster named Lobstora, before she runs around Baltimore in a craze attempting to kill anyone who passed. Multiple Maniacs was the first of Waters's films to receive widespread attention, and, as such, so did Divine. KSFX remarked that "Divine is incredible! Could start a whole new trend in films."
Divine kept his involvement with Waters and these early underground films a secret from his conservative parents, whom he felt would not understand them or the reason for his involvement in such controversial and bad-taste films. Meanwhile, aged twenty-three, he moved away from his parents' home and opened up a short-lived vintage clothes shop, Divine Trash, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, using his parents' money to rent the premises. Divine later closed up his shop and spent some time in San Francisco, California, a city which at the time had a large gay subculture that attracted Divine, who was then embracing his homosexuality.
Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and theatre work: 1971–1979
Following his San Francisco sojourn, Divine returned to Baltimore and participated in John Waters's next project, the film Pink Flamingos. Designed by Waters to be "an exercise in bad taste," the film featured Divine as Babs Johnson, "the filthiest person alive," who is forced to prove her right to the title from challengers, jealous perverts Connie and Raymond Marble. At the film's end, Divine notoriously placed fresh dog feces in her mouth, symbolizing the character's right to the title. The movie became one of the biggest cult hits of the 1970s and made Divine somewhat famous in the underground circuit.
Whilst he had been keeping his involvement with Waters' underground film-making a secret from his parents, he had continued to rely on them financially, charging them for expensive parties that he held and writing bad cheques. After he charged them for a major repair to his car in 1972, his parents confiscated it from him and told him that they would not continue to financially support him in such a manner. In retaliation, he came by their house the following day, collected his two pet dogs and then disappeared, not seeing or speaking with them for the next nine years. Instead, he would send them over fifty postcards from all over the world, informing them that he was fine, but on none of them did he leave a return address so that they could contact him.
When the filming of Pink Flamingos finished, Divine returned to San Francisco, where, along with fellow Dreamlander Mink Stole, he became the star in a number of small-budget plays as part of a group known as The Cockettes, including Divine and Her Stimulating Studs, Divine Saves the World, Vice Palace, Journey to the Center of Uranus and The Heartbreak of Psoriasis.
In 1974, Divine returned to Baltimore again to film Waters's next motion picture, Female Trouble, in which he played the lead role, a teenage delinquent, Dawn Davenport, who holds to the idea that "crime is art" and who is eventually executed in the electric chair for her violent behavior. Divine also played his first on-screen male role, Earl Peterson, in the film, and Waters included a scene during which these two characters had sex as a joke on the fact that both characters were played by the same actor. Female Trouble would prove to be Divine's favorite part, because it both allowed him to develop his character and to finally play a male role, something he had always felt important because he did not want to be typecast as a female impersonator.
Soon after, he returned to theater, this time taking the role of prison matron Pauline in Tom Eyen's prison-based comedy Women Behind Bars. Produced in New York City, the play proved popular and for this reason was later taken to London, where it was less successful. Playwright Eyen was however particularly impressed with Divine's performance and decided to write a new play that would feature him in a starring role. The result was The Neon Woman, set in the 1960s, featuring Divine as Flash Storm, the owner of a Baltimore strip club.
Early disco work and Polyester: 1980–1983
After abandoning his former agent, Robert Hussong, for the British theater director Bernard Jay in 1979, Divine became involved in the club scene. He first appeared at a gay club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where his unscripted act included shouting "fudge you" repeatedly at the audience and then getting into a fight with another drag queen, a gimmick that proved popular with the club's clientele. Subsequently, he saw the commercial potential of including disco songs in with his act and, with composer Henry Krieger created the song "Born to be Cheap." He then joined forces with young American composer Bobby Orlando, who wrote a number of singles for Divine, including "Native Love (Step By Step)," "Shoot Your Shot" and "Love Reaction". To help publicize these singles, which proved to be successful in many discos across the world, Divine went on a series of tours and combined his musical performances with comedic stunts and routines that often played up to his characters' stereotype of being "trashy" and outrageous. Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Divine took his musical performances on tour across the world.
Meanwhile, in 1981 Divine appeared in John Waters's next film, Polyester, starring as Francine Fishpaw, a figure who, unlike earlier roles, was not a strong female but a meek and victimized woman who falls in love with her dream lover, Todd Tomorrow, played by Tab Hunter. In real life, tabloid publications claimed a romantic connection between them, an assertion both denied. The film was released in "odorama," accompanied by "scratch 'n' sniff" cards for the audience to smell at key points in the film. Soon after Polyester, Divine auditioned for a male role in Ridley Scott's upcoming science-fiction film Blade Runner. Even though Scott thought Divine unsuitable for the part, he claimed to be enthusiastic about Divine's work and was very interested in including him in another of his films, but ultimately this never came about.
That same year, Divine decided to get back in contact with his estranged parents. His mother had learned of his cinematic and disco career after reading an article about the films of John Waters in Life magazine, and had gone to see Female Trouble at the cinema, but had not felt emotionally able to get back in contact with her son until 1981. She got a friend of hers to hand Divine a note at one of his concerts, leading Divine to telephone her, and the family were subsequently reunited. The reconnection resulted in a mended relationship, and he bought them lavish gifts, informing them of how wealthy he was despite the fact that, according to his manager Bernard Jay, he was already heavily in debt due to his extravagant spending.
Later disco work, Lust in the Dust and Hairspray: 1984–1988
Whilst his career as a disco singer continued, Divine and his management felt that, despite the fact that Divine's records had sold well, they were not receiving their share of the profits, and so they went to court against Orlando and his company, O-Records. Successfully nullifying their contract, they went on to sign with Barry Evangeli's company, InTune Music Limited, for whom Divine released several new disco records, including "You Think You're A Man" and "I'm So Beautiful."
The next Divine film, Lust in the Dust (1985), reunited him with Tab Hunter and was Divine's first film not directed by John Waters. Set in the Wild West during the nineteenth century, the movie was a sex comedy that starred Divine as Rosie Velez, a "slut" who works as a singer in saloons and competes for the love of Abel Wood (Tab Hunter) against another woman. Divine followed this production with a very different role, that of male gangster Hilly Blue in Trouble in Mind (1985). The script was written with Divine in mind, and although not being a major character in the film, Divine had been eager to play the part, because he wished to perform in more male roles and leave behind the stereotype of simply being a female impersonator.
He again became involved with a John Waters project, the film Hairspray (1988), set in the 1960s. Divine played two roles, male and female, as in Waters's earlier Female Trouble.
He was originally cast as an airplane passenger in the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, but died before the film was in production.
Appearing on American television chat shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, Thicke of the Night and The Merv Griffin Show to promote both his music and his film appearances throughout the 1980s, Divine became a well-known celebrity, and Divine-themed merchandise was produced, including greeting cards and The Simple Divine Cut-Out Doll Book. Because of this, several famous artists, including David Hockney and Andy Warhol, both of whom were known for their works which dealt with popular culture, painted portraits of him.
Death
Milstead's grave at Prospect Hill Park Cemetery, Towson, Maryland.
On the evening of March 7, 1988, a week after Hairspray was released, Divine was staying at the Regency Hotel in Los Angeles. The next day, he was scheduled to film his part in the Fox network's television series Married... with Children. After dining with friends and returning to the hotel, he died in his sleep of an enlarged heart at age 42.
Drag persona and performance
Divine: "How much did you pay to get in tonight?"
Audience: "Ten dollars."
Divine: "Well now, that's eight dollars to see the show - and two dollars to fudge me right after. All line up outside the dressing room and I'll be here till Christmas!"
Divine to his audience
After developing a name for himself as a female impersonator known for "trashy" behavior in his early John Waters' films, Divine decided to capitalize on this image by appearing at his musical performances in his drag persona. In this role, he would be described as displaying "Trash. Filth. Obscenity. In bucket-loads." Divine himself would describe his stage performances as "just good, dirty fun, and if you find it offensive, honey, don't join in." As a part of his performance, he would constantly swear at the audience, often using his signature line of "fudge you very much", and at times would get audience members to come onstage, where he would fondle their buttocks, groins and breasts.
He became increasingly known for outlandish stunts onstage, each time trying to outdo what he had done before. At one performance, held in the Hippodrome in London, that coincided with American Independence Day, Divine rose up from the floor on a hydraulic lift, draped in the American flag, and declared that "I'm here representing Freedom, Liberty, Family Values and the fudgeing American Way of Life." When he performed at London Gay Pride parade, he sang on the roof of a hired pleasure boat that floated down the Thames past Jubilee Gardens, whilst at a performance he gave at the Hippodrome in the last year of his life, he appeared onstage riding an infant elephant, known as Bully the Elephant, who had been hired for the occasion. Nonetheless, Divine was not overly happy being known primarily for his drag act, and would tell an interviewer that "my favorite part of drag is getting out of it. Drag is my work clothes. I only put it on when someone pays me to."
Divine and his stage act proved particularly popular amongst gay audiences, and he appeared at some of the world’s biggest gay clubs, such as Heaven in London. According to Divine's manager, Bernard Jay, this was "not because Divine happened to be a gay person himself… but because it was the gay community that openly and proudly identified with the determination of the female character Divine".
Personal life
"I think I've always been respectable. What I do onstage is not what I do in my private life… It's an act… It's how I make my living. People laugh, and it's not hurting anyone."
Divine (1983)
Despite some claims made to the contrary, Divine always considered himself to be male, and was not transgender or transsexual. He used the term "Divine" as his personal name, telling one interviewer that both "Divine" and "Glenn Milstead" were "both just names. Glenn is the name I was brought up with, Divine is the name I've been using for the past twenty-three years. I guess it's always Glenn and it's always Divine. Do you mean the character Divine or the person Divine? You see, it gets very complicated. There's the Divine you're talking to now and there's the character Divine, which is just something I do to make a living. She doesn't really exist at all." At one point he had the name "Divine" officially recognized, as it appeared on his passport, and in keeping with his personal use of the name, his close friends nicknamed him "Divi".
Divine was homosexual, and during the 1980s had an extended relationship with a married man named Lee, who accompanied him almost everywhere that he went. They later separated, and Divine would go on to have a brief affair with the gay porn star Leo Ford, something that was widely written and gossiped about in the gay press. Divine would also regularly engage in sexual activities with young men that he would meet whilst performing, sometimes becoming infatuated with them: in one case, he met a young man in Israel who he slept with and subsequently wanted to bring back to the United States, something that his manager prevented him from doing. Divine initially avoided informing the media about his sexuality, even when questioned by interviewers, and would sometimes hint that he was bisexual, but in the latter part of the 1980s decided to change this attitude, and began being open about his homosexuality. Nonetheless, he avoided getting into discussions regarding gay rights, partially at the advice of his manager, realising that it would have had a negative effect on his career.
Divine's mother, Frances Milstead, remarked that whilst Divine "was blessed with many talents and abilities, he could be very moody and demanding." She went on to note that whilst he was "incredibly kind and generous", he always wanted to get things done the way that he wanted, and would "tune you out if you displeased him."
Despite his stature as a trend-setter in gay culture, Divine was also a big fan of what he called "macho action films". He told Terry Gross in an interview conducted shortly before his death that he was a fan of Sylvester Stallone films, and that his favorite actor was Charles Bronson.
Divine had suffered from problems with obesity ever since he was a child, for the reason that he "liked to eat - and eat - and eat - and drink gallons of Coca-Cola", with his hunger being increased by his smoking marijuana daily. In the last few years of his life, when Divine began to realize that his career in disco was coming to an end, and he was having difficulty finding acting jobs, he began to feel suicidal and threatened to kill himself on a number of occasions. Meanwhile, Dutch friends of Divine gave him two bulldogs in the 1980s, which he doted on, and named Beatrix and Klaus after the Queen Beatrix and her husband Prince Claus of the Netherlands. On numerous occasions he would have his photograph taken with them, and sometimes use these images for record covers and posters.
Legacy and influence
Two books have been published about Divine since his death. The first, which was entitled Not Simply Divine!, was written by his manager and friend Bernard Jay, and published in 1992 by Virgin Books. The second, My Son Divine (2001), was written by his mother, Frances Milstead, and dealt with her sometimes fractious relationship with her son. His mother's continued relationship with the gay community was later documented in a film Frances: A Mother Divine directed by Tim Dunn and Michael O'Quinn which was released in 2010.
Another book entitled "Postcards From Divine" is due for release from the Divine estate in 2012. It is a collection of more than 50 postcards Divine sent to his parents while traveling the world as a pop star between 1977 and 1987. The ibook version of the book includes a narration by a vocal impersonator which John Waters called "Spooky" and "channeling". It also includes quotes and stories from his friends and colleagues including John Waters, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Channing Wilroy, Susan Lowe, Jean Hill, Tab Hunter, Lainie Kazan, Alan J. Wendl, Ruth Brown, Deborah Harry, Jerry Stiller, Ricki Lake and more.
Divine was the inspiration for the design of Ursula the Sea-Witch, the villain in the Disney 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid.
Meanwhile, Divine has left an influence on a number of musicians as well. Antony Hegarty of the band Antony and the Johnsons wrote a song about Divine which was included in the group's self-titled debut album, released in 1998. The song, titled "Divine", was an ode to the actor, who was one of Antony's life-long heroes. His admiration is expressed in the lines: "He was my self-determined guru" and "I turn to think of you/Who walked the way with so much pain/Who holds the mirror up to fools". Another such example of Divine's influence on musicians appeared in 2008, when Irish electronic singer Róisín Murphy paid homage to Divine in her music video for her song "Movie Star" by reenacting the attack by Lobstora from his 1970 film Multiple Maniacs and by the appearance of Divine lookalikes.
Due to Divine's portrayal of Edna Turnblad in the original comedy-film version of Hairspray, later musical adaptations of Hairspray have commonly placed male actors in the role of Edna, including Harvey Fierstein and others in the 2002 Broadway musical and John Travolta in the 2007 musical film.
I Am Divine, a feature documentary on the life of Divine, is currently in production. It is produced and directed by Jeffrey Schwarz of Los Angeles based production company Automat Pictures.
A 12 foot tall statue in the likeness of Divine by Andrew Logan can be seen on permanent display at The American Visionary Art Museum in Divine's home town of Baltimore, Maryland.
Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
1966 Roman Candles The Smoking Nun
1968 Eat Your Makeup Jacqueline Kennedy
1969 The Diane Linkletter Story Diane Linkletter
Mondo Trasho Divine
1970 Multiple Maniacs Lady Divine
1972 Pink Flamingos Divine / Babs Johnson
1974 Female Trouble Dawn Davenport / Earl Peterson
1981 Polyester Francine Fishpaw
1985 Lust in the Dust Rosie Velez Nominated - Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Trouble in Mind Hilly Blue
Divine Waters Himself Documentary
1988 Hairspray Edna Turnblad / Arvin Hodgepile Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1989 Out of the Dark Det. Langella
1998 Divine Trash Himself Archive footage used for documentary
2000 In Bad Taste
2002 The Cockettes
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1987 Tales from the Darkside Chia Fung 1 episode
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd89/baltoco/artists/170px-Actor_Devine.jpg
I liked Divine,a good actor.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/20/11 at 8:51 am
The person of the day...Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Muddy Wilbury.
He has recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, many of which remain heavily played on adult contemporary and classic rock radio. His music, and notably his hits, have become popular among younger generations as he continues to host sold-out shows. Throughout his career, Petty and his collaborators have sold 60 million albums.
Shortly after forming his musical aspirations, Petty started a band known as the Epics, later to evolve into Mudcrutch. Although the band, which featured future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, were popular in Gainesville, their recordings went unnoticed by a mainstream audience, although their only single, "Depot Street", remains popular amongst fans. The original Mudcrutch included guitarist Danny Roberts who was later replaced by bass guitarist Charlie Souza.
After Mudcrutch split up, Petty reluctantly agreed to pursue a solo career. Tench decided to form his own group, whose sound Petty appreciated. Eventually, Petty and Campbell collaborated with Tench and fellow members Ron Blair and Stan Lynch, resulting in the first line-up of the Heartbreakers. Their first album, simply titled Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, gained minute popularity amongst American audiences, achieving more success in Britain. The single "Breakdown" was re-released in 1977 and peaked at #40 in early 1978 after the band toured in the United Kingdom in support of Nils Lofgren. The debut album was released by Shelter Records, which at that time was distributed by ABC Records.
Their second album, You're Gonna Get It!, marked the band's first Top 40 album and featured the singles "I Need to Know" and "Listen To Her Heart". Their third album, Damn the Torpedoes, quickly went platinum, selling nearly two million copies; it includes their breakthrough singles "Don't Do Me Like That", "Here Comes My Girl" and "Refugee".
In September 1979, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at a Musicians United for Safe Energy concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Their rendition of "Cry To Me" was featured on the resulting No Nukes album.
1981's Hard Promises became a top-ten hit, going platinum and spawning the hit single "The Waiting". The album also featured Petty's first duet, "Insider" with Stevie Nicks.
Bass player Ron Blair quit the group, and was replaced on the fifth album (1982's Long After Dark) by Howie Epstein; the resulting line-up would last until 1994. In 1985, the band participated in Live Aid, playing four songs at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium. Southern Accents was also released in 1985. This album included the hit single "Don't Come Around Here No More", which was produced by Dave Stewart. The song's video featured Petty dressed as the Mad Hatter, mocking and chasing Alice from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, then cutting and eating her as if she were a cake. The ensuing tour led to the live album Pack Up the Plantation: Live! and to an invitation from Bob Dylan; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers joined him on his True Confessions tour and also played some dates with the Grateful Dead in 1986 and 1987. Also in 1987, the group released Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) which includes "Jammin' Me" which Petty wrote with Dylan.
Traveling Wilburys, solo career, and "return" to the Heartbreakers (1988–1991)
Main articles: Traveling Wilburys and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
In 1988, Petty became a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys, along with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. The band's first song, "Handle With Care", was intended as a B-side of one of Harrison's singles, but was judged too good for that purpose and the group decided to record a full album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. A second Wilburys album, incongruously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 and recorded without the recently deceased Orbison, followed in 1990. The album was named Vol. 3 as a response to a series of bootlegged studio sessions being sold as Travelling Wilburys Vol. 2. In recent years, Petty has begun to incorporate Travelling Wilburys songs into his live shows, consistently playing "Handle With Care" in shows from 2003–2006, and for his 2008 tour making "End of the Line" a staple of the setlist.
In 1989, Petty released Full Moon Fever, which featured hits "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down a Dream". It was nominally his first solo album, although several Heartbreakers and other well-known musicians participated: Mike Campbell co-produced the album with Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, and backing musicians included Campbell, Lynne, and fellow Wilburys Roy Orbison and George Harrison (Ringo Starr appears on drums in the video for "I Won't Back Down", but they were actually performed by Phil Jones). Since all the original Traveling Wilburys except Bob Dylan participated on the album, it is sometimes considered the unofficial Traveling Wilbury's "Volume Two".
Petty & the Heartbreakers reformed in 1991 and released Into the Great Wide Open, which was co-produced by Lynne and included the hit singles "Learning To Fly" and "Into The Great Wide Open", the latter featuring Johnny Depp, Gabrielle Anwar, Faye Dunaway, and Matt LeBlanc in the video.
Before leaving MCA Records, Tom and the Heartbreakers got together to record, live in the studio, two new songs for a "Greatest Hits" package. "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air". This was Stan Lynch's last recorded performance with The Heartbreakers. Tom commented "He left right after the session without really saying goodbye." The package went on to sell over ten million copies, therefore receiving diamond certification by the RIAA.
Petty's first appearance in film took place in 1978, when he had a cameo in FM. He later had a small part in 1987's Made in Heaven, and appeared in several episodes of It's Garry Shandling's Show between 1987 and 1990, playing himself as one of Garry Shandling's neighbors. Petty was also featured in Shandling's other show, The Larry Sanders Show, as one of the show-within-the-show's final guests. In the episode, Petty gets bumped from the show and nearly comes to blows with Greg Kinnear.
Petty appeared in the 1997 movie The Postman, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, as The Bridge City Mayor (from the dialogue it is implied that he is playing a future version of himself).
In 2002, he appeared on The Simpsons in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation". In it, he spoofed himself as a "tutor" to Homer Simpson on the art of lyric writing, composing a brief song about a drunk girl driving down the road while concerned with the state of public schools. Later in the episode, he loses a toe during a riot.
Petty had a recurring role as the voice of Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the animated show King of the Hill.
In 2008, Petty made a guest appearance as himself in the Comedy Central show Lil Bush's season 2 finale. He is asked to write a song for Bush and his cronies. At the end, he is shown riding off into the sunset in a flying car alongside Iggy Pop, who is a regular voice actor on the series. Petty thus joined various musical guest stars on the show, including Iggy, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and Anthony Kiedis and Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Awards and accolades
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Tom Petty
In 1994, You Got Lucky, a Tom Petty tribute album featuring such bands as Everclear and Silkworm was released.
In April 1996, Petty received the UCLA's George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement. The next month, Petty won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Golden Note Award.
Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
In 1999 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contribution to the recording industry.
In 2002, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On December 6, 2005, Petty received the Billboard Century Award for his lifetime achievements. The same year, Conversations with Tom Petty, an oral history/biography composed of interviews conducted in 2004 and 2005 with Petty by music journalist Paul Zollo, was published (ISBN 1-84449-815-8).
On September 21, 2006, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received the keys to the city of Gainesville, Florida, where he and his bandmates either lived or grew up. From July 2006 until 2007 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio featured an exhibit of Tom Petty items. Much of the content was donated by Petty himself during a visit to his home by some of the Hall's curatorial staff.
Peter Bogdanovich's documentary film on Petty's career entitled Runnin' Down A Dream premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 14, 2007.
Views on artistic control
Petty is known as a staunch guardian of his creative control and artistic freedom. In 1979, he was dragged into a legal dispute when ABC Records was sold to MCA Records. He refused to be transferred to another record label without his consent. In May 1979, he filed for bankruptcy and was signed to the new MCA subsidiary Backstreet Records.
In early 1981, the upcoming Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album, which would become Hard Promises, was slated to be the next MCA release with the new list price of $9.98, following Steely Dan's Gaucho and the Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Xanadu soundtrack. This so-called "superstar pricing" was $1.00 more than the usual list price of $8.98. Petty voiced his objections to the price hike in the press and the issue became a popular cause among music fans. Non-delivery of the album and naming it Eight Ninety-Eight were considered, but eventually MCA decided against the price increase.
In 1987, Petty sued tire company B.F. Goodrich for $1 million for using a song very similar to his song "Mary's New Car" in a TV commercial. The ad agency that produced the commercial had previously sought permission to use Petty's song but was refused. A judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting further use of the ad and the suit was later settled out of court.
Some have claimed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Dani California", released in May 2006, is very similar to Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance". Petty told Rolling Stone, "I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock 'n' roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took 'American Girl' , and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, 'OK, good for you' ... If someone took my song note for note and stole it maliciously, then maybe . But I don't believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."
Personal life
His first marriage, to Jane Benyo, lasted 22 years from March 26, 1974 to September 9, 1996. He spent most of those years working, on the road or in the studio. They have two daughters. Adria is a film director and AnnaKim Violette an artist. Since June 3, 2001 he has been married to Dana York, whom he first met years earlier when she came to one of his concerts. Petty has a stepson from York's first marriage named Dylan.
On May 17, 1987, an arsonist set fire to Petty's house in Encino, California. The fire caused $1 million in damage but firefighters were able to salvage the basement recording studio and the original tapes stored there, as well as his Gibson Dove acoustic guitar. His signature gray top hat, however, was destroyed. Petty later rebuilt the house with fireproof materials.
Musical equipment
Petty owns and has used a number of guitars over the years. From 1976-1982, his main instrument was a sunburst 1964 Fender Stratocaster. He has also used a number of Rickenbacker guitars from 1979 onward, notably a 1965 Rose Morris 1993 and 1987 reissue of the Rose Morris 1997, a 1967 360/12 and 1989 660/12TP. The Rickenbacker 660/12TP was designed by Petty (specifically the neck) and featured his signature from 1991 to 1997. Other electrics currently used on tour include a Gretsch Tennessean, two 1960s Fender Telecasters and a Gibson Firebird.
For acoustic guitars, Petty has had a signature C.F. Martin HD-40, and has written virtually all of his songs on a Gibson Dove acoustic saved from his 1987 house fire. He currently uses a Gibson J-200 in a natural finish and a late '70s Guild D25 12-string acoustic.
Petty's current amplifer setup features 2 Fender Vibro-King 60 watt combos.
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg123/natnicr1/tom-petty.jpg
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj249/chayybayybayy/tom_petty.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/20/11 at 1:05 pm
Some have claimed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Dani California", released in May 2006, is very similar to Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance". Petty told Rolling Stone, "I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock 'n' roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took 'American Girl' , and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, 'OK, good for you' ... If someone took my song note for note and stole it maliciously, then maybe {I'd sue}. But I don't believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."
I have noticed a few similarities between the songs, especially in the intro...but the tempo is different, and some of the chord sequences differ too. He's right, though; there are a lot of songs out there that sound alike, with no ripoff intended.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/20/11 at 2:18 pm
The person of the day...Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty (born October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr. and Muddy Wilbury.
He has recorded a number of hit singles with the Heartbreakers and as a solo artist, many of which remain heavily played on adult contemporary and classic rock radio. His music, and notably his hits, have become popular among younger generations as he continues to host sold-out shows. Throughout his career, Petty and his collaborators have sold 60 million albums.
Shortly after forming his musical aspirations, Petty started a band known as the Epics, later to evolve into Mudcrutch. Although the band, which featured future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, were popular in Gainesville, their recordings went unnoticed by a mainstream audience, although their only single, "Depot Street", remains popular amongst fans. The original Mudcrutch included guitarist Danny Roberts who was later replaced by bass guitarist Charlie Souza.
After Mudcrutch split up, Petty reluctantly agreed to pursue a solo career. Tench decided to form his own group, whose sound Petty appreciated. Eventually, Petty and Campbell collaborated with Tench and fellow members Ron Blair and Stan Lynch, resulting in the first line-up of the Heartbreakers. Their first album, simply titled Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, gained minute popularity amongst American audiences, achieving more success in Britain. The single "Breakdown" was re-released in 1977 and peaked at #40 in early 1978 after the band toured in the United Kingdom in support of Nils Lofgren. The debut album was released by Shelter Records, which at that time was distributed by ABC Records.
Their second album, You're Gonna Get It!, marked the band's first Top 40 album and featured the singles "I Need to Know" and "Listen To Her Heart". Their third album, Damn the Torpedoes, quickly went platinum, selling nearly two million copies; it includes their breakthrough singles "Don't Do Me Like That", "Here Comes My Girl" and "Refugee".
In September 1979, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at a Musicians United for Safe Energy concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Their rendition of "Cry To Me" was featured on the resulting No Nukes album.
1981's Hard Promises became a top-ten hit, going platinum and spawning the hit single "The Waiting". The album also featured Petty's first duet, "Insider" with Stevie Nicks.
Bass player Ron Blair quit the group, and was replaced on the fifth album (1982's Long After Dark) by Howie Epstein; the resulting line-up would last until 1994. In 1985, the band participated in Live Aid, playing four songs at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium. Southern Accents was also released in 1985. This album included the hit single "Don't Come Around Here No More", which was produced by Dave Stewart. The song's video featured Petty dressed as the Mad Hatter, mocking and chasing Alice from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, then cutting and eating her as if she were a cake. The ensuing tour led to the live album Pack Up the Plantation: Live! and to an invitation from Bob Dylan; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers joined him on his True Confessions tour and also played some dates with the Grateful Dead in 1986 and 1987. Also in 1987, the group released Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) which includes "Jammin' Me" which Petty wrote with Dylan.
Traveling Wilburys, solo career, and "return" to the Heartbreakers (1988–1991)
Main articles: Traveling Wilburys and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
In 1988, Petty became a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys, along with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. The band's first song, "Handle With Care", was intended as a B-side of one of Harrison's singles, but was judged too good for that purpose and the group decided to record a full album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. A second Wilburys album, incongruously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 and recorded without the recently deceased Orbison, followed in 1990. The album was named Vol. 3 as a response to a series of bootlegged studio sessions being sold as Travelling Wilburys Vol. 2. In recent years, Petty has begun to incorporate Travelling Wilburys songs into his live shows, consistently playing "Handle With Care" in shows from 2003–2006, and for his 2008 tour making "End of the Line" a staple of the setlist.
In 1989, Petty released Full Moon Fever, which featured hits "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down a Dream". It was nominally his first solo album, although several Heartbreakers and other well-known musicians participated: Mike Campbell co-produced the album with Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, and backing musicians included Campbell, Lynne, and fellow Wilburys Roy Orbison and George Harrison (Ringo Starr appears on drums in the video for "I Won't Back Down", but they were actually performed by Phil Jones). Since all the original Traveling Wilburys except Bob Dylan participated on the album, it is sometimes considered the unofficial Traveling Wilbury's "Volume Two".
Petty & the Heartbreakers reformed in 1991 and released Into the Great Wide Open, which was co-produced by Lynne and included the hit singles "Learning To Fly" and "Into The Great Wide Open", the latter featuring Johnny Depp, Gabrielle Anwar, Faye Dunaway, and Matt LeBlanc in the video.
Before leaving MCA Records, Tom and the Heartbreakers got together to record, live in the studio, two new songs for a "Greatest Hits" package. "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air". This was Stan Lynch's last recorded performance with The Heartbreakers. Tom commented "He left right after the session without really saying goodbye." The package went on to sell over ten million copies, therefore receiving diamond certification by the RIAA.
Petty's first appearance in film took place in 1978, when he had a cameo in FM. He later had a small part in 1987's Made in Heaven, and appeared in several episodes of It's Garry Shandling's Show between 1987 and 1990, playing himself as one of Garry Shandling's neighbors. Petty was also featured in Shandling's other show, The Larry Sanders Show, as one of the show-within-the-show's final guests. In the episode, Petty gets bumped from the show and nearly comes to blows with Greg Kinnear.
Petty appeared in the 1997 movie The Postman, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, as The Bridge City Mayor (from the dialogue it is implied that he is playing a future version of himself).
In 2002, he appeared on The Simpsons in the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation". In it, he spoofed himself as a "tutor" to Homer Simpson on the art of lyric writing, composing a brief song about a drunk girl driving down the road while concerned with the state of public schools. Later in the episode, he loses a toe during a riot.
Petty had a recurring role as the voice of Elroy "Lucky" Kleinschmidt in the animated show King of the Hill.
In 2008, Petty made a guest appearance as himself in the Comedy Central show Lil Bush's season 2 finale. He is asked to write a song for Bush and his cronies. At the end, he is shown riding off into the sunset in a flying car alongside Iggy Pop, who is a regular voice actor on the series. Petty thus joined various musical guest stars on the show, including Iggy, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and Anthony Kiedis and Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Awards and accolades
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Tom Petty
In 1994, You Got Lucky, a Tom Petty tribute album featuring such bands as Everclear and Silkworm was released.
In April 1996, Petty received the UCLA's George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement. The next month, Petty won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Golden Note Award.
Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
In 1999 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contribution to the recording industry.
In 2002, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On December 6, 2005, Petty received the Billboard Century Award for his lifetime achievements. The same year, Conversations with Tom Petty, an oral history/biography composed of interviews conducted in 2004 and 2005 with Petty by music journalist Paul Zollo, was published (ISBN 1-84449-815-8).
On September 21, 2006, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received the keys to the city of Gainesville, Florida, where he and his bandmates either lived or grew up. From July 2006 until 2007 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio featured an exhibit of Tom Petty items. Much of the content was donated by Petty himself during a visit to his home by some of the Hall's curatorial staff.
Peter Bogdanovich's documentary film on Petty's career entitled Runnin' Down A Dream premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 14, 2007.
Views on artistic control
Petty is known as a staunch guardian of his creative control and artistic freedom. In 1979, he was dragged into a legal dispute when ABC Records was sold to MCA Records. He refused to be transferred to another record label without his consent. In May 1979, he filed for bankruptcy and was signed to the new MCA subsidiary Backstreet Records.
In early 1981, the upcoming Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album, which would become Hard Promises, was slated to be the next MCA release with the new list price of $9.98, following Steely Dan's Gaucho and the Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra Xanadu soundtrack. This so-called "superstar pricing" was $1.00 more than the usual list price of $8.98. Petty voiced his objections to the price hike in the press and the issue became a popular cause among music fans. Non-delivery of the album and naming it Eight Ninety-Eight were considered, but eventually MCA decided against the price increase.
In 1987, Petty sued tire company B.F. Goodrich for $1 million for using a song very similar to his song "Mary's New Car" in a TV commercial. The ad agency that produced the commercial had previously sought permission to use Petty's song but was refused. A judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting further use of the ad and the suit was later settled out of court.
Some have claimed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Dani California", released in May 2006, is very similar to Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance". Petty told Rolling Stone, "I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock 'n' roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took 'American Girl' , and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, 'OK, good for you' ... If someone took my song note for note and stole it maliciously, then maybe . But I don't believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."
Personal life
His first marriage, to Jane Benyo, lasted 22 years from March 26, 1974 to September 9, 1996. He spent most of those years working, on the road or in the studio. They have two daughters. Adria is a film director and AnnaKim Violette an artist. Since June 3, 2001 he has been married to Dana York, whom he first met years earlier when she came to one of his concerts. Petty has a stepson from York's first marriage named Dylan.
On May 17, 1987, an arsonist set fire to Petty's house in Encino, California. The fire caused $1 million in damage but firefighters were able to salvage the basement recording studio and the original tapes stored there, as well as his Gibson Dove acoustic guitar. His signature gray top hat, however, was destroyed. Petty later rebuilt the house with fireproof materials.
Musical equipment
Petty owns and has used a number of guitars over the years. From 1976-1982, his main instrument was a sunburst 1964 Fender Stratocaster. He has also used a number of Rickenbacker guitars from 1979 onward, notably a 1965 Rose Morris 1993 and 1987 reissue of the Rose Morris 1997, a 1967 360/12 and 1989 660/12TP. The Rickenbacker 660/12TP was designed by Petty (specifically the neck) and featured his signature from 1991 to 1997. Other electrics currently used on tour include a Gretsch Tennessean, two 1960s Fender Telecasters and a Gibson Firebird.
For acoustic guitars, Petty has had a signature C.F. Martin HD-40, and has written virtually all of his songs on a Gibson Dove acoustic saved from his 1987 house fire. He currently uses a Gibson J-200 in a natural finish and a late '70s Guild D25 12-string acoustic.
Petty's current amplifer setup features 2 Fender Vibro-King 60 watt combos.
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http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj249/chayybayybayy/tom_petty.jpg
He was good when he was with Traveling Wilburys.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/21/11 at 7:54 am
He was good when he was with Traveling Wilburys.
He was good before that too. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/21/11 at 7:57 am
The person of the day...Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her autobiography Wishful Drinking.
Fisher was born in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. She was raised Protestant, though her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Her younger brother is Todd Fisher and her half-sisters are actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Joely and Tricia's mother is the singer/actress Connie Stevens.
When Carrie Fisher was two, her parents divorced after her father left Debbie for her best friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, the widow of Eddie's best friend Mike Todd. The following year, her mother married shoe store chain owner Harry Karl, who secretly spent her life savings. It was assumed from an early age that Carrie would go into the family show business, and she began appearing with her mother in Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 12. She attended Beverly Hills High School, but she left to join her mother on the road. She appeared as a debutante and singer in the hit Broadway revival Irene (1973), starring her mother.
Career
1970s
Fisher with Wim Wenders in 1978
In 1973, Fisher enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, which she attended for 18 months. She made her film debut in the Columbia comedy Shampoo (1975) starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant and Jack Warden. In 1977, Fisher starred as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' science fiction film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) opposite Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, a part she sarcastically claims to have obtained by sleeping "with some nerd."
In May 1978, she appeared alongside John Ritter in the ABC-TV film Leave Yesterday Behind as a horse trainer who helps Ritter's character after an accident leaves him a paraplegic.
The huge success of Star Wars made her internationally famous. The character of Princess Leia became a merchandising triumph; there were small plastic action figures of the Princess in toy stores across the United States. She appeared as Princess Leia in the 1978 made-for-TV film, The Star Wars Holiday Special. At this time, Fisher appeared with Laurence Olivier and Joanne Woodward in the anthology series Laurence Olivier Presents in a television version of the William Inge play Come Back, Little Sheba.
In November 1978, Fisher was the guest host for Saturday Night Live with musical guests The Blues Brothers and special guest Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci. Dressed in a gold bikini, she reprised her Princess Leia character from Star Wars in "Beach Blanket Bimbo from Outer Space", a parody sketch of 1960s beach party films. Bill Murray and Gilda Radner imitated the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello characters. John Belushi played biker Eric Von Zipper, and Dan Aykroyd, with whom Fisher was romantically involved, portrayed Vincent Price.
Fisher appeared in the music video for Ringo Starr's cover of "You're Sixteen" as the love interest in 1978 on his TV special of that year.
1980s
Fisher later appeared in The Blues Brothers film in a cameo role as Joliet Jake's vengeful ex-lover, listed in the credits as "Mystery Woman". She appeared on Broadway in Censored Scenes from King Kong in 1980. That year, she appeared again as Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. She made her third and final appearance as Leia in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, for which she became a sex symbol due to her appearance wearing a golden metal bikini (the slave girl outfit which almost immediately rose to pop culture icon status). She is one of the few actors or actresses to star in films with both John and James Belushi, later appearing with the latter in the film The Man with One Red Shoe. She also was a replacement in the Broadway production of Agnes of God (1982). She appeared in the Woody Allen film Hannah and her Sisters in 1986.
In 1987, Fisher published her first novel, Postcards from the Edge. The book was semi-autobiographical in the sense that she fictionalized and satirized real life events such as her drug addiction of the late 1970s. It became a bestseller, and she received the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Also during 1987, she was in the Australian film The Time Guardian. In 1989, Fisher played a major supporting role in When Harry Met Sally, and in the same year, she appeared opposite Tom Hanks as his wife in The 'Burbs.
1990s
In 1990, Columbia Pictures released a film version of Postcards from the Edge, adapted for the screen by Fisher and starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid. She also appeared in the fantasy comedy film Drop Dead Fred in 1991. In 1997, Fisher appeared as a therapist in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. During the 1990s, Fisher also published the novels Surrender the Pink (1991) and Delusions of Grandma (1993).
2000s
Fisher at Star Wars Celebration IV, 2007
In the film Scream 3 (2000), Fisher played an actress mistaken for Carrie Fisher. Director's commentary on the Scream 3 DVD suggests that the sequence was in fact penned by Fisher herself.
In 2001, Fisher played a nun in the Kevin Smith comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The title spoofs The Empire Strikes Back and the film, which includes Mark Hamill, satirizes many Hollywood movies, including the Star Wars series.
She also co-wrote the TV comedy film These Old Broads (2001), of which she was also co-executive producer. It starred her mother, Debbie Reynolds, as well as Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Shirley MacLaine. In this, Taylor's character, an agent, explains to Reynolds' character, an actress, that she was in an alcoholic blackout when she married the actress's husband, "Freddy".
Besides acting and writing original works, Fisher was one of the top script doctors in Hollywood, working on the screenplays of other writers. She has done uncredited polishes on movies starting with The Wedding Singer and Sister Act, and was hired by the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, to polish scripts for his 1992 TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Her expertise in this area was why she was chosen as one of the interviewers for the screenwriting documentary Dreams on Spec in 2007. However, during an interview in 2004 she said that she no longer does much script doctoring.
Fisher also voices Peter Griffin's boss Angela on the animated sitcom Family Guy and appeared in a book of photographs titled Hollywood Moms (2001) for which she wrote the introduction. Fisher published a sequel to Postcards, The Best Awful There Is in 2004. In August 2006, Fisher appeared prominently in the audience of the Comedy Central's Roast of William Shatner.
Fisher wrote and performed in her one-woman play Wishful Drinking at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from November 7, 2006, to January 14, 2007. Her show played at the Berkeley Repertory Theater through April 2008, followed by performances in San Jose, California in July 2008, Hartford Stage in August 2008 before moving on to the Arena Stage in Washington, DC in September 2008 and Boston in October 2008. Fisher published her autobiographical book, called Wishful Drinking based on her successful play in December 2008 and embarked on a media tour. On April 2, 2009, Fisher returned to the stage with her play at the Seattle Repertory Theatre with performances through May 9, 2009. On October 4, 2009, Wishful Drinking then opened on Broadway in New York at Studio 54 and played an extended run until January 17, 2010. In December 2009, Fisher's bestselling memoir Wishful Drinking earned her a nomination for a 2010 Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category.
In 2007, she was a full-time judge on FOX's filmmaking-competition reality television series On the Lot.
Fisher joined Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne on Saturday evenings for The Essentials with informative and entertaining conversation on Hollywood's best films. She guest-starred in the episode titled "Sex and Another City" from season 3 of Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker. This episode also featured Vince Vaughn, Hugh Hefner and Sam Seder in guest roles. On October 25, 2007, Fisher guest-starred as Rosemary Howard on the second season episode of 30 Rock called "Rosemary's Baby", for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. Her last line in the show was a spoof from Star Wars: "Help me Liz Lemon, You're my only hope!". On April 28, 2008, she was a guest on Deal or No Deal. In 2008, she also had a cameo as a doctor in the Star Wars related comedy Fanboys.
Carrie Fisher at WonderCon 2009
Fisher's Wishful Drinking will air as a feature-length documentary on HBO.
Fisher will appear on the seventh season of Entourage in the summer of 2010.
Fisher dated musician Paul Simon from 1977 until 1983, then was married to him from August 1983 to July 1984, and they dated again for a time after their divorce. During their marriage, she appeared in Simon's music video for the song "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War". She is referenced in many of Simon's songs, including "Hearts and Bones", "Graceland", "She Moves On" and "Allergies".
Subsequently, she had a relationship with Creative Artists Agency principal and casting agent Bryan Lourd. They had one child together, Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992). The couple's relationship ended when Lourd left to be in a homosexual relationship. Though Fisher has described Lourd as her second husband in interviews, according to a 2004 profile of the actress and writer, she and Lourd were never legally married.
Fisher also had a close relationship with James Blunt. While working on his album Back to Bedlam in 2003, Blunt spent much of his time at Fisher's residence. Vanity Fair's George Wayne wanted Fisher to explain if their relationship was sexual. Fisher dismissed the suggestion: "Absolutely not, but I did become his therapist. He was a soldier. This boy has seen awful stuff. Every time James hears fireworks or anything like that, his heart beats faster, and he gets 'fight or flight'. You know, he comes from a long line of soldiers dating back to the 10th century. He would tell me these horrible stories. He was a captain, a reconnaissance soldier. I became James’s therapist. So it would have been unethical to sleep with my patient."
On February 26, 2005, R. Gregory "Greg" Stevens, a lobbyist and advisor for the Republican Party, was found dead in Fisher's California home due to an overdose of OxyContin compounded by obstructive sleep apnea. In an interview, Fisher claimed that Stevens' ghost haunted her mansion. Fisher was unsettled by this: "I was a nut for a year," she explained, "and in that year I took drugs again."
Fisher has described herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God." She was raised Protestant, but often attends Jewish services, the faith of her father, with Orthodox friends.
Bipolar disorder and drug problems
Fisher has publicly discussed her problems with drugs, her struggle with bipolar disorder, and her overcoming an addiction to prescription medication, most notably on ABC's 20/20 and The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive with Stephen Fry for the BBC. She discussed her new memoir Wishful Drinking and various topics in it with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today on December 10, 2008. This interview was followed by a similar appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on December 12, 2008 where she discussed her electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments. She has said that she receives ECT every six weeks to "blow apart the cement" in her brain. Fisher spoke about Wishful Drinking on NPR's Talk of the Nation on December 16, 2008. She also spoke about her life and troubles on the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on January 31, 2009.
Weight problems
In recent years, she has been battling weight gain since touring with her one-woman show, topping out at 180 pounds. She's currently the new spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Inc.. Television ads began airing in late January 2011.
Cocaine addiction
While in Sydney, Australia, Fisher revealed in another interview that she had a cocaine addiction during filming of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and also survived an overdose. "Slowly, I realized I was doing a bit more drugs than other people and losing my choice in the matter" she said in an interview.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
Film, television and video games 1975 Shampoo Lorna Carp
1977 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Princess Leia Organa
1977 Come Back, Little Sheba Marie Videotaped TV drama
1978 Ringo Marquine TV movie
1978 Leave Yesterday Behind Marnie Clarkson TV movie
1978 The Star Wars Holiday Special Princess Leia Organa TV movie
1980 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Princess Leia Organa
1980 The Blues Brothers Mystery Woman
1981 Under the Rainbow Annie Clark
1982 Laverne & Shirley Cathy TV series, episode: "The Playboy Show"
1983 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Princess Leia Organa
1984 Faerie Tale Theatre Thumbelina TV series, episode: "Thumbelina"
1984 Garbo Talks Lisa Rolfe
1984 Frankenstein Elizabeth TV movie
1985 From Here to Maternity Veronica TV short
1985 The Man with One Red Shoe Paula
1985 George Burns Comedy Week TV series, episode: "The Couch"
1985 Happily Ever After Alice Conway Voice only, TV movie
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters April
1986 Hollywood Vice Squad Betty Melton
1986 Liberty Emma Lazarus TV movie
1986 Sunday Drive Franny Jessup TV movie
1987 Amazing Stories Laurie McNamara TV series, episode: "Gershwin's Trunk"
1987 Paul Reiser Out on a Whim TV movie
1987 Amazon Women on the Moon Mary Brown segment "Reckless Youth"
1987 The Time Guardian Petra
1988 Appointment with Death Nadine Boynton
1989 The 'burbs Carol Peterson
1989 Loverboy Monica Delancy
1989 Two Daddies Alice Conway Voice only, TV movie
1989 She's Back Beatrice
1989 When Harry Met Sally... Marie
1989 Trying Times Enid TV series, episode: "Hunger Chic"
1990 Sweet Revenge Linda
1990 Sibling Rivalry Iris Turner-Hunter
1991 Drop Dead Fred Janie
1991 Soapdish Betsy Faye Sharon
1991 Hook Woman kissing on bridge Uncredited role
1992 This Is My Life Claudia Curtis
1994 Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Princess Leia Organa Video game
1995 Present Tense, Past Perfect TV short
1995 Frasier Phyllis TV series, episode "Phyllis", voice only
1997 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Therapist Uncredited role
1997 Gun Nancy TV series, episode: "The Hole"
1998 Dr, Katz, Professional Therapist Roz Katz TV series, episode: "Thanksgiving"
1999 Return of the Ewok short subject, filmed in 1983
2000 Scream 3 Bianca
2001 These Old Broads Hooker TV movie
2001 Heartbreakers Ms. Surpin
2001 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Nun
2002 A Midsummer Night's Rave
2002 A Nero Wolfe Mystery Ellen Tenzer TV series, two-part episode: "Motherhunt"
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Mother Superior
2003 Wonderland Sally Hansen
2003 Good Morning, Miami Judy Silver TV series, episode: "A Kiss Before Lying"
2003 Sex and the City Herself TV series, episode: "Sex and Another City"
2004 Stateside Mrs. Dubois
2004 Jack & Bobby Madison Skutcher TV series, episode: "The First Lady"
2005 Undiscovered Carrie
2005 Smallville Pauline Kahn TV series, episode: "Thirst"
2005 Romancing the Bride Edwina TV movie
2005–present Family Guy Angela TV series, episodes: "Jungle Love", "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", "Hell Comes to Quahog", "Whistle While Your Wife Works", "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing", "Peter-assment", "Baby, You Knock Me Out", "Road to the North Pole", "Friends of Peter G.", "Peter-Assment"
2007 Suffering Man's Charity Reporter
2007 Cougar Club Glady Goodbey
2007 Odd Job Jack Dr. Finch TV series, episode: "The Beauty Beast"
2007 Weeds Celia's attorney TV series, episode: "The Brick Dance"
2007 Side Order of Life Dr. Gilbert TV series, episode:" Funeral for a Phone"
2007 30 Rock Rosemary Howard TV series, episode: "Rosemary's Baby"
2008 The Women Bailey Smith
2009 Fanboys Cameo appearance
2008 Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II Princess Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, Krayt Dragon's Mother TV movie, voice only
2009 White Lightnin' Cilla
2009 Sorority Row Mrs. Crenshaw
2010 Wright vs. Wrong Joan Harrington TV movie
2010 Entourage Anna Fowler TV series, episode "Tequila and Coke"
2010 Family Guy Mon Mothma TV series, episode: It's a Trap, voice only
2010 A Quiet Word With ... Herself Australian TV conversation series, season 1, episode 2
Bibliography
Novels
Postcards from the Edge, 1987, ISBN 0-7434-6651-9
Surrender the Pink, 1990, ISBN 0-671-66640-1
Delusions of Grandma, 1993, ISBN 0-684-85803-7
Hollywood Moms, 2001, (introduction)
The Best Awful There Is, 2004, ISBN 0-7434-7857-6
Non-fiction
Wishful Drinking, 2008, ISBN 1-4391-0225-2
Screenplays
Postcards from the Edge, 1990
These Old Broads, 2001
E-Girl (2007)
doctored screenplays for Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992) and The Wedding Singer (1998)
Plays
Wishful Drinking, 2006
Wishful Drinking, 2008
A Spy in the House of Me, 2008
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/21/11 at 12:17 pm
He was good before that too. :)
Especially as a solo artist (with or without The Heartbreakers).
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/21/11 at 7:50 pm
The person of the day...Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her autobiography Wishful Drinking.
Fisher was born in Beverly Hills, California, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. She was raised Protestant, though her paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. Her younger brother is Todd Fisher and her half-sisters are actresses Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher. Joely and Tricia's mother is the singer/actress Connie Stevens.
When Carrie Fisher was two, her parents divorced after her father left Debbie for her best friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, the widow of Eddie's best friend Mike Todd. The following year, her mother married shoe store chain owner Harry Karl, who secretly spent her life savings. It was assumed from an early age that Carrie would go into the family show business, and she began appearing with her mother in Las Vegas, Nevada at the age of 12. She attended Beverly Hills High School, but she left to join her mother on the road. She appeared as a debutante and singer in the hit Broadway revival Irene (1973), starring her mother.
Career
1970s
Fisher with Wim Wenders in 1978
In 1973, Fisher enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, which she attended for 18 months. She made her film debut in the Columbia comedy Shampoo (1975) starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie and Goldie Hawn, with Lee Grant and Jack Warden. In 1977, Fisher starred as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas' science fiction film Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) opposite Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, a part she sarcastically claims to have obtained by sleeping "with some nerd."
In May 1978, she appeared alongside John Ritter in the ABC-TV film Leave Yesterday Behind as a horse trainer who helps Ritter's character after an accident leaves him a paraplegic.
The huge success of Star Wars made her internationally famous. The character of Princess Leia became a merchandising triumph; there were small plastic action figures of the Princess in toy stores across the United States. She appeared as Princess Leia in the 1978 made-for-TV film, The Star Wars Holiday Special. At this time, Fisher appeared with Laurence Olivier and Joanne Woodward in the anthology series Laurence Olivier Presents in a television version of the William Inge play Come Back, Little Sheba.
In November 1978, Fisher was the guest host for Saturday Night Live with musical guests The Blues Brothers and special guest Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci. Dressed in a gold bikini, she reprised her Princess Leia character from Star Wars in "Beach Blanket Bimbo from Outer Space", a parody sketch of 1960s beach party films. Bill Murray and Gilda Radner imitated the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello characters. John Belushi played biker Eric Von Zipper, and Dan Aykroyd, with whom Fisher was romantically involved, portrayed Vincent Price.
Fisher appeared in the music video for Ringo Starr's cover of "You're Sixteen" as the love interest in 1978 on his TV special of that year.
1980s
Fisher later appeared in The Blues Brothers film in a cameo role as Joliet Jake's vengeful ex-lover, listed in the credits as "Mystery Woman". She appeared on Broadway in Censored Scenes from King Kong in 1980. That year, she appeared again as Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. She made her third and final appearance as Leia in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, for which she became a sex symbol due to her appearance wearing a golden metal bikini (the slave girl outfit which almost immediately rose to pop culture icon status). She is one of the few actors or actresses to star in films with both John and James Belushi, later appearing with the latter in the film The Man with One Red Shoe. She also was a replacement in the Broadway production of Agnes of God (1982). She appeared in the Woody Allen film Hannah and her Sisters in 1986.
In 1987, Fisher published her first novel, Postcards from the Edge. The book was semi-autobiographical in the sense that she fictionalized and satirized real life events such as her drug addiction of the late 1970s. It became a bestseller, and she received the Los Angeles Pen Award for Best First Novel. Also during 1987, she was in the Australian film The Time Guardian. In 1989, Fisher played a major supporting role in When Harry Met Sally, and in the same year, she appeared opposite Tom Hanks as his wife in The 'Burbs.
1990s
In 1990, Columbia Pictures released a film version of Postcards from the Edge, adapted for the screen by Fisher and starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid. She also appeared in the fantasy comedy film Drop Dead Fred in 1991. In 1997, Fisher appeared as a therapist in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. During the 1990s, Fisher also published the novels Surrender the Pink (1991) and Delusions of Grandma (1993).
2000s
Fisher at Star Wars Celebration IV, 2007
In the film Scream 3 (2000), Fisher played an actress mistaken for Carrie Fisher. Director's commentary on the Scream 3 DVD suggests that the sequence was in fact penned by Fisher herself.
In 2001, Fisher played a nun in the Kevin Smith comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The title spoofs The Empire Strikes Back and the film, which includes Mark Hamill, satirizes many Hollywood movies, including the Star Wars series.
She also co-wrote the TV comedy film These Old Broads (2001), of which she was also co-executive producer. It starred her mother, Debbie Reynolds, as well as Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Shirley MacLaine. In this, Taylor's character, an agent, explains to Reynolds' character, an actress, that she was in an alcoholic blackout when she married the actress's husband, "Freddy".
Besides acting and writing original works, Fisher was one of the top script doctors in Hollywood, working on the screenplays of other writers. She has done uncredited polishes on movies starting with The Wedding Singer and Sister Act, and was hired by the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, to polish scripts for his 1992 TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Her expertise in this area was why she was chosen as one of the interviewers for the screenwriting documentary Dreams on Spec in 2007. However, during an interview in 2004 she said that she no longer does much script doctoring.
Fisher also voices Peter Griffin's boss Angela on the animated sitcom Family Guy and appeared in a book of photographs titled Hollywood Moms (2001) for which she wrote the introduction. Fisher published a sequel to Postcards, The Best Awful There Is in 2004. In August 2006, Fisher appeared prominently in the audience of the Comedy Central's Roast of William Shatner.
Fisher wrote and performed in her one-woman play Wishful Drinking at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from November 7, 2006, to January 14, 2007. Her show played at the Berkeley Repertory Theater through April 2008, followed by performances in San Jose, California in July 2008, Hartford Stage in August 2008 before moving on to the Arena Stage in Washington, DC in September 2008 and Boston in October 2008. Fisher published her autobiographical book, called Wishful Drinking based on her successful play in December 2008 and embarked on a media tour. On April 2, 2009, Fisher returned to the stage with her play at the Seattle Repertory Theatre with performances through May 9, 2009. On October 4, 2009, Wishful Drinking then opened on Broadway in New York at Studio 54 and played an extended run until January 17, 2010. In December 2009, Fisher's bestselling memoir Wishful Drinking earned her a nomination for a 2010 Grammy Award in the Best Spoken Word Album category.
In 2007, she was a full-time judge on FOX's filmmaking-competition reality television series On the Lot.
Fisher joined Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne on Saturday evenings for The Essentials with informative and entertaining conversation on Hollywood's best films. She guest-starred in the episode titled "Sex and Another City" from season 3 of Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker. This episode also featured Vince Vaughn, Hugh Hefner and Sam Seder in guest roles. On October 25, 2007, Fisher guest-starred as Rosemary Howard on the second season episode of 30 Rock called "Rosemary's Baby", for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. Her last line in the show was a spoof from Star Wars: "Help me Liz Lemon, You're my only hope!". On April 28, 2008, she was a guest on Deal or No Deal. In 2008, she also had a cameo as a doctor in the Star Wars related comedy Fanboys.
Carrie Fisher at WonderCon 2009
Fisher's Wishful Drinking will air as a feature-length documentary on HBO.
Fisher will appear on the seventh season of Entourage in the summer of 2010.
Fisher dated musician Paul Simon from 1977 until 1983, then was married to him from August 1983 to July 1984, and they dated again for a time after their divorce. During their marriage, she appeared in Simon's music video for the song "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War". She is referenced in many of Simon's songs, including "Hearts and Bones", "Graceland", "She Moves On" and "Allergies".
Subsequently, she had a relationship with Creative Artists Agency principal and casting agent Bryan Lourd. They had one child together, Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992). The couple's relationship ended when Lourd left to be in a homosexual relationship. Though Fisher has described Lourd as her second husband in interviews, according to a 2004 profile of the actress and writer, she and Lourd were never legally married.
Fisher also had a close relationship with James Blunt. While working on his album Back to Bedlam in 2003, Blunt spent much of his time at Fisher's residence. Vanity Fair's George Wayne wanted Fisher to explain if their relationship was sexual. Fisher dismissed the suggestion: "Absolutely not, but I did become his therapist. He was a soldier. This boy has seen awful stuff. Every time James hears fireworks or anything like that, his heart beats faster, and he gets 'fight or flight'. You know, he comes from a long line of soldiers dating back to the 10th century. He would tell me these horrible stories. He was a captain, a reconnaissance soldier. I became James’s therapist. So it would have been unethical to sleep with my patient."
On February 26, 2005, R. Gregory "Greg" Stevens, a lobbyist and advisor for the Republican Party, was found dead in Fisher's California home due to an overdose of OxyContin compounded by obstructive sleep apnea. In an interview, Fisher claimed that Stevens' ghost haunted her mansion. Fisher was unsettled by this: "I was a nut for a year," she explained, "and in that year I took drugs again."
Fisher has described herself as an "enthusiastic agnostic who would be happy to be shown that there is a God." She was raised Protestant, but often attends Jewish services, the faith of her father, with Orthodox friends.
Bipolar disorder and drug problems
Fisher has publicly discussed her problems with drugs, her struggle with bipolar disorder, and her overcoming an addiction to prescription medication, most notably on ABC's 20/20 and The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive with Stephen Fry for the BBC. She discussed her new memoir Wishful Drinking and various topics in it with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today on December 10, 2008. This interview was followed by a similar appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on December 12, 2008 where she discussed her electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments. She has said that she receives ECT every six weeks to "blow apart the cement" in her brain. Fisher spoke about Wishful Drinking on NPR's Talk of the Nation on December 16, 2008. She also spoke about her life and troubles on the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on January 31, 2009.
Weight problems
In recent years, she has been battling weight gain since touring with her one-woman show, topping out at 180 pounds. She's currently the new spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Inc.. Television ads began airing in late January 2011.
Cocaine addiction
While in Sydney, Australia, Fisher revealed in another interview that she had a cocaine addiction during filming of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and also survived an overdose. "Slowly, I realized I was doing a bit more drugs than other people and losing my choice in the matter" she said in an interview.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
Film, television and video games 1975 Shampoo Lorna Carp
1977 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Princess Leia Organa
1977 Come Back, Little Sheba Marie Videotaped TV drama
1978 Ringo Marquine TV movie
1978 Leave Yesterday Behind Marnie Clarkson TV movie
1978 The Star Wars Holiday Special Princess Leia Organa TV movie
1980 Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Princess Leia Organa
1980 The Blues Brothers Mystery Woman
1981 Under the Rainbow Annie Clark
1982 Laverne & Shirley Cathy TV series, episode: "The Playboy Show"
1983 Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Princess Leia Organa
1984 Faerie Tale Theatre Thumbelina TV series, episode: "Thumbelina"
1984 Garbo Talks Lisa Rolfe
1984 Frankenstein Elizabeth TV movie
1985 From Here to Maternity Veronica TV short
1985 The Man with One Red Shoe Paula
1985 George Burns Comedy Week TV series, episode: "The Couch"
1985 Happily Ever After Alice Conway Voice only, TV movie
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters April
1986 Hollywood Vice Squad Betty Melton
1986 Liberty Emma Lazarus TV movie
1986 Sunday Drive Franny Jessup TV movie
1987 Amazing Stories Laurie McNamara TV series, episode: "Gershwin's Trunk"
1987 Paul Reiser Out on a Whim TV movie
1987 Amazon Women on the Moon Mary Brown segment "Reckless Youth"
1987 The Time Guardian Petra
1988 Appointment with Death Nadine Boynton
1989 The 'burbs Carol Peterson
1989 Loverboy Monica Delancy
1989 Two Daddies Alice Conway Voice only, TV movie
1989 She's Back Beatrice
1989 When Harry Met Sally... Marie
1989 Trying Times Enid TV series, episode: "Hunger Chic"
1990 Sweet Revenge Linda
1990 Sibling Rivalry Iris Turner-Hunter
1991 Drop Dead Fred Janie
1991 Soapdish Betsy Faye Sharon
1991 Hook Woman kissing on bridge Uncredited role
1992 This Is My Life Claudia Curtis
1994 Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Princess Leia Organa Video game
1995 Present Tense, Past Perfect TV short
1995 Frasier Phyllis TV series, episode "Phyllis", voice only
1997 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Therapist Uncredited role
1997 Gun Nancy TV series, episode: "The Hole"
1998 Dr, Katz, Professional Therapist Roz Katz TV series, episode: "Thanksgiving"
1999 Return of the Ewok short subject, filmed in 1983
2000 Scream 3 Bianca
2001 These Old Broads Hooker TV movie
2001 Heartbreakers Ms. Surpin
2001 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Nun
2002 A Midsummer Night's Rave
2002 A Nero Wolfe Mystery Ellen Tenzer TV series, two-part episode: "Motherhunt"
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Mother Superior
2003 Wonderland Sally Hansen
2003 Good Morning, Miami Judy Silver TV series, episode: "A Kiss Before Lying"
2003 Sex and the City Herself TV series, episode: "Sex and Another City"
2004 Stateside Mrs. Dubois
2004 Jack & Bobby Madison Skutcher TV series, episode: "The First Lady"
2005 Undiscovered Carrie
2005 Smallville Pauline Kahn TV series, episode: "Thirst"
2005 Romancing the Bride Edwina TV movie
2005–present Family Guy Angela TV series, episodes: "Jungle Love", "The Courtship of Stewie's Father", "Hell Comes to Quahog", "Whistle While Your Wife Works", "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing", "Peter-assment", "Baby, You Knock Me Out", "Road to the North Pole", "Friends of Peter G.", "Peter-Assment"
2007 Suffering Man's Charity Reporter
2007 Cougar Club Glady Goodbey
2007 Odd Job Jack Dr. Finch TV series, episode: "The Beauty Beast"
2007 Weeds Celia's attorney TV series, episode: "The Brick Dance"
2007 Side Order of Life Dr. Gilbert TV series, episode:" Funeral for a Phone"
2007 30 Rock Rosemary Howard TV series, episode: "Rosemary's Baby"
2008 The Women Bailey Smith
2009 Fanboys Cameo appearance
2008 Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II Princess Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, Krayt Dragon's Mother TV movie, voice only
2009 White Lightnin' Cilla
2009 Sorority Row Mrs. Crenshaw
2010 Wright vs. Wrong Joan Harrington TV movie
2010 Entourage Anna Fowler TV series, episode "Tequila and Coke"
2010 Family Guy Mon Mothma TV series, episode: It's a Trap, voice only
2010 A Quiet Word With ... Herself Australian TV conversation series, season 1, episode 2
Bibliography
Novels
Postcards from the Edge, 1987, ISBN 0-7434-6651-9
Surrender the Pink, 1990, ISBN 0-671-66640-1
Delusions of Grandma, 1993, ISBN 0-684-85803-7
Hollywood Moms, 2001, (introduction)
The Best Awful There Is, 2004, ISBN 0-7434-7857-6
Non-fiction
Wishful Drinking, 2008, ISBN 1-4391-0225-2
Screenplays
Postcards from the Edge, 1990
These Old Broads, 2001
E-Girl (2007)
doctored screenplays for Hook (1991), Sister Act (1992) and The Wedding Singer (1998)
Plays
Wishful Drinking, 2006
Wishful Drinking, 2008
A Spy in the House of Me, 2008
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I always liked Princess Leia.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/22/11 at 12:32 am
I always liked Princess Leia.
I have hardly seen her as any other role.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/22/11 at 6:48 am
I have hardly seen her as any other role.
Was she on a family sitcom before?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/22/11 at 6:50 am
Was she on a family sitcom before?
You are asking the wrong person here.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/22/11 at 6:51 am
You are asking the wrong person here.
I'll ask Ninny.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/22/11 at 6:52 am
I'll ask Ninny.
It is probably listed above.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/22/11 at 9:19 am
Especially as a solo artist (with or without The Heartbreakers).
True :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/22/11 at 9:24 am
Was she on a family sitcom before?
Not that I know of.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/22/11 at 9:27 am
The person of the day...Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE (play /ˈdʒækəbi/; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor and film director.
A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing. His stage work also included playing Edward II, Octavius Caesar, Richard III, and Cyrano de Bergerac.
In addition to being a founder member of the Royal National Theatre and winning several prestigious theatre awards, Jacobi has also enjoyed a successful television career, starring in the critically praised adaptation of Roberts Graves' I, Claudius, for which he won a BAFTA; the titular role in the acclaimed medieval drama series Brother Cadfael, and Stanley Baldwin in The Gathering Storm. Though principally a stage actor, Jacobi has appeared in a number of films, such as Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001), The Golden Compass (2007), The King's Speech (2010), and the forthcoming Hippie Hippie Shake. Like Laurence Olivier, he holds two knighthoods, Danish and British.
Jacobi quickly came to the fore, and his talent was recognised by Laurence Olivier. He invited the young man back to London to become one of the founding members of the new National Theatre, even though at the time Jacobi was relatively unknown. He played Laertes in the National Theatre's inaugural production of Hamlet opposite Peter O'Toole in 1963. Olivier cast him as Cassio in the successful National Theatre stage production of Othello, a role that Jacobi repeated in the 1965 film version. He played Andrei in the NT production and film of Three Sisters (1970), both starring Olivier. On 27 July 1965, Jacobi played Brindsley Miller in the first production of Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy. It was presented by the National Theatre at Chichester and subsequently in London.
After eight years at the National Theatre, Jacobi left in 1971 to pursue different roles and mediums of expression. In 1972, he starred in the BBC serial Man of Straw, directed by Herbert Wise. Most of his theatrical work in the 70s was with the touring classical Prospect Theatre Company, with which he undertook many roles, including Ivanov, Pericles, Prince of Tyre and A Month in the Country opposite Dorothy Tutin (1976).
Although Jacobi's name was becoming known and he was increasingly busy with stage and screen acting, his big breakthrough came in 1976 when he played the title role in the BBC's series I, Claudius. He cemented his increasing reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching Emperor Claudius winning him many plaudits. In 1979, thanks to his international popularity, he took Hamlet on a theatrical world tour through England, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China, playing Prince Hamlet. He was invited to perform the role at Kronborg Castle, Denmark, better known as Elsinore Castle, the setting of the play. In 1978 he played in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Richard II, with Sir John Gielgud and Dame Wendy Hiller.
Later career
In 1980, Jacobi took the leading role in the BBC's Hamlet, made his Broadway debut in The Suicide (a run shortened by Jacobi's return home to England due to the death of his mother), and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). From 1982 to 1985 he played four demanding roles simultaneously: Benedick in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won a Tony for its Broadway run (1984–1985); Prospero in The Tempest; Peer Gynt; and Cyrano de Bergerac which he brought to the US and played in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing on Broadway and in Washington DC (1984–1985). In 1986, he made his West End debut in Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, with the role of Alan Turing, which was written with Jacobi specifically in mind. The play was taken to Broadway. In 1988 Jacobi alternated in West End the title roles of Shakespeare's Richard II and Richard III in repertoire.
His TV career saw him measure with Inside the Third Reich (1982), where he played Hitler; Mr Pye (1985); and Little Dorrit (1987), from Charles Dickens's book; The Tenth Man (1988) with Anthony Hopkins and Kristin Scott Thomas. In 1982, he starred as the voice of Nicodemus in the animated film, The Secret of NIMH. In 1990, he starred as Daedalus in episode 4 of Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths.
Jacobi continued to play Shakespeare roles, notably in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film of Henry V (as the Chorus), and made his directing debut as Branagh's director for the 1988 Renaissance Theatre Company's touring production of Hamlet, which also played at Elsinore and as part of a Renaissance repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London. The 1990s saw Jacobi keeping on with repertoire stage work in Kean at the Old Vic, Becket in the West End (the Haymarket Theatre) and Macbeth at the RSC in both London and Stratford.
He was appointed the joint artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, with the West End impresario Duncan Weldon in 1995 for a three-year tenure. As an actor at Chichester, he also starred in four plays, including his first Uncle Vanya in 1996 (he played it again in 2000, which he brought to Broadway for a limited run). Jacobi's work during the 1990s included the 13-episode series TV adaptation of the novels by Ellis Peters, Cadfael (1994–1998) and a televised version of Breaking the Code (1996). Film appearances included performances in Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991), Branagh's full-text rendition of Hamlet (1996) as King Claudius, John Maybury's Love is the Devil (1998), a portrait of painter Francis Bacon, as Senator Gracchus in Gladiator (2000) with Russell Crowe, and as "The Duke" opposite Christopher Eccleston and Eddie Izzard in a post-apocalyptic version of Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy (2002).
In 2001, Jacobi won an Emmy Award by mocking his Shakespearean background in the television sitcom Frasier episode "The Show Must Go Off", in which he played the world's worst Shakespearean actor: the hammy, loud, untalented Jackson Hedley. This was his first guest appearance on an American television programme.
Since 2000
Jacobi has done the narration for audio book versions of the Iliad, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis and two abridged versions of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. In 2001, he provided the voice of "Duke Theseus" in The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream film. In 2002, Jacobi toured Australia in The Hollow Crown with Sir Donald Sinden, Ian Richardson and Dame Diana Rigg. Jacobi also played the role of Senator Gracchus in Gladiator and starred in the 2002 miniseries The Jury. He is also the narrator for the BBC children's series In the Night Garden.
In 2003, he was involved with Scream of the Shalka, a webcast based on the science fiction series Doctor Who. He played the voice of the Doctor's arch-nemesis the Master alongside Richard E. Grant as the Doctor. In the same year, he also appeared in Deadline, an audio drama also based on Doctor Who. In that, he played Martin Bannister, an aging writer who makes up stories about "the Doctor", a character who travels in time and space, the premise being that the series had never made it on to television. Jacobi later followed this up with an appearance in the Doctor Who episode "Utopia" (June 2007); he appears as the kindly Professor Yana, who by the end of the episode is revealed to actually be the Master. Jacobi admitted to Doctor Who Confidential he had always wanted to be on the show: "One of my ambitions since the '60s has been to take part in a Doctor Who. The other one is Coronation Street. So I've cracked Doctor Who now. I'm still waiting for Corrie."
In 2004, Jacobi starred in Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, in an acclaimed production, which transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London in January 2005. The London production of Don Carlos gathered rave reviews. Also in 2004, he starred as Lord Teddy Thursby in the first of the four-part BBC series The Long Firm, based on Jake Arnott's novel of the same name. In Nanny McPhee (2005), he played the role of the colourful Mr. Wheen, an undertaker. He played the role of Alexander Corvinus in the 2006 movie Underworld: Evolution.
In March 2006, BBC Two broadcast Pinochet in Suburbia, a docudrama about former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the attempts to extradite him from Great Britain; Jacobi played the leading role. In September 2007, it was released in the U.S., retitled Pinochet's Last Stand. In 2006, he appeared in the children's movie Mist, the tale of a sheepdog puppy, he also narrated this movie. In July–August 2006, he played the eponymous role in A Voyage Round My Father at the Donmar Warehouse, a production which then transferred to the West End.
In February 2007, his feature film The Riddle, directed by Brendan Foley, in which he stars alongside Vinnie Jones and Vanessa Redgrave, was screened at Berlin EFM. Jacobi plays twin roles, first a present day London tramp and then the ghost of Charles Dickens. In March 2007, the BBC's children's programme In the Night Garden started its run of 100 episodes, with Jacobi as the narrator. He played Nell's grandfather in ITV's Christmas 2007 adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop, and returned to the stage to play Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (2009) for the Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham's Theatre in London. The role won him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. He appears in five 2009 films: Morris: A Life with Bells On, Hippie Hippie Shake , Endgame, Adam Resurrected and Charles Dickens's England. In 2010 he returned to I, Claudius, as Augustus in a radio adaptation.
Jacobi starred in Michael Grandage's production of King Lear (London, 2010), giving what The New Yorker called "one of the finest performances of his distinguished career". In May 2011 he reprised this role at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Shakespeare authorship involvement
Jacobi has been publicly involved in the Shakespeare authorship question. He supports the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, according to which Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the works of Shakespeare. Jacobi has given an address to the Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre promoting Oxford as the Shakespeare authorand wrote forewords to two books on the subject in 2004 and 2005.
In 2007, Jacobi and fellow Shakespearean actor and director Mark Rylance initiated a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" on the authorship of Shakespeare's work, to encourage new research into the question. The online document has been signed by over 1,700 people, including over 300 academics.
Personal life
In March 2006, he registered his civil partnership with Richard Clifford, four months after civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom. They live in north London.
Honours
1985: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom)
1989: Knight 1st class of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark)
1994: Knight Bachelor, for services to Drama (United Kingdom)
Awards
2008: Helen Hayes Tribute for Lifetime Achievement at the 24th Annual Helen Hayes Awards
Theatre
1983: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
1984: Tony Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
2009: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, for Twelfth Night
Television
1976: BAFTA Award for Best Actor, for I, Claudius
1989: Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special, for The Tenth Man
2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Frasier (episode "The Show Must Go Off")
Film
1988: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Little Dorrit
1998: Edinburgh International Film Festival for Best British Performance, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
1999: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Ensemble
2002: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble Cast, for Gosford Park
2002: Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Satellite Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture, for Gosford Park
2011: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, for The King's Speech
Filmography
Othello (1965) – Cassio
Interlude (1968) – Paul
Three Sisters (1970) – Andrei
The Strauss Family (TV) (1972) – Joseph Lanner
Blue Blood (1973) – Gregory
The Day of the Jackal (1973) – Caron
The Pallisers (TV) (1974) – Lord Fawn
The Odessa File (1974) – Klaus Wenzer
I, Claudius (TV) (1976) – Claudius
Philby, Burgess and MacLean – Spy Scandal of the Century (TV) (1977) – Guy Burgess
The Medusa Touch (1978) – Townley
Richard II (TV) (1978) – Richard II
The Human Factor (1979) – Arthur Davis
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (TV) (1980) – Hamlet
Charlotte (1981) – Daberlohn
The Secret of NIMH (1982) – Nicodemus (voice)
Inside the Third Reich (TV) (1982) – Adolf Hitler
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (TV) (1982) – Frollo
Enigma (1983) – Kurt Limmer
Cyrano de Bergerac (TV) (1985) – Cyrano de Bergerac
Mr Pye (TV) (1986) – Mr. Pye
Breaking the Code (1986) – Alan Turing
The Secret Garden (TV) (1987) – Archibald Craven
The Tenth Man (TV) (1988) – The impostor
Little Dorrit (TV) (1988) – Arthur Clennam
Henry V (1989) – Chorus
The Fool (1990) – Mr. Frederick/Sir John
Dead Again (1991) – Franklyn Madson
Cadfael (TV) (1994–1998) – Brother Cadfael
Looking for Richard (1996) – Himself
Breaking the Code (TV) (1996) – Alan Turing
Hamlet (1996) – Claudius
Basil (1998) – Father Frederick
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) – Francis Bacon
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999) – Father Leonor Fousnel
Edvard Grieg – What Price Immortality? (1999)
The Wyvern Mystery (TV) (2000) – Squire Fairfield
Up at the Villa (2000) – Lucky Leadbetter
Jason and the Argonauts (TV) (2000) – Phineas
Gladiator (2000) – Gracchus
The Body (2001) – Father Lavelle
Gosford Park (2001) – Probert
The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (2001) – voice of Nijinsky
Revelation (2001) – Librarian
Frasier (US TV) (2001) "The Show Must Go Off" – Jackson Hedley
The Jury (TV) (2002) – George Cording QC
The Gathering Storm (BBC) (2002) – Stanley Baldwin
Revengers Tragedy (2002) – The Duke
Two Men Went to War (2002) – Major Merton
Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites (2003) - Voice
London (TV) (2004) – Tacitus
Strings (2004) – Nezo (voice)
The Long Firm (TV) (2004) – Lord Edward 'Teddy' Thursby
Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage (TV) (2004) – Colonel Protheroe
Bye Bye Blackbird (2005) – Lord Dempsey
Nanny McPhee (2005) – Mr. Wheen
Underworld: Evolution (2006) – Alexander Corvinus
Doctor Who (TV) (2007) – Professor Yana / The Master
The Riddle (2007) – The Tramp / Charles Dickens
Airlock Or How To Say Goodbye In Space (2007) – President
The Golden Compass (2007) – Magisterial Emissary
In the Night Garden (2007 – present) – Narrator
The Old Curiosity Shop (TV) (2007) – Grandfather
A Bunch of Amateurs (2008) – Nigel
Morris: A Life with Bells On (2009) – Quentin Neely
Endgame (2009) – Rudolf Agnew
Adam Resurrected (2009) – Dr. Nathan Gross
The Winter's Tale (upcoming 2009) – Antigonus
Charles Dickens's England (2009) – Himself
Hippie Hippie Shake (upcoming, 2010) – Judge
There Be Dragons (upcoming, 2010) – Honorio
Ironclad (upcoming, 2010) – Cornhill
The King's Speech (2010) – Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang
Hereafter (2010) – Himself
Anonymous (upcoming, 2011) – Narrator (Prologue)
My Week with Marilyn (upcoming, 2011)
The Borgias (TV) (2011) - Cardinal Orsini
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/22/11 at 11:32 am
I love the Cadfael series. We have all of them on DVD, plus all the books. When I read the books, I can't help but seeing Sir Derek in my mind's eye. We also have all the audiobooks which Sir Derek reads many of them.
The guy is a WONDERFUL actor.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/22/11 at 11:48 am
The person of the day...Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE (play /ˈdʒækəbi/; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor and film director.
A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing. His stage work also included playing Edward II, Octavius Caesar, Richard III, and Cyrano de Bergerac.
In addition to being a founder member of the Royal National Theatre and winning several prestigious theatre awards, Jacobi has also enjoyed a successful television career, starring in the critically praised adaptation of Roberts Graves' I, Claudius, for which he won a BAFTA; the titular role in the acclaimed medieval drama series Brother Cadfael, and Stanley Baldwin in The Gathering Storm. Though principally a stage actor, Jacobi has appeared in a number of films, such as Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001), The Golden Compass (2007), The King's Speech (2010), and the forthcoming Hippie Hippie Shake. Like Laurence Olivier, he holds two knighthoods, Danish and British.
Jacobi quickly came to the fore, and his talent was recognised by Laurence Olivier. He invited the young man back to London to become one of the founding members of the new National Theatre, even though at the time Jacobi was relatively unknown. He played Laertes in the National Theatre's inaugural production of Hamlet opposite Peter O'Toole in 1963. Olivier cast him as Cassio in the successful National Theatre stage production of Othello, a role that Jacobi repeated in the 1965 film version. He played Andrei in the NT production and film of Three Sisters (1970), both starring Olivier. On 27 July 1965, Jacobi played Brindsley Miller in the first production of Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy. It was presented by the National Theatre at Chichester and subsequently in London.
After eight years at the National Theatre, Jacobi left in 1971 to pursue different roles and mediums of expression. In 1972, he starred in the BBC serial Man of Straw, directed by Herbert Wise. Most of his theatrical work in the 70s was with the touring classical Prospect Theatre Company, with which he undertook many roles, including Ivanov, Pericles, Prince of Tyre and A Month in the Country opposite Dorothy Tutin (1976).
Although Jacobi's name was becoming known and he was increasingly busy with stage and screen acting, his big breakthrough came in 1976 when he played the title role in the BBC's series I, Claudius. He cemented his increasing reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching Emperor Claudius winning him many plaudits. In 1979, thanks to his international popularity, he took Hamlet on a theatrical world tour through England, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China, playing Prince Hamlet. He was invited to perform the role at Kronborg Castle, Denmark, better known as Elsinore Castle, the setting of the play. In 1978 he played in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Richard II, with Sir John Gielgud and Dame Wendy Hiller.
Later career
In 1980, Jacobi took the leading role in the BBC's Hamlet, made his Broadway debut in The Suicide (a run shortened by Jacobi's return home to England due to the death of his mother), and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). From 1982 to 1985 he played four demanding roles simultaneously: Benedick in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won a Tony for its Broadway run (1984–1985); Prospero in The Tempest; Peer Gynt; and Cyrano de Bergerac which he brought to the US and played in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing on Broadway and in Washington DC (1984–1985). In 1986, he made his West End debut in Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, with the role of Alan Turing, which was written with Jacobi specifically in mind. The play was taken to Broadway. In 1988 Jacobi alternated in West End the title roles of Shakespeare's Richard II and Richard III in repertoire.
His TV career saw him measure with Inside the Third Reich (1982), where he played Hitler; Mr Pye (1985); and Little Dorrit (1987), from Charles Dickens's book; The Tenth Man (1988) with Anthony Hopkins and Kristin Scott Thomas. In 1982, he starred as the voice of Nicodemus in the animated film, The Secret of NIMH. In 1990, he starred as Daedalus in episode 4 of Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths.
Jacobi continued to play Shakespeare roles, notably in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film of Henry V (as the Chorus), and made his directing debut as Branagh's director for the 1988 Renaissance Theatre Company's touring production of Hamlet, which also played at Elsinore and as part of a Renaissance repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London. The 1990s saw Jacobi keeping on with repertoire stage work in Kean at the Old Vic, Becket in the West End (the Haymarket Theatre) and Macbeth at the RSC in both London and Stratford.
He was appointed the joint artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, with the West End impresario Duncan Weldon in 1995 for a three-year tenure. As an actor at Chichester, he also starred in four plays, including his first Uncle Vanya in 1996 (he played it again in 2000, which he brought to Broadway for a limited run). Jacobi's work during the 1990s included the 13-episode series TV adaptation of the novels by Ellis Peters, Cadfael (1994–1998) and a televised version of Breaking the Code (1996). Film appearances included performances in Kenneth Branagh's Dead Again (1991), Branagh's full-text rendition of Hamlet (1996) as King Claudius, John Maybury's Love is the Devil (1998), a portrait of painter Francis Bacon, as Senator Gracchus in Gladiator (2000) with Russell Crowe, and as "The Duke" opposite Christopher Eccleston and Eddie Izzard in a post-apocalyptic version of Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy (2002).
In 2001, Jacobi won an Emmy Award by mocking his Shakespearean background in the television sitcom Frasier episode "The Show Must Go Off", in which he played the world's worst Shakespearean actor: the hammy, loud, untalented Jackson Hedley. This was his first guest appearance on an American television programme.
Since 2000
Jacobi has done the narration for audio book versions of the Iliad, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis and two abridged versions of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. In 2001, he provided the voice of "Duke Theseus" in The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream film. In 2002, Jacobi toured Australia in The Hollow Crown with Sir Donald Sinden, Ian Richardson and Dame Diana Rigg. Jacobi also played the role of Senator Gracchus in Gladiator and starred in the 2002 miniseries The Jury. He is also the narrator for the BBC children's series In the Night Garden.
In 2003, he was involved with Scream of the Shalka, a webcast based on the science fiction series Doctor Who. He played the voice of the Doctor's arch-nemesis the Master alongside Richard E. Grant as the Doctor. In the same year, he also appeared in Deadline, an audio drama also based on Doctor Who. In that, he played Martin Bannister, an aging writer who makes up stories about "the Doctor", a character who travels in time and space, the premise being that the series had never made it on to television. Jacobi later followed this up with an appearance in the Doctor Who episode "Utopia" (June 2007); he appears as the kindly Professor Yana, who by the end of the episode is revealed to actually be the Master. Jacobi admitted to Doctor Who Confidential he had always wanted to be on the show: "One of my ambitions since the '60s has been to take part in a Doctor Who. The other one is Coronation Street. So I've cracked Doctor Who now. I'm still waiting for Corrie."
In 2004, Jacobi starred in Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, in an acclaimed production, which transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London in January 2005. The London production of Don Carlos gathered rave reviews. Also in 2004, he starred as Lord Teddy Thursby in the first of the four-part BBC series The Long Firm, based on Jake Arnott's novel of the same name. In Nanny McPhee (2005), he played the role of the colourful Mr. Wheen, an undertaker. He played the role of Alexander Corvinus in the 2006 movie Underworld: Evolution.
In March 2006, BBC Two broadcast Pinochet in Suburbia, a docudrama about former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and the attempts to extradite him from Great Britain; Jacobi played the leading role. In September 2007, it was released in the U.S., retitled Pinochet's Last Stand. In 2006, he appeared in the children's movie Mist, the tale of a sheepdog puppy, he also narrated this movie. In July–August 2006, he played the eponymous role in A Voyage Round My Father at the Donmar Warehouse, a production which then transferred to the West End.
In February 2007, his feature film The Riddle, directed by Brendan Foley, in which he stars alongside Vinnie Jones and Vanessa Redgrave, was screened at Berlin EFM. Jacobi plays twin roles, first a present day London tramp and then the ghost of Charles Dickens. In March 2007, the BBC's children's programme In the Night Garden started its run of 100 episodes, with Jacobi as the narrator. He played Nell's grandfather in ITV's Christmas 2007 adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop, and returned to the stage to play Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (2009) for the Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham's Theatre in London. The role won him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. He appears in five 2009 films: Morris: A Life with Bells On, Hippie Hippie Shake , Endgame, Adam Resurrected and Charles Dickens's England. In 2010 he returned to I, Claudius, as Augustus in a radio adaptation.
Jacobi starred in Michael Grandage's production of King Lear (London, 2010), giving what The New Yorker called "one of the finest performances of his distinguished career". In May 2011 he reprised this role at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Shakespeare authorship involvement
Jacobi has been publicly involved in the Shakespeare authorship question. He supports the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, according to which Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the works of Shakespeare. Jacobi has given an address to the Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre promoting Oxford as the Shakespeare authorand wrote forewords to two books on the subject in 2004 and 2005.
In 2007, Jacobi and fellow Shakespearean actor and director Mark Rylance initiated a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" on the authorship of Shakespeare's work, to encourage new research into the question. The online document has been signed by over 1,700 people, including over 300 academics.
Personal life
In March 2006, he registered his civil partnership with Richard Clifford, four months after civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom. They live in north London.
Honours
1985: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom)
1989: Knight 1st class of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark)
1994: Knight Bachelor, for services to Drama (United Kingdom)
Awards
2008: Helen Hayes Tribute for Lifetime Achievement at the 24th Annual Helen Hayes Awards
Theatre
1983: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
1984: Tony Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
2009: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, for Twelfth Night
Television
1976: BAFTA Award for Best Actor, for I, Claudius
1989: Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special, for The Tenth Man
2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Frasier (episode "The Show Must Go Off")
Film
1988: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Little Dorrit
1998: Edinburgh International Film Festival for Best British Performance, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
1999: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Ensemble
2002: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble Cast, for Gosford Park
2002: Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Satellite Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture, for Gosford Park
2011: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, for The King's Speech
Filmography
Othello (1965) – Cassio
Interlude (1968) – Paul
Three Sisters (1970) – Andrei
The Strauss Family (TV) (1972) – Joseph Lanner
Blue Blood (1973) – Gregory
The Day of the Jackal (1973) – Caron
The Pallisers (TV) (1974) – Lord Fawn
The Odessa File (1974) – Klaus Wenzer
I, Claudius (TV) (1976) – Claudius
Philby, Burgess and MacLean – Spy Scandal of the Century (TV) (1977) – Guy Burgess
The Medusa Touch (1978) – Townley
Richard II (TV) (1978) – Richard II
The Human Factor (1979) – Arthur Davis
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (TV) (1980) – Hamlet
Charlotte (1981) – Daberlohn
The Secret of NIMH (1982) – Nicodemus (voice)
Inside the Third Reich (TV) (1982) – Adolf Hitler
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (TV) (1982) – Frollo
Enigma (1983) – Kurt Limmer
Cyrano de Bergerac (TV) (1985) – Cyrano de Bergerac
Mr Pye (TV) (1986) – Mr. Pye
Breaking the Code (1986) – Alan Turing
The Secret Garden (TV) (1987) – Archibald Craven
The Tenth Man (TV) (1988) – The impostor
Little Dorrit (TV) (1988) – Arthur Clennam
Henry V (1989) – Chorus
The Fool (1990) – Mr. Frederick/Sir John
Dead Again (1991) – Franklyn Madson
Cadfael (TV) (1994–1998) – Brother Cadfael
Looking for Richard (1996) – Himself
Breaking the Code (TV) (1996) – Alan Turing
Hamlet (1996) – Claudius
Basil (1998) – Father Frederick
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998) – Francis Bacon
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999) – Father Leonor Fousnel
Edvard Grieg – What Price Immortality? (1999)
The Wyvern Mystery (TV) (2000) – Squire Fairfield
Up at the Villa (2000) – Lucky Leadbetter
Jason and the Argonauts (TV) (2000) – Phineas
Gladiator (2000) – Gracchus
The Body (2001) – Father Lavelle
Gosford Park (2001) – Probert
The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (2001) – voice of Nijinsky
Revelation (2001) – Librarian
Frasier (US TV) (2001) "The Show Must Go Off" – Jackson Hedley
The Jury (TV) (2002) – George Cording QC
The Gathering Storm (BBC) (2002) – Stanley Baldwin
Revengers Tragedy (2002) – The Duke
Two Men Went to War (2002) – Major Merton
Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites (2003) - Voice
London (TV) (2004) – Tacitus
Strings (2004) – Nezo (voice)
The Long Firm (TV) (2004) – Lord Edward 'Teddy' Thursby
Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage (TV) (2004) – Colonel Protheroe
Bye Bye Blackbird (2005) – Lord Dempsey
Nanny McPhee (2005) – Mr. Wheen
Underworld: Evolution (2006) – Alexander Corvinus
Doctor Who (TV) (2007) – Professor Yana / The Master
The Riddle (2007) – The Tramp / Charles Dickens
Airlock Or How To Say Goodbye In Space (2007) – President
The Golden Compass (2007) – Magisterial Emissary
In the Night Garden (2007 – present) – Narrator
The Old Curiosity Shop (TV) (2007) – Grandfather
A Bunch of Amateurs (2008) – Nigel
Morris: A Life with Bells On (2009) – Quentin Neely
Endgame (2009) – Rudolf Agnew
Adam Resurrected (2009) – Dr. Nathan Gross
The Winter's Tale (upcoming 2009) – Antigonus
Charles Dickens's England (2009) – Himself
Hippie Hippie Shake (upcoming, 2010) – Judge
There Be Dragons (upcoming, 2010) – Honorio
Ironclad (upcoming, 2010) – Cornhill
The King's Speech (2010) – Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang
Hereafter (2010) – Himself
Anonymous (upcoming, 2011) – Narrator (Prologue)
My Week with Marilyn (upcoming, 2011)
The Borgias (TV) (2011) - Cardinal Orsini
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In 1976, DJ played Claudius in the BBC production of I, Claudius, playing the main character with a stutter, and recently he played the Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Lang in the film The King's Speech, a film with had stuttering as the main subject.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/23/11 at 12:42 pm
I love the Cadfael series. We have all of them on DVD, plus all the books. When I read the books, I can't help but seeing Sir Derek in my mind's eye. We also have all the audiobooks which Sir Derek reads many of them.
The guy is a WONDERFUL actor.
Cat
Yes he is. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/23/11 at 12:47 pm
The person of the day..."Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (pronunciation: /ˈjæŋkəvɪk/; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since his first-aired comedy song in 1976, he had sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2007), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. Yankovic's first top ten Billboard album (Straight Outta Lynwood) and single ("White & Nerdy") were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.
Yankovic's success comes in part from his effective use of music video to further parody popular culture, the song's original artist, and the original music videos themselves, scene-for-scene in some cases. He directed later videos himself and went on to direct for other artists including Ben Folds, Hanson, Black Crowes, and The Presidents of the United States of America. In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic wrote and starred in the film, UHF, and television show, The Weird Al Show. He has also made guest appearances on many television shows, in addition to starring in Al TV specials on MTV.
Yankovic received his first exposure via southern California and syndicated comedy radio personality Dr. Demento's radio show, saying "If there hadn't been a Dr. Demento, I'd probably have a real job now." In 1976, Dr. Demento spoke at Yankovic's school where the then 16 year old Yankovic gave him a homemade tape of original and parody songs performed on the accordion in Yankovic's bedroom into a "cheesy little tape recorder". The tape's first song was "Belvedere Cruisin'", about his family's Plymouth Belvedere, was played on Demento's comedy radio show, launching Yankovic's career. Demento said "'Belvedere Cruising' might not have been the very best song I ever heard, but it had some clever lines I put the tape on the air immediately.". Yankovic also played at local coffeehouses, saying:
It was sort of like amateur music night, and a lot of people were like wannabe Dan Fogelbergs. They'd get up on stage with their acoustic guitar and do these lovely ballads. And I would get up with my accordion and play the theme from 2001. And people were kind of shocked that I would be disrupting their mellow Thursday night folk fest.
During Yankovic's sophomore year as an architecture student at Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, he became a disc jockey at the university's radio station, KCPR. Yankovic said he had been nicknamed Weird Al by fellow students and "took it on professionally" as his persona for the station. In 1978, he released his first recording (as Alfred Yankovic), "Take Me Down", on the LP, Slo Grown, as a benefit for the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County. The song mocked famous nearby landmarks such as the fountain toilets at the Madonna Inn.
In mid-1979, shortly before his senior year, "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody titled "My Bologna". He sent it to Dr. Demento, who played it to good response from listeners. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college and introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna". The Knack's lead singer, Doug Fieger, said he liked the song and suggested that Capitol Records vice president Rupert Perry release it as a single. "My Bologna" was released as a single with "School Cafeteria" as its B-side, and the label gave Yankovic a six-month recording contract. Yankovic, who was "only getting average grades" in his architecture degree, began to realize that he might make a career of comedic music.
On September 14, 1980, Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show, where he was to record a new parody live. The song was called "Another One Rides the Bus", a parody of Queen's hit, "Another One Bites the Dust". While practicing the song outside the sound booth, he met Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to help Yankovic keep a steady beat during the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began. "Another One Rides the Bus" became so popular that Yankovic's first television appearance was a performance of the song on The Tomorrow Show (April 21, 1981) with Tom Snyder. On the show, Yankovic played his accordion, and again, Schwartz banged on the accordion case and provided comical sound effects.
Band and fame
1981 brought Yankovic on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's stage show. His stage act in a Phoenix, Arizona, nightclub caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who was "blown away". Levey asked Yankovic if he had considered creating a full band and doing his music as a career. Yankovic admitted that he had, so Levey held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic's bass player, and Jay's friend Jim West played guitar. Schwartz continued on drums. Yankovic's first show with his new band was on March 31, 1982. Several days later, Yankovic and his band were the opening act for Missing Persons.
Yankovic recorded "I Love Rocky Road", (a parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" as recorded by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts) which was produced by Rick Derringer, in 1982. The song was a hit on Top 40 radio, leading to Yankovic's signing with Scotti Brothers Records. In 1983, Yankovic's first self-titled album was released on Scotti Bros. He released his second album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D in 1984. The first single "Eat It", a parody of the Michael Jackson song "Beat It", became popular, thanks in part to the music video, a shot-for-shot parody of Jackson's "Beat It" music video, and what Yankovic described as his "uncanny resemblance" to Jackson. Peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 14, 1984, "Eat It" remained Yankovic's highest-charting single until "White & Nerdy" placed at number 9 in October 2006.
In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al, which intertwined the facts of his life up to that point with fiction. The movie also featured some clips from Yankovic's trip to Japan and some clips from the Al TV specials. The Compleat Al was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF four years later. Also released around the same time as The Compleat Al was The Authorized Al, a biographical book based on the film. The book, resembling a scrapbook, included real and fictional humorous photographs and documents.
Yankovic and his band toured as the opening act for The Monkees in mid-1987 for their second reunion tour of North America. Yankovic claims to have enjoyed touring with The Monkees, despite the fact "the promoter gypped us out of a bunch of money."
Yankovic also appeared on the Wendy Carlos recording of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" as the narrator in 1988. The album also included a sequel of Camille Saint-Saëns's composition The Carnival of the Animals entitled the "Carnival of the Animals Part II", with Yankovic providing humorous poems for each of the featured creatures in the style of Ogden Nash, who had written humorous poems for the original. Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards in 1991, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing and increasing his use of the stage space during concerts.
A factual biographical booklet of Yankovic's life, written by Dr. Demento, was released with the 1994 box set compilation Permanent Record: Al in the Box. The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes unreleased tracks from Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me" or the live version of "School Cafeteria".
New look and career to present
Yankovic's "classic" look before eye surgery: with glasses, mustache and short, curly hair. He used it from 1979 – 1998.
On January 24, 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery to correct his extreme myopia. In the same period, he shaved off his moustache and grew out his hair, thus radically changing his signature look (he had previously shaved his mustache in 1983 for the video of "Ricky" to resemble Desi Arnaz and 1996 for the "Amish Paradise" video). Yankovic reasoned, "If Madonna's allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every 20 years." He parodied the reaction to this "new look" in a commercial for his nonexistent MTV Unplugged special. The commercial featured Yankovic in the short-haired wig from the music video for Hanson's "River", claiming his new look was an attempt to "get back to the core of what I'm all about", that being "the music".
Three of his latest albums feature the longest songs Yankovic has ever released. The "Albuquerque" track from Running with Scissors is 11 minutes and 25 seconds; "Genius in France" from Poodle Hat runs for 8 minutes and 56 seconds; "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" from Straight Outta Lynwood is 10 minutes and 53 seconds long. Before 2007 (apart from a one-off performance of "Albuquerque" in Albuquerque, New Mexico), these "epic" songs were not performed live in their entirety due to their length and complexity. (See Live performances for details)
Yankovic has also started to explore digital distribution of his songs. On October 7, 2008, Yankovic released to the iTunes Store "Whatever You Like", a parody of the T.I. song of the same title, which Yankovic said he had come up with two weeks before. Yankovic said that the benefit of digital distribution is that "I don't have to wait around while my songs get old and dated—I can get them out on the Internet almost immediately." In 2009, Yankovic released four more songs: "Craigslist" on June 16, "Skipper Dan" on July 14, "CNR" on August 4, and "Ringtone" on August 25. These five digitally released songs were packaged as a digital EP titled Internet Leaks, with "Whatever You Like" retroactively included in the set.
In 2011, Yankovic completed his thirteenth studio album. This album, titled Alpocalypse, is his first studio album since Straight Outta Lynwood, and was released on June 21, 2011. The album contains the five songs from the previous Internet Leaks digital download release, a polka medley called "Polka Face", a song called "TMZ" for which Bill Plympton created an animated music video, and five other new songs.
Yankovic had reported an interest in parodying Lady Gaga's material, and on April 20 announced that he had written and recorded a parody of "Born This Way" entitled "Perform This Way", to be the lead single for his new album. However, upon first submitting it to Lady Gaga's manager for approval (which Yankovic does as a courtesy), he was not given permission to release it commercially. As he had previously done under similar circumstances (with his parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful"), Yankovic then released the song for free on the internet. Soon afterwards, Gaga's manager admitted that he had denied the parody of his own accord without forwarding the song to his client, and upon seeing it online, Lady Gaga granted permission for the parody. Yankovic has stated that all of his proceeds from the parody and its music video will be donated to the Human Rights Campaign, to support the human rights themes of the original song.
Yankovic was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
While Yankovic's musical parodies generally do not include references to the songs or the artists of the original songs, Yankovic's music videos will sometimes parody the original song's music video in whole or in part. Most notably, the video for "Smells Like Nirvana" uses an extremely similar set to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", including using several of the same actors. This video contended with "Smells like Teen Spirit" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video. Other videos that draw directly from those of the original song include "Eat It", "Fat", "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", "Bedrock Anthem", "Headline News", "It's All about the Pentiums", "Amish Paradise", "Like a Surgeon", and "White & Nerdy". The video for "Dare to Be Stupid" is, as stated by Yankovic, a style parody in general of Devo videos.
Several videos have included appearances by notable celebrities in addition to Yankovic and his band. Dr. Demento appeared in several of Yankovic's earlier videos, such as "I Love Rocky Road" and "Ricky". Actor Dick Van Patten is featured in both "Smells Like Nirvana" and "Bedrock Anthem"; Drew Carey, Emo Philips and Phil LaMarr appeared in "It's All About the Pentiums"; Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Donny Osmond, Judy Tenuta and Seth Green appeared in "White & Nerdy"; and Ruth Buzzi and Pat Boone appeared in "Gump". The video for "I Lost on Jeopardy" includes an appearance by Greg Kihn, the artist whose song, "Jeopardy", was being parodied, along with Don Pardo and Art Fleming, Jeopardy's original announcer and host, as themselves. Florence Henderson plays Al's Amish wife in "Amish Paradise".
While most videos that Yankovic creates are aired on music channels such as MTV and VH1, Yankovic has also worked with animation artists to create music videos for release with extended content albums. The DualDisc version of Straight Outta Lynwood features six videos set to songs from the release, including videos created by Bill Plympton and John Kricfalusi; one video, "Weasel Stomping Day" was created by the producers of the show Robot Chicken, and aired as a segment of that program. As of fall 2010, Yankovic is again collaborating with Bill Plympton to create a video for a new song ("TMZ") which will appear on his upcoming album.
Reactions from original artists
Under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, one does not need permission to record a parody. However, as a personal rule, and as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies. He claims that only about two to three percent of the artists he approaches for parody permission deny his requests. Also, according to Stanford Libraries, fair use is unlikely to justify a parody song that parodies more than a few lines of song lyrics from an existing song. Most artists have had positive reactions to Yankovic's parodies. Several have considered it to be something of a badge of honor to have Yankovic ask permission to parody their song or style, since they felt that Yankovic would not choose to do so unless they were a success or had made some sort of cultural impact at the time. However, there are a few notable exceptions where people have not allowed parodies or have otherwise withdrawn permission.
Positive
Michael Jackson was a big fan of Yankovic, and Yankovic claimed that the artist "had always been very supportive" of his work. Jackson twice allowed him to parody his songs ("Beat It" and "Bad" became "Eat It" and "Fat", respectively). When he granted Yankovic permission to do "Fat", Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own "Badder" video from the Moonwalker video. Though Jackson allowed "Eat It" and "Fat", he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of "Black or White", entitled "Snack All Night", because he felt the message was too important. This refusal, coming shortly after the commercial failure of Yankovic's movie UHF in theaters, had initially set Yankovic back; however, Yankovic later recognized this as a critical time, as in searching for new parodies, he came across Nirvana and leading to a revitalization of his career with "Smells Like Nirvana". Yankovic has performed a concert-only parody "Snack All Night" in some of his live shows. Yankovic also has a cameo appearance, along with many other celebrities, in Jackson's music video for "Liberian Girl".
Yankovic performing "The Saga Begins" in Auckland, New Zealand on March 10, 2007.
Dave Grohl of Nirvana said that the band felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana", a parody of the grunge band's smash hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain to ask if he could parody the song, Cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked, "Um... it's not gonna be about food, is it?" Yankovic responded with, "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics." According to members of Nirvana interviewed for Behind the Music, when they saw the video of the song, they laughed hysterically. Additionally, Cobain described Yankovic as "a musical genius."
Mark Knopfler approved Yankovic's parody of the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" for use in the film UHF on the provision that Knopfler himself be allowed to play lead guitar on the parody which was later titled "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*". Yankovic commented on the legal complications of the parody in the DVD audio commentary for UHF, explaining "We had to name that song 'Money for Nothing 'slash' Beverly Hillbillies 'asterisk' because the lawyers told us that had to be the name. Those wacky lawyers! What ya gonna do?" The Permanent Record: Al in the Box booklet referred to the song's "compound fracture of a title." When a fan asked about the song's title, Yankovic shared his feelings on the title, replying "That incredibly stupid name is what the lawyers insisted that the parody be listed as. I'm not sure why, and I've obviously never been very happy about it."
The Presidents of the United States of America were so pleased with "Gump", Yankovic's parody of their song "Lump", that they ended the song with Yankovic's last line instead of their own ("And that's all I have to say about that") on the live recording of "Lump" featured on the compilation album Pure Frosting. In 2008, Yankovic directed the music video for their song "Mixed Up S.O.B."
The song "The Saga Begins" (a parody of Don McLean's "American Pie") accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film's release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumor websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a US$500 screening to confirm, and ended up making only very minor alterations to the lyrics. McLean was pleased with the parody, and even told Yankovic that the parody's lyrics sometimes enter his mind during live performances. Yankovic's parody not only replicates the music from the original Don McLean song, but it also replicates the multi-layered rhyming structure in the verses and chorus. Additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a Lucasfilm representative told Yankovic, "You should have seen the smile on his face."
Chamillionaire was also very pleased, even putting Yankovic's parody "White & Nerdy" (a parody of "Ridin'") on his official MySpace page before it was on Yankovic's own page. Chamillionaire stated in an interview, "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy I didn't know he could rap like that. It's really an honor when he does that. Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big." In September 2007, Chamillionaire credited "White & Nerdy" for his recent Grammy win, stating "That parody was the reason I won the Grammy, because it made the record so big it was undeniable. It was so big overseas that people were telling me they had heard my version of Weird Al's song."
Yankovic was briefly denied permission to parody Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" for his song "Perform This Way" for release on his next album, but through his release of the song on YouTube and subsequent spread via Twitter, Lady Gaga and her staff asserted that her manager had made the decision without her input, and Gaga herself gave Yankovic permission to proceed with the parody's release. Gaga was considered "a huge Weird Al fan", and she stated that the parody was a "rite of passage" for her musical career and considered the song "very empowering".
Negative
One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 1996's "Amish Paradise", based on "Gangsta's Paradise" by hip-hop artist Coolio, which, in turn, was based on "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder. Reportedly, Coolio's label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. At the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Yankovic and Coolio made peace. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, "I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly. I doubt I’ll be invited to Coolio’s next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall."
In 2003, Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for "Couch Potato", his parody of Eminem's "Lose Yourself":
Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career.
For the Poodle Hat Al TV special, Yankovic raised the question of artistic expression in a fake interview with Eminem. As Yankovic has always done for his Al TV specials, he edited the footage of a previous Eminem interview and inserted himself asking questions for comic effect.
Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers expressed disappointment of Yankovic's parody of "Under the Bridge" and "Give it Away" called "Bedrock Anthem", saying that while he " Weird Al and everything", he "didn't think it was very good".
On numerous occasions, Prince has refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs. Yankovic has stated in interviews that he has "approached him every few years see if he's lightened up." Yankovic related one story where, prior to the American Music Awards where he and Prince were assigned to sit in the same row, Yankovic got a telegram from Prince's lawyers, demanding he not make eye contact with the artist.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Yankovic was, however, allowed the very rare opportunity to re-record a sample of "Black Dog" for a segment of "Trapped in the Drive-Thru".
Paul McCartney, also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings' "Live and Let Die", entitled "Chicken Pot Pie", because McCartney is a vegetarian and found the parody to be in bad taste.
In 2006, Yankovic gained James Blunt's permission to record a parody of "You're Beautiful". However, after Yankovic had recorded "You're Pitiful", Blunt's label, Atlantic Records, rescinded this permission, despite Blunt's personal approval of the song. The parody was pulled from Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label's unwillingness to "go to war" with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, and plays it in concert, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody.
Discography
Main articles: "Weird Al" Yankovic discography and List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Studio albums
Title Release
year Peak chart position
US
Billboard Comedy Album
"Weird Al" Yankovic 1983 139
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D 1984 17
Dare to Be Stupid 1985 50
Polka Party! 1986 177
Even Worse 1988 27
UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff 1989 146
Off the Deep End 1992 17
Alapalooza 1993 46
Bad Hair Day 1996 14
Running with Scissors 1999 16
Poodle Hat 2003 17 11
Straight Outta Lynwood 2006 10 1
Alpocalypse 2011 9 1
Note: Billboard Comedy Album chart was first published in November, 2004.
EPs
Title Release year
Another One Rides the Bus 1981
Selections from Straight Outta Lynwood 2006
Internet Leaks 2009
Compilation albums
Title Release year
Greatest Hits 1988
The Food Album 1993
Permanent Record: Al in the Box 1994
Greatest Hits (Volume II) 1994
The TV Album 1995
The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic 2009
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
Year Nominated work Award Result
1984 "Eat It" Best Comedy Recording Won
1985 Dare to Be Stupid Best Comedy Recording Nominated
1987 Polka Party! Best Comedy Recording Nominated
1988 "Fat" Best Concept Music Video Won
Even Worse Best Comedy Recording Nominated
Peter and the Wolf Best Recording for Children Nominated
1992 Off the Deep End Best Comedy Album Nominated
2003 Poodle Hat Best Comedy Album Won
2006 Straight Outta Lynwood Best Surround Sound Album Nominated
Best Comedy Album Nominated
2009 Internet Leaks Best Comedy Album Nominated
Gold and platinum records
Recording Gold Platinum Double
Platinum
"Weird Al" Yankovic U.S.
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D Canada
U.S.
U.S.
"Eat It"1 Australia
Canada
U.S.
Dare to be Stupid U.S. U.S.
Even Worse Canada
U.S.
U.S.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits Canada
Off the Deep End Canada
U.S. Canada
U.S.
The Food Album U.S.
Alapalooza Canada
U.S. Canada
Canada
Greatest Hits Volume II Canada
Bad Hair Day Canada
U.S. Canada
U.S.
Running With Scissors Australia
Canada
U.S.
U.S.
Straight Outta Lynwood U.S.
"White & Nerdy"2 U.S. U.S.
^1 The "Eat It" single reached the #1 position on the Australian singles chart in 1984.
^2 The "White & Nerdy" single was certified platinum for digital downloads and gold for ringtone downloads in the U.S.
Videography
The following is a comprehensive list of Yankovic's long form videos to date, with the United States release date.
Video title Release date
The Compleat Al August 1985
UHF July 21, 1989
The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library May 1992
Alapalooza: The Videos December 1993
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Collection 1993
Bad Hair Day: The Videos June 1996
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos January 1998
"Weird Al" Yankovic Live! November 23, 1999
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection November 3, 2003
The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series August 15, 2006
"Weird Al" Yankovic Live! - The Alpocalypse Tour October 4, 2011
Awards and nominations
Grammy Award winners
"Fat" – Best Concept Music Video (1988)
Grammy Award nominees
"Jurassic Park" – Best Music Video, Short Form (1994)
Australian gold long form videos
The Ultimate Video Collection
U.S. gold long form videos
The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library
Alapalooza: The Videos
"Weird Al" Yankovic Live!
Bad Hair Day: The Videos
U.S. platinum long form videos
The Ultimate Video Collection
Cameos and special appearances in film
1988: Tapeheads
1988: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
1991: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
1994: Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult
1996: Spy Hard
1997: Safety Patrol
2000: Nothing Sacred
2002: Desperation Boulevard
2003: Haunted Lighthouse
2008: Nerdcore Rising
2009: Halloween II
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/CodeAires/93.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/yankees3936/weirdal.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/23/11 at 1:07 pm
Yes he is. :)
I am watching The King's Speech on the computer right now.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/23/11 at 2:33 pm
The person of the day..."Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (pronunciation: /ˈjæŋkəvɪk/; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts. Since his first-aired comedy song in 1976, he had sold more than 12 million albums (as of 2007), recorded more than 150 parody and original songs, and has performed more than 1,000 live shows. His works have earned him three Grammy Awards among nine nominations, four gold records, and six platinum records in the United States. Yankovic's first top ten Billboard album (Straight Outta Lynwood) and single ("White & Nerdy") were both released in 2006, nearly three decades into his career.
Yankovic's success comes in part from his effective use of music video to further parody popular culture, the song's original artist, and the original music videos themselves, scene-for-scene in some cases. He directed later videos himself and went on to direct for other artists including Ben Folds, Hanson, Black Crowes, and The Presidents of the United States of America. In addition to recording his albums, Yankovic wrote and starred in the film, UHF, and television show, The Weird Al Show. He has also made guest appearances on many television shows, in addition to starring in Al TV specials on MTV.
Yankovic received his first exposure via southern California and syndicated comedy radio personality Dr. Demento's radio show, saying "If there hadn't been a Dr. Demento, I'd probably have a real job now." In 1976, Dr. Demento spoke at Yankovic's school where the then 16 year old Yankovic gave him a homemade tape of original and parody songs performed on the accordion in Yankovic's bedroom into a "cheesy little tape recorder". The tape's first song was "Belvedere Cruisin'", about his family's Plymouth Belvedere, was played on Demento's comedy radio show, launching Yankovic's career. Demento said "'Belvedere Cruising' might not have been the very best song I ever heard, but it had some clever lines I put the tape on the air immediately.". Yankovic also played at local coffeehouses, saying:
It was sort of like amateur music night, and a lot of people were like wannabe Dan Fogelbergs. They'd get up on stage with their acoustic guitar and do these lovely ballads. And I would get up with my accordion and play the theme from 2001. And people were kind of shocked that I would be disrupting their mellow Thursday night folk fest.
During Yankovic's sophomore year as an architecture student at Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, he became a disc jockey at the university's radio station, KCPR. Yankovic said he had been nicknamed Weird Al by fellow students and "took it on professionally" as his persona for the station. In 1978, he released his first recording (as Alfred Yankovic), "Take Me Down", on the LP, Slo Grown, as a benefit for the Economic Opportunity Commission of San Luis Obispo County. The song mocked famous nearby landmarks such as the fountain toilets at the Madonna Inn.
In mid-1979, shortly before his senior year, "My Sharona" by The Knack was on the charts and Yankovic took his accordion into the restroom across the hall from the radio station (to take advantage of the echo chamber acoustics) and recorded a parody titled "My Bologna". He sent it to Dr. Demento, who played it to good response from listeners. Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college and introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna". The Knack's lead singer, Doug Fieger, said he liked the song and suggested that Capitol Records vice president Rupert Perry release it as a single. "My Bologna" was released as a single with "School Cafeteria" as its B-side, and the label gave Yankovic a six-month recording contract. Yankovic, who was "only getting average grades" in his architecture degree, began to realize that he might make a career of comedic music.
On September 14, 1980, Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show, where he was to record a new parody live. The song was called "Another One Rides the Bus", a parody of Queen's hit, "Another One Bites the Dust". While practicing the song outside the sound booth, he met Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to help Yankovic keep a steady beat during the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began. "Another One Rides the Bus" became so popular that Yankovic's first television appearance was a performance of the song on The Tomorrow Show (April 21, 1981) with Tom Snyder. On the show, Yankovic played his accordion, and again, Schwartz banged on the accordion case and provided comical sound effects.
Band and fame
1981 brought Yankovic on tour for the first time as part of Dr. Demento's stage show. His stage act in a Phoenix, Arizona, nightclub caught the eye of manager Jay Levey, who was "blown away". Levey asked Yankovic if he had considered creating a full band and doing his music as a career. Yankovic admitted that he had, so Levey held auditions. Steve Jay became Yankovic's bass player, and Jay's friend Jim West played guitar. Schwartz continued on drums. Yankovic's first show with his new band was on March 31, 1982. Several days later, Yankovic and his band were the opening act for Missing Persons.
Yankovic recorded "I Love Rocky Road", (a parody of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" as recorded by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts) which was produced by Rick Derringer, in 1982. The song was a hit on Top 40 radio, leading to Yankovic's signing with Scotti Brothers Records. In 1983, Yankovic's first self-titled album was released on Scotti Bros. He released his second album "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D in 1984. The first single "Eat It", a parody of the Michael Jackson song "Beat It", became popular, thanks in part to the music video, a shot-for-shot parody of Jackson's "Beat It" music video, and what Yankovic described as his "uncanny resemblance" to Jackson. Peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 14, 1984, "Eat It" remained Yankovic's highest-charting single until "White & Nerdy" placed at number 9 in October 2006.
In 1985, Yankovic co-wrote and starred in a mockumentary of his own life entitled The Compleat Al, which intertwined the facts of his life up to that point with fiction. The movie also featured some clips from Yankovic's trip to Japan and some clips from the Al TV specials. The Compleat Al was co-directed by Jay Levey, who would direct UHF four years later. Also released around the same time as The Compleat Al was The Authorized Al, a biographical book based on the film. The book, resembling a scrapbook, included real and fictional humorous photographs and documents.
Yankovic and his band toured as the opening act for The Monkees in mid-1987 for their second reunion tour of North America. Yankovic claims to have enjoyed touring with The Monkees, despite the fact "the promoter gypped us out of a bunch of money."
Yankovic also appeared on the Wendy Carlos recording of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" as the narrator in 1988. The album also included a sequel of Camille Saint-Saëns's composition The Carnival of the Animals entitled the "Carnival of the Animals Part II", with Yankovic providing humorous poems for each of the featured creatures in the style of Ogden Nash, who had written humorous poems for the original. Rubén Valtierra joined the band on keyboards in 1991, allowing Yankovic to concentrate more on singing and increasing his use of the stage space during concerts.
A factual biographical booklet of Yankovic's life, written by Dr. Demento, was released with the 1994 box set compilation Permanent Record: Al in the Box. The Dr. Demento Society, which issues yearly Christmas re-releases of material from Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes, often includes unreleased tracks from Yankovic's vaults, such as "Pacman", "It's Still Billy Joel To Me" or the live version of "School Cafeteria".
New look and career to present
Yankovic's "classic" look before eye surgery: with glasses, mustache and short, curly hair. He used it from 1979 – 1998.
On January 24, 1998, Yankovic had LASIK eye surgery to correct his extreme myopia. In the same period, he shaved off his moustache and grew out his hair, thus radically changing his signature look (he had previously shaved his mustache in 1983 for the video of "Ricky" to resemble Desi Arnaz and 1996 for the "Amish Paradise" video). Yankovic reasoned, "If Madonna's allowed to reinvent herself every 15 minutes, I figure I should be good for a change at least once every 20 years." He parodied the reaction to this "new look" in a commercial for his nonexistent MTV Unplugged special. The commercial featured Yankovic in the short-haired wig from the music video for Hanson's "River", claiming his new look was an attempt to "get back to the core of what I'm all about", that being "the music".
Three of his latest albums feature the longest songs Yankovic has ever released. The "Albuquerque" track from Running with Scissors is 11 minutes and 25 seconds; "Genius in France" from Poodle Hat runs for 8 minutes and 56 seconds; "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" from Straight Outta Lynwood is 10 minutes and 53 seconds long. Before 2007 (apart from a one-off performance of "Albuquerque" in Albuquerque, New Mexico), these "epic" songs were not performed live in their entirety due to their length and complexity. (See Live performances for details)
Yankovic has also started to explore digital distribution of his songs. On October 7, 2008, Yankovic released to the iTunes Store "Whatever You Like", a parody of the T.I. song of the same title, which Yankovic said he had come up with two weeks before. Yankovic said that the benefit of digital distribution is that "I don't have to wait around while my songs get old and dated—I can get them out on the Internet almost immediately." In 2009, Yankovic released four more songs: "Craigslist" on June 16, "Skipper Dan" on July 14, "CNR" on August 4, and "Ringtone" on August 25. These five digitally released songs were packaged as a digital EP titled Internet Leaks, with "Whatever You Like" retroactively included in the set.
In 2011, Yankovic completed his thirteenth studio album. This album, titled Alpocalypse, is his first studio album since Straight Outta Lynwood, and was released on June 21, 2011. The album contains the five songs from the previous Internet Leaks digital download release, a polka medley called "Polka Face", a song called "TMZ" for which Bill Plympton created an animated music video, and five other new songs.
Yankovic had reported an interest in parodying Lady Gaga's material, and on April 20 announced that he had written and recorded a parody of "Born This Way" entitled "Perform This Way", to be the lead single for his new album. However, upon first submitting it to Lady Gaga's manager for approval (which Yankovic does as a courtesy), he was not given permission to release it commercially. As he had previously done under similar circumstances (with his parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful"), Yankovic then released the song for free on the internet. Soon afterwards, Gaga's manager admitted that he had denied the parody of his own accord without forwarding the song to his client, and upon seeing it online, Lady Gaga granted permission for the parody. Yankovic has stated that all of his proceeds from the parody and its music video will be donated to the Human Rights Campaign, to support the human rights themes of the original song.
Yankovic was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
While Yankovic's musical parodies generally do not include references to the songs or the artists of the original songs, Yankovic's music videos will sometimes parody the original song's music video in whole or in part. Most notably, the video for "Smells Like Nirvana" uses an extremely similar set to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", including using several of the same actors. This video contended with "Smells like Teen Spirit" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video. Other videos that draw directly from those of the original song include "Eat It", "Fat", "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", "Bedrock Anthem", "Headline News", "It's All about the Pentiums", "Amish Paradise", "Like a Surgeon", and "White & Nerdy". The video for "Dare to Be Stupid" is, as stated by Yankovic, a style parody in general of Devo videos.
Several videos have included appearances by notable celebrities in addition to Yankovic and his band. Dr. Demento appeared in several of Yankovic's earlier videos, such as "I Love Rocky Road" and "Ricky". Actor Dick Van Patten is featured in both "Smells Like Nirvana" and "Bedrock Anthem"; Drew Carey, Emo Philips and Phil LaMarr appeared in "It's All About the Pentiums"; Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Donny Osmond, Judy Tenuta and Seth Green appeared in "White & Nerdy"; and Ruth Buzzi and Pat Boone appeared in "Gump". The video for "I Lost on Jeopardy" includes an appearance by Greg Kihn, the artist whose song, "Jeopardy", was being parodied, along with Don Pardo and Art Fleming, Jeopardy's original announcer and host, as themselves. Florence Henderson plays Al's Amish wife in "Amish Paradise".
While most videos that Yankovic creates are aired on music channels such as MTV and VH1, Yankovic has also worked with animation artists to create music videos for release with extended content albums. The DualDisc version of Straight Outta Lynwood features six videos set to songs from the release, including videos created by Bill Plympton and John Kricfalusi; one video, "Weasel Stomping Day" was created by the producers of the show Robot Chicken, and aired as a segment of that program. As of fall 2010, Yankovic is again collaborating with Bill Plympton to create a video for a new song ("TMZ") which will appear on his upcoming album.
Reactions from original artists
Under the "fair use" provision of U.S. copyright law, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, one does not need permission to record a parody. However, as a personal rule, and as a means of maintaining good relationships within the music community, Yankovic has always requested permission from the original artist before recording his parodies. He claims that only about two to three percent of the artists he approaches for parody permission deny his requests. Also, according to Stanford Libraries, fair use is unlikely to justify a parody song that parodies more than a few lines of song lyrics from an existing song. Most artists have had positive reactions to Yankovic's parodies. Several have considered it to be something of a badge of honor to have Yankovic ask permission to parody their song or style, since they felt that Yankovic would not choose to do so unless they were a success or had made some sort of cultural impact at the time. However, there are a few notable exceptions where people have not allowed parodies or have otherwise withdrawn permission.
Positive
Michael Jackson was a big fan of Yankovic, and Yankovic claimed that the artist "had always been very supportive" of his work. Jackson twice allowed him to parody his songs ("Beat It" and "Bad" became "Eat It" and "Fat", respectively). When he granted Yankovic permission to do "Fat", Jackson allowed him to use the same set built for his own "Badder" video from the Moonwalker video. Though Jackson allowed "Eat It" and "Fat", he requested that Yankovic not record a parody of "Black or White", entitled "Snack All Night", because he felt the message was too important. This refusal, coming shortly after the commercial failure of Yankovic's movie UHF in theaters, had initially set Yankovic back; however, Yankovic later recognized this as a critical time, as in searching for new parodies, he came across Nirvana and leading to a revitalization of his career with "Smells Like Nirvana". Yankovic has performed a concert-only parody "Snack All Night" in some of his live shows. Yankovic also has a cameo appearance, along with many other celebrities, in Jackson's music video for "Liberian Girl".
Yankovic performing "The Saga Begins" in Auckland, New Zealand on March 10, 2007.
Dave Grohl of Nirvana said that the band felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana", a parody of the grunge band's smash hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". On his Behind the Music special, Yankovic stated that when he called Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain to ask if he could parody the song, Cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked, "Um... it's not gonna be about food, is it?" Yankovic responded with, "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics." According to members of Nirvana interviewed for Behind the Music, when they saw the video of the song, they laughed hysterically. Additionally, Cobain described Yankovic as "a musical genius."
Mark Knopfler approved Yankovic's parody of the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing" for use in the film UHF on the provision that Knopfler himself be allowed to play lead guitar on the parody which was later titled "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*". Yankovic commented on the legal complications of the parody in the DVD audio commentary for UHF, explaining "We had to name that song 'Money for Nothing 'slash' Beverly Hillbillies 'asterisk' because the lawyers told us that had to be the name. Those wacky lawyers! What ya gonna do?" The Permanent Record: Al in the Box booklet referred to the song's "compound fracture of a title." When a fan asked about the song's title, Yankovic shared his feelings on the title, replying "That incredibly stupid name is what the lawyers insisted that the parody be listed as. I'm not sure why, and I've obviously never been very happy about it."
The Presidents of the United States of America were so pleased with "Gump", Yankovic's parody of their song "Lump", that they ended the song with Yankovic's last line instead of their own ("And that's all I have to say about that") on the live recording of "Lump" featured on the compilation album Pure Frosting. In 2008, Yankovic directed the music video for their song "Mixed Up S.O.B."
The song "The Saga Begins" (a parody of Don McLean's "American Pie") accurately states the entire plot of The Phantom Menace, despite being written before the film's release. Yankovic got the plot details from rumor websites. He was slightly unsure about Anakin proposing to Amidala, so he attended a US$500 screening to confirm, and ended up making only very minor alterations to the lyrics. McLean was pleased with the parody, and even told Yankovic that the parody's lyrics sometimes enter his mind during live performances. Yankovic's parody not only replicates the music from the original Don McLean song, but it also replicates the multi-layered rhyming structure in the verses and chorus. Additionally, George Lucas loved the song and a Lucasfilm representative told Yankovic, "You should have seen the smile on his face."
Chamillionaire was also very pleased, even putting Yankovic's parody "White & Nerdy" (a parody of "Ridin'") on his official MySpace page before it was on Yankovic's own page. Chamillionaire stated in an interview, "He's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy I didn't know he could rap like that. It's really an honor when he does that. Weird Al is not gonna do a parody of your song if you're not doing it big." In September 2007, Chamillionaire credited "White & Nerdy" for his recent Grammy win, stating "That parody was the reason I won the Grammy, because it made the record so big it was undeniable. It was so big overseas that people were telling me they had heard my version of Weird Al's song."
Yankovic was briefly denied permission to parody Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" for his song "Perform This Way" for release on his next album, but through his release of the song on YouTube and subsequent spread via Twitter, Lady Gaga and her staff asserted that her manager had made the decision without her input, and Gaga herself gave Yankovic permission to proceed with the parody's release. Gaga was considered "a huge Weird Al fan", and she stated that the parody was a "rite of passage" for her musical career and considered the song "very empowering".
Negative
One of Yankovic's most controversial parodies was 1996's "Amish Paradise", based on "Gangsta's Paradise" by hip-hop artist Coolio, which, in turn, was based on "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder. Reportedly, Coolio's label gave Yankovic the impression that Coolio had granted permission to record the parody, but Coolio maintains that he never did. While Coolio claimed he was upset, legal action never materialized, and Coolio accepted royalty payments for the song. After this controversy, Yankovic has always made sure to speak directly with the artist of every song he parodied. At the XM Satellite Radio booth at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Yankovic and Coolio made peace. On his website, Yankovic wrote of this event, "I don’t remember what we said to each other exactly, but it was all very friendly. I doubt I’ll be invited to Coolio’s next birthday party, but at least I can stop wearing that bulletproof vest to the mall."
In 2003, Yankovic was denied permission to make a video for "Couch Potato", his parody of Eminem's "Lose Yourself":
Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my 'Lose Yourself' parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career.
For the Poodle Hat Al TV special, Yankovic raised the question of artistic expression in a fake interview with Eminem. As Yankovic has always done for his Al TV specials, he edited the footage of a previous Eminem interview and inserted himself asking questions for comic effect.
Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers expressed disappointment of Yankovic's parody of "Under the Bridge" and "Give it Away" called "Bedrock Anthem", saying that while he " Weird Al and everything", he "didn't think it was very good".
On numerous occasions, Prince has refused Yankovic permission to record parodies of his songs. Yankovic has stated in interviews that he has "approached him every few years see if he's lightened up." Yankovic related one story where, prior to the American Music Awards where he and Prince were assigned to sit in the same row, Yankovic got a telegram from Prince's lawyers, demanding he not make eye contact with the artist.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is a self-proclaimed Yankovic fan, but when Yankovic wished to create a polka medley of Led Zeppelin songs, Page refused. Yankovic was, however, allowed the very rare opportunity to re-record a sample of "Black Dog" for a segment of "Trapped in the Drive-Thru".
Paul McCartney, also a Yankovic fan, refused Yankovic permission to record a parody of Wings' "Live and Let Die", entitled "Chicken Pot Pie", because McCartney is a vegetarian and found the parody to be in bad taste.
In 2006, Yankovic gained James Blunt's permission to record a parody of "You're Beautiful". However, after Yankovic had recorded "You're Pitiful", Blunt's label, Atlantic Records, rescinded this permission, despite Blunt's personal approval of the song. The parody was pulled from Yankovic's Straight Outta Lynwood due to his label's unwillingness to "go to war" with Atlantic. Yankovic released the song as a free download on his MySpace profile, as well as his official website, and plays it in concert, since it was not Blunt himself objecting to the parody.
Discography
Main articles: "Weird Al" Yankovic discography and List of songs by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Studio albums
Title Release
year Peak chart position
US
Billboard Comedy Album
"Weird Al" Yankovic 1983 139
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D 1984 17
Dare to Be Stupid 1985 50
Polka Party! 1986 177
Even Worse 1988 27
UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff 1989 146
Off the Deep End 1992 17
Alapalooza 1993 46
Bad Hair Day 1996 14
Running with Scissors 1999 16
Poodle Hat 2003 17 11
Straight Outta Lynwood 2006 10 1
Alpocalypse 2011 9 1
Note: Billboard Comedy Album chart was first published in November, 2004.
EPs
Title Release year
Another One Rides the Bus 1981
Selections from Straight Outta Lynwood 2006
Internet Leaks 2009
Compilation albums
Title Release year
Greatest Hits 1988
The Food Album 1993
Permanent Record: Al in the Box 1994
Greatest Hits (Volume II) 1994
The TV Album 1995
The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic 2009
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
Year Nominated work Award Result
1984 "Eat It" Best Comedy Recording Won
1985 Dare to Be Stupid Best Comedy Recording Nominated
1987 Polka Party! Best Comedy Recording Nominated
1988 "Fat" Best Concept Music Video Won
Even Worse Best Comedy Recording Nominated
Peter and the Wolf Best Recording for Children Nominated
1992 Off the Deep End Best Comedy Album Nominated
2003 Poodle Hat Best Comedy Album Won
2006 Straight Outta Lynwood Best Surround Sound Album Nominated
Best Comedy Album Nominated
2009 Internet Leaks Best Comedy Album Nominated
Gold and platinum records
Recording Gold Platinum Double
Platinum
"Weird Al" Yankovic U.S.
"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D Canada
U.S.
U.S.
"Eat It"1 Australia
Canada
U.S.
Dare to be Stupid U.S. U.S.
Even Worse Canada
U.S.
U.S.
"Weird Al" Yankovic's Greatest Hits Canada
Off the Deep End Canada
U.S. Canada
U.S.
The Food Album U.S.
Alapalooza Canada
U.S. Canada
Canada
Greatest Hits Volume II Canada
Bad Hair Day Canada
U.S. Canada
U.S.
Running With Scissors Australia
Canada
U.S.
U.S.
Straight Outta Lynwood U.S.
"White & Nerdy"2 U.S. U.S.
^1 The "Eat It" single reached the #1 position on the Australian singles chart in 1984.
^2 The "White & Nerdy" single was certified platinum for digital downloads and gold for ringtone downloads in the U.S.
Videography
The following is a comprehensive list of Yankovic's long form videos to date, with the United States release date.
Video title Release date
The Compleat Al August 1985
UHF July 21, 1989
The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library May 1992
Alapalooza: The Videos December 1993
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Collection 1993
Bad Hair Day: The Videos June 1996
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos January 1998
"Weird Al" Yankovic Live! November 23, 1999
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection November 3, 2003
The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series August 15, 2006
"Weird Al" Yankovic Live! - The Alpocalypse Tour October 4, 2011
Awards and nominations
Grammy Award winners
"Fat" – Best Concept Music Video (1988)
Grammy Award nominees
"Jurassic Park" – Best Music Video, Short Form (1994)
Australian gold long form videos
The Ultimate Video Collection
U.S. gold long form videos
The "Weird Al" Yankovic Video Library
Alapalooza: The Videos
"Weird Al" Yankovic Live!
Bad Hair Day: The Videos
U.S. platinum long form videos
The Ultimate Video Collection
Cameos and special appearances in film
1988: Tapeheads
1988: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
1991: The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
1994: Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult
1996: Spy Hard
1997: Safety Patrol
2000: Nothing Sacred
2002: Desperation Boulevard
2003: Haunted Lighthouse
2008: Nerdcore Rising
2009: Halloween II
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn42/CodeAires/93.jpg
http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t315/yankees3936/weirdal.jpg
Love his work, and I wish I know more of it. I have heard his famous songs, but it is the minor songs of his I wish to hear.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/23/11 at 2:42 pm
Weird Al is SUPER talented & extremely intelligent.
I felt really bad at what happen to his parents. :\'( :\'(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhpk-8QLFQ
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/23/11 at 2:47 pm
Love his work, and I wish I know more of it. I have heard his famous songs, but it is the minor songs of his I wish to hear.
Oh yes. He writes a lot of parodies, but roughly half the songs on his albums are originals. You can find them on Youtube.
I have three of his studio albums and two compilations.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/23/11 at 2:50 pm
Weird Al is SUPER talented & extremely intelligent.
I felt really bad at what happen to his parents. :\'( :\'(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhpk-8QLFQ
Cat
What did happen to his parents?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/23/11 at 3:51 pm
What did happen to his parents?
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2004-04-11-weird-al-parents_x.htm
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/24/11 at 12:58 am
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2004-04-11-weird-al-parents_x.htm
Cat
Many thanks for posting this.
It is so tragic.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/24/11 at 7:11 am
Weird Al is SUPER talented & extremely intelligent.
I felt really bad at what happen to his parents. :\'( :\'(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhpk-8QLFQ
Cat
Such a funny song ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/24/11 at 7:12 am
http://www.contactmusic.com/videoimages/sbmg/weird-al-yankovic-fat.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/24/11 at 7:13 am
Oh yes. He writes a lot of parodies, but roughly half the songs on his albums are originals. You can find them on Youtube.
I have three of his studio albums and two compilations.
I have The Food Album on CD.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/24/11 at 7:26 am
Many thanks for posting this.
It is so tragic.
Yes very sad :\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/24/11 at 7:30 am
The person of the day...Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.
In 1970, Kline was awarded a scholarship to the newly formed Drama Division at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1972, he joined with fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, and formed the City Center Acting Company (now The Acting Company), under the aegis of John Houseman. The Company traveled across the U.S. performing Shakespeare's plays, other classical works, and the musical The Robber Bridegroom, founding one of the most widely praised groups in American repertory theatre.
In 1976, Kline left The Acting Company and settled in New York City, doing a brief stint as the character "Woody Reed" in the now-defunct soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He followed this with a return to the stage in 1977 to play Clym Yeobright opposite Donna Theodore as Eustacia Vye in The Hudson Guild Theater production of Dance on a Country Grave, Kelly Hamilton's musical version of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. In 1978 he played the small role of "Bruce Granit", a matinée idol caricature, in Harold Prince's On the Twentieth Century, for which he won his first Tony Award. In 1981, Kline appeared with rock diva Linda Ronstadt and singer Rex Smith in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Central Park production of The Pirates of Penzance, winning another Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, for his comically dashing portrayal of the Pirate King. In 1983, he played the role in a film version of the musical, also with Ronstadt, Smith and Angela Lansbury, which had a limited theatrical release.
In the ensuing years, Kline appeared many times in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Shakespeare, including starring roles in Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, two productions of Hamlet (one of which he also directed) and a Tony-nominated Falstaff in a production that combined the two parts of Henry IV.
Dubbed "the American Olivier" by New York Times theater critic Frank Rich for his stage acting, Kline finally ventured into film in 1982 in Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice. He won the coveted role of the tormented and mercurial Nathan opposite Meryl Streep. Streep won an Academy Award for her performance in the film. Kline was nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for best debut performance.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Kline made several films with director Lawrence Kasdan, including The Big Chill, Silverado, Grand Canyon, I Love You to Death, and French Kiss. In 1989, Kline won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the British comedy A Fish Called Wanda, in which he played a painfully inept American ex-CIA thug opposite John Cleese's genteel British barrister and Jamie Lee Curtis' femme fatale/con woman. In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked the film twenty-first on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.
Though he has been offered many roles that could have boosted him to box-office stardom, Kline has kept a wary distance from the Hollywood star-making machine. He developed a reputation for picking parts with discrimination (such as strong roles in Grand Canyon and Life as a House), leading to the industry nickname "Kevin Decline". Other awards have included Drama Desk Awards, Golden Globe awards, a Gotham Award, a Hasty Pudding Theatricals Man of the Year Award, and a St. Louis International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Film reviewers have widely praised his talent. Newsday said Kline "has proved himself to be one of the most talented and versatile American actors of his generation."
Kline at the premiere of No Strings Attached, January 11, 2011
He played the title role in King Lear at the Public Theatre, and took the lead role in a Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Jennifer Garner. That production was forced to close temporarily after only eleven performances as a result of the Broadway stagehands' strike, but subsequently reopened. Cyrano was filmed in 2008 and aired as part of PBS's Great Performances series in January 2009. In January 2008, Kline won a Screen Actors Guild award for his portrayal of Jaques in Kenneth Branagh's film As You Like It, adapted from Shakespeare's play. The film premiered theatrically in 2006 in Europe. It bypassed theatres and was sent straight to HBO in the U.S. Kline's film The Conspirator premiered during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and was described as an "old fashioned historical thriller". It was well received by most critics. Kline will also star in the 2012 comedy Darling Companion alongside Diane Keaton.
In December 2004 Kline became the 2,272nd recipient of a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.
Personal life
Throughout the 1970s, Kline was involved in a long-term relationship with his Juilliard classmate Patti LuPone. They separated and reconnected many times before finally ending their relationship in 1978. Their relationship is precisely detailed in LuPone's memoir, Patti LuPone: A Memoir.
Kline married actress Phoebe Cates, 15 years his junior, in 1989. The couple lives in New York City and they have two children: Owen Joseph Kline (born October 14, 1991), who had a featured role in The Squid and the Whale, and Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994). After his son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Kline became active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In November 2004, he was presented with the JDRF's Humanitarian of the Year award by Meryl Streep for his volunteer efforts on behalf of the organization.
The Kevin Kline Awards honor theatre professionals in St. Louis in a wide array of categories, which include best actor and actress, set design, choreography, and original play. The first awards ceremony took place on March 20, 2006.
Filmography
Kline and wife Phoebe Cates at the Academy Awards Governor's Ball party, 1989
Title Year Role Notes
Sophie's Choice 1982 Nathan Landau
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor
The Pirates of Penzance 1983 The Pirate King
The Big Chill 1983 Harold Cooper
Silverado 1985 Paden
Violets Are Blue 1986 Henry Squires
Cry Freedom 1987 Donald Woods
A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Otto West
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
The January Man 1989 Nick Starkey
I Love You to Death 1990 Joey Boca
Soapdish 1991 Jeffery Anderson
Dr. Rod Randall Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Grand Canyon 1991 Mack
Consenting Adults 1992 Richard Parker
Chaplin 1992 Douglas Fairbanks
Dave 1993 Dave Kovic
President William Harrison Mitchell Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Nutcracker 1993 Narrator Voice Only
Princess Caraboo 1994 Frixos
French Kiss 1995 Luc Teyssier Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1996 Captain Phoebus Voice Only
The Ice Storm 1997 Ben Hood Nominated – London Critics Circle Film Award for Actor of the Year
Fierce Creatures 1997 Vince McCain
Rod McCain
In & Out 1997 Howard Brackett
Nominated – Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Comedy
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Tom Selleck)
Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
A Midsummer Night's Dream 1999 Nick Bottom
Wild Wild West 1999 U.S. Marshal Artemus 'Artie' Gordon
President Ulysses S. Grant
Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple (Shared with Will Smith)
Nominated – Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Action Team (Shared with Will Smith)
Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (As a prostitute)
The Road to El Dorado 2000 Tulio Nominated – Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie
The Anniversary Party 2001 Cal Gold
Life as a House 2001 George Monroe Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Orange County 2002 Marcus Skinner Uncredited
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II 2002 Captain Phoebus Voice Only
Nominated – DVD Exclusive Award for Best Animated Character Performance
The Emperor's Club 2002 William Hundert
De-Lovely 2004 Cole Porter
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Pink Panther 2006 Chief Inspector Dreyfus
A Prairie Home Companion 2006 Guy Noir Nominated – Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
As You Like It 2006 Jaques Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Trade 2007 Ray Sheridan Munich Film Festival Award for Best Actor
Definitely, Maybe 2008 Hampton Roth
The Tale of Despereaux 2008 Andre Voice Only
Cyrano de Bergerac 2008 Cyrano de Bergerac
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Queen to Play 2009 Docteur Kröger
The Extra Man 2010 Henry Harrison
No Strings Attached 2011 Alvin
The Conspirator 2011 Edwin Stanton
Bob's Burgers 2011 – present Mr. Fischoeder Voice Only
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q50/TheDelawareTrio/kevin_kline.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/torolibra/kevinkline51.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/24/11 at 7:35 am
The person of the day...Kevin Kline
Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.
In 1970, Kline was awarded a scholarship to the newly formed Drama Division at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1972, he joined with fellow Juilliard graduates, including Patti LuPone and David Ogden Stiers, and formed the City Center Acting Company (now The Acting Company), under the aegis of John Houseman. The Company traveled across the U.S. performing Shakespeare's plays, other classical works, and the musical The Robber Bridegroom, founding one of the most widely praised groups in American repertory theatre.
In 1976, Kline left The Acting Company and settled in New York City, doing a brief stint as the character "Woody Reed" in the now-defunct soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He followed this with a return to the stage in 1977 to play Clym Yeobright opposite Donna Theodore as Eustacia Vye in The Hudson Guild Theater production of Dance on a Country Grave, Kelly Hamilton's musical version of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. In 1978 he played the small role of "Bruce Granit", a matinée idol caricature, in Harold Prince's On the Twentieth Century, for which he won his first Tony Award. In 1981, Kline appeared with rock diva Linda Ronstadt and singer Rex Smith in the New York Shakespeare Festival's Central Park production of The Pirates of Penzance, winning another Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, for his comically dashing portrayal of the Pirate King. In 1983, he played the role in a film version of the musical, also with Ronstadt, Smith and Angela Lansbury, which had a limited theatrical release.
In the ensuing years, Kline appeared many times in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Shakespeare, including starring roles in Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, two productions of Hamlet (one of which he also directed) and a Tony-nominated Falstaff in a production that combined the two parts of Henry IV.
Dubbed "the American Olivier" by New York Times theater critic Frank Rich for his stage acting, Kline finally ventured into film in 1982 in Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice. He won the coveted role of the tormented and mercurial Nathan opposite Meryl Streep. Streep won an Academy Award for her performance in the film. Kline was nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for best debut performance.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Kline made several films with director Lawrence Kasdan, including The Big Chill, Silverado, Grand Canyon, I Love You to Death, and French Kiss. In 1989, Kline won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the British comedy A Fish Called Wanda, in which he played a painfully inept American ex-CIA thug opposite John Cleese's genteel British barrister and Jamie Lee Curtis' femme fatale/con woman. In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked the film twenty-first on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.
Though he has been offered many roles that could have boosted him to box-office stardom, Kline has kept a wary distance from the Hollywood star-making machine. He developed a reputation for picking parts with discrimination (such as strong roles in Grand Canyon and Life as a House), leading to the industry nickname "Kevin Decline". Other awards have included Drama Desk Awards, Golden Globe awards, a Gotham Award, a Hasty Pudding Theatricals Man of the Year Award, and a St. Louis International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Film reviewers have widely praised his talent. Newsday said Kline "has proved himself to be one of the most talented and versatile American actors of his generation."
Kline at the premiere of No Strings Attached, January 11, 2011
He played the title role in King Lear at the Public Theatre, and took the lead role in a Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Jennifer Garner. That production was forced to close temporarily after only eleven performances as a result of the Broadway stagehands' strike, but subsequently reopened. Cyrano was filmed in 2008 and aired as part of PBS's Great Performances series in January 2009. In January 2008, Kline won a Screen Actors Guild award for his portrayal of Jaques in Kenneth Branagh's film As You Like It, adapted from Shakespeare's play. The film premiered theatrically in 2006 in Europe. It bypassed theatres and was sent straight to HBO in the U.S. Kline's film The Conspirator premiered during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and was described as an "old fashioned historical thriller". It was well received by most critics. Kline will also star in the 2012 comedy Darling Companion alongside Diane Keaton.
In December 2004 Kline became the 2,272nd recipient of a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.
Personal life
Throughout the 1970s, Kline was involved in a long-term relationship with his Juilliard classmate Patti LuPone. They separated and reconnected many times before finally ending their relationship in 1978. Their relationship is precisely detailed in LuPone's memoir, Patti LuPone: A Memoir.
Kline married actress Phoebe Cates, 15 years his junior, in 1989. The couple lives in New York City and they have two children: Owen Joseph Kline (born October 14, 1991), who had a featured role in The Squid and the Whale, and Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994). After his son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Kline became active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In November 2004, he was presented with the JDRF's Humanitarian of the Year award by Meryl Streep for his volunteer efforts on behalf of the organization.
The Kevin Kline Awards honor theatre professionals in St. Louis in a wide array of categories, which include best actor and actress, set design, choreography, and original play. The first awards ceremony took place on March 20, 2006.
Filmography
Kline and wife Phoebe Cates at the Academy Awards Governor's Ball party, 1989
Title Year Role Notes
Sophie's Choice 1982 Nathan Landau
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor
The Pirates of Penzance 1983 The Pirate King
The Big Chill 1983 Harold Cooper
Silverado 1985 Paden
Violets Are Blue 1986 Henry Squires
Cry Freedom 1987 Donald Woods
A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Otto West
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
The January Man 1989 Nick Starkey
I Love You to Death 1990 Joey Boca
Soapdish 1991 Jeffery Anderson
Dr. Rod Randall Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Grand Canyon 1991 Mack
Consenting Adults 1992 Richard Parker
Chaplin 1992 Douglas Fairbanks
Dave 1993 Dave Kovic
President William Harrison Mitchell Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Nutcracker 1993 Narrator Voice Only
Princess Caraboo 1994 Frixos
French Kiss 1995 Luc Teyssier Nominated – American Comedy Award for Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1996 Captain Phoebus Voice Only
The Ice Storm 1997 Ben Hood Nominated – London Critics Circle Film Award for Actor of the Year
Fierce Creatures 1997 Vince McCain
Rod McCain
In & Out 1997 Howard Brackett
Nominated – Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Comedy
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Tom Selleck)
Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
A Midsummer Night's Dream 1999 Nick Bottom
Wild Wild West 1999 U.S. Marshal Artemus 'Artie' Gordon
President Ulysses S. Grant
Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple (Shared with Will Smith)
Nominated – Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Action Team (Shared with Will Smith)
Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (As a prostitute)
The Road to El Dorado 2000 Tulio Nominated – Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie
The Anniversary Party 2001 Cal Gold
Life as a House 2001 George Monroe Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Orange County 2002 Marcus Skinner Uncredited
The Hunchback of Notre Dame II 2002 Captain Phoebus Voice Only
Nominated – DVD Exclusive Award for Best Animated Character Performance
The Emperor's Club 2002 William Hundert
De-Lovely 2004 Cole Porter
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Pink Panther 2006 Chief Inspector Dreyfus
A Prairie Home Companion 2006 Guy Noir Nominated – Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
As You Like It 2006 Jaques Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Trade 2007 Ray Sheridan Munich Film Festival Award for Best Actor
Definitely, Maybe 2008 Hampton Roth
The Tale of Despereaux 2008 Andre Voice Only
Cyrano de Bergerac 2008 Cyrano de Bergerac
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Queen to Play 2009 Docteur Kröger
The Extra Man 2010 Henry Harrison
No Strings Attached 2011 Alvin
The Conspirator 2011 Edwin Stanton
Bob's Burgers 2011 – present Mr. Fischoeder Voice Only
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q50/TheDelawareTrio/kevin_kline.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f382/torolibra/kevinkline51.jpg
I like him when he's at his funniest.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/24/11 at 11:08 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ7SVMVrick
I loved him in A Fish Called Wanda.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/24/11 at 11:51 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ7SVMVrick
I loved him in A Fish Called Wanda.
Cat
It is A Fish Called Wanda for me to.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/24/11 at 12:43 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ7SVMVrick
I loved him in A Fish Called Wanda.
Cat
I liked him in that too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/24/11 at 3:43 pm
I have The Food Album on CD.
Me too. That's one of the two compilations I have. All 10 of the songs on that CD are parodies.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/24/11 at 3:45 pm
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2004-04-11-weird-al-parents_x.htm
Cat
oh yes, I remember hearing about that too. :\'(
Yes very sad :\'(
sure is :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/25/11 at 12:41 pm
The person of the day...Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy (born 25 October 1941) (often referred to as "The Queen of 70s Pop") is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those 15 songs made the Top 10 and three of those songs reached No. 1, including her signature hit "I Am Woman." She also placed 25 singles on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts. Fifteen of those singles made the Top 10 and 8 of those reached No. 1.
Reddy would recall her 1966 appearance at the Three Rivers Inn in Syracuse, New York – "there were like twelve people in the audience" – as typical of her early US performing career. In fact, the lack of working papers made it difficult to obtain any singing jobs in the US, and she was forced to make several trips to Canada where, being a Commonwealth country like Australia, she had the right to work. In the spring of 1968, Martin St. James – a hypnotist/entertainer and fellow Australian Reddy had met in New York City – threw Reddy a party with an admission price of five dollars to enable Reddy – then down to her last $12 – to make her rent. It was on this occasion that Reddy met her future manager and husband Jeff Wald, a 22-year-old secretary at the William Morris Agency who crashed the party: Reddy told People in 1975, " didn't pay the five dollars, but it was love at first sight.".
Wald would recall that he and Reddy married three days after meeting, and along with daughter Traci, the couple took up residence at the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village. Reddy would later state that she married Wald "out of desperation over her right to work and live in the United States". According to New York Magazine, Wald was fired from William Morris soon after having met Reddy, and "Helen supported them for six months doing $35-a-night hospital and charity benefits. They were so broke that they sneaked out of a hotel room carrying their clothes in paper bags." Reddy would recall: "When we did eat, it was spaghetti, and we spent what little money we had on cockroach spray." They left New York City for Chicago and Wald landed a job as talent coordinator at Mister Kelly's. While in Chicago, Reddy gained a reputation singing in local lounges – including Mister Kelly's – and, in the spring of 1968, she landed a deal with Fontana Records, a division of major label Chicago-based Mercury Records. Her first single, "One Way Ticket", on Fontana was not an American hit, but it did give Reddy her first ever appearance on any chart as it peaked at #83 in her native Australia.
The "I Am Woman" era and stardom
Within a year, Wald relocated Reddy and Traci to Los Angeles, where Wald was hired at Capitol Records, the label where Reddy was to attain stardom; however, Wald was hired and fired the same day. Reddy became frustrated as Wald found success managing such acts as Deep Purple and Tiny Tim without making any evident effort to promote Reddy; after eighteen months of career inactivity, Reddy gave Wald an ultimatum: "he either revitalize her career or get out...Jeff threw himself into his new career as Mr. Helen Reddy. Five months of phone calls to Capitol Records executive Artie Mogull finally paid off: Mogull agreed to let Helen cut one single if Jeff promised not to call for a month. She sang "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar...It became a hit" – #13 in June 1971 – "Helen Reddy was on her way."
Reddy's stardom was consolidated when her single "I Am Woman" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972. The song was co-written by Reddy with Ray Burton; Reddy has attributed the impetus for writing "I Am Woman" and her early awareness of the women's movement to expatriate Australian rock critic and pioneer feminist Lillian Roxon. Reddy is quoted in Fred Bronson's The Billboard Book of Number One Hits as saying that she was looking for songs to record which reflected the positive self-image she had gained from joining the women's movement, but could not find any, so "I realized that the song I was looking for didn't exist, and I was going to have to write it myself. "I Am Woman" was recorded and released in May 1972. but barely dented the charts in its initial release. However, female listeners soon adopted the song as an anthem and began requesting it from their local radio stations in droves, resulting in its September chart re-entry and eventual #1 hit status. "I Am Woman" earned a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; at the awards ceremony, Reddy concluded her acceptance speech by famously thanking God "because She makes everything possible". The success of "I am Woman" made Reddy the first native of Australia to top the US charts and also to win a Grammy.
Over the next five years, Reddy had more than a dozen other U.S. Top 40 hits, including two more #1 hits. These included the Alex Harvey country ballad "Delta Dawn" (#1, 1973), "Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)" (#3), "Keep on Singing" (#15, 1974), "You and Me Against the World" (written by Paul Williams and featuring daughter Traci reciting the spoken bookends) (#9), "Emotion" (an English version of the French tune "Amoureuse"), "Peaceful"" (#12), "Angie Baby" (#1), "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady" (#8, 1975), Richard Kerr-Will Jennings-penned "Somewhere in the Night" (#19; later a bigger hit for Barry Manilow), and the Carole King-Gerry Goffin song "I Can't Hear You No More" (1976). Reddy's total sales figures for the United Sales are estimated in excess of 10 million singles and 15 million albums; her worldwide album sales tally is estimated in excess of 25 million.
At the height of her fame in the late 1970s, Reddy was a headliner, with a full chorus of backup singers and dancers to standing-room-only crowds on The Strip in Las Vegas. Reddy's opening acts were the then-up-and-coming Barry Manilow, and Joan Rivers. In 1976, Reddy covered the Beatles song "Fool on the Hill" for the musical documentary All This and World War II.
Reddy was also instrumental in furthering the career of Olivia Newton-John, as she encouraged her friend to move from Britain to the United States in the early 1970s, giving her the best opportunity to expand her career. At a subsequent party at Reddy's house after a chance meeting with Allan Carr, the film's producer, Newton-John then won the starring role in the hit film version of the musical Grease.
Career eclipse
Reddy was most successful on the Easy Listening chart, scoring eight #1 hits there over a three-year span, from "Delta Dawn" in 1973 to "I Can't Hear You No More" in 1976. However, the last named track evidenced a sharp drop in popularity for Reddy, with a #29 peak on the Billboard Hot 100. Reddy's 1977 remake of Cilla Black's 1964 hit "You're My World" indicated comeback potential, with a #18 peak, but this track – co-produced by Kim Fowley – would prove to be Reddy's last Top 40 hit. Its parent album, Ear Candy, Reddy's tenth album, would become her first album to not attain at least Gold status since her second full-length release: Helen Reddy from 1972.
In 1978, Reddy sang as a backup singer on Gene Simmons' solo album on the song True Confessions.
Of Reddy's eight subsequent single releases on Capitol, five reached the Easy Listening Top 50 – including "Candle on the Water", from the 1977 film Pete's Dragon (which starred Reddy). Only three ranked on the Billboard Hot 100: "The Happy Girls" (#57) – the follow-up to "You're My World" and, besides "I am Woman", Reddy's only chart item which she co-wrote – and the disco tracks "Ready or Not" (#73) and "Make Love to Me" (#60), the latter a cover of an Australian hit by Kelly Marie – which gave Reddy a lone R&B chart ranking at #59. Reddy had also ranked at #98 on the C&W chart with "Laissez Les Bontemps Rouler", the B-side to "The Happy Girls".
Without the impetus of any major hits, Reddy's four Capitol album releases subsequent to Ear Candy failed to chart. In 1981, Reddy would say: "I signed ten years ago...And when you are with a company so long you tend to be taken for granted. For the last three years I didn't feel I was getting the support from them."
May 1981 saw the release of Play Me Out, Reddy's debut album for MCA Records, who Reddy said had "made me a deal we couldn't refuse"; "we shopped around and felt the most enthusiasm at MCA." In fact, Reddy's new label affiliation would result in only one minor success: her remake of Becky Hobbs' 1979 C&W hit "I Can't Say Goodbye to You" returned her for the last time to the Billboard Hot 100 at #88. "I Can't Say Goodbye to You" also returned Reddy to the charts in the UK and Ireland (her sole previous hit in both areas was "Angie Baby"). Reddy's 14 November 1981 TOTP performance brought "I Can't Say Goodbye to You" into the UK Top 50; the track would rise there no higher than #43, but in Ireland reached #16, giving Reddy her final high placing on a major national chart. MCA released one further Reddy album: Imagination, in 1983; it would prove to be Reddy's final release as a career recording artist. The unsuccessful Imagination was released just after the finalization of Reddy's divorce from Jeff Wald whose subsequent interference in her career Reddy would blame for the decline of her career profile in the mid-80s: "Several of my performing contracts were canceled, and one promoter told me he couldn't book me in case a certain someone 'came after him with a shotgun.'" Reddy states that it was effectively being blacklisted from her established performance areas which led to her pursuing a career in theater where Wald had no significant influence.
Later recordings
In 1990, Reddy issued – on her own label – the album Feel So Young, including remakes of Reddy's repertoire favorites; her one interim recording had been the 1987 dance maxi-single "Mysterious Kind", on which Reddy had vocally supported Jessica Williams. 1997 saw the release of Center Stage, an album of show tunes which Reddy recorded for Varèse Records; the track "Surrender" – originating in Sunset Boulevard – was remixed for release as dance maxi-single. Reddy's final album to date was the 2000 seasonal release The Best Christmas Ever.
Film, theatre and television
Reddy with Carol Burnett, 1973.
A frequent guest on talk shows and variety programs of the 1970s and early 1980s – with credits including The Bobby Darin Show, The Carol Burnett Show and The Muppet Show – Reddy helmed the 1973 summer replacement series for The Flip Wilson Show (Reddy had become friends with Flip Wilson when she'd worked the Chicago club circuit early in her career); the series, The Helen Reddy Show, provided early national exposure for Albert Brooks and the Pointer Sisters. Also in 1973, Reddy became the semi-regular host of the NBC late night variety show The Midnight Special, a position she retained until 1975.
Her film career includes an extended cameo as a nun in Airport 1975 – singing her own composition "Best Friend" – and a lone starring role in Walt Disney's Pete's Dragon, introducing the Oscar-nominated song "Candle on the Water". For her part in Airport 1975, Reddy was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. Reddy was one of many musical stars featured in the all-star chorale in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and has since played cameo roles in the films Disorderlies (1987) and The Perfect Host (2010).
Despite her late 1970s chart decline, Reddy still had sufficient star power in 1979 to host "The Helen Reddy Special" broadcast that May, on ABC-TV; Jeff Wald was the producer. In September 1981, Reddy announced she would be shooting the pilot for her own TV sitcom, in which she would play a single mother working as a lounge singer in Lake Tahoe. However, this project was abandoned. Reddy has been an occasional television guest star as an actress, appearing on the series The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Jeffersons (as herself), Diagnosis: Murder, and BeastMaster.
In 2007, Reddy had a voice cameo as herself in the Family Guy television show's Star Wars parody, "Blue Harvest". She played a 'red'-themed ('Red'-dy) member of the Red Squadron, alongside Red Five (Chris Griffin), Red Buttons, Redd Foxx, Big Red, Red October, Simply Red and others. In 2010 she guest starred on Family Guy again singing the opening theme song for the show's fictional Channel 5 News telecast.
In the mid-1980s, Reddy embarked on a new career in the theater. Reddy mostly worked in musicals including Anything Goes, Call Me Madam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and – both on Broadway and the West End – Blood Brothers. She also appeared in four productions of the one-woman show Shirley Valentine.
Notable stage roles include:
Shirley Valentine – as Shirley
Stage West, Canada (June, 1997)
12 U.S. City Tour (February – April 1996)
Theatre by the Sea, R.I. (1995)
Blood Brothers – as Mrs. Johnstone
West End (1997)
Music Box Theatre, Broadway (January – May 1995)
Empire Theatre, Liverpool (1995)
Love, Julie – as Gail Sinclair
Sharon Stage, Connecticut (August, 1996)
Cape Cod (July 1996)
Westport Country Playhouse (June 1996)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood – as Edwin Drood/Miss Alice Nutting
Sacramento Music Circus (July, 1988)
Call Me Madam – as Mrs. Sally Adams
Sacramento Music Circus (August, 1986)
Anything Goes – as Reno Sweeney
Long Beach Civic Light Opera (July, 1987)
Sacramento Music Circus (July, 1985)
Personal life and recent years
Reddy, who gave what she announced as her farewell performance with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in 2002, stated in 2008 that "she will never again perform before an audience", specifying "It's not going to happen. I've moved on", and that "her voice has deepened to a lower key, and she's not even sure she could sing hits such as 'Delta Dawn'."
Reddy became a naturalized American citizen in 1974, subsequently availing herself of the opportunity to maintain dual American/Australian citizenship when said opportunity was made available. She has been married and divorced three times, and has two children.
Kenneth Weate (1961–1966), Child: Traci (b. 1963)
Jeff Wald (25 May 1966 – January 1983). Child: Jordan (b. 1972). She converted to Judaism before marrying Wald.
Milton Ruth (29 June 1983–1995)
Helen was married at age 20 to Kenneth Claude Weate, a considerably older musician and family friend, who she says she wed to defy her parents who wished her to follow them into show business; the couple separated not long after the birth of their daughter, Traci, who became Traci Wald after her adoption by Reddy's second husband Jeff Wald. In a 1975 People interview Reddy admitted her relationship with then husband and manager Jeff Wald was volatile with the couple having "huge, healthy fights" but that she owed her success – she was then the world's most successful female vocalist for two years running – to Wald: "He runs it all. Naturally when the moment of performance comes I have to deliver — but everything else is him. It's not my career; it's our career." By 2 January 1981, Reddy and Wald had separated, with Wald moving into a Beverly Hills rehab facility to treat an eight-year addiction to cocaine. Reddy subsequently filed for divorce, yet withdrew her petition the day after filing it, stating: "After thirteen years of marriage, a separation of one month is too short to make a decision." In 1982, after finding evidence of Wald's continued substance abuse, Reddy again separated from him and initiated divorce proceedings, which this time went through in January 1983. In June 1983 Reddy married Milton Ruth, a drummer in her band; the couple divorced in 1995.
Active in community affairs, Reddy served as the state of California's Parks and Recreation Commissioner for three years. In 2002, she retired from performing and moved from her longtime residence in Santa Monica, California back to her native Australia, living first on Norfolk Island, before taking up residence in Sydney. There, she was a practicing clinical hypnotherapist, and Patron of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists. In April 2008, Reddy was reported to be living "simply and frugally off song royalties, pension funds, and social security... a 13th-floor apartment with a 180-degree view of Sydney Harbour." Her apartment had been recently appraised, causing Reddy concern over its future affordability; however, the New York-based landlord learned his tenant's identity and wrote her: "I had no idea it was the Helen Reddy who was living in my unit. Because of what you have done for millions of women all over the world, I will not sell or raise your rent. I hope you'll be very happy living there for years to come."
Reddy published an autobiography, The Woman I Am, and appeared on the Today show in 2006. She was also added to the ARIA Hall Of Fame, with a tribute performance by Vanessa Amorosi of "I Am Woman" at the ceremony. Reddy suffers from Addison's disease, a failure of the adrenal glands, which requires constant treatment.
Reddy (2nd from right) in early 2007 with students at a Women's Leadership conference in Sydney.
She has a featured role in a crime film, The Perfect Host, starring David Hyde-Pierce, released in theaters on July 1, 2011
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a19/Clarisworkz/Stuff/helen_reddy.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/standingproud/Actors-Singers-Movies/reddy01.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/25/11 at 1:25 pm
I am woman, hear me roar! Meow, damnit! ;D ;D ;D ;D
My favorite Helen Reddy song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKyGt_I5L4
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/25/11 at 5:15 pm
I am woman, hear me roar! Meow, damnit! ;D ;D ;D ;D
My favorite Helen Reddy song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKyGt_I5L4
Cat
Good song, I also like Delta Dawn.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/26/11 at 10:50 am
The person of the day...Natalie Merchant
Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.
Merchant was lead singer and primary lyricist for 10,000 Maniacs, joining in its infancy in 1981 while she was a student at Jamestown Community College. The group recorded their album "Human Conflict Number Five" and performed a corresponding Music video at The Hotel Franklin and at Group W Westinghouse studios (Jamestown, New York) in 1982. Merchant sang lead vocals, and later played the piano as well, for 10,000 Maniacs for seven studio albums. In 1993 she announced that she was leaving the group.
Tigerlily (1995)
Merchant has said in interviews that after her split with 10,000 Maniacs she was so eager to begin writing her own material that she went home that very day and composed the song "I May Know the Word", which was originally meant to appear on the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia. The song was eventually cut from the soundtrack, but it would go on to appear on Merchant's debut solo album, Tigerlily, which was released on the Elektra label in 1995. Merchant chose to name the album Tigerlily as she felt it captured the feel of the album, which she described as both "fierce" and "delicate".
The third song on the album, "Beloved Wife", was featured as the first song in the trailer for the movie Message in a Bottle.
Seeking creative control, Merchant chose to fund Tigerlily herself, refusing the advance from the record company. She also wanted to work with a core-group of young musicians who she felt would be enthusiastic about the music. The group would consist of guitarist Jennifer Turner, bassist Barrie Maguire, and former-Wallflower and eventual boyfriend to Merchant, Peter Yanowitz, who played drums on the album and who continued to do so with Merchant until their abrupt split in 2000.
Tigerlily was a critical and commercial success, spawning her first top-ten hit in the single "Carnival", and achieving top-40 success with subsequent singles "Wonder" and "Jealousy". The album would go on to sell over 5 million copies, and continues to be Merchant’s most successful album to date. Merchant did extensive touring for the album and made numerous television appearances, including performances on SNL, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and all late-night talk shows. The media's immediate and critical impact on culture and cultural icons was of particular interest to Merchant. In "River", a song from Tigerlily, Merchant defends River Phoenix as she castigates the media for systematically dissecting the child actor after his death. Much of their emphasis was on Phoenix' suspected drug-using lifestyle. In "River," Merchant asks, "Why don't you let him be / Give his mother and father peace." Merchant's anger is later replaced with quiet reflection, asking, "It was such a nightmare raving, 'How could we save him from himself?'"
Ophelia (1998–1999)
Three years passed before Merchant would release her second solo effort, Ophelia. While Tigerlily contained a lot of sparse instrumentation, the music on Ophelia featured plenty of lush symphonic arrangements composed and conducted by British composer Gavin Bryars. Merchant treated the recording of Ophelia as a series of workshops, where she would invite various musicians she had met over the years into her home studio to collaborate and record. In the end, 30 different musicians featured on the album, among them Brand New Heavies frontwoman N'Dea Davenport (with whom she duets on the song Break Your Heart), famed trumpet player Chris Botti, and the husband and wife duo, Don and Karen Peris, from the band The Innocence Mission.
While Ophelia is not a concept record in the traditional sense, the album-cycle saw Merchant flexing her creative muscles in surprising ways. The name of the album and the title track are a literary reference to Shakespeare's Ophelia, who in the play Hamlet becomes mad and eventually commits suicide when Hamlet remains non-committal and lost in himself. Merchant's Ophelia describes a series of women throughout time—women who dared question the patriarchal status quo and who were often castigated for doing so—and is a cry for women's rights and for more understanding of female archetypes beyond the scope of the "mother" and the "whore", both of which severely limit women and attempt to turn them into little more than chattel. The portrayal of the women in the song is a tribute to the non-traditional, the "too smart for her own good" type of woman who is often misunderstood by society. As a lyric to the title song cries: "Your common sense, your best defense, was wasted and in vain!" A reflection of women driven mad by social limitations, Natalie's tribute described Ophelia as being at once a "novice carmelite," a "suffragette," a "circus queen," a "demigoddess" and a "mafia courtesan." The album sleeve saw Merchant pictured in colorful and ornate costumes as each of these different characters. As a companion to the album, she also released a film where she portrays each of these different characters, with voice-overs used for the "novice carmelite," the "sweetheart" and the "courtesan" as they are Spanish, German and Italian, respectively.
The first single off the album was a happy and uncharacteristically simple song called "Kind and Generous", which received massive airplay on VH1 and which solidified Merchant's role as a bona fide solo artist. That summer, Sarah McLachlan invited Merchant to co-headline the year's biggest music festival with her, Lilith Fair. The exposure from the tour helped the album reach Platinum status in just under a year, with subsequent singles "Break Your Heart" and "Life Is Sweet" receiving moderate airplay on adult contemporary stations. No video was filmed for the latter, however, with a clip from Merchant's appearance on VH1's Storytellers being used instead. She would also go on to appear on PBS' Sessions at West 54th and VH1's Hard Rock Live before the year's end. In 1998, Merchant also recorded George Gershwin's "But Not for Me" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.
The Ophelia tour ended in 1999 with the final few shows being performed and recorded on Broadway. The performance would be released as the album Natalie Merchant: Live in Concert with a companion video of the same name. The performance was notable in that it featured numerous covers including songs by David Bowie, Neil Young, and the Breton-Welsh singer-songwriter Katell Keineg.
American Folk Music Tour (2000)
In 2000, Merchant embarked on a folk tour in the United States with many shows being supported by alt-country band Wilco.
Merchant's next studio album on the Elektra label was Motherland, released in 2001. Motherland saw Merchant at her most experimental musically. Motherland achieved Gold on the Billboard charts after debuting at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 and No. 13 on the Top Internet Albums of 2001, respectively. Rolling Stone favored this album with 3½ stars, and also noticed a difference in Merchant's voice, which was more deep and gritty than her previous albums. Singles that were released from Motherland were Just Can't Last, Build a Levee and Tell Yourself.
Merchant embarked on a year and a half world tour to promote Motherland. The first leg of the tour started in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 17, 2001, trekking all over the United States, and then heading to Europe with some special acoustic shows in Europe. Merchant also participated in the Rock am Ring Festival and Rock im Park in 2002. In the summer of 2002, she was paired with Chris Isaak and both played at stadiums and arenas.
The House Carpenter's Daughter (2003)
After her contract with Elektra expired in August 2002, Merchant decided not to sign with them again, or any other major label. Her next studio album, The House Carpenter's Daughter, was released in September 2003 on her own label, Myth America Records. To date this has been the only release on Myth America.
Leave Your Sleep (2010)
In October 2009, the official websites of Nonesuch Records and Natalie Merchant announced that she had signed with the label. Leave Your Sleep was released on April 13, 2010 and is a compilation of five years of inspiration from a "conversation" with her daughter over the "first 6 years of her life." The album debuted on the Billboard Top 200 at No. 17, Billboard Folk Albums at No. 1, Amazon.com at No.1, and ITunes, No. 3. The album was co-produced by Grammy winning Andres Levin.
Personal life
Merchant is married to Daniel de la Calle and has a daughter named Lucia. She likes gardening and painting. Some paintings can be seen at her official website.
She has been a vegetarian since 1980, save for the duration of her pregnancy when she temporarily resumed eating meat. In 1997, she said:
"The '60s aesthetic has never really appealed to me, the tie-dyed Deadhead running barefoot through the forest on LSD. I don't think that's really me. But I've been a vegetarian for 17 years and I consider myself an environmentalist in as much as I can be, considering the job that I have. I prefer living in the countryside rather than the city; I find it more sane and sustaining for myself..."
Discography
With 10,000 Maniacs
Human Conflict Number Five (EP) (1982)
Secrets of the I Ching (1983)
The Wishing Chair (1985)
In My Tribe (1987)
Blind Man's Zoo (1989)
Hope Chest: The Fredonia Recordings 1982-1983 (1990)
Our Time in Eden (1992)
MTV Unplugged (1993)
Campfire Songs: The Popular, Obscure and Unknown Recordings (2004)
Solo
Main article: Natalie Merchant discography
1995: Tigerlily
1998: Ophelia
2001: Motherland
2003: The House Carpenter's Daughter
2010: Leave Your Sleep
Filmography
Films
Year Title Role Notes
1990 Time Capsule Herself (Vocals, Piano, Organ) Video Documentary
1996 One Fine Day Performer "One Fine Day" Soundtrack
1998 Ophelia Performer Short Film
1999 Bringing Out the Dead Performer/Writer: "These Are Days" Soundtrack
1999 Natalie Merchant: Live in Concert Herself (Vocals, Piano) Live Concert Video
2002 When in Rome Performer/Writer: "These Are Days" Soundtrack
2003 Cheaper by the Dozen Performer/Writer: "These Are Days" Soundtrack
2004 Purgatory House Performer/Writer: "My Skin" Soundtrack
2006 Candida Performer/Writer: "Motherland" Soundtrack
2007 Earthlings Composer Documentary
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1990 MTV Unplugged Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) MTV
1992 Saturday Night Live Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (NBC) Aired 31 October 1992; songs: Candy Everybody Wants and These Are Days
1993 MTV Unplugged Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) First artist to make 2nd appearance
1993 Rock & Roll Inaugural Ball Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs)
1993 MTV VMAS Herself–Presenter TV Special
1995 Concert for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Herself–Performer Sang "I Know How to Do It"
1995 Saturday Night Live Herself–Performer (NBC) Host David Schwimmer
1997 Sessions at West 54th Herself–Performer (PBS) "Planctus" with Philip Glass
1998 Saturday Night Live Herself–Performer (NBC) Host Matthew Broderick
1998 Hard Rock Live Herself–Performer VH1
1998 VH1 Storytellers Herself–Performer Later released as DVD
1998 Sessions at West 54th Herself–Performer (NBC) Host David Byrne
1999 Man in the Sand Herself Video Documentary
1999 Late Night with Conan O'Brien Musical Guest (NBC) "Life Is Sweet"
1999 Lifetime's Intimate Portrait Herself Biographical
2000 ABC 2000: The Millennium Herself–Performer "Kind and Generous"
2001 Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words & Music Herself–Performer "Nowhere Man"
2001 Up Close and Personal Herself–Performer Oxygen
2002 Austin City Limits Herself–Performer PBS
2003 Go Further Herself Documentary
2010 Good Morning America Herself–Performer ABC News
Talk Shows Years
The Late Show with David Letterman: 1995, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2001, 2004
The Rosie O'Donnell Show: 1996, 1996, 1998, 1998, 1999, 1999, 2001, 2002
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2010
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s172/MarieEdwards23/NatalieMerchant.jpg
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp103/Miepie22/NatalieMerchant.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/26/11 at 11:09 am
I always thought Natalie Merchant had great music.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/27/11 at 8:36 am
The person of the day...John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese (/ˈkliːz/; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s he became a member of Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.
In the mid 1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. He also starred in Clockwise, and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films, two Harry Potter films, and three Shrek films.
With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay he co-founded Video Arts, the production company responsible for making entertaining training films.
Cleese was one of the script writers, as well as being a member of the cast, for the 1963 Footlights Revue A Clump of Plinths, which was so successful during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was renamed Cambridge Circus and taken to the West End in London and then on a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, with the cast also appearing in some of the revue's sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1964.
After Cambridge Circus, Cleese briefly stayed in America, performing on and Off-Broadway. While performing in the musical Half a Sixpence, Cleese met future Python Terry Gilliam, as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.
He was soon offered work as a writer with BBC Radio, where he worked on several programmes, most notably as a sketch writer for The Dick Emery Show. The success of the Footlights Revue led to the recording of a short series of half-hour radio programmes, called I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, that were so popular that the BBC commissioned a regular series with the same title that ran from 1965 to 1974. Cleese returned to England and joined the cast. In many episodes, he is credited as "John Otto Cleese".
Also in 1965, Cleese and Chapman began writing on The Frost Report. The writing staff chosen for The Frost Report consisted of a number of writers and performers who would go on to make names for themselves in comedy. They included co-performers from I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and future Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and also Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. It was while working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the future Pythons developed the writing styles that would make their collaboration significant. Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved authority figures, some of which were performed by Cleese, while Jones and Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that open with idyllic countryside panoramas. Idle was one of those charged with writing David Frost's monologue. It was during this period that Cleese met and befriended influential British comedian Peter Cook.
It was as an actual performer on the Frost Report that Cleese achieved his breakthrough on British television as a comedy actor, appearing as the tall, patrician figure on the classic class sketch, contrasting comically in a line-up with the shorter, middle-class Ronnie Barker and the even-shorter, working-class Ronnie Corbett. Such was the popularity of the series that in 1966 Cleese and Chapman were invited to work as writers and performers with Brooke-Taylor and Feldman on At Last the 1948 Show, during which time the Four Yorkshiremen sketch was written by all four writers/performers (the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known as a Monty Python sketch). Cleese and Chapman also wrote episodes for the first series of Doctor in the House (and later Cleese wrote six episodes of Doctor at Large on his own in 1971). These series were successful, and in 1969 Cleese and Chapman were offered their very own series. However, owing to Chapman's alcoholism, Cleese found himself bearing an increasing workload in the partnership and was therefore unenthusiastic about doing a series with just the two of them. He had found working with Palin on The Frost Report an enjoyable experience and invited him to join the series. Palin had previously been working on Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and Jones, with Terry Gilliam creating the animations. The four of them had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for Thames Television, which they were waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones, and Idle.
Monty Python
Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for four seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though with only limited participation of Cleese in the last six shows. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticate and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, and government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop" and by Cleese's Mr Praline character, the man with a dead Norwegian Blue parrot and a menagerie of other animals all named "Eric". He was also known for his working-class "Sergeant Major" character, who worked as a Police Sergeant, Roman Centurion, etc. He is also seen as the opening announcer with the now famous line "And now for something completely different", although in its premiere in the sketch "Man with Three Buttocks", the phrase was spoken by Eric Idle.
Partnership with Graham Chapman
The Dead Parrot sketch performed on Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969
listen to a clip from the sketch.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty.
Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together—in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved his sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved a broken toaster and later a broken car (this version was actually performed and broadcast on the pre-Python special How To Irritate People). It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item into a dead parrot, and he also suggested that the parrot be specifically a Norwegian Blue, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far more memorable.
Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker face, clipped middle-class accent, and imposing height allowed him to appear convincingly as a variety of authority figures, such as policemen, detectives, Nazi officers, or government officials—which he would then proceed to undermine. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese exploits his stature as the crane-legged civil servant performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.
Chapman and Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch and "The Argument Sketch", where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people in pointless, trivial bickering. All of these roles were opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with)—the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed aggression and the shorter Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common feature in the series. Occasionally, the typical Cleese-Palin dynamic is reversed, as in "Fish Licence", wherein Palin plays the bureaucrat with whom Cleese is trying to work.
Though the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese was growing tired of dealing with Chapman's alcoholism. He felt, too, that the show's scripts had declined in quality. For these reasons, he became restless and decided to move on. Though he stayed for the third series, he officially left the group before the fourth season. Despite this, he remained friendly with the group, and all six began writing Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Cleese received a credit on episodes of the fourth series which used material from these sessions, and even makes a brief appearance in one episode as the voice of a cartoon in the "Hamlet" episode, though he was officially unconnected with the fourth series. Cleese returned to the troupe to co-write and co-star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and participated in various live performances over the years.
Post-Python
From 1970 to 1973, Cleese served as rector of the University of St Andrews. His election proved a milestone for the University, revolutionising and modernising the post. For instance, the Rector was traditionally entitled to appoint an "Assessor", a deputy to sit in his place at important meetings in his absence. Cleese changed this into a position for a student, elected across campus by the student body, resulting in direct access and representation for the student body.
Cleese achieved greater prominence in the United Kingdom as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he co-wrote with his wife Connie Booth. The series won three BAFTA awards when produced and in 2000, it topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series also featured Prunella Scales as Basil's acerbic wife Sybil, Andrew Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel ("...he's from Barcelona"), and Booth as waitress Polly, the series' voice of sanity. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real person, Donald Sinclair, whom he had encountered in 1970 while the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming inserts for their television series. Reportedly, Cleese was inspired by Sinclair's mantra, "I could run this hotel just fine, if it weren't for the guests." He later described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met," although Sinclair's widow has said her husband was totally misrepresented in the series. During the Pythons' stay, Sinclair allegedly threw Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it contained a bomb," complained about Gilliam's "American" table manners, and threw a bus timetable at another guest after they dared to ask the time of the next bus to town.
The first series was screened from 19 September 1975 on BBC 2, initially to poor reviews, but gained momentum when repeated on BBC 1 the following year. Despite this, a second series did not air until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had ended, but they revived their collaboration for the second series. Fawlty Towers consisted of only twelve episodes; Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to avoid compromising the quality of the series.
Cleese as a Mexican maraca soloist as part of his 1977 guest appearance on The Muppet Show
In December 1977, Cleese appeared as a guest star on The Muppet Show. Cleese was a fan of the show, and co-wrote much of the episode. He appears in a "Pigs in Space" segment as a pirate trying to hijack the spaceship Swinetrek, and also helps Gonzo restore his arms to "normal" size after Gonzo's cannonball catching act goes wrong. During the show's closing number, Cleese refuses to sing the famous show tune from Man of La Mancha, "The Impossible Dream". Kermit The Frog apologises and the curtain re-opens with Cleese now costumed as a Viking trying some Wagnerian opera as part of a duet with Sweetums. Once again, Cleese protests to Kermit, and gives the frog one more chance. This time, as pictured opposite this text, he is costumed as a Mexican maraca soloist. He has finally had enough and protests that he is leaving the show, saying "You were supposed to be my host. How can you do this to me? Kermit – I am your guest!". The cast joins in with their parody of "The Impossible Dream", singing "This is your guest, to follow that star...". During the crowd's applause that follows the song, he pretends to strangle Kermit until he realises the crowd loves him and accepts the accolades. During the show's finale, as Kermit thanks him, he shows up with a fictional album, his own new vocal record John Cleese: A Man & His Music, and encourages everyone to buy a copy.
This would not be Cleese's final appearance with The Muppets. In their 1981 movie The Great Muppet Caper, Cleese does a cameo appearance as Neville, a local homeowner. As part of the appearance, Miss Piggy borrows his house as a way to impress Kermit The Frog.
Cleese won the TV Times award for Funniest Man On TV – 1978 / 1979.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film, though he did work with Peter Cook in his one-off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. In the same year Cleese played Petruchio, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in the BBC Television Shakespeare series. In 1981 he starred with Sean Connery and Michael Palin in the Terry Gilliam-directed Time Bandits as Robin Hood. He also participated in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. In 1985, Cleese had a small dramatic role as a sheriff in Silverado, which had an all-star cast that included Kevin Kline, with whom he would star with in A Fish Called Wanda three years later. In 1986, he starred in Clockwise as an uptight school headmaster obsessed with punctuality and constantly getting in to trouble during a journey to a headmaster's conference.
Cleese at the 1989 Academy Awards
Timed with the 1987 UK elections, he appeared in a video promoting proportional representation.
In 1988, he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, as the lead, Archie Leach, along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. Wanda was a commercial and critical success, and Cleese was nominated for an Academy Award for his script. Cynthia Cleese starred as Leach's daughter.
Graham Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989; Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, witnessed Chapman's death. Chapman's death occurred a day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus, with Jones commenting, "the worst case of party-pooping in all history." Cleese's eulogy at Chapman's memorial service—in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fudge'"—has since become legendary.
Cleese would later play a supporting role in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein alongside Branagh himself and Robert De Niro. He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings. These were produced by his company Video Arts.
With Robin Skynner, the group analyst and family therapist, Cleese wrote two books on relationships: Families and How to Survive Them, and Life and How to Survive It. The books are presented as a dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.
In 1996, Cleese declined the British honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures—which again starred Cleese alongside Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin—was also released that year, but was greeted with mixed reception by critics and audiences. Cleese has since often stated that making the second movie had been a mistake. When asked by his friend, director and restaurant critic Michael Winner, what he would do differently if he could live his life again, Cleese responded, "I wouldn’t have married Alyce Faye Eichelberger and I wouldn’t have made Fierce Creatures."
In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to by Bond as "R". In 2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6. In 2004, Cleese was featured as Q in the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, featuring his likeness and voice. Cleese did not appear in the subsequent Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
Year Title Role Notes
Films 1968 Interlude TV Publicist
1969 The Magic Christian Mr. Dougdale (director in Sotheby's)
1969 The Best House in London Jones Uncredited
1970 The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer Pummer Writer
1971 And Now for Something Completely Different Various Roles Writer
1974 Romance with a Double Bass Musician Smychkov Writer
1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail Various Roles Writer
1976 Meetings, Bloody Meetings Tim Writer/Executive Producer
Documentary Short
1977 The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It Arthur Sherlock Holmes
1979 Monty Python's Life of Brian Various Roles Writer
1980 The Secret Policeman's Ball Himself-Various Roles
1981 The Great Muppet Caper Neville
1981 Time Bandits Gormless Robin Hood
1982 Privates on Parade Major Giles Flack
1983 Yellowbeard Blind Pew
1983 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Various Roles Writer
1985 Silverado Langston His first line, as he walks into a bar to
break up a brawl, is, "What's all this, then?")
1986 Clockwise Mr. Stimpson Evening Standard British Film Awards Peter Sellers Award for Comedy
1988 A Fish Called Wanda lawyer Archie Leach Writer/Executive Producer
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1989 Erik the Viking Halfdan the Black and Svend Berserk
1990 Bullseye! Man on the Beach in
Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese
1991 An American Tail: Fievel Goes West Cat R. Waul Voice Only
1992 Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? Narrator
1993 Splitting Heirs Raoul P. Shadgrind
1994 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Professor Waldman
1994 Disney's Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book Dr. Julius Plumford
1994 The Swan Princess Jean-Bob
1996 The Wind in the Willows Mr. Toad's Lawyer
1996 Fierce Creatures Rollo Lee Writer/Producer
1997 George of the Jungle An Ape Named 'Ape' Voice Only
1998 In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese Host Narrator
1999 The Out-of-Towners Mr. Mersault
1999 The World Is Not Enough R
2000 Isn't She Great Henry Marcus
2000 The Magic Pudding Albert, The Magic Pudding Voice Only
2001 Quantum Project Alexander Pentcho
2001 Here's Looking at You: The Evolution of the Human Face Narrator
2001 Rat Race Donald P. Sinclair
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone "Nearly Headless Nick"
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets "Nearly Headless Nick" Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Acting
2002 Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio The Talking Crickett Voice Only: English Version
2002 Die Another Day Q Second appearance in a James Bond film,
replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the series
2002 The Adventures of Pluto Nash James
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Mr. Munday
2003 Scorched Charles Merchant
2003 George of the Jungle 2 An Ape Named 'Ape' Voice Only
2004 Shrek 2 King Harold Voice Only
2004 Around the World in 80 Days Grizzled Sergeant
2005 Valiant Mercury Voice Only
2006 Charlotte's Web Samuel the Sheep Voice Only
2006 Man About Town Dr. Primkin
2007 Shrek the Third King Harold Voice Only
2008 Igor Dr. Glickenstein Voice Only
2008 The Day the Earth Stood Still Dr. Barnhardt
2009 The Pink Panther 2 Inspector Charles Dreyfus
2009 Planet 51 Professor Kipple Voice Only
2010 Spud The Guv Awaiting international release
2010 Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole Ghost Voice Only
2010 Shrek Forever After King Harold Voice Only
2011 Happy Feet 2 Himself Voice Only
post-production
2011 Winnie the Pooh Narrator Voice Only
Video game credits
Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time (1994) 7th Level
Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) 7th Level
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1997) Panasonic
Starship Titanic (1998) Simon & Schuster Interactive (voice of the Bomb) — (Credited as Kim Bread)
007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts
The World Is Not Enough (2000) Electronic Arts
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004) Electronic Arts
Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged (2004) Atari
Jade Empire (2005) BioWare (as Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard)
Shrek the Third (2007) King Harold, Narrator
Fable III (2010) Jasper
Awards
Academy Awards
(1988) Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)
Golden Globe Awards
(1988) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy / A Fish Called Wanda
BAFTA Awards
(1970) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus
(1971) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus
(1976) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers
(1980) Won—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers
(1989) Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda
(also 1989) Won—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Primetime Emmy Awards
(1987) Won—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / Cheers (as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce)
(1998) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / 3rd Rock from the Sun (as Dr. Liam Neesam)
(2002) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Nonfiction Special" / The Human Face
(2004) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / Will & Grace (as Lyle Finster)
Writers Guild of America
(1989) Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/27/11 at 11:44 am
The person of the day...John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese (/ˈkliːz/; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s he became a member of Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.
In the mid 1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. He also starred in Clockwise, and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films, two Harry Potter films, and three Shrek films.
With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay he co-founded Video Arts, the production company responsible for making entertaining training films.
Cleese was one of the script writers, as well as being a member of the cast, for the 1963 Footlights Revue A Clump of Plinths, which was so successful during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was renamed Cambridge Circus and taken to the West End in London and then on a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, with the cast also appearing in some of the revue's sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1964.
After Cambridge Circus, Cleese briefly stayed in America, performing on and Off-Broadway. While performing in the musical Half a Sixpence, Cleese met future Python Terry Gilliam, as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.
He was soon offered work as a writer with BBC Radio, where he worked on several programmes, most notably as a sketch writer for The Dick Emery Show. The success of the Footlights Revue led to the recording of a short series of half-hour radio programmes, called I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, that were so popular that the BBC commissioned a regular series with the same title that ran from 1965 to 1974. Cleese returned to England and joined the cast. In many episodes, he is credited as "John Otto Cleese".
Also in 1965, Cleese and Chapman began writing on The Frost Report. The writing staff chosen for The Frost Report consisted of a number of writers and performers who would go on to make names for themselves in comedy. They included co-performers from I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and future Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and also Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. It was while working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the future Pythons developed the writing styles that would make their collaboration significant. Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved authority figures, some of which were performed by Cleese, while Jones and Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that open with idyllic countryside panoramas. Idle was one of those charged with writing David Frost's monologue. It was during this period that Cleese met and befriended influential British comedian Peter Cook.
It was as an actual performer on the Frost Report that Cleese achieved his breakthrough on British television as a comedy actor, appearing as the tall, patrician figure on the classic class sketch, contrasting comically in a line-up with the shorter, middle-class Ronnie Barker and the even-shorter, working-class Ronnie Corbett. Such was the popularity of the series that in 1966 Cleese and Chapman were invited to work as writers and performers with Brooke-Taylor and Feldman on At Last the 1948 Show, during which time the Four Yorkshiremen sketch was written by all four writers/performers (the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known as a Monty Python sketch). Cleese and Chapman also wrote episodes for the first series of Doctor in the House (and later Cleese wrote six episodes of Doctor at Large on his own in 1971). These series were successful, and in 1969 Cleese and Chapman were offered their very own series. However, owing to Chapman's alcoholism, Cleese found himself bearing an increasing workload in the partnership and was therefore unenthusiastic about doing a series with just the two of them. He had found working with Palin on The Frost Report an enjoyable experience and invited him to join the series. Palin had previously been working on Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and Jones, with Terry Gilliam creating the animations. The four of them had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for Thames Television, which they were waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones, and Idle.
Monty Python
Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for four seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though with only limited participation of Cleese in the last six shows. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticate and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, and government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop" and by Cleese's Mr Praline character, the man with a dead Norwegian Blue parrot and a menagerie of other animals all named "Eric". He was also known for his working-class "Sergeant Major" character, who worked as a Police Sergeant, Roman Centurion, etc. He is also seen as the opening announcer with the now famous line "And now for something completely different", although in its premiere in the sketch "Man with Three Buttocks", the phrase was spoken by Eric Idle.
Partnership with Graham Chapman
The Dead Parrot sketch performed on Monty Python's Flying Circus in 1969
listen to a clip from the sketch.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty.
Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together—in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved his sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved a broken toaster and later a broken car (this version was actually performed and broadcast on the pre-Python special How To Irritate People). It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item into a dead parrot, and he also suggested that the parrot be specifically a Norwegian Blue, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far more memorable.
Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker face, clipped middle-class accent, and imposing height allowed him to appear convincingly as a variety of authority figures, such as policemen, detectives, Nazi officers, or government officials—which he would then proceed to undermine. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese exploits his stature as the crane-legged civil servant performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.
Chapman and Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch and "The Argument Sketch", where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people in pointless, trivial bickering. All of these roles were opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with)—the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed aggression and the shorter Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common feature in the series. Occasionally, the typical Cleese-Palin dynamic is reversed, as in "Fish Licence", wherein Palin plays the bureaucrat with whom Cleese is trying to work.
Though the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese was growing tired of dealing with Chapman's alcoholism. He felt, too, that the show's scripts had declined in quality. For these reasons, he became restless and decided to move on. Though he stayed for the third series, he officially left the group before the fourth season. Despite this, he remained friendly with the group, and all six began writing Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Cleese received a credit on episodes of the fourth series which used material from these sessions, and even makes a brief appearance in one episode as the voice of a cartoon in the "Hamlet" episode, though he was officially unconnected with the fourth series. Cleese returned to the troupe to co-write and co-star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and participated in various live performances over the years.
Post-Python
From 1970 to 1973, Cleese served as rector of the University of St Andrews. His election proved a milestone for the University, revolutionising and modernising the post. For instance, the Rector was traditionally entitled to appoint an "Assessor", a deputy to sit in his place at important meetings in his absence. Cleese changed this into a position for a student, elected across campus by the student body, resulting in direct access and representation for the student body.
Cleese achieved greater prominence in the United Kingdom as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he co-wrote with his wife Connie Booth. The series won three BAFTA awards when produced and in 2000, it topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series also featured Prunella Scales as Basil's acerbic wife Sybil, Andrew Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel ("...he's from Barcelona"), and Booth as waitress Polly, the series' voice of sanity. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real person, Donald Sinclair, whom he had encountered in 1970 while the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming inserts for their television series. Reportedly, Cleese was inspired by Sinclair's mantra, "I could run this hotel just fine, if it weren't for the guests." He later described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met," although Sinclair's widow has said her husband was totally misrepresented in the series. During the Pythons' stay, Sinclair allegedly threw Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it contained a bomb," complained about Gilliam's "American" table manners, and threw a bus timetable at another guest after they dared to ask the time of the next bus to town.
The first series was screened from 19 September 1975 on BBC 2, initially to poor reviews, but gained momentum when repeated on BBC 1 the following year. Despite this, a second series did not air until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had ended, but they revived their collaboration for the second series. Fawlty Towers consisted of only twelve episodes; Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to avoid compromising the quality of the series.
Cleese as a Mexican maraca soloist as part of his 1977 guest appearance on The Muppet Show
In December 1977, Cleese appeared as a guest star on The Muppet Show. Cleese was a fan of the show, and co-wrote much of the episode. He appears in a "Pigs in Space" segment as a pirate trying to hijack the spaceship Swinetrek, and also helps Gonzo restore his arms to "normal" size after Gonzo's cannonball catching act goes wrong. During the show's closing number, Cleese refuses to sing the famous show tune from Man of La Mancha, "The Impossible Dream". Kermit The Frog apologises and the curtain re-opens with Cleese now costumed as a Viking trying some Wagnerian opera as part of a duet with Sweetums. Once again, Cleese protests to Kermit, and gives the frog one more chance. This time, as pictured opposite this text, he is costumed as a Mexican maraca soloist. He has finally had enough and protests that he is leaving the show, saying "You were supposed to be my host. How can you do this to me? Kermit – I am your guest!". The cast joins in with their parody of "The Impossible Dream", singing "This is your guest, to follow that star...". During the crowd's applause that follows the song, he pretends to strangle Kermit until he realises the crowd loves him and accepts the accolades. During the show's finale, as Kermit thanks him, he shows up with a fictional album, his own new vocal record John Cleese: A Man & His Music, and encourages everyone to buy a copy.
This would not be Cleese's final appearance with The Muppets. In their 1981 movie The Great Muppet Caper, Cleese does a cameo appearance as Neville, a local homeowner. As part of the appearance, Miss Piggy borrows his house as a way to impress Kermit The Frog.
Cleese won the TV Times award for Funniest Man On TV – 1978 / 1979.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film, though he did work with Peter Cook in his one-off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. In the same year Cleese played Petruchio, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in the BBC Television Shakespeare series. In 1981 he starred with Sean Connery and Michael Palin in the Terry Gilliam-directed Time Bandits as Robin Hood. He also participated in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. In 1985, Cleese had a small dramatic role as a sheriff in Silverado, which had an all-star cast that included Kevin Kline, with whom he would star with in A Fish Called Wanda three years later. In 1986, he starred in Clockwise as an uptight school headmaster obsessed with punctuality and constantly getting in to trouble during a journey to a headmaster's conference.
Cleese at the 1989 Academy Awards
Timed with the 1987 UK elections, he appeared in a video promoting proportional representation.
In 1988, he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, as the lead, Archie Leach, along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. Wanda was a commercial and critical success, and Cleese was nominated for an Academy Award for his script. Cynthia Cleese starred as Leach's daughter.
Graham Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989; Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, witnessed Chapman's death. Chapman's death occurred a day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus, with Jones commenting, "the worst case of party-pooping in all history." Cleese's eulogy at Chapman's memorial service—in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fudge'"—has since become legendary.
Cleese would later play a supporting role in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein alongside Branagh himself and Robert De Niro. He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings. These were produced by his company Video Arts.
With Robin Skynner, the group analyst and family therapist, Cleese wrote two books on relationships: Families and How to Survive Them, and Life and How to Survive It. The books are presented as a dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.
In 1996, Cleese declined the British honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures—which again starred Cleese alongside Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin—was also released that year, but was greeted with mixed reception by critics and audiences. Cleese has since often stated that making the second movie had been a mistake. When asked by his friend, director and restaurant critic Michael Winner, what he would do differently if he could live his life again, Cleese responded, "I wouldn’t have married Alyce Faye Eichelberger and I wouldn’t have made Fierce Creatures."
In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to by Bond as "R". In 2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6. In 2004, Cleese was featured as Q in the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, featuring his likeness and voice. Cleese did not appear in the subsequent Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.
Year Title Role Notes
Films 1968 Interlude TV Publicist
1969 The Magic Christian Mr. Dougdale (director in Sotheby's)
1969 The Best House in London Jones Uncredited
1970 The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer Pummer Writer
1971 And Now for Something Completely Different Various Roles Writer
1974 Romance with a Double Bass Musician Smychkov Writer
1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail Various Roles Writer
1976 Meetings, Bloody Meetings Tim Writer/Executive Producer
Documentary Short
1977 The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It Arthur Sherlock Holmes
1979 Monty Python's Life of Brian Various Roles Writer
1980 The Secret Policeman's Ball Himself-Various Roles
1981 The Great Muppet Caper Neville
1981 Time Bandits Gormless Robin Hood
1982 Privates on Parade Major Giles Flack
1983 Yellowbeard Blind Pew
1983 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Various Roles Writer
1985 Silverado Langston His first line, as he walks into a bar to
break up a brawl, is, "What's all this, then?")
1986 Clockwise Mr. Stimpson Evening Standard British Film Awards Peter Sellers Award for Comedy
1988 A Fish Called Wanda lawyer Archie Leach Writer/Executive Producer
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1989 Erik the Viking Halfdan the Black and Svend Berserk
1990 Bullseye! Man on the Beach in
Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese
1991 An American Tail: Fievel Goes West Cat R. Waul Voice Only
1992 Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? Narrator
1993 Splitting Heirs Raoul P. Shadgrind
1994 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Professor Waldman
1994 Disney's Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book Dr. Julius Plumford
1994 The Swan Princess Jean-Bob
1996 The Wind in the Willows Mr. Toad's Lawyer
1996 Fierce Creatures Rollo Lee Writer/Producer
1997 George of the Jungle An Ape Named 'Ape' Voice Only
1998 In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese Host Narrator
1999 The Out-of-Towners Mr. Mersault
1999 The World Is Not Enough R
2000 Isn't She Great Henry Marcus
2000 The Magic Pudding Albert, The Magic Pudding Voice Only
2001 Quantum Project Alexander Pentcho
2001 Here's Looking at You: The Evolution of the Human Face Narrator
2001 Rat Race Donald P. Sinclair
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone "Nearly Headless Nick"
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets "Nearly Headless Nick" Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Acting
2002 Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio The Talking Crickett Voice Only: English Version
2002 Die Another Day Q Second appearance in a James Bond film,
replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the series
2002 The Adventures of Pluto Nash James
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Mr. Munday
2003 Scorched Charles Merchant
2003 George of the Jungle 2 An Ape Named 'Ape' Voice Only
2004 Shrek 2 King Harold Voice Only
2004 Around the World in 80 Days Grizzled Sergeant
2005 Valiant Mercury Voice Only
2006 Charlotte's Web Samuel the Sheep Voice Only
2006 Man About Town Dr. Primkin
2007 Shrek the Third King Harold Voice Only
2008 Igor Dr. Glickenstein Voice Only
2008 The Day the Earth Stood Still Dr. Barnhardt
2009 The Pink Panther 2 Inspector Charles Dreyfus
2009 Planet 51 Professor Kipple Voice Only
2010 Spud The Guv Awaiting international release
2010 Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole Ghost Voice Only
2010 Shrek Forever After King Harold Voice Only
2011 Happy Feet 2 Himself Voice Only
post-production
2011 Winnie the Pooh Narrator Voice Only
Video game credits
Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time (1994) 7th Level
Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) 7th Level
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1997) Panasonic
Starship Titanic (1998) Simon & Schuster Interactive (voice of the Bomb) — (Credited as Kim Bread)
007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts
The World Is Not Enough (2000) Electronic Arts
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004) Electronic Arts
Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged (2004) Atari
Jade Empire (2005) BioWare (as Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard)
Shrek the Third (2007) King Harold, Narrator
Fable III (2010) Jasper
Awards
Academy Awards
(1988) Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)
Golden Globe Awards
(1988) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy / A Fish Called Wanda
BAFTA Awards
(1970) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus
(1971) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus
(1976) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers
(1980) Won—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers
(1989) Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda
(also 1989) Won—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Primetime Emmy Awards
(1987) Won—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / Cheers (as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce)
(1998) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / 3rd Rock from the Sun (as Dr. Liam Neesam)
(2002) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Nonfiction Special" / The Human Face
(2004) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / Will & Grace (as Lyle Finster)
Writers Guild of America
(1989) Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)
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http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x170/speshlk0510/JohnCleese.jpg
Now what can I say about John Cleese?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/27/11 at 12:15 pm
Now what can I say about John Cleese?
And now for something completely different...
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/27/11 at 12:42 pm
Now what can I say about John Cleese?
He was excellent in the film Fish Called Wanda.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/27/11 at 3:29 pm
"I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires."
John Cleese
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/28/11 at 12:41 am
John Cleese & Michael Palin - 'The Parrot Sketch Revisited'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTV3lQc4AmQ
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/28/11 at 8:53 am
Now what can I say about John Cleese?
GENIUS :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/28/11 at 8:57 am
The person of the day...Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Golden Globe Awards and Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in for her performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). Her films My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Mystic Pizza (1988), Notting Hill (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), Valentine's Day (2010), The Pelican Brief (1993), Ocean's Eleven (2001) and Twelve (2004) have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.4 billion, making her one of the most successful actors in terms of box office receipts.
Roberts had become one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual "power list" of top-earning female stars from 2005 to 2006. Her fee for 1990's Pretty Woman was $300,000; in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile (2003). As of 2010, Roberts's net worth was estimated to be $140 million.
Roberts has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001, Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, ahead of then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and former first lady Laura Bush. Roberts has a production company called Red Om Films.
Roberts made her first big screen appearance in the film Satisfaction (1988), released on February 12, 1988, as a prostitute with, as she put it, "a heart of cocaine". She had previously performed a small role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (1986) (she has two words of dialogue), filmed in 1987 and released in 1989. Her first television appearance was as a juvenile rape victim in the initial season of the series Crime Story with Dennis Farina, in the episode titled "The Survivor", broadcast on February 13, 1987. Her first critical success with moviegoers was her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988; that same year, she had a role in the fourth season finale of Miami Vice. In 1989, she was featured in Steel Magnolias, as a young bride with diabetes, and received both her first Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) and first Golden Globe Award win (Motion Picture Best Supporting Actress) for her performance.
Roberts in 1990
1990–2000
Roberts became known to worldwide audiences when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella/Pygmalionesque story, Pretty Woman, in 1990. Roberts won the role after Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Karen Allen, and Daryl Hannah (her co-star in Steel Magnolias) all turned it down. The role also earned her a second Oscar nomination, this time as Best Actress, and second Golden Globe Award win, as Motion Picture Best Actress (Musical or Comedy). Her next box office success was the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, playing a battered wife who escapes her abusive husband, played by Patrick Bergin, and begins a new life in Iowa. She played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook in 1991, and also played a nurse in the 1991 film, Dying Young. This work was followed by a two-year hiatus, during which she made no films other than a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In early 1993, she was the subject of a People magazine cover story asking, "What Happened to Julia Roberts?" She was offered the role of Annie Reed in Sleepless in Seattle (1993), but turned it down.
Roberts co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief (1993), based on John Grisham's 1992 novel of the same name. In 1995, she appeared in season 2 of Friends (episode 13 "The One After the Superbowl"). Roberts recorded her scenes from January 6–8, 1996. She had a relationship with cast member Matthew Perry at the time, and an audience member said about their on-screen kiss, "Julia looked at Matt and said 'I'm glad we rehearsed this over the weekend'." She was offered the role of Lucy Eleanor Moderatz in While You Were Sleeping (1995), but also turned it down.
Roberts co-starred with Liam Neeson in Michael Collins (1996). Over the next few years, she starred in a series of films that were critical and commercial failures, such as Stephen Frears' Mary Reilly (1996). Roberts overcame these with the commercial and critical success of My Best Friend's Wedding in 1997. In 1998, she appeared on Sesame Street opposite the character Elmo, demonstrating her ability to change emotions. She was offered the role of Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love (1998), but turned it down. She starred with Hugh Grant in Notting Hill (1999). That same year she also starred in Runaway Bride, her second film with Richard Gere. Roberts was a guest star on the Law & Order television series episode "Empire" with series regular Benjamin Bratt (at that time her boyfriend). Also in 1999 she starred in the critically panned film Stepmom (1998) alongside Susan Sarandon.
2001–2005
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, Julia, cast of Ocean's Eleven along with director Steven Soderbergh in December 2001.
In 2001 Roberts received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who helped wage a successful lawsuit against energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric. While presenting the Best Actor Award to Denzel Washington the following year she made a gaffe, saying she was glad that Tom Conti wasn't there. She meant the conductor, Bill Conti, who had tried to hasten the conclusion of her Oscar speech the previous year, but instead named the Scottish actor. Roberts team with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh for three more films: Ocean's Eleven (2001), Full Frontal (2002), and Ocean's Twelve (2004). Later in 2001 she starred in the road gangster comedy, The Mexican, giving her a chance to work with long-time friend, Brad Pitt. In 2005 she was featured in the music video for the hit single "Dreamgirl" by the Dave Matthews Band; it was her first music video appearance.
2006–present
Roberts had two films released in 2006, The Ant Bully and Charlotte's Web. Both films were animated features for which she provided voice acting. Her next film was Charlie Wilson's War (2007), with Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed by Mike Nichols and based on the book by former CBS journalist George Crile; it was released on December 21, 2007. Fireflies in the Garden (2008), also starring Ryan Reynolds and Willem Dafoe, was released at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2008 and was subsequently shown in European cinemas; it did not get a North American release until 2011.
Roberts made her Broadway debut on April 19, 2006 as Nan in a revival of Richard Greenberg's 1997 play Three Days of Rain opposite Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd. Although the play grossed nearly US$1 million dollars in ticket sales during its first week and was a commercial success throughout its limited run, her performance drew criticism. New York Times' critic Ben Brantly described her as being fraught with "self-consciousness (especially in the first act) only glancingly acquainted with the two characters she plays." Brantley also criticized the production of "Greenberg's slender, elegant play," writing that “it's almost impossible to discern its artistic virtues from this wooden and splintered interpretation, directed by Joe Mantello." Three Days of Rain received two Tony Award nominations in stagecraft categories. In 2009, Lancôme announced that Roberts would become their global ambassador for their company. Julia starred with Clive Owen in the comedy-thriller Duplicity for which she received her seventh Golden Globe nomination. In 2010, she appeared in the ensemble romantic comedy Valentine's Day, with Cooper, and starred in the film adaptation of Eat Pray Love. Eat Pray Love had the highest debut at the box office for Roberts in a top-billed role since America's Sweethearts. Later in the year, she signed a five-year extension with Lancôme for GB£32 million (US$50 million). In 2011, she co-starred as Mercedes Tainot opposite Tom Hanks who directed and played the title role in the romantic comedy Larry Crowne. The movie has received generally bad reviews with only 35% of the 175 Rotten Tomatoes reviews giving it high ratings, although Roberts' comedic performance was praised.
American Girl films
Roberts has brought to life some of the books from American Girl as films, serving as executive producer alongside her sister Lisa. The company's product lines and services are focused on pre-teen-girl characters from various periods of American history, embodied as dolls and featured in narratives including books and movies. Roberts has produced four movies.
Year Title Role Notes
Film 1987 Firehouse Babs
1988 Blood Red Maria Collogero
1988 Mystic Pizza Daisy Arujo Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
1988 Satisfaction Daryle Also known as Girls of Summer
1989 Steel Magnolias Shelby Eatenton Latcherie Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990 Flatliners Rachel Mannus Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990 Pretty Woman Vivian Ward Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1991 Hook Tinkerbell Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1991 Dying Young Hilary O'Neil Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Female
1991 Sleeping with the Enemy Sara Waters/Laura Burney Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
1992 The Player Cameo
1993 The Pelican Brief Darby Shaw Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
1994 Prêt-à-Porter Anne Eisenhower Also known as Ready to Wear
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1994 I Love Trouble Sabrina Peterson
1995 Something to Talk About Grace King Bichon
1996 Everyone Says I Love You Von Sidell
1996 Michael Collins Kitty Kiernan
1996 Mary Reilly Mary Reilly Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actress
1997 Conspiracy Theory Alice Sutton Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Suspense
1997 My Best Friend's Wedding Julianne Potter Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Comedy
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
1998 Stepmom Isabel Kelly Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress
Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Drama
1999 Runaway Bride Maggie Carpenter Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Notting Hill)
Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Comedy/Romance
Nominated—Csapnivalo Award for Best Female Performance
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
1999 Notting Hill Anna Scott Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Runaway Bride)
Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Couple (shared with Hugh Grant)
Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Comedy/Romance
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2000 Erin Brockovich Erin Brockovich Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Drama
Empire Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
London Film Critics Circle Film Award for Actress of the Year
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Teen Choice Award for Film – Choice Actress
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Line from a Movie (For "Bite my ass, Krispy Kreme!")
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Female
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2001 Ocean's Eleven Tess Ocean Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2001 America's Sweethearts Kathleen "Kiki" Harrison
2001 The Mexican Samantha Barzel Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Film – Choice Chemistry (Shared with Brad Pitt)
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Patricia Watson
2002 Grand Champion Jolene
2002 Full Frontal Catherine/Francesca
2003 Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Ann Watson
2004 Ocean's Twelve Tess Ocean Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2004 Closer Anna Cameron National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2006 Charlotte's Web Charlotte the Spider (voice)
2006 Beslan: Three Days In September Narrator
2006 The Ant Bully Hova (voice) Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie
2007 Charlie Wilson's War Joanne Herring Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
2008 Fireflies in the Garden Lisa Waechter
2009 Duplicity Claire Stenwick Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2010 Valentine's Day Kate Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Eat Pray Love)
2010 Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Valentine's Day)
2011 Larry Crowne Mercedes Tainot
2012 Snow White 3D (working title) Queen Clementianna
2012 August: Osage County Barbara Fordham
Year Title Role Notes
Television 1987 Crime Story Tracy Episode "The Survivor" (1.19)
1988 Miami Vice Polly Wheeler Season 4 episode 22: "Mirror Image"
1988 Baja Oklahoma Candy Hutchins TV
1996 Friends Susie Moss Episode "The One After the Superbowl: Part 2" (2.13)
1999 Law & Order Katrina Ludlow Episode "Empire"
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series
2003 Freedom: A History Of Us Virginia Eyewitness 2 episodes: "What Is Freedom?" (1.07); "Yearning to Breathe Free" (1.10)
2010 Hope For Haiti Now Herself Telethon for Haiti earthquake relief
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http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg63/Pamalata/julia-roberts.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/28/11 at 11:42 am
The person of the day...Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), which grossed $464 million worldwide. After receiving Golden Globe Awards and Academy Award nominations for Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in for her performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). Her films My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Mystic Pizza (1988), Notting Hill (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), Valentine's Day (2010), The Pelican Brief (1993), Ocean's Eleven (2001) and Twelve (2004) have collectively brought box office receipts of over $2.4 billion, making her one of the most successful actors in terms of box office receipts.
Roberts had become one of the highest-paid actresses in the world, topping the Hollywood Reporter's annual "power list" of top-earning female stars from 2005 to 2006. Her fee for 1990's Pretty Woman was $300,000; in 2003, she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for her role in Mona Lisa Smile (2003). As of 2010, Roberts's net worth was estimated to be $140 million.
Roberts has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" eleven times, tied with Halle Berry. In 2001, Ladies Home Journal ranked her as the 11th most powerful woman in America, ahead of then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and former first lady Laura Bush. Roberts has a production company called Red Om Films.
Roberts made her first big screen appearance in the film Satisfaction (1988), released on February 12, 1988, as a prostitute with, as she put it, "a heart of cocaine". She had previously performed a small role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (1986) (she has two words of dialogue), filmed in 1987 and released in 1989. Her first television appearance was as a juvenile rape victim in the initial season of the series Crime Story with Dennis Farina, in the episode titled "The Survivor", broadcast on February 13, 1987. Her first critical success with moviegoers was her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988; that same year, she had a role in the fourth season finale of Miami Vice. In 1989, she was featured in Steel Magnolias, as a young bride with diabetes, and received both her first Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) and first Golden Globe Award win (Motion Picture Best Supporting Actress) for her performance.
Roberts in 1990
1990–2000
Roberts became known to worldwide audiences when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella/Pygmalionesque story, Pretty Woman, in 1990. Roberts won the role after Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Karen Allen, and Daryl Hannah (her co-star in Steel Magnolias) all turned it down. The role also earned her a second Oscar nomination, this time as Best Actress, and second Golden Globe Award win, as Motion Picture Best Actress (Musical or Comedy). Her next box office success was the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, playing a battered wife who escapes her abusive husband, played by Patrick Bergin, and begins a new life in Iowa. She played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook in 1991, and also played a nurse in the 1991 film, Dying Young. This work was followed by a two-year hiatus, during which she made no films other than a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In early 1993, she was the subject of a People magazine cover story asking, "What Happened to Julia Roberts?" She was offered the role of Annie Reed in Sleepless in Seattle (1993), but turned it down.
Roberts co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief (1993), based on John Grisham's 1992 novel of the same name. In 1995, she appeared in season 2 of Friends (episode 13 "The One After the Superbowl"). Roberts recorded her scenes from January 6–8, 1996. She had a relationship with cast member Matthew Perry at the time, and an audience member said about their on-screen kiss, "Julia looked at Matt and said 'I'm glad we rehearsed this over the weekend'." She was offered the role of Lucy Eleanor Moderatz in While You Were Sleeping (1995), but also turned it down.
Roberts co-starred with Liam Neeson in Michael Collins (1996). Over the next few years, she starred in a series of films that were critical and commercial failures, such as Stephen Frears' Mary Reilly (1996). Roberts overcame these with the commercial and critical success of My Best Friend's Wedding in 1997. In 1998, she appeared on Sesame Street opposite the character Elmo, demonstrating her ability to change emotions. She was offered the role of Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love (1998), but turned it down. She starred with Hugh Grant in Notting Hill (1999). That same year she also starred in Runaway Bride, her second film with Richard Gere. Roberts was a guest star on the Law & Order television series episode "Empire" with series regular Benjamin Bratt (at that time her boyfriend). Also in 1999 she starred in the critically panned film Stepmom (1998) alongside Susan Sarandon.
2001–2005
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, Julia, cast of Ocean's Eleven along with director Steven Soderbergh in December 2001.
In 2001 Roberts received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who helped wage a successful lawsuit against energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric. While presenting the Best Actor Award to Denzel Washington the following year she made a gaffe, saying she was glad that Tom Conti wasn't there. She meant the conductor, Bill Conti, who had tried to hasten the conclusion of her Oscar speech the previous year, but instead named the Scottish actor. Roberts team with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh for three more films: Ocean's Eleven (2001), Full Frontal (2002), and Ocean's Twelve (2004). Later in 2001 she starred in the road gangster comedy, The Mexican, giving her a chance to work with long-time friend, Brad Pitt. In 2005 she was featured in the music video for the hit single "Dreamgirl" by the Dave Matthews Band; it was her first music video appearance.
2006–present
Roberts had two films released in 2006, The Ant Bully and Charlotte's Web. Both films were animated features for which she provided voice acting. Her next film was Charlie Wilson's War (2007), with Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed by Mike Nichols and based on the book by former CBS journalist George Crile; it was released on December 21, 2007. Fireflies in the Garden (2008), also starring Ryan Reynolds and Willem Dafoe, was released at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2008 and was subsequently shown in European cinemas; it did not get a North American release until 2011.
Roberts made her Broadway debut on April 19, 2006 as Nan in a revival of Richard Greenberg's 1997 play Three Days of Rain opposite Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd. Although the play grossed nearly US$1 million dollars in ticket sales during its first week and was a commercial success throughout its limited run, her performance drew criticism. New York Times' critic Ben Brantly described her as being fraught with "self-consciousness (especially in the first act) only glancingly acquainted with the two characters she plays." Brantley also criticized the production of "Greenberg's slender, elegant play," writing that “it's almost impossible to discern its artistic virtues from this wooden and splintered interpretation, directed by Joe Mantello." Three Days of Rain received two Tony Award nominations in stagecraft categories. In 2009, Lancôme announced that Roberts would become their global ambassador for their company. Julia starred with Clive Owen in the comedy-thriller Duplicity for which she received her seventh Golden Globe nomination. In 2010, she appeared in the ensemble romantic comedy Valentine's Day, with Cooper, and starred in the film adaptation of Eat Pray Love. Eat Pray Love had the highest debut at the box office for Roberts in a top-billed role since America's Sweethearts. Later in the year, she signed a five-year extension with Lancôme for GB£32 million (US$50 million). In 2011, she co-starred as Mercedes Tainot opposite Tom Hanks who directed and played the title role in the romantic comedy Larry Crowne. The movie has received generally bad reviews with only 35% of the 175 Rotten Tomatoes reviews giving it high ratings, although Roberts' comedic performance was praised.
American Girl films
Roberts has brought to life some of the books from American Girl as films, serving as executive producer alongside her sister Lisa. The company's product lines and services are focused on pre-teen-girl characters from various periods of American history, embodied as dolls and featured in narratives including books and movies. Roberts has produced four movies.
Year Title Role Notes
Film 1987 Firehouse Babs
1988 Blood Red Maria Collogero
1988 Mystic Pizza Daisy Arujo Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female
Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
1988 Satisfaction Daryle Also known as Girls of Summer
1989 Steel Magnolias Shelby Eatenton Latcherie Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990 Flatliners Rachel Mannus Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990 Pretty Woman Vivian Ward Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1991 Hook Tinkerbell Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1991 Dying Young Hilary O'Neil Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Female
1991 Sleeping with the Enemy Sara Waters/Laura Burney Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress
1992 The Player Cameo
1993 The Pelican Brief Darby Shaw Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
1994 Prêt-à-Porter Anne Eisenhower Also known as Ready to Wear
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1994 I Love Trouble Sabrina Peterson
1995 Something to Talk About Grace King Bichon
1996 Everyone Says I Love You Von Sidell
1996 Michael Collins Kitty Kiernan
1996 Mary Reilly Mary Reilly Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actress
1997 Conspiracy Theory Alice Sutton Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Suspense
1997 My Best Friend's Wedding Julianne Potter Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Comedy
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
1998 Stepmom Isabel Kelly Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress
Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Drama
1999 Runaway Bride Maggie Carpenter Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Notting Hill)
Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Comedy/Romance
Nominated—Csapnivalo Award for Best Female Performance
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
1999 Notting Hill Anna Scott Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Runaway Bride)
Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Couple (shared with Hugh Grant)
Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Comedy/Romance
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2000 Erin Brockovich Erin Brockovich Academy Award for Best Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress – Drama
Empire Award for Best Actress
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
London Film Critics Circle Film Award for Actress of the Year
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Teen Choice Award for Film – Choice Actress
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Line from a Movie (For "Bite my ass, Krispy Kreme!")
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Female
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
2001 Ocean's Eleven Tess Ocean Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2001 America's Sweethearts Kathleen "Kiki" Harrison
2001 The Mexican Samantha Barzel Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Film – Choice Chemistry (Shared with Brad Pitt)
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Patricia Watson
2002 Grand Champion Jolene
2002 Full Frontal Catherine/Francesca
2003 Mona Lisa Smile Katherine Ann Watson
2004 Ocean's Twelve Tess Ocean Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2004 Closer Anna Cameron National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2006 Charlotte's Web Charlotte the Spider (voice)
2006 Beslan: Three Days In September Narrator
2006 The Ant Bully Hova (voice) Nominated—Blimp Award for Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie
2007 Charlie Wilson's War Joanne Herring Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
2008 Fireflies in the Garden Lisa Waechter
2009 Duplicity Claire Stenwick Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2010 Valentine's Day Kate Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Eat Pray Love)
2010 Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress (also for Valentine's Day)
2011 Larry Crowne Mercedes Tainot
2012 Snow White 3D (working title) Queen Clementianna
2012 August: Osage County Barbara Fordham
Year Title Role Notes
Television 1987 Crime Story Tracy Episode "The Survivor" (1.19)
1988 Miami Vice Polly Wheeler Season 4 episode 22: "Mirror Image"
1988 Baja Oklahoma Candy Hutchins TV
1996 Friends Susie Moss Episode "The One After the Superbowl: Part 2" (2.13)
1999 Law & Order Katrina Ludlow Episode "Empire"
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress – Drama Series
2003 Freedom: A History Of Us Virginia Eyewitness 2 episodes: "What Is Freedom?" (1.07); "Yearning to Breathe Free" (1.10)
2010 Hope For Haiti Now Herself Telethon for Haiti earthquake relief
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http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg63/Pamalata/julia-roberts.jpg
I like her in Notting Hill
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/28/11 at 11:43 am
I like her in Notting Hill
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/325000/images/_329426_julia150.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/28/11 at 1:17 pm
I like her in Notting Hill
Yeah, she had some great films..
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/28/11 at 1:47 pm
Yeah, she had some great films..
...and Hook, as Tinkerbell .
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/28/11 at 1:49 pm
...and Hook, as Tinkerbell .
Also, "Pretty Woman" from 1990.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/28/11 at 1:55 pm
Also, "Pretty Woman" from 1990.
All good films.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/28/11 at 1:56 pm
Also, "My Best Friend's Wedding", from 1997. I saw that in a movie theater.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/28/11 at 7:55 pm
I like her in Notting Hill
Pretty Woman was my favorite.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/29/11 at 9:01 am
The person of the day....Dan Castellaneta...DOLT
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta (born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman.
Born in Chicago, Castellaneta started taking acting classes at a young age. He would listen to his father's comedy records and do impressions of the artists. After graduating from Northern Illinois University, Castellaneta joined Chicago's Second City in 1983, and performed with the troupe until 1987. He was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta to voice Homer. His voice for the character started out as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but later evolved into a more robust voice. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons. Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on the show as well as an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation in 1993. Castellaneta has co-written four episodes of The Simpsons with his wife Deb Lacusta.
Castellaneta has also had roles in several other television programs, including the live-action sitcom Sibs, The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, and the animated series Darkwing Duck, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Earthworm Jim, Aladdin and Hey Arnold!. In 1999, he appeared in the Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer and won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman. Castellaneta has also released a comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, and wrote and starred in a one man play titled Where Did Vincent van Gogh?
Castellaneta started acting after his graduation from Northern Illinois University in 1979. He decided that if his career went nowhere he would still have a chance to try something else. He began taking improvisation classes, where he met his future wife Deb Lacusta. Castellaneta started to work at The Second City, an improvisational theatre in Chicago, in 1983 and continued to work there until 1987. During this period, he did voice-over work with his wife for various radio stations. He auditioned for a role in The Tracey Ullman Show and his first meeting underwhelmed Tracey Ullman and the other producers. Ullman decided to fly to Chicago to watch Castellaneta perform. His performance that night was about a blind man who tries to become a comedian and Ullman later recalled that although there were flashier performances that night, Castellaneta made her cry. She was impressed and Castellaneta was hired.
The Simpsons
Castellaneta is most famous for his role as Homer Simpson on the long-running animated television show The Simpsons. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta and fellow cast member Julie Kavner to voice Homer and Marge Simpson rather than hire more actors. Homer's voice began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but Castellaneta could not "get enough power behind that voice" and could not sustain his Matthau impression for the nine to ten hour long recording sessions. He tried to find something easier, so he "dropped the voice down", and developed it into a more versatile and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show. Castellaneta's normal speaking voice has no similarity to Homer's. To perform Homer's voice, Castellaneta lowers his chin to his chest, and is said to "let his IQ go." Castellaneta likes to stay in character during recording sessions, and tries to visualize a scene in his mind so that he can give the proper voice to it. Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, "except, maybe, by a die-hard fan."
Castellaneta also provides the voices for numerous other characters, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Hans Moleman, Sideshow Mel, Itchy, Kodos, the Squeaky Voiced Teen and Gil Gunderson. Krusty's voice is based on Chicago television's Bob Bell, who had a very raspy voice and portrayed WGN-TV's Bozo the Clown from 1960 to 1984. Barney's trademark is a loud belch. During early recording sessions for the show, he recorded a new version of the belch for every episode but discovered that it was not easy for him to do it every time a script called for it. Castellaneta chose a recording of what he believed was his best belch and told the producers to make that the standard. Groundskeeper Willie's first appearance was in the season two episode "Principal Charming". The character was written as an angry janitor and Castellaneta was assigned to perform the voice. He did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, suggested he use an accent. Castellaneta first tried using a Hispanic voicing, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a "big dumb Swede", which was also rejected. For his third try, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was deemed appropriate enough and was used in the episode. The voice was based partially on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas. Mayor Quimby, who first appeared in "Bart Gets an F", is a parody of various members of the Kennedy family. The episode script did not call for Quimby to be a parody of them, and Castellaneta improvised the accent. Sideshow Mel's voice is Castellaneta's impression of Kelsey Grammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob. Gil is a spoof of actor Jack Lemmon's portrayal of Shelley Levene in the 1992 film adaptation of the play Glengarry Glen Ross. Show runner Mike Scully thought that Gil would be "a one-shot thing" but "Dan Castellaneta was so funny at the table read doing the character, we kept making up excuses in subsequent episodes to put him in." The Blue-Haired Lawyer's voice, as well as his demeanor, is based on lawyer Roy Cohn.
Castellaneta has won several awards for voicing Homer, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" in 1992 for "Lisa's Pony", 1993 for "Mr. Plow", 2004 for voicing several characters in "Today I Am a Clown", and 2009 for voicing Homer in "Father Knows Worst". In 1993, Castellaneta was given a special Annie Award, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation", for his work as Homer on The Simpsons. In 2004, Castellaneta and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series". Homer was placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, and in 2000, Homer and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.
Until 1998, Castellaneta was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and he received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Castellaneta earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode.
In the early 1990s, Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta wrote a script for an episode in which Barney becomes sober. They pitched their idea to show runner Al Jean. Jean liked the story, but turned it down because he felt that it was too similar to "Duffless", an episode that the writers were already working on. They waited several years and offered their script, which they updated, to then-show runner Mike Scully, who liked it and had them make a few changes. Their script became the eleventh season episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", which first aired April 9, 2000. Castellaneta and his wife have also written the episodes "Gump Roast", "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore", and "The Fight Before Christmas". In 2007, they were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for the episode "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore". Castellaneta is also credited as a consulting producer.
Further career
Castellaneta has been a regular cast member in several other television series. In 1991, he played Warren Morris in the short-lived ABC live-action sitcom Sibs. Heide Perlman, creator of Sibs, wrote the part with Castellaneta in mind. He also provided the voice of the eponymous character in The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, Megavolt in Darkwing Duck, "Doc" Emmett Brown in Back to the Future: The Animated Series, the lead character in Earthworm Jim and several characters, including Grandpa Phil and the mentally unstable ice cream truck driver, on Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!. He guest starred as The Robot Devil in three episodes of Futurama, as well as the film The Beast With a Billion Backs.
Castellaneta has also made guest appearances in a number of television series episodes. In 1992, he guest-starred in an episode of the legal drama L.A. Law, as a Homer Simpson meetable character at a California amusement park who is dismissed for inappropriate behavior while in costume. In 2005, he appeared in the episode "Sword of Destiny" in Arrested Development as Dr. Stein, a deadpan incompetent doctor. In 2005, Castellaneta guest-starred as Joe Spencer in the Stargate SG-1 season eight episode "Citizen Joe". He also appeared in episodes of ALF, Campus Ladies, Entourage, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Mad About You, Married... with Children, Murphy Brown, NYPD Blue, Reba, Reno 911!, That '70s Show, Veronica Mars, Yes, Dear, and Desperate Housewives.
He appeared as the Genie in the Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar and on the 1994 Aladdin television series. The Genie had been voiced by Robin Williams in Aladdin, and Castellaneta described replacing him as "sort of like stepping into Hamlet after Laurence Olivier did it, how can you win?" Castellaneta portrayed Aaron Spelling in the 2004 NBC film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels, which followed the true story of how Spelling created the show. Other films in which Castellaneta has appeared include Nothing in Common, Say Anything..., Super Mario Bros., The Client, Space Jam, My Giant, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, Recess: School's Out, Hey Arnold!: The Movie, The Cat in the Hat and The Pursuit of Happyness. In 2000, he won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman in the animated Christmas television special Olive, the Other Reindeer. In 2006, he appeared in Jeff Garlin's independent film I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With along with several other Second City alumni.
On February 22, 2000, his first music CD Two Lips was published. It was followed on April 23, 2002 by his first comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, in which he and his wife perform several comedy skits. The majority of the sketches had been written and performed before the CD was recorded, and Castellaneta thought that it would be a good idea to preserve them "since don't perform them much anymore." Some came from their sketch series on a local radio station in Chicago and had to be lengthened from the "two-minute bits" that they were originally, while several others were stage sketches performed in a comedy club in Santa Monica. Additionally, "Citizen Kane", a sketch in which two people discuss the film Citizen Kane with different meanings, was something the pair had performed at an art gallery. Castellaneta noted that "we already knew that these skits were funny, some of them we polished and tightened." The skits were principally written by improvising from a basic point, transcribing the results and then editing them to the finished scene. Castellaneta chose the title I Am Not Homer as a parody of Leonard Nimoy's famous first autobiography I Am Not Spock, as well as to show that most of the comedy featured "is not the typical Homer comedy."
Alongside his television and film work, Castellaneta has appeared in a number of theatrical productions. In 1992, he starred in Deb & Dan's Show alongside his wife. In 1995, Castellaneta started writing Where Did Vincent van Gogh?, a one man play in which he portrays a dozen different characters, including artist Vincent van Gogh. He first officially performed the play at the ACME Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles in 1999. In 2007, he appeared in The Bicycle Men at The King's Head Theatre in London.
Personal life
Castellaneta lives in Los Angeles with his wife Deb Lacusta. He is a vegetarian, teetotaler, and exercises regularly. Castellaneta also practices T'ai Chi. His mother Elsie Castellaneta died in January 2008.
Filmography
Main article: Dan Castellaneta filmography
Discography
See also: The Simpsons discography
Album Released Label Notes
Two Lips February 2000 Oglio Records all-music comedy album.
I Am Not Homer April 23, 2002 Oglio Records Comedy album released with Deb Lacusta.
Also featured in:
The Simpsons Sing the Blues (1990)
Songs in the Key of Springfield (1997)
The Yellow Album (1998)
Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons (1999)
The Simpsons: Testify (2007)
Awards
Year Award Category Role Series Result
1992 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson
Grampa
various others The Simpsons Won
1993 Annie Award Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation Various characters The Simpsons Won
1993 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2000 Annie Award Outstanding Voice Acting by a Male Performer in a Television Series The Postman Olive, the Other Reindeer Won
2004 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Various characters The Simpsons Won
2004 Young Artist Award Most Popular Mom & Pop in a Television Series Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2007 WGA Award Animation The Simpsons Nominated
2009 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2010 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson The Simpsons Nominated
2011 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Louie The Simpsons Nominated
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/29/11 at 9:07 am
The person of the day....Dan Castellaneta...DOLT
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta (born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman.
Born in Chicago, Castellaneta started taking acting classes at a young age. He would listen to his father's comedy records and do impressions of the artists. After graduating from Northern Illinois University, Castellaneta joined Chicago's Second City in 1983, and performed with the troupe until 1987. He was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta to voice Homer. His voice for the character started out as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but later evolved into a more robust voice. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons. Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on the show as well as an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation in 1993. Castellaneta has co-written four episodes of The Simpsons with his wife Deb Lacusta.
Castellaneta has also had roles in several other television programs, including the live-action sitcom Sibs, The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, and the animated series Darkwing Duck, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Earthworm Jim, Aladdin and Hey Arnold!. In 1999, he appeared in the Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer and won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman. Castellaneta has also released a comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, and wrote and starred in a one man play titled Where Did Vincent van Gogh?
Castellaneta started acting after his graduation from Northern Illinois University in 1979. He decided that if his career went nowhere he would still have a chance to try something else. He began taking improvisation classes, where he met his future wife Deb Lacusta. Castellaneta started to work at The Second City, an improvisational theatre in Chicago, in 1983 and continued to work there until 1987. During this period, he did voice-over work with his wife for various radio stations. He auditioned for a role in The Tracey Ullman Show and his first meeting underwhelmed Tracey Ullman and the other producers. Ullman decided to fly to Chicago to watch Castellaneta perform. His performance that night was about a blind man who tries to become a comedian and Ullman later recalled that although there were flashier performances that night, Castellaneta made her cry. She was impressed and Castellaneta was hired.
The Simpsons
Castellaneta is most famous for his role as Homer Simpson on the long-running animated television show The Simpsons. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta and fellow cast member Julie Kavner to voice Homer and Marge Simpson rather than hire more actors. Homer's voice began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but Castellaneta could not "get enough power behind that voice" and could not sustain his Matthau impression for the nine to ten hour long recording sessions. He tried to find something easier, so he "dropped the voice down", and developed it into a more versatile and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show. Castellaneta's normal speaking voice has no similarity to Homer's. To perform Homer's voice, Castellaneta lowers his chin to his chest, and is said to "let his IQ go." Castellaneta likes to stay in character during recording sessions, and tries to visualize a scene in his mind so that he can give the proper voice to it. Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, "except, maybe, by a die-hard fan."
Castellaneta also provides the voices for numerous other characters, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Hans Moleman, Sideshow Mel, Itchy, Kodos, the Squeaky Voiced Teen and Gil Gunderson. Krusty's voice is based on Chicago television's Bob Bell, who had a very raspy voice and portrayed WGN-TV's Bozo the Clown from 1960 to 1984. Barney's trademark is a loud belch. During early recording sessions for the show, he recorded a new version of the belch for every episode but discovered that it was not easy for him to do it every time a script called for it. Castellaneta chose a recording of what he believed was his best belch and told the producers to make that the standard. Groundskeeper Willie's first appearance was in the season two episode "Principal Charming". The character was written as an angry janitor and Castellaneta was assigned to perform the voice. He did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, suggested he use an accent. Castellaneta first tried using a Hispanic voicing, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a "big dumb Swede", which was also rejected. For his third try, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was deemed appropriate enough and was used in the episode. The voice was based partially on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas. Mayor Quimby, who first appeared in "Bart Gets an F", is a parody of various members of the Kennedy family. The episode script did not call for Quimby to be a parody of them, and Castellaneta improvised the accent. Sideshow Mel's voice is Castellaneta's impression of Kelsey Grammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob. Gil is a spoof of actor Jack Lemmon's portrayal of Shelley Levene in the 1992 film adaptation of the play Glengarry Glen Ross. Show runner Mike Scully thought that Gil would be "a one-shot thing" but "Dan Castellaneta was so funny at the table read doing the character, we kept making up excuses in subsequent episodes to put him in." The Blue-Haired Lawyer's voice, as well as his demeanor, is based on lawyer Roy Cohn.
Castellaneta has won several awards for voicing Homer, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" in 1992 for "Lisa's Pony", 1993 for "Mr. Plow", 2004 for voicing several characters in "Today I Am a Clown", and 2009 for voicing Homer in "Father Knows Worst". In 1993, Castellaneta was given a special Annie Award, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation", for his work as Homer on The Simpsons. In 2004, Castellaneta and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series". Homer was placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, and in 2000, Homer and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.
Until 1998, Castellaneta was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and he received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Castellaneta earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode.
In the early 1990s, Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta wrote a script for an episode in which Barney becomes sober. They pitched their idea to show runner Al Jean. Jean liked the story, but turned it down because he felt that it was too similar to "Duffless", an episode that the writers were already working on. They waited several years and offered their script, which they updated, to then-show runner Mike Scully, who liked it and had them make a few changes. Their script became the eleventh season episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", which first aired April 9, 2000. Castellaneta and his wife have also written the episodes "Gump Roast", "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore", and "The Fight Before Christmas". In 2007, they were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for the episode "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore". Castellaneta is also credited as a consulting producer.
Further career
Castellaneta has been a regular cast member in several other television series. In 1991, he played Warren Morris in the short-lived ABC live-action sitcom Sibs. Heide Perlman, creator of Sibs, wrote the part with Castellaneta in mind. He also provided the voice of the eponymous character in The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, Megavolt in Darkwing Duck, "Doc" Emmett Brown in Back to the Future: The Animated Series, the lead character in Earthworm Jim and several characters, including Grandpa Phil and the mentally unstable ice cream truck driver, on Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!. He guest starred as The Robot Devil in three episodes of Futurama, as well as the film The Beast With a Billion Backs.
Castellaneta has also made guest appearances in a number of television series episodes. In 1992, he guest-starred in an episode of the legal drama L.A. Law, as a Homer Simpson meetable character at a California amusement park who is dismissed for inappropriate behavior while in costume. In 2005, he appeared in the episode "Sword of Destiny" in Arrested Development as Dr. Stein, a deadpan incompetent doctor. In 2005, Castellaneta guest-starred as Joe Spencer in the Stargate SG-1 season eight episode "Citizen Joe". He also appeared in episodes of ALF, Campus Ladies, Entourage, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Mad About You, Married... with Children, Murphy Brown, NYPD Blue, Reba, Reno 911!, That '70s Show, Veronica Mars, Yes, Dear, and Desperate Housewives.
He appeared as the Genie in the Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar and on the 1994 Aladdin television series. The Genie had been voiced by Robin Williams in Aladdin, and Castellaneta described replacing him as "sort of like stepping into Hamlet after Laurence Olivier did it, how can you win?" Castellaneta portrayed Aaron Spelling in the 2004 NBC film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels, which followed the true story of how Spelling created the show. Other films in which Castellaneta has appeared include Nothing in Common, Say Anything..., Super Mario Bros., The Client, Space Jam, My Giant, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, Recess: School's Out, Hey Arnold!: The Movie, The Cat in the Hat and The Pursuit of Happyness. In 2000, he won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman in the animated Christmas television special Olive, the Other Reindeer. In 2006, he appeared in Jeff Garlin's independent film I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With along with several other Second City alumni.
On February 22, 2000, his first music CD Two Lips was published. It was followed on April 23, 2002 by his first comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, in which he and his wife perform several comedy skits. The majority of the sketches had been written and performed before the CD was recorded, and Castellaneta thought that it would be a good idea to preserve them "since don't perform them much anymore." Some came from their sketch series on a local radio station in Chicago and had to be lengthened from the "two-minute bits" that they were originally, while several others were stage sketches performed in a comedy club in Santa Monica. Additionally, "Citizen Kane", a sketch in which two people discuss the film Citizen Kane with different meanings, was something the pair had performed at an art gallery. Castellaneta noted that "we already knew that these skits were funny, some of them we polished and tightened." The skits were principally written by improvising from a basic point, transcribing the results and then editing them to the finished scene. Castellaneta chose the title I Am Not Homer as a parody of Leonard Nimoy's famous first autobiography I Am Not Spock, as well as to show that most of the comedy featured "is not the typical Homer comedy."
Alongside his television and film work, Castellaneta has appeared in a number of theatrical productions. In 1992, he starred in Deb & Dan's Show alongside his wife. In 1995, Castellaneta started writing Where Did Vincent van Gogh?, a one man play in which he portrays a dozen different characters, including artist Vincent van Gogh. He first officially performed the play at the ACME Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles in 1999. In 2007, he appeared in The Bicycle Men at The King's Head Theatre in London.
Personal life
Castellaneta lives in Los Angeles with his wife Deb Lacusta. He is a vegetarian, teetotaler, and exercises regularly. Castellaneta also practices T'ai Chi. His mother Elsie Castellaneta died in January 2008.
Filmography
Main article: Dan Castellaneta filmography
Discography
See also: The Simpsons discography
Album Released Label Notes
Two Lips February 2000 Oglio Records all-music comedy album.
I Am Not Homer April 23, 2002 Oglio Records Comedy album released with Deb Lacusta.
Also featured in:
The Simpsons Sing the Blues (1990)
Songs in the Key of Springfield (1997)
The Yellow Album (1998)
Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons (1999)
The Simpsons: Testify (2007)
Awards
Year Award Category Role Series Result
1992 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson
Grampa
various others The Simpsons Won
1993 Annie Award Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation Various characters The Simpsons Won
1993 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2000 Annie Award Outstanding Voice Acting by a Male Performer in a Television Series The Postman Olive, the Other Reindeer Won
2004 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Various characters The Simpsons Won
2004 Young Artist Award Most Popular Mom & Pop in a Television Series Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2007 WGA Award Animation The Simpsons Nominated
2009 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2010 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson The Simpsons Nominated
2011 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Louie The Simpsons Nominated
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb380/blogbiztutor/Cartoon%20dubber/a-famous-cartoon-voices-13.jpg
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o97/mexxian/Quiz%20Club/Connect/3a.jpg
At first I like The Simpsons, appreciating the talent within the show, but now I find the animated series tiresome.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/29/11 at 1:44 pm
At first I like The Simpsons, appreciating the talent within the show, but now I find the animated series tiresome.
I can relate. When it was a "new" show, during the early 1990s, it was great and all... but as it continued to be produced, it hasn't been quite the same.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/29/11 at 8:00 pm
The person of the day....Dan Castellaneta...DOLT
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta (born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman.
Born in Chicago, Castellaneta started taking acting classes at a young age. He would listen to his father's comedy records and do impressions of the artists. After graduating from Northern Illinois University, Castellaneta joined Chicago's Second City in 1983, and performed with the troupe until 1987. He was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta to voice Homer. His voice for the character started out as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but later evolved into a more robust voice. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons. Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on the show as well as an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation in 1993. Castellaneta has co-written four episodes of The Simpsons with his wife Deb Lacusta.
Castellaneta has also had roles in several other television programs, including the live-action sitcom Sibs, The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, and the animated series Darkwing Duck, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Earthworm Jim, Aladdin and Hey Arnold!. In 1999, he appeared in the Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer and won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman. Castellaneta has also released a comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, and wrote and starred in a one man play titled Where Did Vincent van Gogh?
Castellaneta started acting after his graduation from Northern Illinois University in 1979. He decided that if his career went nowhere he would still have a chance to try something else. He began taking improvisation classes, where he met his future wife Deb Lacusta. Castellaneta started to work at The Second City, an improvisational theatre in Chicago, in 1983 and continued to work there until 1987. During this period, he did voice-over work with his wife for various radio stations. He auditioned for a role in The Tracey Ullman Show and his first meeting underwhelmed Tracey Ullman and the other producers. Ullman decided to fly to Chicago to watch Castellaneta perform. His performance that night was about a blind man who tries to become a comedian and Ullman later recalled that although there were flashier performances that night, Castellaneta made her cry. She was impressed and Castellaneta was hired.
The Simpsons
Castellaneta is most famous for his role as Homer Simpson on the long-running animated television show The Simpsons. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta and fellow cast member Julie Kavner to voice Homer and Marge Simpson rather than hire more actors. Homer's voice began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but Castellaneta could not "get enough power behind that voice" and could not sustain his Matthau impression for the nine to ten hour long recording sessions. He tried to find something easier, so he "dropped the voice down", and developed it into a more versatile and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show. Castellaneta's normal speaking voice has no similarity to Homer's. To perform Homer's voice, Castellaneta lowers his chin to his chest, and is said to "let his IQ go." Castellaneta likes to stay in character during recording sessions, and tries to visualize a scene in his mind so that he can give the proper voice to it. Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, "except, maybe, by a die-hard fan."
Castellaneta also provides the voices for numerous other characters, including Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Hans Moleman, Sideshow Mel, Itchy, Kodos, the Squeaky Voiced Teen and Gil Gunderson. Krusty's voice is based on Chicago television's Bob Bell, who had a very raspy voice and portrayed WGN-TV's Bozo the Clown from 1960 to 1984. Barney's trademark is a loud belch. During early recording sessions for the show, he recorded a new version of the belch for every episode but discovered that it was not easy for him to do it every time a script called for it. Castellaneta chose a recording of what he believed was his best belch and told the producers to make that the standard. Groundskeeper Willie's first appearance was in the season two episode "Principal Charming". The character was written as an angry janitor and Castellaneta was assigned to perform the voice. He did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon, who was directing at the time, suggested he use an accent. Castellaneta first tried using a Hispanic voicing, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a "big dumb Swede", which was also rejected. For his third try, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was deemed appropriate enough and was used in the episode. The voice was based partially on Angus Crock, a kilt-wearing chef from the sketch comedy show Second City Television, who was portrayed by Dave Thomas. Mayor Quimby, who first appeared in "Bart Gets an F", is a parody of various members of the Kennedy family. The episode script did not call for Quimby to be a parody of them, and Castellaneta improvised the accent. Sideshow Mel's voice is Castellaneta's impression of Kelsey Grammer, the voice of Sideshow Bob. Gil is a spoof of actor Jack Lemmon's portrayal of Shelley Levene in the 1992 film adaptation of the play Glengarry Glen Ross. Show runner Mike Scully thought that Gil would be "a one-shot thing" but "Dan Castellaneta was so funny at the table read doing the character, we kept making up excuses in subsequent episodes to put him in." The Blue-Haired Lawyer's voice, as well as his demeanor, is based on lawyer Roy Cohn.
Castellaneta has won several awards for voicing Homer, including four Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" in 1992 for "Lisa's Pony", 1993 for "Mr. Plow", 2004 for voicing several characters in "Today I Am a Clown", and 2009 for voicing Homer in "Father Knows Worst". In 1993, Castellaneta was given a special Annie Award, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation", for his work as Homer on The Simpsons. In 2004, Castellaneta and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge) won a Young Artist Award for "Most Popular Mom & Dad in a TV Series". Homer was placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, and in 2000, Homer and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.
Until 1998, Castellaneta was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the dispute was soon resolved and he received $125,000 per episode until 2004 when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The issue was resolved a month later, and Castellaneta earned $250,000 per episode. After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode.
In the early 1990s, Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta wrote a script for an episode in which Barney becomes sober. They pitched their idea to show runner Al Jean. Jean liked the story, but turned it down because he felt that it was too similar to "Duffless", an episode that the writers were already working on. They waited several years and offered their script, which they updated, to then-show runner Mike Scully, who liked it and had them make a few changes. Their script became the eleventh season episode "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", which first aired April 9, 2000. Castellaneta and his wife have also written the episodes "Gump Roast", "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore", and "The Fight Before Christmas". In 2007, they were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for the episode "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore". Castellaneta is also credited as a consulting producer.
Further career
Castellaneta has been a regular cast member in several other television series. In 1991, he played Warren Morris in the short-lived ABC live-action sitcom Sibs. Heide Perlman, creator of Sibs, wrote the part with Castellaneta in mind. He also provided the voice of the eponymous character in The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, Megavolt in Darkwing Duck, "Doc" Emmett Brown in Back to the Future: The Animated Series, the lead character in Earthworm Jim and several characters, including Grandpa Phil and the mentally unstable ice cream truck driver, on Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!. He guest starred as The Robot Devil in three episodes of Futurama, as well as the film The Beast With a Billion Backs.
Castellaneta has also made guest appearances in a number of television series episodes. In 1992, he guest-starred in an episode of the legal drama L.A. Law, as a Homer Simpson meetable character at a California amusement park who is dismissed for inappropriate behavior while in costume. In 2005, he appeared in the episode "Sword of Destiny" in Arrested Development as Dr. Stein, a deadpan incompetent doctor. In 2005, Castellaneta guest-starred as Joe Spencer in the Stargate SG-1 season eight episode "Citizen Joe". He also appeared in episodes of ALF, Campus Ladies, Entourage, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Mad About You, Married... with Children, Murphy Brown, NYPD Blue, Reba, Reno 911!, That '70s Show, Veronica Mars, Yes, Dear, and Desperate Housewives.
He appeared as the Genie in the Aladdin sequel The Return of Jafar and on the 1994 Aladdin television series. The Genie had been voiced by Robin Williams in Aladdin, and Castellaneta described replacing him as "sort of like stepping into Hamlet after Laurence Olivier did it, how can you win?" Castellaneta portrayed Aaron Spelling in the 2004 NBC film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels, which followed the true story of how Spelling created the show. Other films in which Castellaneta has appeared include Nothing in Common, Say Anything..., Super Mario Bros., The Client, Space Jam, My Giant, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, Recess: School's Out, Hey Arnold!: The Movie, The Cat in the Hat and The Pursuit of Happyness. In 2000, he won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman in the animated Christmas television special Olive, the Other Reindeer. In 2006, he appeared in Jeff Garlin's independent film I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With along with several other Second City alumni.
On February 22, 2000, his first music CD Two Lips was published. It was followed on April 23, 2002 by his first comedy CD, I Am Not Homer, in which he and his wife perform several comedy skits. The majority of the sketches had been written and performed before the CD was recorded, and Castellaneta thought that it would be a good idea to preserve them "since don't perform them much anymore." Some came from their sketch series on a local radio station in Chicago and had to be lengthened from the "two-minute bits" that they were originally, while several others were stage sketches performed in a comedy club in Santa Monica. Additionally, "Citizen Kane", a sketch in which two people discuss the film Citizen Kane with different meanings, was something the pair had performed at an art gallery. Castellaneta noted that "we already knew that these skits were funny, some of them we polished and tightened." The skits were principally written by improvising from a basic point, transcribing the results and then editing them to the finished scene. Castellaneta chose the title I Am Not Homer as a parody of Leonard Nimoy's famous first autobiography I Am Not Spock, as well as to show that most of the comedy featured "is not the typical Homer comedy."
Alongside his television and film work, Castellaneta has appeared in a number of theatrical productions. In 1992, he starred in Deb & Dan's Show alongside his wife. In 1995, Castellaneta started writing Where Did Vincent van Gogh?, a one man play in which he portrays a dozen different characters, including artist Vincent van Gogh. He first officially performed the play at the ACME Comedy Theatre in Los Angeles in 1999. In 2007, he appeared in The Bicycle Men at The King's Head Theatre in London.
Personal life
Castellaneta lives in Los Angeles with his wife Deb Lacusta. He is a vegetarian, teetotaler, and exercises regularly. Castellaneta also practices T'ai Chi. His mother Elsie Castellaneta died in January 2008.
Filmography
Main article: Dan Castellaneta filmography
Discography
See also: The Simpsons discography
Album Released Label Notes
Two Lips February 2000 Oglio Records all-music comedy album.
I Am Not Homer April 23, 2002 Oglio Records Comedy album released with Deb Lacusta.
Also featured in:
The Simpsons Sing the Blues (1990)
Songs in the Key of Springfield (1997)
The Yellow Album (1998)
Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons (1999)
The Simpsons: Testify (2007)
Awards
Year Award Category Role Series Result
1992 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson
Grampa
various others The Simpsons Won
1993 Annie Award Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation Various characters The Simpsons Won
1993 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2000 Annie Award Outstanding Voice Acting by a Male Performer in a Television Series The Postman Olive, the Other Reindeer Won
2004 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Various characters The Simpsons Won
2004 Young Artist Award Most Popular Mom & Pop in a Television Series Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2007 WGA Award Animation The Simpsons Nominated
2009 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson The Simpsons Won
2010 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson The Simpsons Nominated
2011 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Voice-Over Performance Homer Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Louie The Simpsons Nominated
http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb380/blogbiztutor/Cartoon%20dubber/a-famous-cartoon-voices-13.jpg
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o97/mexxian/Quiz%20Club/Connect/3a.jpg
Dan is great,always loved Homer.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/29/11 at 8:01 pm
I can relate. When it was a "new" show, during the early 1990s, it was great and all... but as it continued to be produced, it hasn't been quite the same.
after almost 25 years.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/29/11 at 9:58 pm
after almost 25 years.
In 2014 it'll be that long since it became its own show. Think it might still be on the air then?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/30/11 at 6:56 am
In 2014 it'll be that long since it became its own show. Think it might still be on the air then?
I don't think so.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/30/11 at 9:11 am
In 2014 it'll be that long since it became its own show. Think it might still be on the air then?
With better writers, it may last longer.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/30/11 at 9:42 am
In 2014 it'll be that long since it became its own show. Think it might still be on the air then?
I think it will, it's not like its that far off. I haven't looked at the ratings recently so I'm not sure if it's still in the top 20.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/30/11 at 9:45 am
The person of the day...Henry Winkler
Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE (Hon.) (born October 30, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, and author.
Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. "The Fonz," a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended.
ppy Days
Winkler started acting by appearing in a number of television commercials. In October 1973, he was cast for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, nicknamed "The Fonz" or "Fonzie", in the long-running 1970s television series Happy Days. The show was first aired in January 1974.
During his decade on Happy Days, Winkler also starred in a number of movies, including The Lords of Flatbush (1974), playing a troubled Vietnam veteran in Heroes (1977), The One and Only (1978), and a morgue attendant in Night Shift (1982), which was directed by Happy Days co-star Ron Howard. Winkler was also one of the hosts of the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert.
Richie takes a turn on Fonzie's motorcycle.
For Happy Days, director/producer Garry Marshall originally had in mind a completely opposite physical presence. Marshall sought to cast an Italian model-type male in the role of Fonzie, intended as a stupid foil to the real star, Ron Howard. However, when Winkler, a Yale MFA student, interpreted the role in auditions, Marshall immediately snapped him up. According to Winkler, "The Fonz was everybody I wasn't. He was everybody I wanted to be."
Winkler's character, though remaining very much a rough-hewn outsider, gradually became the focus of the show as time passed (in particular after the departure of Ron Howard). Initially, ABC executives did not want to see the Fonz wearing leather, thinking the character would appear to be a criminal. The first 13 episodes show Winkler wearing two different kinds of windbreaker jackets, one of which was green. As Winkler said in a TV Land interview, "It's hard to look cool in a green windbreaker". Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket. In the end, a compromise was made. Winkler could only wear the leather jacket in scenes with his motorcycle, and from that point on, the Fonz was never without his motorcycle until season 2.
To go against his Fonzie stereotype and draw more attention to his real acting abilities, Winkler starred in a TV special, Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare, in 1976. In this videotaped show, he was giving a group of children a tour of a theater and teaching them theatrical terms and basic stagecraft when William Shakespeare suddenly appeared from a box, acted out famous lines from his plays, and eventually directed Winkler in a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Drawing upon his Shakespearean training at Yale, Winkler played Romeo killing Juliet's cousin Tybalt in a sword duel in retaliation for Tybalt's murder of Romeo's friend Mercutio.
In 1979 Winkler appeared in the made-for-TV movie An American Christmas Carol, which was a modern remake of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. An American Christmas Carol was set in Concord, New Hampshire during the Great Depression. Winkler played the role of Benedict Slade, the Ebenezer Scrooge equivalent of that film.
Beyond Happy Days
After Happy Days, Winkler concentrated on producing and directing. Within months, he had opened Winkler-Rich Productions. He produced several television shows including MacGyver, So Weird and Mr. Sunshine, Sightings, and the game shows Wintuition and Hollywood Squares (the latter from 2002–2004 only; occasionally serving as a sub-announcer). He also directed several movies including the Billy Crystal movie Memories of Me (1988) and Cop and a Half (1993) with Burt Reynolds.
Winkler, September 1990
Return to acting
As the 1990s continued, Winkler returned to acting. in 1991, he starred in the controversial TV-movie Absolute Strangers, as a husband forced to make a decision regarding his comatose wife and his unborn baby. In 1994 he returned to TV with the short-lived comedy series Monty on Fox. Also in 1994, he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the holiday TV movie One Christmas.
He played an uncredited role as a high school principal in the 1996 movie Scream (1996). In 1998, Adam Sandler asked Winkler to play a college football coach, a supporting role in The Waterboy (1998). He would later appear in three other Sandler films, Little Nicky (2000) where he plays himself and is covered in bees, Click (2006, as the main character's father), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), again playing himself. He also played small roles in movies such as Down to You (2000), Holes (2003), and I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007).
Television
More recently Winkler had a recurring role as incompetent lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in the Fox Television comedy Arrested Development. In one episode, his character hopped over a confined shark lying on a pier, a reference to his role in the origin of the phrase "jumping the shark". After that episode, Winkler in interviews stated that he was the only person to have "jumped the shark" twice.
When Winkler moved to CBS for one season to star in 2005–06's Out of Practice, his role as the Bluth family lawyer on Arrested Development was taken over by Happy Days co-star Scott Baio in the fall of 2005, shortly before the acclaimed but Nielsen-challenged show ceased production.
Winkler has guest-starred on television series such as Numb3rs, The Bob Newhart Show (as Miles Lascoe, a parolee just out of jail. He was in jail for armed robbery, twice.), South Park, The Practice, The Simpsons (playing a member of a biker gang. In one scene, he calls Marge "Mrs. S", a reference to Fonzie calling "Happy Days" matriarch Marion Cunningham "Mrs. C"), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Third Watch, Arrested Development, Crossing Jordan, Family Guy, King of the Hill and Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil.
The Weezer video for 1994's "Buddy Holly" edited period footage of Henry Winkler as the Fonz, as well as a double shot from behind to create the illusion that Fonzie and other characters were watching Weezer as they performed in Arnold's restaurant. His most recent appearances were on KTTV's Good Day L.A.. Once, while substituting for Steve Edwards, Winkler reunited with fellow Happy Days cast member Marion Ross. Winkler made a cameo appearance in the band Say Anything's video for "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too".
A close friend to actor John Ritter, the two led a Broadway ensemble cast in Neil Simon's The Dinner Party in 2000. Winkler was reunited as a guest star on Ritter's sitcom 8 Simple Rules (for Dating my Teenage Daughter) in 2003 by Ritter's request. On September 11, Ritter became ill during filming, and unexpectedly died. A stunned, grief-stricken Winkler was interviewed by Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight and various other entertainment news sources, and served as a soothing voice and champion of John's talent in September 2003.
Winkler at the 2008 Fan Expo Canada
In 2008, he appeared in two Christmas movies, in the Hallmark Channel movie The Most Wonderful Time of the Year as a retired cop who plays matchmaker between his niece and a drifter he befriends, and in Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh as the judge who orders Drake and Josh to give a young girl "the best Christmas ever" or be sent to jail. In 2009, Winkler provided the voice of Willard Deutschebog, a suicidal German teacher, in the Fox comedy series, Sit Down, Shut Up.
Hank Zipzer books
Since 2003, Winkler has collaborated with Lin Oliver on a series of children's books about a 4th grade boy, Hank Zipzer, who is dyslexic. Winkler also has the learning disability, which was not diagnosed until he was 31 and his stepson Jed was tested; the dyslexia was an unhappy part of his childhood. Winkler has published 17 books about his hero Zipzer, the "world's greatest underachiever".
In July 2008 Winkler joined First News on their annual Reading Tour of schools where he read excerpts from his Hank Zipzer books. This has since become an annual tour.
Pantomime
Winkler appeared in his first pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London in 2006, playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan, replacing David Hasselhoff who pulled out when he was offered a TV role by Simon Cowell. He reprised the role in Woking, England for Christmas 2007. For the 2008/2009 season he played Captain Hook at the Milton Keynes Theatre and donned the hook once again for the 2009/2010 panto season at the Liverpool Empire.
On June 2, 2010, it was announced that Winkler would become the television spokesman for One Reverse Mortgage, a reverse mortgage lender.
Obama election
In October 2008, Winkler appeared in a video on funnyordie.com with Ron Howard, reprising their roles as Fonzie and Richie Cunningham, encouraging people to vote for Barack Obama. The video entitled "Ron Howard’s Call to Action" also features Andy Griffith.
2010-present
As of June 2010, Winkler is appearing on the USA show Royal Pains as the father of the two main characters.
On June 19, 2010, Winkler appeared on James Corden ITV World Cup Live show. He represented the USA in the World Cup Wall Chart.
As of the summer/fall 2010 season, Winkler has joined the cast of Adult Swim's television adaptation of Rob Corddry's web series, Childrens Hospital, playing a stereotypically feckless hospital administrator.
In late September 2010, Winkler was the voice of Professor Nathaniel Zib in the Lego Hero Factory mini-series, Rise of the Rookies.
On May 31, 2011, Winkler's book, I've Never Met an Idiot on the River, was published. It is a collection of his photographs and reflections drawn from his love of fly fishing and life with his family.
OBE
In September 2011 Winkler was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to children with special educational needs and dyslexia in the UK."
Honors and awards
In 1996, Winkler was selected to be the Class Day speaker at Yale University, an honor accorded to distinguished Yale alumni.
On August 3, 2008, Winkler was chosen to be the guest conductor at the Boston Pops by the Sea Concert in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
On August 19, 2008, Milwaukeeans paid homage to their hometown hero and unveiled a life-sized, bronze statue of Fonzie along the Milwaukee Riverwalk.
On March 29, 2010, Winkler was presented the key to the City of Winnipeg for his contributions to education and literacy.
Golden Globe Awards
(1976) Won - Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy/Happy Days
(1977) Won - Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy/Happy Days
(1978) Nominated - Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama/Heroes
(1983) Nominated - Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy/Night Shift
Primetime Emmy Awards
(1976) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1977) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1978) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1979) Nominated - Outstanding Informational Program / Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
(1997) Nominated - Outstanding Guest Actor - Drama Series / The Practice (as Henry Olson)
Selected filmography
Crazy Joe (1974)
The Lords of Flatbush (1974)
Happy Days (TV series) (1974–1982)
Katherine, also known as The Radical (1975)
Heroes (1977)
The One and Only (1978)
Night Shift (1982)
Memories of Me (directing) (1988)
Macgyver(1991)
Cop and a Half (directing) (1993)
Scream (1996) (Principal Himbry) (uncredited)
Detention: The Siege at Johnson High (1997)
Dad's Week Off (1997)
Dead Man's Gun (TV series) (1997-1999) (executive producer)
Ground Control (1998)
The Waterboy (1998)
P.U.N.K.S. (1999)
Dill Scallion (1999)
Little Nicky (2000)
Down to You (2000)
Law and Order SVU (2002)
Holes (2003)
Arrested Development (TV series) (2003–2006)
King of the Hill (2004)
Berkeley (2005)
Malcolm in the Middle (2005)
The Kid & I (2005)
Out of practice (TV series) (2005–2006)
Duck Dodgers (2006)
Unbeatable Harold (2006)
Click (2006)
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)
A Plumm Summer (2007)
NUMB3RS (2008–2009)
You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008)
Sit Down, Shut Up (2009) (TV series)
Group Sex (2010)
Royal Pains (TV, 2010-2011)
Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil (2010)
Childrens Hospital (TV, 2010)
LEGO Hero Factory (TV, 2010-2011)
Batman: The Brave and the Bold (TV, 2011)
Here Comes the Boom (2012)
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/HussyBiker/Bikers/HenryWinkler.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq198/learykids/beach057.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/30/11 at 9:46 am
The person of the day...Henry Winkler
Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE (Hon.) (born October 30, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, and author.
Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. "The Fonz," a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended.
ppy Days
Winkler started acting by appearing in a number of television commercials. In October 1973, he was cast for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, nicknamed "The Fonz" or "Fonzie", in the long-running 1970s television series Happy Days. The show was first aired in January 1974.
During his decade on Happy Days, Winkler also starred in a number of movies, including The Lords of Flatbush (1974), playing a troubled Vietnam veteran in Heroes (1977), The One and Only (1978), and a morgue attendant in Night Shift (1982), which was directed by Happy Days co-star Ron Howard. Winkler was also one of the hosts of the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert.
Richie takes a turn on Fonzie's motorcycle.
For Happy Days, director/producer Garry Marshall originally had in mind a completely opposite physical presence. Marshall sought to cast an Italian model-type male in the role of Fonzie, intended as a stupid foil to the real star, Ron Howard. However, when Winkler, a Yale MFA student, interpreted the role in auditions, Marshall immediately snapped him up. According to Winkler, "The Fonz was everybody I wasn't. He was everybody I wanted to be."
Winkler's character, though remaining very much a rough-hewn outsider, gradually became the focus of the show as time passed (in particular after the departure of Ron Howard). Initially, ABC executives did not want to see the Fonz wearing leather, thinking the character would appear to be a criminal. The first 13 episodes show Winkler wearing two different kinds of windbreaker jackets, one of which was green. As Winkler said in a TV Land interview, "It's hard to look cool in a green windbreaker". Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket. In the end, a compromise was made. Winkler could only wear the leather jacket in scenes with his motorcycle, and from that point on, the Fonz was never without his motorcycle until season 2.
To go against his Fonzie stereotype and draw more attention to his real acting abilities, Winkler starred in a TV special, Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare, in 1976. In this videotaped show, he was giving a group of children a tour of a theater and teaching them theatrical terms and basic stagecraft when William Shakespeare suddenly appeared from a box, acted out famous lines from his plays, and eventually directed Winkler in a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Drawing upon his Shakespearean training at Yale, Winkler played Romeo killing Juliet's cousin Tybalt in a sword duel in retaliation for Tybalt's murder of Romeo's friend Mercutio.
In 1979 Winkler appeared in the made-for-TV movie An American Christmas Carol, which was a modern remake of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. An American Christmas Carol was set in Concord, New Hampshire during the Great Depression. Winkler played the role of Benedict Slade, the Ebenezer Scrooge equivalent of that film.
Beyond Happy Days
After Happy Days, Winkler concentrated on producing and directing. Within months, he had opened Winkler-Rich Productions. He produced several television shows including MacGyver, So Weird and Mr. Sunshine, Sightings, and the game shows Wintuition and Hollywood Squares (the latter from 2002–2004 only; occasionally serving as a sub-announcer). He also directed several movies including the Billy Crystal movie Memories of Me (1988) and Cop and a Half (1993) with Burt Reynolds.
Winkler, September 1990
Return to acting
As the 1990s continued, Winkler returned to acting. in 1991, he starred in the controversial TV-movie Absolute Strangers, as a husband forced to make a decision regarding his comatose wife and his unborn baby. In 1994 he returned to TV with the short-lived comedy series Monty on Fox. Also in 1994, he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the holiday TV movie One Christmas.
He played an uncredited role as a high school principal in the 1996 movie Scream (1996). In 1998, Adam Sandler asked Winkler to play a college football coach, a supporting role in The Waterboy (1998). He would later appear in three other Sandler films, Little Nicky (2000) where he plays himself and is covered in bees, Click (2006, as the main character's father), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), again playing himself. He also played small roles in movies such as Down to You (2000), Holes (2003), and I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007).
Television
More recently Winkler had a recurring role as incompetent lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in the Fox Television comedy Arrested Development. In one episode, his character hopped over a confined shark lying on a pier, a reference to his role in the origin of the phrase "jumping the shark". After that episode, Winkler in interviews stated that he was the only person to have "jumped the shark" twice.
When Winkler moved to CBS for one season to star in 2005–06's Out of Practice, his role as the Bluth family lawyer on Arrested Development was taken over by Happy Days co-star Scott Baio in the fall of 2005, shortly before the acclaimed but Nielsen-challenged show ceased production.
Winkler has guest-starred on television series such as Numb3rs, The Bob Newhart Show (as Miles Lascoe, a parolee just out of jail. He was in jail for armed robbery, twice.), South Park, The Practice, The Simpsons (playing a member of a biker gang. In one scene, he calls Marge "Mrs. S", a reference to Fonzie calling "Happy Days" matriarch Marion Cunningham "Mrs. C"), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Third Watch, Arrested Development, Crossing Jordan, Family Guy, King of the Hill and Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil.
The Weezer video for 1994's "Buddy Holly" edited period footage of Henry Winkler as the Fonz, as well as a double shot from behind to create the illusion that Fonzie and other characters were watching Weezer as they performed in Arnold's restaurant. His most recent appearances were on KTTV's Good Day L.A.. Once, while substituting for Steve Edwards, Winkler reunited with fellow Happy Days cast member Marion Ross. Winkler made a cameo appearance in the band Say Anything's video for "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too".
A close friend to actor John Ritter, the two led a Broadway ensemble cast in Neil Simon's The Dinner Party in 2000. Winkler was reunited as a guest star on Ritter's sitcom 8 Simple Rules (for Dating my Teenage Daughter) in 2003 by Ritter's request. On September 11, Ritter became ill during filming, and unexpectedly died. A stunned, grief-stricken Winkler was interviewed by Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight and various other entertainment news sources, and served as a soothing voice and champion of John's talent in September 2003.
Winkler at the 2008 Fan Expo Canada
In 2008, he appeared in two Christmas movies, in the Hallmark Channel movie The Most Wonderful Time of the Year as a retired cop who plays matchmaker between his niece and a drifter he befriends, and in Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh as the judge who orders Drake and Josh to give a young girl "the best Christmas ever" or be sent to jail. In 2009, Winkler provided the voice of Willard Deutschebog, a suicidal German teacher, in the Fox comedy series, Sit Down, Shut Up.
Hank Zipzer books
Since 2003, Winkler has collaborated with Lin Oliver on a series of children's books about a 4th grade boy, Hank Zipzer, who is dyslexic. Winkler also has the learning disability, which was not diagnosed until he was 31 and his stepson Jed was tested; the dyslexia was an unhappy part of his childhood. Winkler has published 17 books about his hero Zipzer, the "world's greatest underachiever".
In July 2008 Winkler joined First News on their annual Reading Tour of schools where he read excerpts from his Hank Zipzer books. This has since become an annual tour.
Pantomime
Winkler appeared in his first pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London in 2006, playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan, replacing David Hasselhoff who pulled out when he was offered a TV role by Simon Cowell. He reprised the role in Woking, England for Christmas 2007. For the 2008/2009 season he played Captain Hook at the Milton Keynes Theatre and donned the hook once again for the 2009/2010 panto season at the Liverpool Empire.
On June 2, 2010, it was announced that Winkler would become the television spokesman for One Reverse Mortgage, a reverse mortgage lender.
Obama election
In October 2008, Winkler appeared in a video on funnyordie.com with Ron Howard, reprising their roles as Fonzie and Richie Cunningham, encouraging people to vote for Barack Obama. The video entitled "Ron Howard’s Call to Action" also features Andy Griffith.
2010-present
As of June 2010, Winkler is appearing on the USA show Royal Pains as the father of the two main characters.
On June 19, 2010, Winkler appeared on James Corden ITV World Cup Live show. He represented the USA in the World Cup Wall Chart.
As of the summer/fall 2010 season, Winkler has joined the cast of Adult Swim's television adaptation of Rob Corddry's web series, Childrens Hospital, playing a stereotypically feckless hospital administrator.
In late September 2010, Winkler was the voice of Professor Nathaniel Zib in the Lego Hero Factory mini-series, Rise of the Rookies.
On May 31, 2011, Winkler's book, I've Never Met an Idiot on the River, was published. It is a collection of his photographs and reflections drawn from his love of fly fishing and life with his family.
OBE
In September 2011 Winkler was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to children with special educational needs and dyslexia in the UK."
Honors and awards
In 1996, Winkler was selected to be the Class Day speaker at Yale University, an honor accorded to distinguished Yale alumni.
On August 3, 2008, Winkler was chosen to be the guest conductor at the Boston Pops by the Sea Concert in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
On August 19, 2008, Milwaukeeans paid homage to their hometown hero and unveiled a life-sized, bronze statue of Fonzie along the Milwaukee Riverwalk.
On March 29, 2010, Winkler was presented the key to the City of Winnipeg for his contributions to education and literacy.
Golden Globe Awards
(1976) Won - Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy/Happy Days
(1977) Won - Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy/Happy Days
(1978) Nominated - Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama/Heroes
(1983) Nominated - Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy/Night Shift
Primetime Emmy Awards
(1976) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1977) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1978) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1979) Nominated - Outstanding Informational Program / Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
(1997) Nominated - Outstanding Guest Actor - Drama Series / The Practice (as Henry Olson)
Selected filmography
Crazy Joe (1974)
The Lords of Flatbush (1974)
Happy Days (TV series) (1974–1982)
Katherine, also known as The Radical (1975)
Heroes (1977)
The One and Only (1978)
Night Shift (1982)
Memories of Me (directing) (1988)
Macgyver(1991)
Cop and a Half (directing) (1993)
Scream (1996) (Principal Himbry) (uncredited)
Detention: The Siege at Johnson High (1997)
Dad's Week Off (1997)
Dead Man's Gun (TV series) (1997-1999) (executive producer)
Ground Control (1998)
The Waterboy (1998)
P.U.N.K.S. (1999)
Dill Scallion (1999)
Little Nicky (2000)
Down to You (2000)
Law and Order SVU (2002)
Holes (2003)
Arrested Development (TV series) (2003–2006)
King of the Hill (2004)
Berkeley (2005)
Malcolm in the Middle (2005)
The Kid & I (2005)
Out of practice (TV series) (2005–2006)
Duck Dodgers (2006)
Unbeatable Harold (2006)
Click (2006)
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)
A Plumm Summer (2007)
NUMB3RS (2008–2009)
You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008)
Sit Down, Shut Up (2009) (TV series)
Group Sex (2010)
Royal Pains (TV, 2010-2011)
Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil (2010)
Childrens Hospital (TV, 2010)
LEGO Hero Factory (TV, 2010-2011)
Batman: The Brave and the Bold (TV, 2011)
Here Comes the Boom (2012)
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/HussyBiker/Bikers/HenryWinkler.jpg
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq198/learykids/beach057.jpg
"Heyyy!"
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/30/11 at 11:32 am
I think it will, it's not like its that far off. I haven't looked at the ratings recently so I'm not sure if it's still in the top 20.
Neither have I.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/30/11 at 8:44 pm
The person of the day...Henry Winkler
Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE (Hon.) (born October 30, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, and author.
Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. "The Fonz," a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended.
ppy Days
Winkler started acting by appearing in a number of television commercials. In October 1973, he was cast for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, nicknamed "The Fonz" or "Fonzie", in the long-running 1970s television series Happy Days. The show was first aired in January 1974.
During his decade on Happy Days, Winkler also starred in a number of movies, including The Lords of Flatbush (1974), playing a troubled Vietnam veteran in Heroes (1977), The One and Only (1978), and a morgue attendant in Night Shift (1982), which was directed by Happy Days co-star Ron Howard. Winkler was also one of the hosts of the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert.
Richie takes a turn on Fonzie's motorcycle.
For Happy Days, director/producer Garry Marshall originally had in mind a completely opposite physical presence. Marshall sought to cast an Italian model-type male in the role of Fonzie, intended as a stupid foil to the real star, Ron Howard. However, when Winkler, a Yale MFA student, interpreted the role in auditions, Marshall immediately snapped him up. According to Winkler, "The Fonz was everybody I wasn't. He was everybody I wanted to be."
Winkler's character, though remaining very much a rough-hewn outsider, gradually became the focus of the show as time passed (in particular after the departure of Ron Howard). Initially, ABC executives did not want to see the Fonz wearing leather, thinking the character would appear to be a criminal. The first 13 episodes show Winkler wearing two different kinds of windbreaker jackets, one of which was green. As Winkler said in a TV Land interview, "It's hard to look cool in a green windbreaker". Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket. In the end, a compromise was made. Winkler could only wear the leather jacket in scenes with his motorcycle, and from that point on, the Fonz was never without his motorcycle until season 2.
To go against his Fonzie stereotype and draw more attention to his real acting abilities, Winkler starred in a TV special, Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare, in 1976. In this videotaped show, he was giving a group of children a tour of a theater and teaching them theatrical terms and basic stagecraft when William Shakespeare suddenly appeared from a box, acted out famous lines from his plays, and eventually directed Winkler in a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Drawing upon his Shakespearean training at Yale, Winkler played Romeo killing Juliet's cousin Tybalt in a sword duel in retaliation for Tybalt's murder of Romeo's friend Mercutio.
In 1979 Winkler appeared in the made-for-TV movie An American Christmas Carol, which was a modern remake of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. An American Christmas Carol was set in Concord, New Hampshire during the Great Depression. Winkler played the role of Benedict Slade, the Ebenezer Scrooge equivalent of that film.
Beyond Happy Days
After Happy Days, Winkler concentrated on producing and directing. Within months, he had opened Winkler-Rich Productions. He produced several television shows including MacGyver, So Weird and Mr. Sunshine, Sightings, and the game shows Wintuition and Hollywood Squares (the latter from 2002–2004 only; occasionally serving as a sub-announcer). He also directed several movies including the Billy Crystal movie Memories of Me (1988) and Cop and a Half (1993) with Burt Reynolds.
Winkler, September 1990
Return to acting
As the 1990s continued, Winkler returned to acting. in 1991, he starred in the controversial TV-movie Absolute Strangers, as a husband forced to make a decision regarding his comatose wife and his unborn baby. In 1994 he returned to TV with the short-lived comedy series Monty on Fox. Also in 1994, he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the holiday TV movie One Christmas.
He played an uncredited role as a high school principal in the 1996 movie Scream (1996). In 1998, Adam Sandler asked Winkler to play a college football coach, a supporting role in The Waterboy (1998). He would later appear in three other Sandler films, Little Nicky (2000) where he plays himself and is covered in bees, Click (2006, as the main character's father), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), again playing himself. He also played small roles in movies such as Down to You (2000), Holes (2003), and I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007).
Television
More recently Winkler had a recurring role as incompetent lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in the Fox Television comedy Arrested Development. In one episode, his character hopped over a confined shark lying on a pier, a reference to his role in the origin of the phrase "jumping the shark". After that episode, Winkler in interviews stated that he was the only person to have "jumped the shark" twice.
When Winkler moved to CBS for one season to star in 2005–06's Out of Practice, his role as the Bluth family lawyer on Arrested Development was taken over by Happy Days co-star Scott Baio in the fall of 2005, shortly before the acclaimed but Nielsen-challenged show ceased production.
Winkler has guest-starred on television series such as Numb3rs, The Bob Newhart Show (as Miles Lascoe, a parolee just out of jail. He was in jail for armed robbery, twice.), South Park, The Practice, The Simpsons (playing a member of a biker gang. In one scene, he calls Marge "Mrs. S", a reference to Fonzie calling "Happy Days" matriarch Marion Cunningham "Mrs. C"), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Third Watch, Arrested Development, Crossing Jordan, Family Guy, King of the Hill and Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil.
The Weezer video for 1994's "Buddy Holly" edited period footage of Henry Winkler as the Fonz, as well as a double shot from behind to create the illusion that Fonzie and other characters were watching Weezer as they performed in Arnold's restaurant. His most recent appearances were on KTTV's Good Day L.A.. Once, while substituting for Steve Edwards, Winkler reunited with fellow Happy Days cast member Marion Ross. Winkler made a cameo appearance in the band Say Anything's video for "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too".
A close friend to actor John Ritter, the two led a Broadway ensemble cast in Neil Simon's The Dinner Party in 2000. Winkler was reunited as a guest star on Ritter's sitcom 8 Simple Rules (for Dating my Teenage Daughter) in 2003 by Ritter's request. On September 11, Ritter became ill during filming, and unexpectedly died. A stunned, grief-stricken Winkler was interviewed by Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight and various other entertainment news sources, and served as a soothing voice and champion of John's talent in September 2003.
Winkler at the 2008 Fan Expo Canada
In 2008, he appeared in two Christmas movies, in the Hallmark Channel movie The Most Wonderful Time of the Year as a retired cop who plays matchmaker between his niece and a drifter he befriends, and in Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh as the judge who orders Drake and Josh to give a young girl "the best Christmas ever" or be sent to jail. In 2009, Winkler provided the voice of Willard Deutschebog, a suicidal German teacher, in the Fox comedy series, Sit Down, Shut Up.
Hank Zipzer books
Since 2003, Winkler has collaborated with Lin Oliver on a series of children's books about a 4th grade boy, Hank Zipzer, who is dyslexic. Winkler also has the learning disability, which was not diagnosed until he was 31 and his stepson Jed was tested; the dyslexia was an unhappy part of his childhood. Winkler has published 17 books about his hero Zipzer, the "world's greatest underachiever".
In July 2008 Winkler joined First News on their annual Reading Tour of schools where he read excerpts from his Hank Zipzer books. This has since become an annual tour.
Pantomime
Winkler appeared in his first pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London in 2006, playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan, replacing David Hasselhoff who pulled out when he was offered a TV role by Simon Cowell. He reprised the role in Woking, England for Christmas 2007. For the 2008/2009 season he played Captain Hook at the Milton Keynes Theatre and donned the hook once again for the 2009/2010 panto season at the Liverpool Empire.
On June 2, 2010, it was announced that Winkler would become the television spokesman for One Reverse Mortgage, a reverse mortgage lender.
Obama election
In October 2008, Winkler appeared in a video on funnyordie.com with Ron Howard, reprising their roles as Fonzie and Richie Cunningham, encouraging people to vote for Barack Obama. The video entitled "Ron Howard’s Call to Action" also features Andy Griffith.
2010-present
As of June 2010, Winkler is appearing on the USA show Royal Pains as the father of the two main characters.
On June 19, 2010, Winkler appeared on James Corden ITV World Cup Live show. He represented the USA in the World Cup Wall Chart.
As of the summer/fall 2010 season, Winkler has joined the cast of Adult Swim's television adaptation of Rob Corddry's web series, Childrens Hospital, playing a stereotypically feckless hospital administrator.
In late September 2010, Winkler was the voice of Professor Nathaniel Zib in the Lego Hero Factory mini-series, Rise of the Rookies.
On May 31, 2011, Winkler's book, I've Never Met an Idiot on the River, was published. It is a collection of his photographs and reflections drawn from his love of fly fishing and life with his family.
OBE
In September 2011 Winkler was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to children with special educational needs and dyslexia in the UK."
Honors and awards
In 1996, Winkler was selected to be the Class Day speaker at Yale University, an honor accorded to distinguished Yale alumni.
On August 3, 2008, Winkler was chosen to be the guest conductor at the Boston Pops by the Sea Concert in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
On August 19, 2008, Milwaukeeans paid homage to their hometown hero and unveiled a life-sized, bronze statue of Fonzie along the Milwaukee Riverwalk.
On March 29, 2010, Winkler was presented the key to the City of Winnipeg for his contributions to education and literacy.
Golden Globe Awards
(1976) Won - Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy/Happy Days
(1977) Won - Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy/Happy Days
(1978) Nominated - Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama/Heroes
(1983) Nominated - Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy/Night Shift
Primetime Emmy Awards
(1976) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1977) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1978) Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series / Happy Days
(1979) Nominated - Outstanding Informational Program / Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
(1997) Nominated - Outstanding Guest Actor - Drama Series / The Practice (as Henry Olson)
Selected filmography
Crazy Joe (1974)
The Lords of Flatbush (1974)
Happy Days (TV series) (1974–1982)
Katherine, also known as The Radical (1975)
Heroes (1977)
The One and Only (1978)
Night Shift (1982)
Memories of Me (directing) (1988)
Macgyver(1991)
Cop and a Half (directing) (1993)
Scream (1996) (Principal Himbry) (uncredited)
Detention: The Siege at Johnson High (1997)
Dad's Week Off (1997)
Dead Man's Gun (TV series) (1997-1999) (executive producer)
Ground Control (1998)
The Waterboy (1998)
P.U.N.K.S. (1999)
Dill Scallion (1999)
Little Nicky (2000)
Down to You (2000)
Law and Order SVU (2002)
Holes (2003)
Arrested Development (TV series) (2003–2006)
King of the Hill (2004)
Berkeley (2005)
Malcolm in the Middle (2005)
The Kid & I (2005)
Out of practice (TV series) (2005–2006)
Duck Dodgers (2006)
Unbeatable Harold (2006)
Click (2006)
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)
A Plumm Summer (2007)
NUMB3RS (2008–2009)
You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008)
Sit Down, Shut Up (2009) (TV series)
Group Sex (2010)
Royal Pains (TV, 2010-2011)
Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil (2010)
Childrens Hospital (TV, 2010)
LEGO Hero Factory (TV, 2010-2011)
Batman: The Brave and the Bold (TV, 2011)
Here Comes the Boom (2012)
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I wish he could still do The Fonz,I miss his character.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 10/30/11 at 9:56 pm
Neither have I.
I watched tonight's episode and I hate to say it it was ..LAME.I use to look forward to the Halloween episodes, but they are getting worse.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 10/31/11 at 2:24 am
I wish he could still do The Fonz,I miss his character.
Henry Winkler last year was doing Pantomime in London and he may be doing so again at another theatre this year.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/31/11 at 7:10 am
Henry Winkler last year was doing Pantomime in London and he may be doing so again at another theatre this year.
What about The Fonz? ???
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 10/31/11 at 11:02 am
What about The Fonz? ???
What about him?
Henry Winkler is a lot more than just the Fonz. If that was the only thing he could do, he wouldn't be much of an actor would he?
Some of my favs are:
-Heroes
-Night Shift
-Holes
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 10/31/11 at 1:04 pm
What about him?
Henry Winkler is a lot more than just the Fonz. If that was the only thing he could do, he wouldn't be much of an actor would he?
Some of my favs are:
-Heroes
-Night Shift
-Holes
Cat
Will he be doing acting as The Fonz on stage?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 10/31/11 at 5:57 pm
I watched tonight's episode and I hate to say it it was ..LAME.I used to look forward to the Halloween episodes, but they are getting worse.
Oh yes, the "Treehouse Of Horror...part whatever." I usually don't care to watch those; the previews for them don't really hold my interest. I agree about lame.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/01/11 at 2:29 am
What about The Fonz? ???
Winkler appeared in his first pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London in 2006, playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan, replacing David Hasselhoff who pulled out when he was offered a TV role by Simon Cowell. He reprised the role in Woking, England for Christmas 2007. For the 2008/2009 season he played Captain Hook at the Milton Keynes Theatre and donned the hook once again for the 2009/2010 panto season at the Liverpool Empire.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/01/11 at 6:55 am
The person of the day...David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC (born November 1, 1949), is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni Braxton, Madonna, Air Supply and Michael Jackson. Foster has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations.
Throughout his career, he has produced recordings for a wide range of musical artists, including Bryan Adams, Tamia, Christina Aguilera, The Bee Gees, Andrea Bocelli, Boz Scaggs, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Chicago, Destiny's Child, Neil Diamond, Céline Dion, Earth Wind and Fire, Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Beyonce Knowles, Kenny Loggins, Madonna, Olivia Newton-John, Nsync, Charice Pempengco, Prince, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Shania Twain, Hall & Oates, The Tubes, and Jackie Evancho.
Foster was a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark discovered by Eirik Wangberg. The band's song “Wildflower” was a top ten hit in 1973.
Together with Jay Graydon he formed the band Airplay, whose album of the same name is often labeled the most important within the Westcoast AOR genre.
He produced debut albums for The Corrs, Michael Bublé, Renee Olstead and Josh Groban, which were released under his own record label, 143 Records, and distributed through Warner Music. Foster helped launch Kevin Sharp's career after the two met through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and he produced David Hayes singing a song by composed by Ed Scheid and Laramy Smith title "Friend".
In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine named Foster the "master of ... bombastic pop kitsch." That year, Foster composed the score for the film St. Elmo's Fire, including "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" which hit No. 15 in US pop charts (with a remake of a song titled "For just a moment" with vocals by Amy Holland and Donny Gerrard). Another song from the film, "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", recorded by John Parr hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 7, 1985. The following years, Foster continued turning out occasional film scores, including the Michael J. Fox comedy The Secret of My Success and the Jodie Foster-Mark Harmon drama Stealing Home, both of which spawned soundtrack albums with prominent Foster-penned contributions. He collaborated with then-wife Linda Thompson on the song "I Have Nothing", sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film The Bodyguard. The couple were nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award for Best Song for the song.
He produced Japanese singer Seiko Matsuda's 1988 album "Citron", also arranging and co-writing all the songs on the album, including the number one single "Marrakech".
In 1995 Foster signed a deal with Warner Brothers that enabled him to set up his own boutique label, 143 Records, as a joint venture with Warner. Foster gave the responsibility for running the label to then manager Brian Avnet. One of the label's first signing was little known Irish folk-rock band The Corrs, for whom he produced their debut album. By 1997 Foster had come to the realisation that, in the American market at least, "logo labels" like 143 were in a "bad spot" and as a result Foster sold the label back to Warner and became senior vice-president at the corporation.
Foster, along with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, composed "The Power of the Dream" as the official song of the 1996 Summer Olympics, with then-wife Thompson providing the lyrics (sung by Céline Dion). He also composed "Winter Games", the theme song for 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. "Winter Games" is the soundtrack for a fountain show at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas as well as a fountain show at Sea World Orlando. Also in 2001, he collaborated with Lara Fabian and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to record the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada", for an English version, a French version, and a bilingual (French/English) version, for a promotion of the Government of Canada. Foster, along with his then-wife Thompson, composed "Light the Fire Within" which was sung by LeAnn Rimes for the 2002 Winter Olympics. In 2003, Foster won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for The Concert for World Children's Day. His song "I Will Be There With You" (sung with Katharine McPhee) is being used by Japan Airlines to promote the introduction of new aircraft to its US flights.
During the 1990s he often performed acts with San Diego vocalist Warren Wiebe, whom he had discovered in the restroom of a hotel bar in 1987. In 1994 he had Wiebe put together a band called Millennium featuring Nita Whitaker and a few session vocalists, but the deal with Foster's record company led to the group's demise. Wiebe was Foster's "mouth" on many of his videos but committed suicide before he could release a solo album.
In 2005, record producer David Foster, his daughter Amy Foster-Gillies and Knowles wrote "Stand Up For Love" as the anthem to the World Children's Day, an annual worldwide event to raise awareness and funds for children causes. Over the past three years, more than $50 million has been raised to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities and other children's organizations. Destiny's Child lent their voices and support as global ambassadors for the 2005 program.
In 2009 it was revealed that Foster had worked with songwriter Diane Warren to produce records for Whitney Houston's upcoming album. It was then announced that her comeback single would be the Foster-produced "I Didn't Know My Own Strength".
He recently collaborated with American Idol finalist Michael Johns on the re-write of his popular 1980s hit "St Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)."
In July 2011, it was announced that Foster would take the helm of Verve Records under Universal Music and shift the focus of the label from jazz to adult contemporary pop.
Television appearances
In early 1992, the national television station RCTI, David Foster came to Indonesia for the TV show David Foster's Twilight Orchestra.
In early 2001, Foster was in Popstars, a reality series that aired on WB. The series aimed at coming up with the next girl group and eventually became Eden's Crush (featuring Nicole Scherzinger). David Foster and Linda Thompson wrote and produced several songs on their album.
Foster's home life was featured in a Fox staged reality TV show called The Princes of Malibu, in which he attempts to force his two spoiled stepsons, Brandon and Brody Jenner (the children of Thompson and Olympian Bruce Jenner), to straighten their lives up and earn their own way.
In late April 2005, Foster appeared as a special guest on both American Idol (as a mentor) and Nashville Star (as a judge) two weeks apart. He was also a judge on Celebrity Duets, a FOX TV show, and appeared on Star Tomorrow, where auditions were held in Los Angeles and New York for undiscovered talent. It aired only one episode on NBC.
In July 2006, Foster made a brief appearance on The View as Star Jones's vocal coach. In August 2006, he was the musical director for JCPenney Jam]: The Concert For American Kids, which aired on CBS and was later released in CD/DVD format. In November 2007, Foster appeared in Oprah's annual "Favorite Things" episode, performing with Josh Groban.
In September 2008, singer Charice joined Foster on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Celine Dion via satellite; and later on October 31, he and Andrea Bocelli appeared on Oprah again together, where he stated that Bocelli was his "favorite singer on the planet".
In December 2008, Foster was featured in a PBS special titled Hitman David Foster & Friends, a concert featuring live performances by Foster and numerous other performers. Foster was also featured in Under the Desert Sky in 2006, Vivere Live in Tuscany in 2007, and the My Christmas Special, in 2009, Andrea Bocelli's three latest PBS Specials. Bocelli also performed during Foster's Hitman special.
In late 2009, he also appeared on a number of TV shows to promote Bocelli's My Christmas album, which he produced, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Dr. Phil, The Early Show and Fox & Friends. He also made a number of appearances in 2010 with Filipino singer Charice, to promote her album.
Personal life
Foster has been married three times, has five biological daughters, an ex-stepdaughter, and two ex-stepsons. Foster has a daughter, Allison Jones (b. April 6, 1970). His first marriage was to singer/writer B.J. Cook. She already had a daughter, Tamre Winger, whom he raised. Together, B.J. Cook and Foster had one daughter, Amy Foster (b. July 29, 1973), a songwriter who has collaborated with classic artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, and Josh Groban.
His second wife was model Rebecca Dyer. They had three daughters: Sara Foster (b. August 24, 1981), Erin Foster (b. August 24, 1983), and Jordan Foster (b. September 1986)..
Foster married third wife Linda Thompson on June 27, 1991. The two became a songwriting team, collaborating on several songs including "I Have Nothing," performed by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard, and "Grown-Up Christmas List." Thompson filed for divorce Monday July 11, 2005, the day after her short-lived reality series, The Princes of Malibu premiered. Thompson is the mother of Brody Jenner and Brandon Jenner from her previous marriage to former Olympian Bruce Jenner.
Foster's sister, producer Jaymes Foster, is the mother of Clay Aiken's son Parker Foster Aiken.
David's cousin, Billy Foster, died in a race car accident in 1967.
In 1992, David Foster was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway when his car struck actor Ben Vereen, who had been on the road because he had crashed his car and was in a daze. Despite being thrown 90 feet, Vereen survived. Vereen also went on record to say that it probably saved his life: he had a serious drinking problem caused by the death of his daughter.
Discography
In addition to the numerous albums he has produced, the following are Foster's own solo or band works:
1972: Skylark (self-titled)
1974: 2 Skylark
1976: Attitudes (self-titled)
1977: Good News Attitudes
1980: Airplay (self-titled)
1983: The Best of Me
1986: David Foster (self-titled)
1988: The Symphony Sessions
1989: Time Passing
1990: River of Love
1991: Rechordings
1992: A Touch Of David Foster
1993: The Christmas Album
1994: Love Lights The World
2000: The Best Of Me: A Collection of David Foster’s Greatest Works
2001: O Canada (with Lara Fabian)
2002: Love Stories
2003: Teko’s Theme - with Nita Whitaker
2004: The Best Of Me - Original Recording Remastered
2008: Hitman: David Foster and Friends
2010: The Magic of David Foster & Friends
2011: Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends
Singles
1985: "Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire (For Just a Moment)" (US #15)
1986: "The Best of Me" (Duet with Olivia Newton-John) (US #80)
1988: "Winter Games (Can't You Feel It)" - Official theme song for the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics (US #85)
Awards and honors
In 1995, Foster became the recipient of the Order of British Columbia, the highest honour awarded in his native province of British Columbia. Foster became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.
Foster has won 16 Grammy Awards, including three Producer of the Year award and has been nominated a total of 47 times.
He has been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won the 1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the song "The Prayer" (sung by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion) from the film Quest for Camelot. He has been named BMI's "Songwriter of the Year". In June 2010, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
See also
Tower-wireless-can.png Music of Canada portal
Music of Canada
Canadian Music Hall of Fame
List of Canadian composers
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/02/11 at 4:48 am
The person of the day...Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers (born Stefanie Zofya Paul; November 2, 1942) is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.
Powers appeared in several motion pictures in the early 1960s in secondary roles such as the thriller Experiment in Terror with Glenn Ford and Lee Remick, the comedy If a Man Answers with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin, and as the daughter of John Wayne in the lighthearted comedy-Western McLintock! (1963). She played a schoolgirl in Tammy Tell Me True (1961) and the police chief's daughter Bunny in the romantic comedy Palm Springs Weekend (1963). She was also in the 1962 hospital melodrama The Interns and its sequel The New Interns in 1964. In 1965, Powers had a more substantial role playing opposite veteran actress Tallulah Bankhead in the Hammer horror film Die! Die! My Darling (originally released in England as Fanatic). Her early television work included Route 66 and Bonanza (both in 1963).
In 1966, her "tempestuous" good looks led to a starring role as April Dancer in the short-lived NBC television spy thriller series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. This was a spin-off of the popular The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Powers' linguistic skills, dance training, and interest in bullfighting were written into several episodes of the series. She also learned how to fence for a five-minute fight sequence with sabers.
Shortly after the series' debut, she was featured on the cover of TV Guide (Dec. 31, 1966–Jan. 6, 1967). The article mentions her "117-pound frame is kept supple with 11 minutes of Royal Canadian Air Force exercises every morning." It also noted: "Unlike her fellow U.N.C.L.E. agents, the ladylike April is not required to kill the bad guys. Her feminine charms serve as the bait, while her partner Noel Harrison provides the fireworks." Dancer was written as a demure, passive figure instead of an action heroine like The Avengers' Emma Peel. The show's reliance on self-parody and camp humor instead of dramatic action and suspense was not a success. The series lasted for only one season (29 one-hour episodes) airing from September 16, 1966 to April 11, 1967.
In 1967, she was in the film Warning Shot with David Janssen. Her 1970s began with two Disney films, The Boatniks (1970) and Herbie Rides Again (sequel to The Love Bug).
She was a guest star on the Robert Wagner series It Takes a Thief in 1970. The two would go on to co-star in the popular Hart to Hart series nine years later.
Prior to the Hart to Hart success, she starred in The Feather and Father Gang as Toni "Feather" Danton, a successful lawyer. Her father, Harry Danton, was a smooth-talking ex-con man played by Harold Gould. It ran for 13 episodes. Guest roles on other popular TV shows include: McCloud (1971), The Mod Squad (1972), Kung Fu (1974), The Rockford Files (1975), Three for the Road (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (1976), and McMillan & Wife (1977). These shows were the ones that Powers appeared, long after she signed a contract with Universal Studios in 1970, coincidentally, her longtime friend and Hart to Hart series' star, Wagner, signed up a contract with Universal, but did not guest-star on more shows than Powers did. Her role as stripper Dottie Del Mar in 1979's Escape to Athena with Roger Moore turned out to be Powers' last theatrical film to date.
Powers became widely known as a television star for her role opposite old friend Wagner as a pair of amateur sleuths in the 1979-1984 series Hart to Hart for which she received two Emmy and five Golden Globe Award Best Television Actress nominations. In the 1990s she and Wagner reunited to make eight Hart to Hart made-for-TV two-hour movies. In 1985, Powers starred as twins who swap places leading to dire consequences in the two-part made-for-TV movie Deceptions.
She starred briefly in a 1991 London musical, Matador, which closed prematurely due to the sharp drop in tourism during the Persian Gulf War. In 1993, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her stage performance in Love Letters.
In 1996, she toured in a production of Applause which was slated to go to New York in hopes of a Broadway revival. She played the role of Margo Channing, played in the original production by Lauren Bacall (and later Anne Baxter), and in the source film All About Eve by Bette Davis.
She toured the United Kingdom in 2002 in the singing role of Anna Leonowens for a revival of The King and I. She also toured the U.S. in 2004 and 2005 in that role. Powers released her debut CD in 2003, titled, On The Same Page. The album features selections from the classic Great American Songbook era. Since 2006 she has been the U.S. location presenter on the BBC's long running Through the Keyhole panel show.
On April 30, 2008, she was reunited with Robert Wagner for the filming of a special Hart to Hart edition of the Graham Norton show . On 12 March 2011, she received the Steiger Award (Germany) for accomplishment in the arts.
Personal life
Powers was married to actor Gary Lockwood between 1966 and 1972. She had a relationship with actor William Holden that led to their being involved with wildlife conservation. Following his death in 1981, Powers became President of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and a director of the Mount Kenya Game Ranch in Kenya. In the United States, she works with both the Cincinnati and Atlanta zoos. She devotes a great deal of time to the cause and is international guest speaker on wildlife preservation.
On April 1, 1993 she married Patrick Houitte de la Chesnais. They divorced in 1999. Powers has no children.
A polo player, along with Canadian retailing magnate Galen Weston and Thoroughbred owner/breeder Henryk de Kwiatkowski, she was among the first foreign members of the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club in the United Kingdom, whose membership includes HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2005, she competed in the Joules United Kingdom National Women's Championships at Ascot.
In November 2008 Powers, who was a smoker for twenty years, was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Powers' mother, Julia Golen, died on January 3, 2009, according to the actress's official Web site.
Stefanie Powers has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6778 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
2010 Meet My Mom (Hallmark TV Movie) Louise Metcalf
1998 Someone is Watching Michelle Dupre
1996 Till Death Do Us Hart Jennifer Hart
1996 Harts in High Season Jennifer Hart
1995 Two Harts in 3/4 Time Jennifer Hart
1995 Secrets of the Hart Jennifer Hart
1994 Old Friends Never Die Jennifer Hart
1994 Crimes of the Hart Jennifer Hart
1994 Home is Where the Hart Is Jennifer Hart
1993 Hart to Hart Returns Jennifer Hart
1988 Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun (TV) Beryl Markham
1985 Deceptions (TV Mini-Series) Sabrina/Stephanie
1979 Escape to Athena Dottie Del Mar
1978 A Death in Canaan Joan Barthel
1975 It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time Georgia Price
1974 Herbie Rides Again Nicole Harris
1972 The Magnificent Seven Ride! Ms. Laurie Gunn
1971 Paper Man (TV) Karen McMillan
1970 The Boatniks Kate
1969 Crescendo Susan Roberts
1966 Stagecoach Mrs. Mallory
1965 Fanatic (aka Die! Die! My Darling!) Pat Carroll
1965 Love Has Many Faces Carol Lambert
1963 McLintock! Becky McLintock
1963 Palm Springs Weekend Bunny Dixon
1962 Experiment in Terror Toby Sherwood
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/02/11 at 6:38 am
The person of the day...Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers (born Stefanie Zofya Paul; November 2, 1942) is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.
Powers appeared in several motion pictures in the early 1960s in secondary roles such as the thriller Experiment in Terror with Glenn Ford and Lee Remick, the comedy If a Man Answers with Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin, and as the daughter of John Wayne in the lighthearted comedy-Western McLintock! (1963). She played a schoolgirl in Tammy Tell Me True (1961) and the police chief's daughter Bunny in the romantic comedy Palm Springs Weekend (1963). She was also in the 1962 hospital melodrama The Interns and its sequel The New Interns in 1964. In 1965, Powers had a more substantial role playing opposite veteran actress Tallulah Bankhead in the Hammer horror film Die! Die! My Darling (originally released in England as Fanatic). Her early television work included Route 66 and Bonanza (both in 1963).
In 1966, her "tempestuous" good looks led to a starring role as April Dancer in the short-lived NBC television spy thriller series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. This was a spin-off of the popular The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Powers' linguistic skills, dance training, and interest in bullfighting were written into several episodes of the series. She also learned how to fence for a five-minute fight sequence with sabers.
Shortly after the series' debut, she was featured on the cover of TV Guide (Dec. 31, 1966–Jan. 6, 1967). The article mentions her "117-pound frame is kept supple with 11 minutes of Royal Canadian Air Force exercises every morning." It also noted: "Unlike her fellow U.N.C.L.E. agents, the ladylike April is not required to kill the bad guys. Her feminine charms serve as the bait, while her partner Noel Harrison provides the fireworks." Dancer was written as a demure, passive figure instead of an action heroine like The Avengers' Emma Peel. The show's reliance on self-parody and camp humor instead of dramatic action and suspense was not a success. The series lasted for only one season (29 one-hour episodes) airing from September 16, 1966 to April 11, 1967.
In 1967, she was in the film Warning Shot with David Janssen. Her 1970s began with two Disney films, The Boatniks (1970) and Herbie Rides Again (sequel to The Love Bug).
She was a guest star on the Robert Wagner series It Takes a Thief in 1970. The two would go on to co-star in the popular Hart to Hart series nine years later.
Prior to the Hart to Hart success, she starred in The Feather and Father Gang as Toni "Feather" Danton, a successful lawyer. Her father, Harry Danton, was a smooth-talking ex-con man played by Harold Gould. It ran for 13 episodes. Guest roles on other popular TV shows include: McCloud (1971), The Mod Squad (1972), Kung Fu (1974), The Rockford Files (1975), Three for the Road (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (1976), and McMillan & Wife (1977). These shows were the ones that Powers appeared, long after she signed a contract with Universal Studios in 1970, coincidentally, her longtime friend and Hart to Hart series' star, Wagner, signed up a contract with Universal, but did not guest-star on more shows than Powers did. Her role as stripper Dottie Del Mar in 1979's Escape to Athena with Roger Moore turned out to be Powers' last theatrical film to date.
Powers became widely known as a television star for her role opposite old friend Wagner as a pair of amateur sleuths in the 1979-1984 series Hart to Hart for which she received two Emmy and five Golden Globe Award Best Television Actress nominations. In the 1990s she and Wagner reunited to make eight Hart to Hart made-for-TV two-hour movies. In 1985, Powers starred as twins who swap places leading to dire consequences in the two-part made-for-TV movie Deceptions.
She starred briefly in a 1991 London musical, Matador, which closed prematurely due to the sharp drop in tourism during the Persian Gulf War. In 1993, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her stage performance in Love Letters.
In 1996, she toured in a production of Applause which was slated to go to New York in hopes of a Broadway revival. She played the role of Margo Channing, played in the original production by Lauren Bacall (and later Anne Baxter), and in the source film All About Eve by Bette Davis.
She toured the United Kingdom in 2002 in the singing role of Anna Leonowens for a revival of The King and I. She also toured the U.S. in 2004 and 2005 in that role. Powers released her debut CD in 2003, titled, On The Same Page. The album features selections from the classic Great American Songbook era. Since 2006 she has been the U.S. location presenter on the BBC's long running Through the Keyhole panel show.
On April 30, 2008, she was reunited with Robert Wagner for the filming of a special Hart to Hart edition of the Graham Norton show . On 12 March 2011, she received the Steiger Award (Germany) for accomplishment in the arts.
Personal life
Powers was married to actor Gary Lockwood between 1966 and 1972. She had a relationship with actor William Holden that led to their being involved with wildlife conservation. Following his death in 1981, Powers became President of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and a director of the Mount Kenya Game Ranch in Kenya. In the United States, she works with both the Cincinnati and Atlanta zoos. She devotes a great deal of time to the cause and is international guest speaker on wildlife preservation.
On April 1, 1993 she married Patrick Houitte de la Chesnais. They divorced in 1999. Powers has no children.
A polo player, along with Canadian retailing magnate Galen Weston and Thoroughbred owner/breeder Henryk de Kwiatkowski, she was among the first foreign members of the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club in the United Kingdom, whose membership includes HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2005, she competed in the Joules United Kingdom National Women's Championships at Ascot.
In November 2008 Powers, who was a smoker for twenty years, was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Powers' mother, Julia Golen, died on January 3, 2009, according to the actress's official Web site.
Stefanie Powers has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6778 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
2010 Meet My Mom (Hallmark TV Movie) Louise Metcalf
1998 Someone is Watching Michelle Dupre
1996 Till Death Do Us Hart Jennifer Hart
1996 Harts in High Season Jennifer Hart
1995 Two Harts in 3/4 Time Jennifer Hart
1995 Secrets of the Hart Jennifer Hart
1994 Old Friends Never Die Jennifer Hart
1994 Crimes of the Hart Jennifer Hart
1994 Home is Where the Hart Is Jennifer Hart
1993 Hart to Hart Returns Jennifer Hart
1988 Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun (TV) Beryl Markham
1985 Deceptions (TV Mini-Series) Sabrina/Stephanie
1979 Escape to Athena Dottie Del Mar
1978 A Death in Canaan Joan Barthel
1975 It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time Georgia Price
1974 Herbie Rides Again Nicole Harris
1972 The Magnificent Seven Ride! Ms. Laurie Gunn
1971 Paper Man (TV) Karen McMillan
1970 The Boatniks Kate
1969 Crescendo Susan Roberts
1966 Stagecoach Mrs. Mallory
1965 Fanatic (aka Die! Die! My Darling!) Pat Carroll
1965 Love Has Many Faces Carol Lambert
1963 McLintock! Becky McLintock
1963 Palm Springs Weekend Bunny Dixon
1962 Experiment in Terror Toby Sherwood
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/epaddon/19.jpg
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/epaddon/14-1.jpg
At almost 60 years of age she still looks fabulous.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/02/11 at 12:08 pm
At almost 60 years of age she still looks fabulous.
She's more than that. 69, to be exact.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/03/11 at 7:18 am
The person of the day...Lulu
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, 3 November 1948, Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire), best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day. She is internationally identified, especially with North American audiences, with the song "To Sir, with Love" from the film of the same name and with the title song to the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. In European countries she is also widely known for her Eurovision Song Contest winning entry "Boom Bang-a-Bang" and in the UK for her first hit "Shout".
Under the wing of Marion Massey, she was signed to Decca Records and when she was only fifteen her version of The Isley Brothers' "Shout", delivered in a raucous but mature voice, reached the UK charts. Massey guided her career for more than 25 years, for most of which time they were partners in business, and Massey's husband, Mark, produced some of Lulu's recordings.
In 1966 Lulu toured Poland with The Hollies, the first British female singer to appear live behind the Iron Curtain. In the same year she recorded two German language tracks, "Wenn du da bist" and "So fing es an", for the Decca Germany label. All her Decca recordings were made available in 2009 on a 2-CD entitled Shout!, issued on RPM Records. After two hit singles with the The Luvvers Lulu launched her solo career.
She left Decca after failing to chart in 1966 and signed with Columbia to be produced by Mickie Most. In April 1967 she returned to the UK singles chart reaching number 6 with "The Boat That I Row", written by Neil Diamond. All seven singles she cut with Most made the UK Singles Chart. However, in her autobiography I Don't Want To Fight, published in 2002, she described him as "cheap" and had little positive to say about their working relationship, which she ended in 1969 after her biggest UK solo hit. Nonetheless when Mickie Most died in 2003, Lulu was full of praise for him and told the BBC they had been very close.
In 1967 she made her debut film in To Sir, with Love, a British vehicle for Sidney Poitier. She had a major hit, the title song reaching number one in the United States. In the UK, it was released on the B-side of "Let's Pretend", a # 11 hit, but "To Sir, With Love" sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In the meantime she continued her thriving pop career in the UK and had several television series of her own. After appearing on the BBC in 1967 in a successful TV series that featured music and comedy, Three Of A Kind, Lulu was given her own TV series in 1968, which ran annually until 1975 under various titles including Lulu's Back In Town, Happening For Lulu, Lulu and It's Lulu, which featured Adrienne Posta. Her BBC series featured music and comedy sketches and star guests; one episode remains famous for Jimi Hendrix's unruly live appearance where, after playing about two minutes of Hey Joe, Hendrix stopped and announced "We'd like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to The Cream, regardless of what kind of group they may be in, dedicate to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce". He then broke into Sunshine of Your Love. With the studio director signalling for Hendrix to stop he continued. Unrepentant, Hendrix was told he would never work at the BBC again. He told his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham "I'm not going to sing with Lulu. I'd look ridiculous". From 30 June to 2 July 1967 she appeared with The Monkees at the Empire Pool, Wembley, and her brief romance with Davy Jones of The Monkees during an concert tour of the USA in March 1968 received much publicity in the UK press. Lulu described her relationship with Jones as "He was a kind of boyfriend but it was very innocent - nothing untoward happened. It faded almost as soon as it had blossomed".
Eurovision Song Contest
On 29 March 1969, she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest performing the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang", written by Peter Warne and Alan Moorhouse, the song chosen from a selection of six by viewers of her BBC1 variety series Happening for Lulu and on a special show hosted by Michael Aspel in which she performed all six one after another. One song, "I Can't Go On...", written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, came last in the postcard vote but was later recorded by Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Polly Brown and Elton John himself as well as by Lulu. In Madrid Lulu was accompanied by Sue and Sunny while the orchestra was conducted by Lulu's musical director Johnny Harris. Lulu later recalled:
I had a series on TV, and Bill Cotton was the Head of Light Entertainment , and he said to my manager: "I'd like her to do the Eurovision Song Contest, on the series". And she came to me and I went "Why? What do I want to do that for?"... and she said that he said that "you'll get good ratings, and he is the boss, and he wants you to have good ratings. Maybe I could have said no, but I felt I didn't really have a choice in the matter. And I thought... I was full of myself, thinking ratings isn't what it's all about... But, you know, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a great song that didn't go through... I had this amazing band, like 20 pieces. We did all these different songs... every single one of us said "Which one is gonna win? Which one is gonna win?" and we all laughed and went: "Bet you it's that Boom boom bang a bang a bang a bang..." But then it won. Somehow there was an intelligence working there... and it was a huge success.
"Boom Bang-a-Bang" was a winner, though three other songs, from Spain, ("Vivo cantando" by Salomé), the Netherlands, ("De Troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr) and France, ("Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara) tied with her on 18 votes each. The rules were altered to prevent such ties but the result caused Austria, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Finland not to enter the 1970 contest. Lulu's song came out the best in sales, with German, French, Spanish and Italian versions alongside the original English. Later she told John Peel; "I know it's a rotten song, but I won, so who cares? I'd have sung "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" standing on my head if that's what it took to win.... I am just so glad I didn't finish second like all the other Brits before me, that would have been awful." Despite her dislike it is her second biggest UK hit to date, reaching number two on the chart in 1969.
In 1975 Lulu herself would host the BBC's A Song for Europe, the qualifying heat for the Eurovision Song Contest, in which The Shadows would performe six shortlisted songs. In 1981 she joined other Eurovision winners at a charity gala held in Norway and she was a panellist at the 1989 UK heat, offering views on two of the competing eight entries. In 2009 she provided comment and support to the six acts shortlisted to represent the UK at Eurovision 2009 on BBC1 TV.
Weeks before her Eurovision appearance Lulu had married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a ceremony in Gerrards Cross. Maurice's older brother Barry was opposed to their marriage as he believed them to be too young. Their honeymoon in Mexico had to be postponed because of Lulu's Eurovision commitment. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced, childless, in 1973 but remained on good terms. . In 1969, she recorded New Routes an album recorded at Muscle Shoals studios: several of the songs, including a version of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles", featured slide guitarist Duane Allman. The album was recorded for Atlantic's Atco label and produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin
1970s
Lulu began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's highly rated review of the sixties music scene Pop Go The Sixties, performing "Boom Bang-A-Bang" live on BBC1, 31 December 1969. She recorded another Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin album in the USA, Melody Fair, and scored a US Top 30 hit, "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)", (later covered by Aretha Franklin, Buster Poindexter, and John Holt) and collaborated with the Dixie Flyers on "Hum a Song (From Your Heart)"
Four more German language tracks, ("Ich brauche deine Liebe", "Wach' ich oder träum' ich", "Warum tu'st du mir weh", and "Traurig, aber wahr") were recorded on the Atlantic/WEA label.
She was one of the main artists invited to appear on the BBC's anniversary show Fifty Years Of Music in 1972. The same year she starred in the Christmas pantomime Peter Pan at the Palace Theatre, Manchester and repeated her performance at the London Palladium in 1975, and returned to the same role in different London-based productions from 1987 to early 1989. She made an appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show in 1973, singing "All the Things You Are" and "Happy Heart".
In 1974 she performed the title song for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. Two slightly different versions of the song were used, at the start and end respectively - the end song actually name-checking James Bond. The same year she covered David Bowie's songs "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Watch That Man". Bowie and Mick Ronson produced the recordings. Bowie played saxophone and provided back-up vocals and rumours of a brief affair were confirmed in her 2002 autobiography. "The Man Who Sold the World" became her first top 10 hit in five years, peaking at number three in the UK chart in February 1974 and was a top 10 hit in several European countries.
On 31 December 1976 Lulu performed "Shout" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver jubilee.
In 1977 Lulu became interested in Siddha Yoga and married hairdresser John Frieda. They divorced in 1991. They had one son, Jordan Frieda.
1980s
Lulu's chart success waned but she remained in the public eye, acting and hosting a long-running radio show on London's Capital Radio station. She was associated with Freemans fashion catalogue during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In August 1979 after a performance in Margate, Kent she was in a car accident that nearly took her life, colliding head-on with another car on Brooksend Hill and spent a week in hospital recovering. That same year, she recorded for Elton John's label Rocket Records and seemed about to hit the charts again, with the lauded "I Love to Boogie", but surprisingly, despite critical acclaim and much airplay, it did not make the top 75.
Notable London stage appearances came in the early 1980s in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance and the Royal National Theatre's Guys and Dolls. She damaged her vocal cords while performing in the Webber show, requiring surgery that threatened her singing voice. She co-hosted a revived series of Oh Boy! for ITV in the early 1980s. In 1981 she returned to the US charts with "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)", a Top 20 hit that also reached number two on the Adult Contemporary chart despite stalling at number 62 in the UK. Early the following year she had a more modest US hit with "If I Were You", which just missed the Top 40, appeared in the video for "Ant Rap" alongside Adam and the Ants and was nominated for a Grammy for "Who's Foolin' Who" from the "Lulu" album.
She won the Rear of the Year award in 1983 and re-recorded a number of her songs. These included "Shout," which reached the Top 10 in 1986 in the UK, securing her a spot on Top of the Pops. Lulu was one of only two performers (Cliff Richard being the other) to have sung in the Top of the Pops studio in each of the five decades that the show ran. A follow up single to "Shout", an updated version of Millie's 1960s hit "My Boy Lollipop", failed to chart and Lulu stopped recording until 1992, focusing instead on TV, acting and live performances. These tracks were released on the Jive Records label. Lulu has had hits on the Decca, Columbia, Atco, Polydor, Chelsea, Alfa, Jive, Dome, RCA, Mercury and Universal labels. She has also released singles for GTO, Atlantic, Globe, EMI, Concept, Lifestyle, Utopia and Rocket, and Epic in the US. For a while, she held the record for the most number of hit labels in the UK charts. In 1987 she played Adrian Mole's mother on television (replacing Julie Walters).
1990s
In 1993 she made a recording comeback with the single "Independence" which reached number 11 in the UK charts. This was the title track from the Independence album, all four singles released from this album reached the UK charts, as did two later singles released in 1994.
Later that year she guested on the cover version of the Dan Hartman song "Relight My Fire", with boy band Take That. The single reached number one in the British charts and Lulu appeared as Take That's support act on their 1994 tour. At this time she also appeared as an unhappy public relations client of Edina Monsoon in two episodes of the BBC television programme Absolutely Fabulous and teamed with French & Saunders many times, including their send up of the Spice Girls (The Sugar Lumps) for Comic Relief in 1997, when she took the role of "Baby Spice", mimicking Emma Bunton. An album, provisionally titled Where the Poor Boys Dance was completed in late 1997 and due for release in early 1998 but was postponed by the record label Mercury. "Hurt Me So Bad" was released in April 1999 and a year later the title track from the album reach number 24 in the UK.
In 1999, Lulu returned to BBC1 to host their Saturday night National Lottery game show Red Alert and co-wrote and recorded a duet with UK pop singer Kavana entitled "Heart Like The Sun", but it was not released commercially until Kavana's 2007 "greatest hits" collection, Special Kind Of Something: The Best of....
2000s
Now known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (her late mother's birth name before she was adopted by the McDonald family), in 2000 she was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth. Her autobiography, published in 2002 was titled I Don't Want to Fight after the hit song she and her brother wrote with hit songwriter Steve DuBerry for Tina Turner, a song that Lulu herself released in 2003 as part of her The Greatest Hits album. Her 2002 gold album Together was a collection of duets with Elton John and Paul McCartney among others, tracks from which were performed in a high profile TV special for ITV, An Audience With Lulu, which saw Lulu reunited with her first husband Maurice Gibb for a live performance of "First of May".
Performing with Jools Holland at Border Hill, 23 June 2007.
In 2004, she released the album Back on Track and went on a UK-wide tour to celebrate 40 years in the business, the album charting at a low No 68. In late 2004 she returned to radio as the host of a 2-hour radio show on BBC Radio 2, playing an eclectic blend of music from the 1950s to the 2000s. In 2005, Lulu released A Little Soul in Your Heart, a collection of soul classics that entered the UK Albums Chart at number 28. In March 2006 she launched her official MySpace profile.
Lulu continued to act occasionally and starred alongside Tom Courtenay and Stephen Fry in the British movie, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?. She also appeared in the BBC's reality TV show Just the Two of Us in 2006 as a judge and in late June and early July 2006 appeared on Take That's UK and Ireland tour to perform their song "Relight My Fire". She appeared on American Idol Season 6 on 20 March 2007 as a mentor for the female contestants and the following night performed "To Sir, With Love". Later in 2007 she appeared in the UK as a guest for Jools Holland in a series of concerts and features and on Holland's CD release "Best of Friends", performing "Where Have All the Good Guys Gone?"
Lulu's complete Atco recordings (made between 1969 and 1972) were released on 12 November 2007. The two CD set included previously unreleased and demo versions of some of her recordings from this period. In December 2007 she released a download single on iTunes in the UK, called "Run Rudolph Run". At this time Lulu was also promoting a range of beauty products on QVC (UK), called "Time Bomb", and appeared on a 2007 Christmas television advertisement for Morrisons, the UK supermarket chain.
In February 2008 Lulu fans created an online petition to get Lulu an Outstanding Achievement Award from The Brits. This can still be signed at Lulu Brit Award Petition Online
In November 2008 Lulu was announced as one of a number of Scottish celebrities to feature in the advertising campaign for Homecoming Scotland, a year-long event to encourage people around the world with Scottish heritage to return to Scotland. Also in November 2008, Lulu posted the following message on her website, celebrating the election of Barack Obama as President of the USA: "Barack Obama Is In – Yippee, now we have got hope in the World. I’ve just turned 60, Obama is the new president of the USA and I think its going to be a fantastic year. Love Lu X". In both the 1979 and 1983 UK General Elections, Lulu had been a supporter of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party.
In January 2009, Lulu began a four week stint as an advisor/coach on the BBC show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, helping to choose the singer to represent the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
In the summer of 2009, Lulu guest presented on STV's daily lifestyle show The Hour, alongside main anchor Stephen Jardine. She appeared between 27 and 31 July. The Scottish magazine programme airs weekdays at 5 pm. As of 2009, she continues to pitch her range of "Lulu's" anti-ageing products and other cosmetics through the QVC (UK) home shopping channel, using her youthful appearance as a promotional tool.
After appearing at an Abba tribute concert in Hyde Park, London during September 2009, Lulu announced that she would be touring the UK in a Here Come the Girls alongside Chaka Khan and Anastacia. The trio promoted the concert series on UK TV, ahead of the first performance in November 2009, which took in 20 different dates.
2010s
In early 2010, Lulu performed the theme "The Word Is Love" to the movie Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! and toured the UK a second time with Here Come the Girls alongside Anastacia and Heather Small. In November 2010 she hosted the BBC TV series "Rewind the 60s" . Each episode focused on a year during the 1960s highlighting the social and political issues of the decade as well as music and interviews with personalities from the decade.
On 26 February 2011 Lulu appeared in the second heat in the third series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief. She danced to Soulja Boy's hit Crank That. In May 2011 made an appearance on the ITV2 program Celebrity Juice and in July 2011 she performed at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales.
Lulu appeared on Channel 4's Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on 5 August 2011; closing the show dueting Bad Romance with Cuba Gooding, Jr.
In October 2011 Lulu took part in the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering Brendan Cole
Discography
Main article: Lulu discography
Filmography
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
The Cherry Picker (1972)
Alicja (1982) (voice)
To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999)
Other television appearances
Episode 28 of BBC's Monty Python's Flying Circus (1972, cameo appearance)
Starred in several episdoes of drama Perfect Scoundrels (TV series) from 1990 to 1992.
See also
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lulu (singer)
List of number-one hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
Mononymous person
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/b454/tracyann2010/Lulu.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p14/speedyclick/lulu.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/03/11 at 2:44 pm
The person of the day...Lulu
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, 3 November 1948, Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire), best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day. She is internationally identified, especially with North American audiences, with the song "To Sir, with Love" from the film of the same name and with the title song to the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. In European countries she is also widely known for her Eurovision Song Contest winning entry "Boom Bang-a-Bang" and in the UK for her first hit "Shout".
Under the wing of Marion Massey, she was signed to Decca Records and when she was only fifteen her version of The Isley Brothers' "Shout", delivered in a raucous but mature voice, reached the UK charts. Massey guided her career for more than 25 years, for most of which time they were partners in business, and Massey's husband, Mark, produced some of Lulu's recordings.
In 1966 Lulu toured Poland with The Hollies, the first British female singer to appear live behind the Iron Curtain. In the same year she recorded two German language tracks, "Wenn du da bist" and "So fing es an", for the Decca Germany label. All her Decca recordings were made available in 2009 on a 2-CD entitled Shout!, issued on RPM Records. After two hit singles with the The Luvvers Lulu launched her solo career.
She left Decca after failing to chart in 1966 and signed with Columbia to be produced by Mickie Most. In April 1967 she returned to the UK singles chart reaching number 6 with "The Boat That I Row", written by Neil Diamond. All seven singles she cut with Most made the UK Singles Chart. However, in her autobiography I Don't Want To Fight, published in 2002, she described him as "cheap" and had little positive to say about their working relationship, which she ended in 1969 after her biggest UK solo hit. Nonetheless when Mickie Most died in 2003, Lulu was full of praise for him and told the BBC they had been very close.
In 1967 she made her debut film in To Sir, with Love, a British vehicle for Sidney Poitier. She had a major hit, the title song reaching number one in the United States. In the UK, it was released on the B-side of "Let's Pretend", a # 11 hit, but "To Sir, With Love" sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In the meantime she continued her thriving pop career in the UK and had several television series of her own. After appearing on the BBC in 1967 in a successful TV series that featured music and comedy, Three Of A Kind, Lulu was given her own TV series in 1968, which ran annually until 1975 under various titles including Lulu's Back In Town, Happening For Lulu, Lulu and It's Lulu, which featured Adrienne Posta. Her BBC series featured music and comedy sketches and star guests; one episode remains famous for Jimi Hendrix's unruly live appearance where, after playing about two minutes of Hey Joe, Hendrix stopped and announced "We'd like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to The Cream, regardless of what kind of group they may be in, dedicate to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce". He then broke into Sunshine of Your Love. With the studio director signalling for Hendrix to stop he continued. Unrepentant, Hendrix was told he would never work at the BBC again. He told his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham "I'm not going to sing with Lulu. I'd look ridiculous". From 30 June to 2 July 1967 she appeared with The Monkees at the Empire Pool, Wembley, and her brief romance with Davy Jones of The Monkees during an concert tour of the USA in March 1968 received much publicity in the UK press. Lulu described her relationship with Jones as "He was a kind of boyfriend but it was very innocent - nothing untoward happened. It faded almost as soon as it had blossomed".
Eurovision Song Contest
On 29 March 1969, she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest performing the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang", written by Peter Warne and Alan Moorhouse, the song chosen from a selection of six by viewers of her BBC1 variety series Happening for Lulu and on a special show hosted by Michael Aspel in which she performed all six one after another. One song, "I Can't Go On...", written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, came last in the postcard vote but was later recorded by Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Polly Brown and Elton John himself as well as by Lulu. In Madrid Lulu was accompanied by Sue and Sunny while the orchestra was conducted by Lulu's musical director Johnny Harris. Lulu later recalled:
I had a series on TV, and Bill Cotton was the Head of Light Entertainment , and he said to my manager: "I'd like her to do the Eurovision Song Contest, on the series". And she came to me and I went "Why? What do I want to do that for?"... and she said that he said that "you'll get good ratings, and he is the boss, and he wants you to have good ratings. Maybe I could have said no, but I felt I didn't really have a choice in the matter. And I thought... I was full of myself, thinking ratings isn't what it's all about... But, you know, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a great song that didn't go through... I had this amazing band, like 20 pieces. We did all these different songs... every single one of us said "Which one is gonna win? Which one is gonna win?" and we all laughed and went: "Bet you it's that Boom boom bang a bang a bang a bang..." But then it won. Somehow there was an intelligence working there... and it was a huge success.
"Boom Bang-a-Bang" was a winner, though three other songs, from Spain, ("Vivo cantando" by Salomé), the Netherlands, ("De Troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr) and France, ("Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara) tied with her on 18 votes each. The rules were altered to prevent such ties but the result caused Austria, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Finland not to enter the 1970 contest. Lulu's song came out the best in sales, with German, French, Spanish and Italian versions alongside the original English. Later she told John Peel; "I know it's a rotten song, but I won, so who cares? I'd have sung "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" standing on my head if that's what it took to win.... I am just so glad I didn't finish second like all the other Brits before me, that would have been awful." Despite her dislike it is her second biggest UK hit to date, reaching number two on the chart in 1969.
In 1975 Lulu herself would host the BBC's A Song for Europe, the qualifying heat for the Eurovision Song Contest, in which The Shadows would performe six shortlisted songs. In 1981 she joined other Eurovision winners at a charity gala held in Norway and she was a panellist at the 1989 UK heat, offering views on two of the competing eight entries. In 2009 she provided comment and support to the six acts shortlisted to represent the UK at Eurovision 2009 on BBC1 TV.
Weeks before her Eurovision appearance Lulu had married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a ceremony in Gerrards Cross. Maurice's older brother Barry was opposed to their marriage as he believed them to be too young. Their honeymoon in Mexico had to be postponed because of Lulu's Eurovision commitment. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced, childless, in 1973 but remained on good terms. . In 1969, she recorded New Routes an album recorded at Muscle Shoals studios: several of the songs, including a version of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles", featured slide guitarist Duane Allman. The album was recorded for Atlantic's Atco label and produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin
1970s
Lulu began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's highly rated review of the sixties music scene Pop Go The Sixties, performing "Boom Bang-A-Bang" live on BBC1, 31 December 1969. She recorded another Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin album in the USA, Melody Fair, and scored a US Top 30 hit, "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)", (later covered by Aretha Franklin, Buster Poindexter, and John Holt) and collaborated with the Dixie Flyers on "Hum a Song (From Your Heart)"
Four more German language tracks, ("Ich brauche deine Liebe", "Wach' ich oder träum' ich", "Warum tu'st du mir weh", and "Traurig, aber wahr") were recorded on the Atlantic/WEA label.
She was one of the main artists invited to appear on the BBC's anniversary show Fifty Years Of Music in 1972. The same year she starred in the Christmas pantomime Peter Pan at the Palace Theatre, Manchester and repeated her performance at the London Palladium in 1975, and returned to the same role in different London-based productions from 1987 to early 1989. She made an appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show in 1973, singing "All the Things You Are" and "Happy Heart".
In 1974 she performed the title song for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. Two slightly different versions of the song were used, at the start and end respectively - the end song actually name-checking James Bond. The same year she covered David Bowie's songs "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Watch That Man". Bowie and Mick Ronson produced the recordings. Bowie played saxophone and provided back-up vocals and rumours of a brief affair were confirmed in her 2002 autobiography. "The Man Who Sold the World" became her first top 10 hit in five years, peaking at number three in the UK chart in February 1974 and was a top 10 hit in several European countries.
On 31 December 1976 Lulu performed "Shout" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver jubilee.
In 1977 Lulu became interested in Siddha Yoga and married hairdresser John Frieda. They divorced in 1991. They had one son, Jordan Frieda.
1980s
Lulu's chart success waned but she remained in the public eye, acting and hosting a long-running radio show on London's Capital Radio station. She was associated with Freemans fashion catalogue during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In August 1979 after a performance in Margate, Kent she was in a car accident that nearly took her life, colliding head-on with another car on Brooksend Hill and spent a week in hospital recovering. That same year, she recorded for Elton John's label Rocket Records and seemed about to hit the charts again, with the lauded "I Love to Boogie", but surprisingly, despite critical acclaim and much airplay, it did not make the top 75.
Notable London stage appearances came in the early 1980s in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance and the Royal National Theatre's Guys and Dolls. She damaged her vocal cords while performing in the Webber show, requiring surgery that threatened her singing voice. She co-hosted a revived series of Oh Boy! for ITV in the early 1980s. In 1981 she returned to the US charts with "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)", a Top 20 hit that also reached number two on the Adult Contemporary chart despite stalling at number 62 in the UK. Early the following year she had a more modest US hit with "If I Were You", which just missed the Top 40, appeared in the video for "Ant Rap" alongside Adam and the Ants and was nominated for a Grammy for "Who's Foolin' Who" from the "Lulu" album.
She won the Rear of the Year award in 1983 and re-recorded a number of her songs. These included "Shout," which reached the Top 10 in 1986 in the UK, securing her a spot on Top of the Pops. Lulu was one of only two performers (Cliff Richard being the other) to have sung in the Top of the Pops studio in each of the five decades that the show ran. A follow up single to "Shout", an updated version of Millie's 1960s hit "My Boy Lollipop", failed to chart and Lulu stopped recording until 1992, focusing instead on TV, acting and live performances. These tracks were released on the Jive Records label. Lulu has had hits on the Decca, Columbia, Atco, Polydor, Chelsea, Alfa, Jive, Dome, RCA, Mercury and Universal labels. She has also released singles for GTO, Atlantic, Globe, EMI, Concept, Lifestyle, Utopia and Rocket, and Epic in the US. For a while, she held the record for the most number of hit labels in the UK charts. In 1987 she played Adrian Mole's mother on television (replacing Julie Walters).
1990s
In 1993 she made a recording comeback with the single "Independence" which reached number 11 in the UK charts. This was the title track from the Independence album, all four singles released from this album reached the UK charts, as did two later singles released in 1994.
Later that year she guested on the cover version of the Dan Hartman song "Relight My Fire", with boy band Take That. The single reached number one in the British charts and Lulu appeared as Take That's support act on their 1994 tour. At this time she also appeared as an unhappy public relations client of Edina Monsoon in two episodes of the BBC television programme Absolutely Fabulous and teamed with French & Saunders many times, including their send up of the Spice Girls (The Sugar Lumps) for Comic Relief in 1997, when she took the role of "Baby Spice", mimicking Emma Bunton. An album, provisionally titled Where the Poor Boys Dance was completed in late 1997 and due for release in early 1998 but was postponed by the record label Mercury. "Hurt Me So Bad" was released in April 1999 and a year later the title track from the album reach number 24 in the UK.
In 1999, Lulu returned to BBC1 to host their Saturday night National Lottery game show Red Alert and co-wrote and recorded a duet with UK pop singer Kavana entitled "Heart Like The Sun", but it was not released commercially until Kavana's 2007 "greatest hits" collection, Special Kind Of Something: The Best of....
2000s
Now known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (her late mother's birth name before she was adopted by the McDonald family), in 2000 she was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth. Her autobiography, published in 2002 was titled I Don't Want to Fight after the hit song she and her brother wrote with hit songwriter Steve DuBerry for Tina Turner, a song that Lulu herself released in 2003 as part of her The Greatest Hits album. Her 2002 gold album Together was a collection of duets with Elton John and Paul McCartney among others, tracks from which were performed in a high profile TV special for ITV, An Audience With Lulu, which saw Lulu reunited with her first husband Maurice Gibb for a live performance of "First of May".
Performing with Jools Holland at Border Hill, 23 June 2007.
In 2004, she released the album Back on Track and went on a UK-wide tour to celebrate 40 years in the business, the album charting at a low No 68. In late 2004 she returned to radio as the host of a 2-hour radio show on BBC Radio 2, playing an eclectic blend of music from the 1950s to the 2000s. In 2005, Lulu released A Little Soul in Your Heart, a collection of soul classics that entered the UK Albums Chart at number 28. In March 2006 she launched her official MySpace profile.
Lulu continued to act occasionally and starred alongside Tom Courtenay and Stephen Fry in the British movie, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?. She also appeared in the BBC's reality TV show Just the Two of Us in 2006 as a judge and in late June and early July 2006 appeared on Take That's UK and Ireland tour to perform their song "Relight My Fire". She appeared on American Idol Season 6 on 20 March 2007 as a mentor for the female contestants and the following night performed "To Sir, With Love". Later in 2007 she appeared in the UK as a guest for Jools Holland in a series of concerts and features and on Holland's CD release "Best of Friends", performing "Where Have All the Good Guys Gone?"
Lulu's complete Atco recordings (made between 1969 and 1972) were released on 12 November 2007. The two CD set included previously unreleased and demo versions of some of her recordings from this period. In December 2007 she released a download single on iTunes in the UK, called "Run Rudolph Run". At this time Lulu was also promoting a range of beauty products on QVC (UK), called "Time Bomb", and appeared on a 2007 Christmas television advertisement for Morrisons, the UK supermarket chain.
In February 2008 Lulu fans created an online petition to get Lulu an Outstanding Achievement Award from The Brits. This can still be signed at Lulu Brit Award Petition Online
In November 2008 Lulu was announced as one of a number of Scottish celebrities to feature in the advertising campaign for Homecoming Scotland, a year-long event to encourage people around the world with Scottish heritage to return to Scotland. Also in November 2008, Lulu posted the following message on her website, celebrating the election of Barack Obama as President of the USA: "Barack Obama Is In – Yippee, now we have got hope in the World. I’ve just turned 60, Obama is the new president of the USA and I think its going to be a fantastic year. Love Lu X". In both the 1979 and 1983 UK General Elections, Lulu had been a supporter of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party.
In January 2009, Lulu began a four week stint as an advisor/coach on the BBC show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, helping to choose the singer to represent the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
In the summer of 2009, Lulu guest presented on STV's daily lifestyle show The Hour, alongside main anchor Stephen Jardine. She appeared between 27 and 31 July. The Scottish magazine programme airs weekdays at 5 pm. As of 2009, she continues to pitch her range of "Lulu's" anti-ageing products and other cosmetics through the QVC (UK) home shopping channel, using her youthful appearance as a promotional tool.
After appearing at an Abba tribute concert in Hyde Park, London during September 2009, Lulu announced that she would be touring the UK in a Here Come the Girls alongside Chaka Khan and Anastacia. The trio promoted the concert series on UK TV, ahead of the first performance in November 2009, which took in 20 different dates.
2010s
In early 2010, Lulu performed the theme "The Word Is Love" to the movie Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! and toured the UK a second time with Here Come the Girls alongside Anastacia and Heather Small. In November 2010 she hosted the BBC TV series "Rewind the 60s" . Each episode focused on a year during the 1960s highlighting the social and political issues of the decade as well as music and interviews with personalities from the decade.
On 26 February 2011 Lulu appeared in the second heat in the third series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief. She danced to Soulja Boy's hit Crank That. In May 2011 made an appearance on the ITV2 program Celebrity Juice and in July 2011 she performed at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales.
Lulu appeared on Channel 4's Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on 5 August 2011; closing the show dueting Bad Romance with Cuba Gooding, Jr.
In October 2011 Lulu took part in the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering Brendan Cole
Discography
Main article: Lulu discography
Filmography
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
The Cherry Picker (1972)
Alicja (1982) (voice)
To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999)
Other television appearances
Episode 28 of BBC's Monty Python's Flying Circus (1972, cameo appearance)
Starred in several episdoes of drama Perfect Scoundrels (TV series) from 1990 to 1992.
See also
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lulu (singer)
List of number-one hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
Mononymous person
http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/b454/tracyann2010/Lulu.jpg
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p14/speedyclick/lulu.jpg
http://www.inthe00s.com/Smileys/nov5th/wink.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 11/03/11 at 3:32 pm
http://www.inthe00s.com/Smileys/nov5th/wink.gif
I thought for sure that you would post the pic of you & Lulu.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/04/11 at 1:56 am
I thought for sure that you would post the pic of you & Lulu.
Cat
I would have done, but now I decline too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/04/11 at 6:58 am
The person of the day...Sean Combs
Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally known as Puff Daddy and then as P. Diddy (Puff and Puffy being often used as a nickname, but never as recording names). In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy", but continues to use the name P. Diddy in England as the result of a lawsuit. He formed and recorded with the group "Diddy – Dirty Money".
Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records and then founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. His business interests under the umbrella of Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide include Bad Boy Records; the clothing lines Sean John & Sean by Sean Combs; a movie production company; and two restaurants. He has taken the roles of recording executive, performer, producer of MTV's Making the Band, writer, arranger, clothing designer, and Broadway actor. In 2011 Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million, making him the richest figure in hip hop.
In 1997, Combs recorded his first commercial vocal as a rapper under the name "Puff Daddy." His debut single, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album, No Way Out was a #1 album and won the 1998 Grammy Award for best rap album. His second single, "I'll Be Missing You", in memory of The Notorious B.I.G. debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. He collaborated with Jimmy Page on the song "Come with Me" for the Godzilla film, an EPIC/Sony Soundtrax production. The track, approved by Page, sampled the Led Zeppelin song "Kashmir". Producer Tom Morello supplied live guitar parts, playing bass on the song. Combs and Page filmed a video for "Come with Me", which reached #2 in the UK.
In 1997, Combs was sued for landlord neglect by Inge Bongo. Combs denied the charges.
By the late 1990s, he was receiving criticism for watering down and overly commercializing hip-hop and overusing guest appearances by other artists, samples and interpolations of past hits in his own hit songs.
Club New York
In December 1999, Combs was accused of assaulting Steve Stoute of Interscope Records. Stoute was the manager for Nas. Combs had filmed a video scene earlier that year for "Hate Me Now" that featured Nas being crucified but demanded that the images be removed. Stoute's refusal led to an argument and Puff Daddy's arrest for aggravated assault. This was followed by yet more negative publicity as The Lox left Bad Boy Records and a recording session with Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease, both of The Notorious B.I.G.'s Junior M.A.F.I.A. posse, was interrupted by gunfire.
On December 27, 1999, Combs and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez were at Club New York, a midtown Manhattan nightclub, when gunfire broke out. After a police investigation, Combs and fellow rapper Shyne were arrested for weapons violations and other charges. The New York County District Attorney's Office, led by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, indicted Combs after his driver, Wardel Fenderson, claimed that Combs had tried to bribe him into taking the weapon after the shooting.
With a gag order in place, the highly publicized trial began. His attorneys were Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Benjamin Brafman. After the trial was over, Combs was found not guilty on all charges; Shyne was convicted on the same charges and sentenced to ten years in prison. Combs and Lopez split shortly after. A lawsuit filed by Combs's driver, Fenderson, who said he suffered emotional damage after the club shooting, was settled in February 2004. Lawyers for both sides, having agreed to keep the settlement terms secret, would say only that the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
"P. Diddy"
In 2001, after his acquittal on gun possession and bribery charges, Combs changed his stage name from "Puff Daddy" to "P. Diddy". He later appeared as a drug dealer in the film Made and starred with Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball. He tried to reinvent his image, working on a gospel album, Thank You, but soon faced assault charges by a Michigan television host, Dr. Roger Mills, also known as Rogelio Mills, and then was arrested for driving on a suspended license in Florida. Combs began working with a series of unusual (for him) artists. A collaboration with David Bowie appeared on the soundtrack to Training Day and he also worked with Britney Spears and 'N Sync. He signed California-based pop girl group Dream to his record label. He was also an opening act for 'N Sync on their Spring 2002 Celebrity Tour.
Later in 2002, he made his own reality show on MTV called Making the Band 2, a sequel to the first Making the Band, in which contestants competed to be in a new group on Bad Boy Records. Six finalists were to come up with their name, CD and video (see Da Band). The group, maligned by comics and critics and drawing a skit on Chappelle's Show, was dissolved by Combs at the end of the series.
In 2003, Combs ran in the New York City Marathon and raised $2,000,000 for the educational system for the children of New York. On March 10, 2004, he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the marathon, which he finished in four hours and eighteen minutes.
In 2004, Combs headed the campaign "Vote or Die" for the 2004 Presidential Election. The "Vote or Die" slogan was mocked by both The Daily Show and South Park as being too simplistic and encouraging young people to vote without knowing the issues. In a South Park episode entitled "Douche and Turd", Combs and his friends were depicted chasing Stan Marsh, one of the show's main characters, around with weapons, literally threatening to kill him if he wouldn't vote in his school election.
"Diddy"
Combs performing in 2010
On August 16, 2005, Combs appeared on Today and announced that he was altering his stage name yet again, dropping the "P." and referring to himself simply as "Diddy", saying that "the P was getting between me and my fans." However, London-based musical artist and DJ Richard Dearlove had been performing under the "Diddy" name since 1992 - i.e. nine years before Combs started using even "P. Diddy" - so in November 2005 sought an injunction in the High Court of Justice, London, but accepted an out-of-court settlement of £10,000 in damages, and more than £100,000 in costs. As a result, Combs no longer uses the name Diddy in the UK, where he is still known as P. Diddy.
Combs starred in the 2005 Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, played Walter Lee Younger in the critically acclaimed 2004 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun and the television adaptation which was aired in February 2008. In the same year Combs sold his record company to the Warner Music Group. Tensions still existed between him and former Warner CEOs Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles (both formerly of Def Jam) but they arranged for his imprint to be a part of the company. In an interview with AndPOP Combs said that he was developing a line of men's suits. He later hosted the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2005 by Time magazine. He even earned a mention in the world of country music: The narrator of "Play Something Country" by Brooks & Dunn and Sean Okundaye says he "didn't come to hear P Diddy", which he rhymes with "something bumpin' from the city."
In 2006, after trying to move Mase away from Bad Boy Records, 50 Cent recorded a diss song, "Hip-Hop", in which he implied that Combs knew about The Notorious B.I.G.'s murder. The feud was resolved, with both rappers appearing on MTV's TRL and Sucker Free, respectively, stating that there were no longer problems.
Combs released his first album in 4 years, Press Play, on October 17, 2006 on the Bad Boy Records label with guest appearances from Christina Aguilera, Keyshia Cole, Mario Winans (signed to his label 'Bad Boy Records'), Nas, Will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), Mary J. Blige, Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls), Jamie Foxx, Fergie, Big Boi (of Outkast), Ciara, Twista, Just Blaze, Pharrell, Brandy. The album reached number one on its first week in the charts.
It was reported that Combs would be singing on all the tracks of this album but he did not sing at all on the album's first single, "Come To Me" (featuring Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls), but rather did his traditional rapping. He did sing on the third single, "Last Night" (featuring Keyshia Cole). "Tell Me" (featuring Christina Aguilera) was released as the second single. He was asking fans on his MySpace page to help him choose the fourth single, which was "Through the Pain (She Told Me)" (featuring Mario Winans).
In October 2007, he was sued by hip-hop promoter James Waldon for allegedly unleashing three violent bodyguards on him in a New York nightclub. In March 2008, a source for the Los Angeles Times claimed that The Notorious B.I.G. and Combs orchestrated the '94 robbery and assassination attempt on Tupac, substantiating the claim with supposed FBI documents to that effect; the newspaper later retracted the story, acknowledging that the supporting FBI documents had been fabricated.
In June 2008, Combs' representative denied rumors of another name change. August 2008 saw Combs venture into reality television with the premiere of his VH1 series I Want to Work for Diddy. After the second season finale of Making the Band 4, Combs confirmed that he will be heading back into the studio to record his next album. He posted a Myspace Bulletin on February 19, 2009 that his next album is set to release in November 2009.
Combs has stated that he would like to work with Leona Lewis on his new album. In an interview with The Daily Mail he said: "I had Christina Aguilera on my last album, but its all about Leona Lewis on my next."
Under his real name of Sean Combs, he starred in two episodes of Season 7 of CSI: Miami; 'Presumed Guilty' and 'Sink or Swim' in the role of the lawyer Derek Powell.
He has created a rap supergroup known as "The Dream Team". The group consists of Diddy, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes and Red Café. Fabolous is also rumored to be in the group. Since 2009 he has recorded and performed as part of the group Diddy - Dirty Money.
In June 2010, Diddy played a role (as Sean Combs) in the comedy film Get Him to the Greek, as Sergio Roma, a record company executive. An Entourage-series representative announced that Diddy would guest star on an episode of the upcoming season.
On Thursday, March 10, 2011 Diddy-Dirty Money performed the single "Coming Home" with singer/songwriter Skylar Grey and two female background vocalists Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper, live on American Idol. Forty six minutes into the show, Ryan Seacrest introduced Diddy-Dirty Money featuring Skylar Grey. Grey started the performance seated at a piano singing the song's opening refrain. Diddy-Dirty Money's performance lasted four minutes.
On April 18, 2011, Diddy appeared in the 21st episode of season one of Hawaii Five-0 as an undercover NYPD detective.
Business ventures
In 2002, he was featured on Fortune magazine's "40 Richest People Under 40" list and was placed number one in the list of the top ten richest people in hip-hop. In 2011 his estimated worth was US $500 million, making him the richest person in the hip hop entertainment business.
Sean John
Billboard of Combs over Times Square in 2008 (advertising the Sean John clothing line)
In 1998, Combs started a clothing line, Sean John. It was nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award for Menswear Designer of the Year in 2000, and won in 2004.
The clothing line was subject to controversy in 2003 when it was discovered that factories producing the clothing in Honduras were violating Honduran labor law. Among the accusations put forth were that workers were subjected to body searches and paid sweatshop wages. Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee, who first exposed the factory, is quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Sean Puff Daddy obviously has a lot of clout, he can literally do a lot overnight to help these workers."
Combs responded that there would be a "zero tolerance" investigation at his company, Sean John. He stated to a group of reporters "I'm as pro-worker as they get." On February 14, 2004, Kernaghann announced on Pacifia station that Combs had made some "unprecedented" changes at factories including adding air conditioning and water purification systems, and allowing a union to form.
In late 2006, MSNBC reported, "Macy's has pulled from its shelves and its Web site two styles of Sean John hooded jackets, originally advertised as featuring faux fur, after an investigation by the nation's largest animal protection organization concluded that the garments were actually made from an animal called a 'raccoon dog'". Combs said he had been unaware of the material, but as soon as he knew about it, he had his clothing line stop using the material. In 2008 he appeared in a Macy's commercial.
In November 2008, Combs launched his latest men's perfume under the Sean John brand called "I Am King" dedicated to Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King. In November 2008, he unveiled a new Times Square billboard for the "I Am King" line to replace his iconic Sean John ad. The giant billboard is currently the largest static ad in Times Square. Model Bar Refaeli was chosen to be the face of the fragrance.
Combs has never married, but he is the biological father of five children and the informal stepfather of another child:
His on-again, off-again girlfriend Kimberly Porter has a son, Quincy Jones Brown (born December 1991) with 1980s New Jack Swing romantic singer/producer Al B Sure. Quincy was featured on My Super Sweet 16.
Combs' first biological child is Justin Dior Combs (born December 1993), from a relationship with his high school sweetheart, designer Misa Hylton-Brim. In January 2010 it was widely reported that Combs presented his son Justin with a $360,000 Maybach car (and chauffeur) as a 16th birthday present. Justin was also featured on My Super Sweet 16.
His second child is son Christian Casey Combs (born April 1998) with Kim Porter. Porter is also the mother of Combs' twin daughters, D'Lila Star Combs and Jessie James Combs (born December 2006). In July 2007 Combs and Porter ended their relationship.
In October 2007, Combs took legal responsibility for Chance, his daughter with Sarah Chapman.
Combs owns a home in Alpine, New Jersey that he purchased for a reported $7 million.
Charity work and honors
Combs' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
On October 13, 2006, the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, gave Combs the key to the city and a pair of cufflinks to commemorate the inauguration of an annual October 13 "Diddy Day". He received the honor as a reward for certain charitable work at Chicago's City Hall.
In 2008 Combs was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In the fall of 2011, Combs presented his hometown Boys and Girls Club with a considerable contribution that helped to save the dying organization. It was said that the timing of the contribution was received at the perfect moment, seeing that the Club’s budget for operations has been pressed because of changes to federal, state and private funding.
Wardrobe style
In the February 2007 issue of Blender magazine, Combs spoke about his wardrobe. He describes his style in three words: "Swagger. Timeless. Diverse." On September 2, 2007, Combs held his ninth annual "White Party" in which all guests are limited to an all white dress code. The White Party, which has also been held in St. Tropez, was held in his Long Island home in East Hampton. It featured a white carpet to go along with the white dress code. Combs stated, "This party is up there with the top three that I've thrown, It's a party that has legendary status. It's hard to throw a party that lives up to its legend."
Discography
Main articles: Sean Combs discography and Sean Combs production discography
Studio albums
1997: No Way Out
1999: Forever
2001: The Saga Continues...
2002: We Invented the Remix
2006: Press Play
2010: Last Train to Paris
Accolades
NAACP Image Awards
2009, Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special, A Raisin in the Sun (Winner)
MOBO Awards
2007, Best International Act (Nominated)
BET Awards
2007, Best Male Hip Hop Artist (Nominated)
MTV Video Music Awards
1997, Best R&B Video: "I'll Be Missing You" (Winner)
1998, Viewers Choice: "It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)" (Winner)
Grammy Awards
Year Category Genre Song Result
1998 Best New Artist General N/A Nominated
1998 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" Nominated
1998 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Mo Money Mo Problems" Nominated
1998 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "I'll Be Missing You" Won
1998 Best Rap Album Rap No Way Out Won
2000 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Satisfy You" Nominated
2002 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Bad Boy For Life" Nominated
2003 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Pass the Courvoisier (Part 2)" Nominated
2004 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Shake Ya Tailfeather" Won
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (Albums Executive Produced by Sean Combs)
Rank Artist Album Year
133 The Notorious B.I.G. Ready To Die 1994
279 Mary J. Blige My Life 1994
483 The Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death 1997
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n21/cristina1826/SEAN-DIDDY-COMBS.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/04/11 at 7:00 am
The person of the day...Sean Combs
Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally known as Puff Daddy and then as P. Diddy (Puff and Puffy being often used as a nickname, but never as recording names). In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy", but continues to use the name P. Diddy in England as the result of a lawsuit. He formed and recorded with the group "Diddy – Dirty Money".
Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records and then founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. His business interests under the umbrella of Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide include Bad Boy Records; the clothing lines Sean John & Sean by Sean Combs; a movie production company; and two restaurants. He has taken the roles of recording executive, performer, producer of MTV's Making the Band, writer, arranger, clothing designer, and Broadway actor. In 2011 Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million, making him the richest figure in hip hop.
In 1997, Combs recorded his first commercial vocal as a rapper under the name "Puff Daddy." His debut single, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album, No Way Out was a #1 album and won the 1998 Grammy Award for best rap album. His second single, "I'll Be Missing You", in memory of The Notorious B.I.G. debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. He collaborated with Jimmy Page on the song "Come with Me" for the Godzilla film, an EPIC/Sony Soundtrax production. The track, approved by Page, sampled the Led Zeppelin song "Kashmir". Producer Tom Morello supplied live guitar parts, playing bass on the song. Combs and Page filmed a video for "Come with Me", which reached #2 in the UK.
In 1997, Combs was sued for landlord neglect by Inge Bongo. Combs denied the charges.
By the late 1990s, he was receiving criticism for watering down and overly commercializing hip-hop and overusing guest appearances by other artists, samples and interpolations of past hits in his own hit songs.
Club New York
In December 1999, Combs was accused of assaulting Steve Stoute of Interscope Records. Stoute was the manager for Nas. Combs had filmed a video scene earlier that year for "Hate Me Now" that featured Nas being crucified but demanded that the images be removed. Stoute's refusal led to an argument and Puff Daddy's arrest for aggravated assault. This was followed by yet more negative publicity as The Lox left Bad Boy Records and a recording session with Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease, both of The Notorious B.I.G.'s Junior M.A.F.I.A. posse, was interrupted by gunfire.
On December 27, 1999, Combs and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez were at Club New York, a midtown Manhattan nightclub, when gunfire broke out. After a police investigation, Combs and fellow rapper Shyne were arrested for weapons violations and other charges. The New York County District Attorney's Office, led by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, indicted Combs after his driver, Wardel Fenderson, claimed that Combs had tried to bribe him into taking the weapon after the shooting.
With a gag order in place, the highly publicized trial began. His attorneys were Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Benjamin Brafman. After the trial was over, Combs was found not guilty on all charges; Shyne was convicted on the same charges and sentenced to ten years in prison. Combs and Lopez split shortly after. A lawsuit filed by Combs's driver, Fenderson, who said he suffered emotional damage after the club shooting, was settled in February 2004. Lawyers for both sides, having agreed to keep the settlement terms secret, would say only that the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
"P. Diddy"
In 2001, after his acquittal on gun possession and bribery charges, Combs changed his stage name from "Puff Daddy" to "P. Diddy". He later appeared as a drug dealer in the film Made and starred with Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball. He tried to reinvent his image, working on a gospel album, Thank You, but soon faced assault charges by a Michigan television host, Dr. Roger Mills, also known as Rogelio Mills, and then was arrested for driving on a suspended license in Florida. Combs began working with a series of unusual (for him) artists. A collaboration with David Bowie appeared on the soundtrack to Training Day and he also worked with Britney Spears and 'N Sync. He signed California-based pop girl group Dream to his record label. He was also an opening act for 'N Sync on their Spring 2002 Celebrity Tour.
Later in 2002, he made his own reality show on MTV called Making the Band 2, a sequel to the first Making the Band, in which contestants competed to be in a new group on Bad Boy Records. Six finalists were to come up with their name, CD and video (see Da Band). The group, maligned by comics and critics and drawing a skit on Chappelle's Show, was dissolved by Combs at the end of the series.
In 2003, Combs ran in the New York City Marathon and raised $2,000,000 for the educational system for the children of New York. On March 10, 2004, he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the marathon, which he finished in four hours and eighteen minutes.
In 2004, Combs headed the campaign "Vote or Die" for the 2004 Presidential Election. The "Vote or Die" slogan was mocked by both The Daily Show and South Park as being too simplistic and encouraging young people to vote without knowing the issues. In a South Park episode entitled "Douche and Turd", Combs and his friends were depicted chasing Stan Marsh, one of the show's main characters, around with weapons, literally threatening to kill him if he wouldn't vote in his school election.
"Diddy"
Combs performing in 2010
On August 16, 2005, Combs appeared on Today and announced that he was altering his stage name yet again, dropping the "P." and referring to himself simply as "Diddy", saying that "the P was getting between me and my fans." However, London-based musical artist and DJ Richard Dearlove had been performing under the "Diddy" name since 1992 - i.e. nine years before Combs started using even "P. Diddy" - so in November 2005 sought an injunction in the High Court of Justice, London, but accepted an out-of-court settlement of £10,000 in damages, and more than £100,000 in costs. As a result, Combs no longer uses the name Diddy in the UK, where he is still known as P. Diddy.
Combs starred in the 2005 Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, played Walter Lee Younger in the critically acclaimed 2004 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun and the television adaptation which was aired in February 2008. In the same year Combs sold his record company to the Warner Music Group. Tensions still existed between him and former Warner CEOs Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles (both formerly of Def Jam) but they arranged for his imprint to be a part of the company. In an interview with AndPOP Combs said that he was developing a line of men's suits. He later hosted the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2005 by Time magazine. He even earned a mention in the world of country music: The narrator of "Play Something Country" by Brooks & Dunn and Sean Okundaye says he "didn't come to hear P Diddy", which he rhymes with "something bumpin' from the city."
In 2006, after trying to move Mase away from Bad Boy Records, 50 Cent recorded a diss song, "Hip-Hop", in which he implied that Combs knew about The Notorious B.I.G.'s murder. The feud was resolved, with both rappers appearing on MTV's TRL and Sucker Free, respectively, stating that there were no longer problems.
Combs released his first album in 4 years, Press Play, on October 17, 2006 on the Bad Boy Records label with guest appearances from Christina Aguilera, Keyshia Cole, Mario Winans (signed to his label 'Bad Boy Records'), Nas, Will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), Mary J. Blige, Nicole Scherzinger (of the Pussycat Dolls), Jamie Foxx, Fergie, Big Boi (of Outkast), Ciara, Twista, Just Blaze, Pharrell, Brandy. The album reached number one on its first week in the charts.
It was reported that Combs would be singing on all the tracks of this album but he did not sing at all on the album's first single, "Come To Me" (featuring Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls), but rather did his traditional rapping. He did sing on the third single, "Last Night" (featuring Keyshia Cole). "Tell Me" (featuring Christina Aguilera) was released as the second single. He was asking fans on his MySpace page to help him choose the fourth single, which was "Through the Pain (She Told Me)" (featuring Mario Winans).
In October 2007, he was sued by hip-hop promoter James Waldon for allegedly unleashing three violent bodyguards on him in a New York nightclub. In March 2008, a source for the Los Angeles Times claimed that The Notorious B.I.G. and Combs orchestrated the '94 robbery and assassination attempt on Tupac, substantiating the claim with supposed FBI documents to that effect; the newspaper later retracted the story, acknowledging that the supporting FBI documents had been fabricated.
In June 2008, Combs' representative denied rumors of another name change. August 2008 saw Combs venture into reality television with the premiere of his VH1 series I Want to Work for Diddy. After the second season finale of Making the Band 4, Combs confirmed that he will be heading back into the studio to record his next album. He posted a Myspace Bulletin on February 19, 2009 that his next album is set to release in November 2009.
Combs has stated that he would like to work with Leona Lewis on his new album. In an interview with The Daily Mail he said: "I had Christina Aguilera on my last album, but its all about Leona Lewis on my next."
Under his real name of Sean Combs, he starred in two episodes of Season 7 of CSI: Miami; 'Presumed Guilty' and 'Sink or Swim' in the role of the lawyer Derek Powell.
He has created a rap supergroup known as "The Dream Team". The group consists of Diddy, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes and Red Café. Fabolous is also rumored to be in the group. Since 2009 he has recorded and performed as part of the group Diddy - Dirty Money.
In June 2010, Diddy played a role (as Sean Combs) in the comedy film Get Him to the Greek, as Sergio Roma, a record company executive. An Entourage-series representative announced that Diddy would guest star on an episode of the upcoming season.
On Thursday, March 10, 2011 Diddy-Dirty Money performed the single "Coming Home" with singer/songwriter Skylar Grey and two female background vocalists Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper, live on American Idol. Forty six minutes into the show, Ryan Seacrest introduced Diddy-Dirty Money featuring Skylar Grey. Grey started the performance seated at a piano singing the song's opening refrain. Diddy-Dirty Money's performance lasted four minutes.
On April 18, 2011, Diddy appeared in the 21st episode of season one of Hawaii Five-0 as an undercover NYPD detective.
Business ventures
In 2002, he was featured on Fortune magazine's "40 Richest People Under 40" list and was placed number one in the list of the top ten richest people in hip-hop. In 2011 his estimated worth was US $500 million, making him the richest person in the hip hop entertainment business.
Sean John
Billboard of Combs over Times Square in 2008 (advertising the Sean John clothing line)
In 1998, Combs started a clothing line, Sean John. It was nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award for Menswear Designer of the Year in 2000, and won in 2004.
The clothing line was subject to controversy in 2003 when it was discovered that factories producing the clothing in Honduras were violating Honduran labor law. Among the accusations put forth were that workers were subjected to body searches and paid sweatshop wages. Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee, who first exposed the factory, is quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Sean Puff Daddy obviously has a lot of clout, he can literally do a lot overnight to help these workers."
Combs responded that there would be a "zero tolerance" investigation at his company, Sean John. He stated to a group of reporters "I'm as pro-worker as they get." On February 14, 2004, Kernaghann announced on Pacifia station that Combs had made some "unprecedented" changes at factories including adding air conditioning and water purification systems, and allowing a union to form.
In late 2006, MSNBC reported, "Macy's has pulled from its shelves and its Web site two styles of Sean John hooded jackets, originally advertised as featuring faux fur, after an investigation by the nation's largest animal protection organization concluded that the garments were actually made from an animal called a 'raccoon dog'". Combs said he had been unaware of the material, but as soon as he knew about it, he had his clothing line stop using the material. In 2008 he appeared in a Macy's commercial.
In November 2008, Combs launched his latest men's perfume under the Sean John brand called "I Am King" dedicated to Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King. In November 2008, he unveiled a new Times Square billboard for the "I Am King" line to replace his iconic Sean John ad. The giant billboard is currently the largest static ad in Times Square. Model Bar Refaeli was chosen to be the face of the fragrance.
Combs has never married, but he is the biological father of five children and the informal stepfather of another child:
His on-again, off-again girlfriend Kimberly Porter has a son, Quincy Jones Brown (born December 1991) with 1980s New Jack Swing romantic singer/producer Al B Sure. Quincy was featured on My Super Sweet 16.
Combs' first biological child is Justin Dior Combs (born December 1993), from a relationship with his high school sweetheart, designer Misa Hylton-Brim. In January 2010 it was widely reported that Combs presented his son Justin with a $360,000 Maybach car (and chauffeur) as a 16th birthday present. Justin was also featured on My Super Sweet 16.
His second child is son Christian Casey Combs (born April 1998) with Kim Porter. Porter is also the mother of Combs' twin daughters, D'Lila Star Combs and Jessie James Combs (born December 2006). In July 2007 Combs and Porter ended their relationship.
In October 2007, Combs took legal responsibility for Chance, his daughter with Sarah Chapman.
Combs owns a home in Alpine, New Jersey that he purchased for a reported $7 million.
Charity work and honors
Combs' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
On October 13, 2006, the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, gave Combs the key to the city and a pair of cufflinks to commemorate the inauguration of an annual October 13 "Diddy Day". He received the honor as a reward for certain charitable work at Chicago's City Hall.
In 2008 Combs was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In the fall of 2011, Combs presented his hometown Boys and Girls Club with a considerable contribution that helped to save the dying organization. It was said that the timing of the contribution was received at the perfect moment, seeing that the Club’s budget for operations has been pressed because of changes to federal, state and private funding.
Wardrobe style
In the February 2007 issue of Blender magazine, Combs spoke about his wardrobe. He describes his style in three words: "Swagger. Timeless. Diverse." On September 2, 2007, Combs held his ninth annual "White Party" in which all guests are limited to an all white dress code. The White Party, which has also been held in St. Tropez, was held in his Long Island home in East Hampton. It featured a white carpet to go along with the white dress code. Combs stated, "This party is up there with the top three that I've thrown, It's a party that has legendary status. It's hard to throw a party that lives up to its legend."
Discography
Main articles: Sean Combs discography and Sean Combs production discography
Studio albums
1997: No Way Out
1999: Forever
2001: The Saga Continues...
2002: We Invented the Remix
2006: Press Play
2010: Last Train to Paris
Accolades
NAACP Image Awards
2009, Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special, A Raisin in the Sun (Winner)
MOBO Awards
2007, Best International Act (Nominated)
BET Awards
2007, Best Male Hip Hop Artist (Nominated)
MTV Video Music Awards
1997, Best R&B Video: "I'll Be Missing You" (Winner)
1998, Viewers Choice: "It's All About The Benjamins (Rock Remix)" (Winner)
Grammy Awards
Year Category Genre Song Result
1998 Best New Artist General N/A Nominated
1998 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" Nominated
1998 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Mo Money Mo Problems" Nominated
1998 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "I'll Be Missing You" Won
1998 Best Rap Album Rap No Way Out Won
2000 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Satisfy You" Nominated
2002 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Bad Boy For Life" Nominated
2003 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Pass the Courvoisier (Part 2)" Nominated
2004 Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group Rap "Shake Ya Tailfeather" Won
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (Albums Executive Produced by Sean Combs)
Rank Artist Album Year
133 The Notorious B.I.G. Ready To Die 1994
279 Mary J. Blige My Life 1994
483 The Notorious B.I.G. Life After Death 1997
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I can't believe he's 42. :o
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/04/11 at 11:09 am
I can't believe he's 42. :o
Yep, he's been around a while!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/06/11 at 6:00 am
The person of the day...Maria Shriver
Maria Owings Shriver (play /ˈʃraɪvər/; born November 6, 1955) is an American journalist and author of six best-selling books. She has received a Peabody Award, and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics. As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience". She was formerly First Lady of California as the wife of actor and then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, from whom she is now separated. She is a member of the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were her uncles on her mother's, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, side).
Shriver was born in Chicago, Illinois. A Roman Catholic of German descent through her father and Irish American descent through her mother, she is the second child and only daughter of the politician Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Eunice was the sister of United States President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and five other siblings. Shriver attended Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and graduated in 1973 from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda. She attended Manhattanville College for two years and then transferred and went on to receive a bachelor of arts degree in American studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in June 1977.
Career
Media career and advocacy
In her book Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World (2000), Shriver says that she became passionate about broadcast journalism after being sent to the back of the campaign plane with the press corps while volunteering for her father's 1972 U.S. vice presidential race, calling these orders "the best thing that ever happened to me." After her journalism career began with KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she co-anchored The CBS Morning News with Forrest Sawyer from August 1985 until August 1986, co-anchored NBC News's Sunday Today from 1987 until 1990 and Sunday editions of NBC Nightly News from 1989 until 1993, and was a contributing anchor on Dateline NBC from 1992 until 2004. In August 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election.
Following her husband's November 17, 2003, inauguration as the 38th Governor of California, she became the First Lady of California. She then returned to reporting, making two more appearances for Dateline NBC.
On February 3, 2004, Shriver asked to be "relieved of duties at NBC News," citing concerns the network had over the conflict of interest between her role as a journalist and her status as the First Lady of California and her increasing role as an advocate of her husband's administration.
She appeared as herself in the film Last Action Hero (1993). She also played a minor role as herself in "Be Prepared", a 2006 episode of the television series That's So Raven promoting a "Preparedness Plan". On March 23, 2007, Shriver returned to television news as substitute host of panel-discussion talk show Larry King Live on CNN with musician Sheryl Crow and other guests.
Shriver announced that she will not return to the news media after the excessive media coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
In 2008, Shriver executive-produced American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver. The documentary originally aired on PBS on January 21, 2008. The film chronicled the life, accomplishments and vision of her father, Sargent Shriver. Shriver also serves on the advisory board of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute, which raises public awareness of her father’s legacy as a peacebuilder and offers educational and training programs grounded in the principles of public service that motivate the many programs he created, including the Peace Corps, Job Corps, Head Start, and Legal Services for the Poor.
Shriver has been a lifelong advocate for people with intellectual disabilities. She is a member of the International Board of Special Olympics, the organization her mother founded in 1968. She is also on the advisory board of Best Buddies, a one-to-one friendship and jobs program for people with intellectual disabilities. In addition, Shriver serves as Chair of the Audi Best Buddies Challenge: Hearst Castle, a bike ride that raises millions of dollars for programs supporting people with intellectual disabilities. As First Lady, Shriver has been instrumental in the hiring of individuals with intellectual disabilities in the capitol and in various state offices through her WE Include program. In February 2008, Shriver launched an ice cream company called Lovin' Scoopful with her brother, Tim Shriver. Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from Lovin' Scoopful benefits the Special Olympics.
Shriver executive-produced The Alzheimer's Project, a four-part documentary series that premiered on HBO in May 2009 and later earned two Emmy Awards. It was described by the Los Angeles Times as "ambitious, disturbing, emotionally fraught and carefully optimistic". The series took a close look at cutting-edge research being done in the country's leading Alzheimer's laboratories. The documentary also examined the effects of this disease on patients and families. One of the Emmy Award-winning films, Grandpa, Do you Know Who I Am? is based on Shriver's best-selling children's book dealing with Alzheimer's.
In October 2009, Shriver launched "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," a national study and comprehensive report conducted in partnership with the Center for American Progress, USC's Annenberg Center on Communication, Leadership and Policy, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Shriver Report revealed that American women, for the first time, make up half of the United States workforce and studied how that fact is impacting major institutions like family, business, government and faith organizations. The report was released last year in partnership with TIME and NBC News. According to The New York Times, the report "was modeled on a study undertaken almost 50 years ago during the administration of John F. Kennedy, Shriver's uncle, and led by Eleanor Roosevelt."
First Lady of California
After Governor Schwarzenegger took office, Shriver took on several key initiatives as first lady, which include raising awareness of the contributions of women to the state, working on practical solutions to end cycles of poverty, and encouraging all Californians to engage in acts of service to their communities. Once Schwarzenegger was elected, Shriver had to cut back on her news reporting in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
Maria Shriver with her husband at the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai, China
Shriver led the California Governor & First Lady's Conference on Women from when Schwarzenegger took office in 2003. Under her leadership, The Women's Conference event grew into the nation's premier forum for women and in 2010 attracted more than 30,000 attendees and 150 world opinion leaders over three full days. Each year, the event was held at the Long Beach Convention Center in October. The event aims to inspire, empower and educate women to be Architects of Change. Hundreds of luminaries have spoken at the conference including Oprah Winfrey, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, Barbara Walters, Warren Buffett, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Richard Branson, Bono, Billie Jean King, Gloria Steinem, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In 2004, Shriver created The Minerva Awards to honor and reward "remarkable California women" who have changed their communities, their state, their country and the world with their courage, wisdom and strength. The Minerva Awards are named after Minerva, the Roman goddess who adorns the California State Seal and "who symbolizes the dual nature of women as warriors and peacemakers". The Minerva Awards are presented annually at The Women's Conference in Long Beach during a special ceremony. Recipients of the award also receive a grant to continue their work. Past Minerva Awards recipients include former first lady Betty Ford, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, astronaut Sally Ride and the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Shriver's mother.The achievements of The Minerva Award winners are chronicled in a permanent exhibit at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento and have become part of California’s official state archive.
In 2005, Shriver launched her WE Connect Program, which connects working families in need with money-saving programs and support services. WE Connect brings together community organizations and businesses, government agencies and state leaders, congregations and schools as partners in responding to the needs for the millions of individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet. Through a partnership with La Opinion, the nation’s largest Spanish-speaking newspaper, WE Connect has developed three editions of a 24-page, full-color, bilingual supplement that has been circulated to over 20 million Californians in need. In December 2009, Shriver, in partnership with The Women's Conference, created the WE Connect–Million Meals Initiative. Through this initiative, The Women's Conference made a donation to The California Association of Food Banks to provide more than one million meals to California families in need. The donation was allocated to the food bank's 44 member organizations who then distributed the food to California families through its more than 5,000 community-based organizations. In March 2010, Shriver held a three-day Community Resources Fair in Fresno and Los Angeles through WE Connect. The fairs provided vital programs and free support services such as tax preparation, housing and home foreclosure assistance, job assistance, flu shots, healthy food distribution and more. Event organizers estimated that over 40,000 individuals took advantage of free services during the course of the two weekends and hundreds of thousands pounds of food were distributed.
As First Lady, Shriver has worked to promote service and volunteerism. As Honorary Chair of CaliforniaVolunteers, Shriver conceived of and launched the largest statewide volunteer matching network at CaliforniaVolunteers.org. Shriver was instrumental in inspiring Governor Schwarzenegger to establish the nation’s first state cabinet-level Department of Service and Volunteering. She also pioneered and promoted a statewide disaster preparedness program called WE Prepare that encourages and educates Californians to be ready for an emergency or natural disaster. In addition, Shriver established WE Build and WE Garden, a children’s playground and community garden-building initiative. Through CaliforniaVolunteers, Shriver has built 31 playgrounds with gardens in lower-income communities around the state in partnership with KaBOOM!.
In 2008, Shriver launched her WE Invest Program, which provides training, mentoring, support networks, microloans and other resources to help women launch or grow their businesses. In June 2009, she expanded WE Invest nationally through a partnership with Kiva, creating the first-ever online peer-to-peer microlending program in the U.S. Shriver is credited with coming up with the idea to bring Kiva's international micro-lending model to the United States
Shriver is Co-Chair of The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts and she has been credited with revitalizing the state museum during her tenure. Shriver created the California Hall of Fame in 2006 at the Museum to honor legendary Californians such as Cesar Chavez, Clint Eastwood, Walt Disney, Amelia Earhart, Ronald Reagan, John Steinbeck, Rita Moreno, Earl Warren, Julia Morgan, Leland Stanford, Dorothea Lange and others. In November 2008, Shriver launched the California Legacy Trails, a first-of-its-kind web-based multimedia learning tool designed to help students learn California history.
On February 3, 2008, Shriver endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The endorsement was given at a UCLA rally featuring her cousin Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, and the candidate's spouse, Michelle Obama. Governor Schwarzenegger had previously endorsed Senator John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination a few days earlier on January 31, 2008.
In May 2009, Shriver planted the first edible garden at a state capitol in what once was a flower bed. She teamed up with Alice Waters on the project. The food grown in the organic garden is distributed to local food banks. Shriver has been an advocate for edible gardens and chairs the California School Garden Network that has doubled the number of gardens in state schools from 3,000 to 6,000 since 2004.
Personal life
In 1977, Tom Brokaw introduced Maria to Austrian bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a charity tennis tournament being held at her mother's home. She married Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986, in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church. They have four children: Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher.
On May 9, 2011, Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their separation after 25 years of marriage, with Shriver moving out of the couple's Brentwood mansion. In a message for her Twitter followers posted on May 13, 2011, Shriver said: "Thank you all for the kindness, support and compassion. I am humbled by the love. Thank you."
On May 17, 2011, Schwarzenegger publicly admitted to fathering a child with a long-time member of their household staff, Mildred Patricia Baena, 14 years earlier, and before his election as Governor of California. What Schwarzenegger failed to mention was that he confessed to Shriver only after she confronted him with the information, after confirming what she had suspected about the child, in an earlier confrontation with the housekeeper. Shriver described Schwarzenegger's admission as "painful and heartbreaking." She declined to speak further on the issue, saying: "As a mother, my concern is for the children. I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal."
Shriver hired a divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, whose previous clients include Angelina Jolie, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears, and officially filed for divorce on July 1, 2011, citing "irreconcilable differences". Wasser was hired before the news of the affair went public, a source close to Shriver told US publication People, Shriver had been meeting with her financial advisor for some months before the decision to file the divorce petition. Shriver has also hired a private investigator to investigate Schwarzenegger's financial history and his personal life, including whether or not he has fathered more than one child out of wedlock.
Shriver has purchased a new $10 million house only three miles away from her former home with Schwarzenegger in Brentwood. Although she has requested custody of the couple's two minor children, 17-year old Patrick and 13-year old Christopher, the mansions' proximity will make it easier for the boys to travel between their parents' houses.
Shriver's 13-year-old son Christopher Schwarzenegger was seriously injured in a boogie-boarding accident in Malibu, on July 17, 2011. In a joint statement, Shriver and estranged husband Schwarzenegger described it as "scary," and that "he is expected to make a full recovery." Christopher has been in intensive care since suffering a collapsed lung and broken bones in the accident.
Honors
A hybrid rose was named after Shriver in October 2004. The Maria Shriver rose contains starchy-white blooms and a powerful citrus fragrance.
As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience".
In 2009, Shriver was honored with the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s 2009 Pathfinders to Peace Award, which is bestowed annually to a person who exemplifies the ideals of compassion, harmony and peace. At the presentation ceremony honoring Shriver, the foundation’s chief executive said, “Maria Shriver sees the best in other people – their innate goodness – and inspires them to become their own 'Architects of Change'. In a world that glorifies ambition at any cost, Maria instead teaches character. She is a woman of quiet strength who role-models kindness and charity, and has used her celebrity to help create peace in the world.”
She has won Peabody and Emmy awards for her television journalism.
The Saint John's Health Center has a nursery named after Shriver.
Books
Shriver, Maria (2000-04-04). Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-52612-8.
Shriver, Maria; Sandra Speidel (2001-10-16). What's Wrong With Timmy?. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-23337-8.
Shriver, Maria; Sandra Speidel (2004-04-28). What's Happening to Grandpa?. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-00101-4.
Shriver, Maria (2005-04-05). And One More Thing Before You Go.... The Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-8101-0.
Shriver, Maria; Sandra Speidel (2007-10-30). What's Heaven?. Golden Books Adult Publishing. ISBN 978-0-312-38241-4.
Shriver, Maria (2008-04-15). Just Who Will You Be?: Big Question, Little Book, Answer Within. Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-2318-9.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/06/11 at 7:59 am
The person of the day...Maria Shriver
Maria Owings Shriver (play /ˈʃraɪvər/; born November 6, 1955) is an American journalist and author of six best-selling books. She has received a Peabody Award, and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics. As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience". She was formerly First Lady of California as the wife of actor and then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, from whom she is now separated. She is a member of the Kennedy family (John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy were her uncles on her mother's, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, side).
Shriver was born in Chicago, Illinois. A Roman Catholic of German descent through her father and Irish American descent through her mother, she is the second child and only daughter of the politician Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Eunice was the sister of United States President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and five other siblings. Shriver attended Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and graduated in 1973 from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda. She attended Manhattanville College for two years and then transferred and went on to receive a bachelor of arts degree in American studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in June 1977.
Career
Media career and advocacy
In her book Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World (2000), Shriver says that she became passionate about broadcast journalism after being sent to the back of the campaign plane with the press corps while volunteering for her father's 1972 U.S. vice presidential race, calling these orders "the best thing that ever happened to me." After her journalism career began with KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she co-anchored The CBS Morning News with Forrest Sawyer from August 1985 until August 1986, co-anchored NBC News's Sunday Today from 1987 until 1990 and Sunday editions of NBC Nightly News from 1989 until 1993, and was a contributing anchor on Dateline NBC from 1992 until 2004. In August 2003, Shriver took an unpaid leave of absence from NBC News when her husband became a candidate in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election.
Following her husband's November 17, 2003, inauguration as the 38th Governor of California, she became the First Lady of California. She then returned to reporting, making two more appearances for Dateline NBC.
On February 3, 2004, Shriver asked to be "relieved of duties at NBC News," citing concerns the network had over the conflict of interest between her role as a journalist and her status as the First Lady of California and her increasing role as an advocate of her husband's administration.
She appeared as herself in the film Last Action Hero (1993). She also played a minor role as herself in "Be Prepared", a 2006 episode of the television series That's So Raven promoting a "Preparedness Plan". On March 23, 2007, Shriver returned to television news as substitute host of panel-discussion talk show Larry King Live on CNN with musician Sheryl Crow and other guests.
Shriver announced that she will not return to the news media after the excessive media coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
In 2008, Shriver executive-produced American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver. The documentary originally aired on PBS on January 21, 2008. The film chronicled the life, accomplishments and vision of her father, Sargent Shriver. Shriver also serves on the advisory board of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute, which raises public awareness of her father’s legacy as a peacebuilder and offers educational and training programs grounded in the principles of public service that motivate the many programs he created, including the Peace Corps, Job Corps, Head Start, and Legal Services for the Poor.
Shriver has been a lifelong advocate for people with intellectual disabilities. She is a member of the International Board of Special Olympics, the organization her mother founded in 1968. She is also on the advisory board of Best Buddies, a one-to-one friendship and jobs program for people with intellectual disabilities. In addition, Shriver serves as Chair of the Audi Best Buddies Challenge: Hearst Castle, a bike ride that raises millions of dollars for programs supporting people with intellectual disabilities. As First Lady, Shriver has been instrumental in the hiring of individuals with intellectual disabilities in the capitol and in various state offices through her WE Include program. In February 2008, Shriver launched an ice cream company called Lovin' Scoopful with her brother, Tim Shriver. Twenty-five percent of the proceeds from Lovin' Scoopful benefits the Special Olympics.
Shriver executive-produced The Alzheimer's Project, a four-part documentary series that premiered on HBO in May 2009 and later earned two Emmy Awards. It was described by the Los Angeles Times as "ambitious, disturbing, emotionally fraught and carefully optimistic". The series took a close look at cutting-edge research being done in the country's leading Alzheimer's laboratories. The documentary also examined the effects of this disease on patients and families. One of the Emmy Award-winning films, Grandpa, Do you Know Who I Am? is based on Shriver's best-selling children's book dealing with Alzheimer's.
In October 2009, Shriver launched "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything," a national study and comprehensive report conducted in partnership with the Center for American Progress, USC's Annenberg Center on Communication, Leadership and Policy, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Shriver Report revealed that American women, for the first time, make up half of the United States workforce and studied how that fact is impacting major institutions like family, business, government and faith organizations. The report was released last year in partnership with TIME and NBC News. According to The New York Times, the report "was modeled on a study undertaken almost 50 years ago during the administration of John F. Kennedy, Shriver's uncle, and led by Eleanor Roosevelt."
First Lady of California
After Governor Schwarzenegger took office, Shriver took on several key initiatives as first lady, which include raising awareness of the contributions of women to the state, working on practical solutions to end cycles of poverty, and encouraging all Californians to engage in acts of service to their communities. Once Schwarzenegger was elected, Shriver had to cut back on her news reporting in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
Maria Shriver with her husband at the 2007 Special Olympics in Shanghai, China
Shriver led the California Governor & First Lady's Conference on Women from when Schwarzenegger took office in 2003. Under her leadership, The Women's Conference event grew into the nation's premier forum for women and in 2010 attracted more than 30,000 attendees and 150 world opinion leaders over three full days. Each year, the event was held at the Long Beach Convention Center in October. The event aims to inspire, empower and educate women to be Architects of Change. Hundreds of luminaries have spoken at the conference including Oprah Winfrey, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, Barbara Walters, Warren Buffett, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Richard Branson, Bono, Billie Jean King, Gloria Steinem, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In 2004, Shriver created The Minerva Awards to honor and reward "remarkable California women" who have changed their communities, their state, their country and the world with their courage, wisdom and strength. The Minerva Awards are named after Minerva, the Roman goddess who adorns the California State Seal and "who symbolizes the dual nature of women as warriors and peacemakers". The Minerva Awards are presented annually at The Women's Conference in Long Beach during a special ceremony. Recipients of the award also receive a grant to continue their work. Past Minerva Awards recipients include former first lady Betty Ford, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, astronaut Sally Ride and the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Shriver's mother.The achievements of The Minerva Award winners are chronicled in a permanent exhibit at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento and have become part of California’s official state archive.
In 2005, Shriver launched her WE Connect Program, which connects working families in need with money-saving programs and support services. WE Connect brings together community organizations and businesses, government agencies and state leaders, congregations and schools as partners in responding to the needs for the millions of individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet. Through a partnership with La Opinion, the nation’s largest Spanish-speaking newspaper, WE Connect has developed three editions of a 24-page, full-color, bilingual supplement that has been circulated to over 20 million Californians in need. In December 2009, Shriver, in partnership with The Women's Conference, created the WE Connect–Million Meals Initiative. Through this initiative, The Women's Conference made a donation to The California Association of Food Banks to provide more than one million meals to California families in need. The donation was allocated to the food bank's 44 member organizations who then distributed the food to California families through its more than 5,000 community-based organizations. In March 2010, Shriver held a three-day Community Resources Fair in Fresno and Los Angeles through WE Connect. The fairs provided vital programs and free support services such as tax preparation, housing and home foreclosure assistance, job assistance, flu shots, healthy food distribution and more. Event organizers estimated that over 40,000 individuals took advantage of free services during the course of the two weekends and hundreds of thousands pounds of food were distributed.
As First Lady, Shriver has worked to promote service and volunteerism. As Honorary Chair of CaliforniaVolunteers, Shriver conceived of and launched the largest statewide volunteer matching network at CaliforniaVolunteers.org. Shriver was instrumental in inspiring Governor Schwarzenegger to establish the nation’s first state cabinet-level Department of Service and Volunteering. She also pioneered and promoted a statewide disaster preparedness program called WE Prepare that encourages and educates Californians to be ready for an emergency or natural disaster. In addition, Shriver established WE Build and WE Garden, a children’s playground and community garden-building initiative. Through CaliforniaVolunteers, Shriver has built 31 playgrounds with gardens in lower-income communities around the state in partnership with KaBOOM!.
In 2008, Shriver launched her WE Invest Program, which provides training, mentoring, support networks, microloans and other resources to help women launch or grow their businesses. In June 2009, she expanded WE Invest nationally through a partnership with Kiva, creating the first-ever online peer-to-peer microlending program in the U.S. Shriver is credited with coming up with the idea to bring Kiva's international micro-lending model to the United States
Shriver is Co-Chair of The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts and she has been credited with revitalizing the state museum during her tenure. Shriver created the California Hall of Fame in 2006 at the Museum to honor legendary Californians such as Cesar Chavez, Clint Eastwood, Walt Disney, Amelia Earhart, Ronald Reagan, John Steinbeck, Rita Moreno, Earl Warren, Julia Morgan, Leland Stanford, Dorothea Lange and others. In November 2008, Shriver launched the California Legacy Trails, a first-of-its-kind web-based multimedia learning tool designed to help students learn California history.
On February 3, 2008, Shriver endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The endorsement was given at a UCLA rally featuring her cousin Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, and the candidate's spouse, Michelle Obama. Governor Schwarzenegger had previously endorsed Senator John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination a few days earlier on January 31, 2008.
In May 2009, Shriver planted the first edible garden at a state capitol in what once was a flower bed. She teamed up with Alice Waters on the project. The food grown in the organic garden is distributed to local food banks. Shriver has been an advocate for edible gardens and chairs the California School Garden Network that has doubled the number of gardens in state schools from 3,000 to 6,000 since 2004.
Personal life
In 1977, Tom Brokaw introduced Maria to Austrian bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a charity tennis tournament being held at her mother's home. She married Schwarzenegger on April 26, 1986, in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church. They have four children: Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher.
On May 9, 2011, Schwarzenegger and Shriver announced their separation after 25 years of marriage, with Shriver moving out of the couple's Brentwood mansion. In a message for her Twitter followers posted on May 13, 2011, Shriver said: "Thank you all for the kindness, support and compassion. I am humbled by the love. Thank you."
On May 17, 2011, Schwarzenegger publicly admitted to fathering a child with a long-time member of their household staff, Mildred Patricia Baena, 14 years earlier, and before his election as Governor of California. What Schwarzenegger failed to mention was that he confessed to Shriver only after she confronted him with the information, after confirming what she had suspected about the child, in an earlier confrontation with the housekeeper. Shriver described Schwarzenegger's admission as "painful and heartbreaking." She declined to speak further on the issue, saying: "As a mother, my concern is for the children. I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal."
Shriver hired a divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, whose previous clients include Angelina Jolie, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears, and officially filed for divorce on July 1, 2011, citing "irreconcilable differences". Wasser was hired before the news of the affair went public, a source close to Shriver told US publication People, Shriver had been meeting with her financial advisor for some months before the decision to file the divorce petition. Shriver has also hired a private investigator to investigate Schwarzenegger's financial history and his personal life, including whether or not he has fathered more than one child out of wedlock.
Shriver has purchased a new $10 million house only three miles away from her former home with Schwarzenegger in Brentwood. Although she has requested custody of the couple's two minor children, 17-year old Patrick and 13-year old Christopher, the mansions' proximity will make it easier for the boys to travel between their parents' houses.
Shriver's 13-year-old son Christopher Schwarzenegger was seriously injured in a boogie-boarding accident in Malibu, on July 17, 2011. In a joint statement, Shriver and estranged husband Schwarzenegger described it as "scary," and that "he is expected to make a full recovery." Christopher has been in intensive care since suffering a collapsed lung and broken bones in the accident.
Honors
A hybrid rose was named after Shriver in October 2004. The Maria Shriver rose contains starchy-white blooms and a powerful citrus fragrance.
As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience".
In 2009, Shriver was honored with the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s 2009 Pathfinders to Peace Award, which is bestowed annually to a person who exemplifies the ideals of compassion, harmony and peace. At the presentation ceremony honoring Shriver, the foundation’s chief executive said, “Maria Shriver sees the best in other people – their innate goodness – and inspires them to become their own 'Architects of Change'. In a world that glorifies ambition at any cost, Maria instead teaches character. She is a woman of quiet strength who role-models kindness and charity, and has used her celebrity to help create peace in the world.”
She has won Peabody and Emmy awards for her television journalism.
The Saint John's Health Center has a nursery named after Shriver.
Books
Shriver, Maria (2000-04-04). Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-52612-8.
Shriver, Maria; Sandra Speidel (2001-10-16). What's Wrong With Timmy?. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-23337-8.
Shriver, Maria; Sandra Speidel (2004-04-28). What's Happening to Grandpa?. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-00101-4.
Shriver, Maria (2005-04-05). And One More Thing Before You Go.... The Free Press. ISBN 978-0-7432-8101-0.
Shriver, Maria; Sandra Speidel (2007-10-30). What's Heaven?. Golden Books Adult Publishing. ISBN 978-0-312-38241-4.
Shriver, Maria (2008-04-15). Just Who Will You Be?: Big Question, Little Book, Answer Within. Hyperion. ISBN 978-1-4013-2318-9.
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Will she ever marry again?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/06/11 at 9:00 am
Will she ever marry again?
Only time will tell, I think she will.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: danootaandme on 11/06/11 at 9:07 am
Only time will tell, I think she will.
No, I don't think so. I think she will cut her losses and figure herself lucky and devote her life to favorite charities. Kennedy women are much smarter than Kennedy men.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/07/11 at 2:19 am
The person of the day...Lulu
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, OBE (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, 3 November 1948, Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire), best known by her stage name Lulu, is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality who has been successful in the entertainment business from the 1960s through to the present day. She is internationally identified, especially with North American audiences, with the song "To Sir, with Love" from the film of the same name and with the title song to the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. In European countries she is also widely known for her Eurovision Song Contest winning entry "Boom Bang-a-Bang" and in the UK for her first hit "Shout".
Under the wing of Marion Massey, she was signed to Decca Records and when she was only fifteen her version of The Isley Brothers' "Shout", delivered in a raucous but mature voice, reached the UK charts. Massey guided her career for more than 25 years, for most of which time they were partners in business, and Massey's husband, Mark, produced some of Lulu's recordings.
In 1966 Lulu toured Poland with The Hollies, the first British female singer to appear live behind the Iron Curtain. In the same year she recorded two German language tracks, "Wenn du da bist" and "So fing es an", for the Decca Germany label. All her Decca recordings were made available in 2009 on a 2-CD entitled Shout!, issued on RPM Records. After two hit singles with the The Luvvers Lulu launched her solo career.
She left Decca after failing to chart in 1966 and signed with Columbia to be produced by Mickie Most. In April 1967 she returned to the UK singles chart reaching number 6 with "The Boat That I Row", written by Neil Diamond. All seven singles she cut with Most made the UK Singles Chart. However, in her autobiography I Don't Want To Fight, published in 2002, she described him as "cheap" and had little positive to say about their working relationship, which she ended in 1969 after her biggest UK solo hit. Nonetheless when Mickie Most died in 2003, Lulu was full of praise for him and told the BBC they had been very close.
In 1967 she made her debut film in To Sir, with Love, a British vehicle for Sidney Poitier. She had a major hit, the title song reaching number one in the United States. In the UK, it was released on the B-side of "Let's Pretend", a # 11 hit, but "To Sir, With Love" sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In the meantime she continued her thriving pop career in the UK and had several television series of her own. After appearing on the BBC in 1967 in a successful TV series that featured music and comedy, Three Of A Kind, Lulu was given her own TV series in 1968, which ran annually until 1975 under various titles including Lulu's Back In Town, Happening For Lulu, Lulu and It's Lulu, which featured Adrienne Posta. Her BBC series featured music and comedy sketches and star guests; one episode remains famous for Jimi Hendrix's unruly live appearance where, after playing about two minutes of Hey Joe, Hendrix stopped and announced "We'd like to stop playing this rubbish and dedicate a song to The Cream, regardless of what kind of group they may be in, dedicate to Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce". He then broke into Sunshine of Your Love. With the studio director signalling for Hendrix to stop he continued. Unrepentant, Hendrix was told he would never work at the BBC again. He told his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham "I'm not going to sing with Lulu. I'd look ridiculous". From 30 June to 2 July 1967 she appeared with The Monkees at the Empire Pool, Wembley, and her brief romance with Davy Jones of The Monkees during an concert tour of the USA in March 1968 received much publicity in the UK press. Lulu described her relationship with Jones as "He was a kind of boyfriend but it was very innocent - nothing untoward happened. It faded almost as soon as it had blossomed".
Eurovision Song Contest
On 29 March 1969, she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest performing the song "Boom Bang-a-Bang", written by Peter Warne and Alan Moorhouse, the song chosen from a selection of six by viewers of her BBC1 variety series Happening for Lulu and on a special show hosted by Michael Aspel in which she performed all six one after another. One song, "I Can't Go On...", written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, came last in the postcard vote but was later recorded by Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Polly Brown and Elton John himself as well as by Lulu. In Madrid Lulu was accompanied by Sue and Sunny while the orchestra was conducted by Lulu's musical director Johnny Harris. Lulu later recalled:
I had a series on TV, and Bill Cotton was the Head of Light Entertainment , and he said to my manager: "I'd like her to do the Eurovision Song Contest, on the series". And she came to me and I went "Why? What do I want to do that for?"... and she said that he said that "you'll get good ratings, and he is the boss, and he wants you to have good ratings. Maybe I could have said no, but I felt I didn't really have a choice in the matter. And I thought... I was full of myself, thinking ratings isn't what it's all about... But, you know, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a great song that didn't go through... I had this amazing band, like 20 pieces. We did all these different songs... every single one of us said "Which one is gonna win? Which one is gonna win?" and we all laughed and went: "Bet you it's that Boom boom bang a bang a bang a bang..." But then it won. Somehow there was an intelligence working there... and it was a huge success.
"Boom Bang-a-Bang" was a winner, though three other songs, from Spain, ("Vivo cantando" by Salomé), the Netherlands, ("De Troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr) and France, ("Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara) tied with her on 18 votes each. The rules were altered to prevent such ties but the result caused Austria, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Finland not to enter the 1970 contest. Lulu's song came out the best in sales, with German, French, Spanish and Italian versions alongside the original English. Later she told John Peel; "I know it's a rotten song, but I won, so who cares? I'd have sung "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" standing on my head if that's what it took to win.... I am just so glad I didn't finish second like all the other Brits before me, that would have been awful." Despite her dislike it is her second biggest UK hit to date, reaching number two on the chart in 1969.
In 1975 Lulu herself would host the BBC's A Song for Europe, the qualifying heat for the Eurovision Song Contest, in which The Shadows would performe six shortlisted songs. In 1981 she joined other Eurovision winners at a charity gala held in Norway and she was a panellist at the 1989 UK heat, offering views on two of the competing eight entries. In 2009 she provided comment and support to the six acts shortlisted to represent the UK at Eurovision 2009 on BBC1 TV.
Weeks before her Eurovision appearance Lulu had married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a ceremony in Gerrards Cross. Maurice's older brother Barry was opposed to their marriage as he believed them to be too young. Their honeymoon in Mexico had to be postponed because of Lulu's Eurovision commitment. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced, childless, in 1973 but remained on good terms. . In 1969, she recorded New Routes an album recorded at Muscle Shoals studios: several of the songs, including a version of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles", featured slide guitarist Duane Allman. The album was recorded for Atlantic's Atco label and produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin
1970s
Lulu began 1970 by appearing on the BBC's highly rated review of the sixties music scene Pop Go The Sixties, performing "Boom Bang-A-Bang" live on BBC1, 31 December 1969. She recorded another Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin album in the USA, Melody Fair, and scored a US Top 30 hit, "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)", (later covered by Aretha Franklin, Buster Poindexter, and John Holt) and collaborated with the Dixie Flyers on "Hum a Song (From Your Heart)"
Four more German language tracks, ("Ich brauche deine Liebe", "Wach' ich oder träum' ich", "Warum tu'st du mir weh", and "Traurig, aber wahr") were recorded on the Atlantic/WEA label.
She was one of the main artists invited to appear on the BBC's anniversary show Fifty Years Of Music in 1972. The same year she starred in the Christmas pantomime Peter Pan at the Palace Theatre, Manchester and repeated her performance at the London Palladium in 1975, and returned to the same role in different London-based productions from 1987 to early 1989. She made an appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show in 1973, singing "All the Things You Are" and "Happy Heart".
In 1974 she performed the title song for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun. Two slightly different versions of the song were used, at the start and end respectively - the end song actually name-checking James Bond. The same year she covered David Bowie's songs "The Man Who Sold the World" and "Watch That Man". Bowie and Mick Ronson produced the recordings. Bowie played saxophone and provided back-up vocals and rumours of a brief affair were confirmed in her 2002 autobiography. "The Man Who Sold the World" became her first top 10 hit in five years, peaking at number three in the UK chart in February 1974 and was a top 10 hit in several European countries.
On 31 December 1976 Lulu performed "Shout" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver jubilee.
In 1977 Lulu became interested in Siddha Yoga and married hairdresser John Frieda. They divorced in 1991. They had one son, Jordan Frieda.
1980s
Lulu's chart success waned but she remained in the public eye, acting and hosting a long-running radio show on London's Capital Radio station. She was associated with Freemans fashion catalogue during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In August 1979 after a performance in Margate, Kent she was in a car accident that nearly took her life, colliding head-on with another car on Brooksend Hill and spent a week in hospital recovering. That same year, she recorded for Elton John's label Rocket Records and seemed about to hit the charts again, with the lauded "I Love to Boogie", but surprisingly, despite critical acclaim and much airplay, it did not make the top 75.
Notable London stage appearances came in the early 1980s in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance and the Royal National Theatre's Guys and Dolls. She damaged her vocal cords while performing in the Webber show, requiring surgery that threatened her singing voice. She co-hosted a revived series of Oh Boy! for ITV in the early 1980s. In 1981 she returned to the US charts with "I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)", a Top 20 hit that also reached number two on the Adult Contemporary chart despite stalling at number 62 in the UK. Early the following year she had a more modest US hit with "If I Were You", which just missed the Top 40, appeared in the video for "Ant Rap" alongside Adam and the Ants and was nominated for a Grammy for "Who's Foolin' Who" from the "Lulu" album.
She won the Rear of the Year award in 1983 and re-recorded a number of her songs. These included "Shout," which reached the Top 10 in 1986 in the UK, securing her a spot on Top of the Pops. Lulu was one of only two performers (Cliff Richard being the other) to have sung in the Top of the Pops studio in each of the five decades that the show ran. A follow up single to "Shout", an updated version of Millie's 1960s hit "My Boy Lollipop", failed to chart and Lulu stopped recording until 1992, focusing instead on TV, acting and live performances. These tracks were released on the Jive Records label. Lulu has had hits on the Decca, Columbia, Atco, Polydor, Chelsea, Alfa, Jive, Dome, RCA, Mercury and Universal labels. She has also released singles for GTO, Atlantic, Globe, EMI, Concept, Lifestyle, Utopia and Rocket, and Epic in the US. For a while, she held the record for the most number of hit labels in the UK charts. In 1987 she played Adrian Mole's mother on television (replacing Julie Walters).
1990s
In 1993 she made a recording comeback with the single "Independence" which reached number 11 in the UK charts. This was the title track from the Independence album, all four singles released from this album reached the UK charts, as did two later singles released in 1994.
Later that year she guested on the cover version of the Dan Hartman song "Relight My Fire", with boy band Take That. The single reached number one in the British charts and Lulu appeared as Take That's support act on their 1994 tour. At this time she also appeared as an unhappy public relations client of Edina Monsoon in two episodes of the BBC television programme Absolutely Fabulous and teamed with French & Saunders many times, including their send up of the Spice Girls (The Sugar Lumps) for Comic Relief in 1997, when she took the role of "Baby Spice", mimicking Emma Bunton. An album, provisionally titled Where the Poor Boys Dance was completed in late 1997 and due for release in early 1998 but was postponed by the record label Mercury. "Hurt Me So Bad" was released in April 1999 and a year later the title track from the album reach number 24 in the UK.
In 1999, Lulu returned to BBC1 to host their Saturday night National Lottery game show Red Alert and co-wrote and recorded a duet with UK pop singer Kavana entitled "Heart Like The Sun", but it was not released commercially until Kavana's 2007 "greatest hits" collection, Special Kind Of Something: The Best of....
2000s
Now known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (her late mother's birth name before she was adopted by the McDonald family), in 2000 she was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth. Her autobiography, published in 2002 was titled I Don't Want to Fight after the hit song she and her brother wrote with hit songwriter Steve DuBerry for Tina Turner, a song that Lulu herself released in 2003 as part of her The Greatest Hits album. Her 2002 gold album Together was a collection of duets with Elton John and Paul McCartney among others, tracks from which were performed in a high profile TV special for ITV, An Audience With Lulu, which saw Lulu reunited with her first husband Maurice Gibb for a live performance of "First of May".
Performing with Jools Holland at Border Hill, 23 June 2007.
In 2004, she released the album Back on Track and went on a UK-wide tour to celebrate 40 years in the business, the album charting at a low No 68. In late 2004 she returned to radio as the host of a 2-hour radio show on BBC Radio 2, playing an eclectic blend of music from the 1950s to the 2000s. In 2005, Lulu released A Little Soul in Your Heart, a collection of soul classics that entered the UK Albums Chart at number 28. In March 2006 she launched her official MySpace profile.
Lulu continued to act occasionally and starred alongside Tom Courtenay and Stephen Fry in the British movie, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?. She also appeared in the BBC's reality TV show Just the Two of Us in 2006 as a judge and in late June and early July 2006 appeared on Take That's UK and Ireland tour to perform their song "Relight My Fire". She appeared on American Idol Season 6 on 20 March 2007 as a mentor for the female contestants and the following night performed "To Sir, With Love". Later in 2007 she appeared in the UK as a guest for Jools Holland in a series of concerts and features and on Holland's CD release "Best of Friends", performing "Where Have All the Good Guys Gone?"
Lulu's complete Atco recordings (made between 1969 and 1972) were released on 12 November 2007. The two CD set included previously unreleased and demo versions of some of her recordings from this period. In December 2007 she released a download single on iTunes in the UK, called "Run Rudolph Run". At this time Lulu was also promoting a range of beauty products on QVC (UK), called "Time Bomb", and appeared on a 2007 Christmas television advertisement for Morrisons, the UK supermarket chain.
In February 2008 Lulu fans created an online petition to get Lulu an Outstanding Achievement Award from The Brits. This can still be signed at Lulu Brit Award Petition Online
In November 2008 Lulu was announced as one of a number of Scottish celebrities to feature in the advertising campaign for Homecoming Scotland, a year-long event to encourage people around the world with Scottish heritage to return to Scotland. Also in November 2008, Lulu posted the following message on her website, celebrating the election of Barack Obama as President of the USA: "Barack Obama Is In – Yippee, now we have got hope in the World. I’ve just turned 60, Obama is the new president of the USA and I think its going to be a fantastic year. Love Lu X". In both the 1979 and 1983 UK General Elections, Lulu had been a supporter of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party.
In January 2009, Lulu began a four week stint as an advisor/coach on the BBC show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, helping to choose the singer to represent the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
In the summer of 2009, Lulu guest presented on STV's daily lifestyle show The Hour, alongside main anchor Stephen Jardine. She appeared between 27 and 31 July. The Scottish magazine programme airs weekdays at 5 pm. As of 2009, she continues to pitch her range of "Lulu's" anti-ageing products and other cosmetics through the QVC (UK) home shopping channel, using her youthful appearance as a promotional tool.
After appearing at an Abba tribute concert in Hyde Park, London during September 2009, Lulu announced that she would be touring the UK in a Here Come the Girls alongside Chaka Khan and Anastacia. The trio promoted the concert series on UK TV, ahead of the first performance in November 2009, which took in 20 different dates.
2010s
In early 2010, Lulu performed the theme "The Word Is Love" to the movie Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! and toured the UK a second time with Here Come the Girls alongside Anastacia and Heather Small. In November 2010 she hosted the BBC TV series "Rewind the 60s" . Each episode focused on a year during the 1960s highlighting the social and political issues of the decade as well as music and interviews with personalities from the decade.
On 26 February 2011 Lulu appeared in the second heat in the third series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief. She danced to Soulja Boy's hit Crank That. In May 2011 made an appearance on the ITV2 program Celebrity Juice and in July 2011 she performed at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales.
Lulu appeared on Channel 4's Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on 5 August 2011; closing the show dueting Bad Romance with Cuba Gooding, Jr.
In October 2011 Lulu took part in the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering Brendan Cole
Discography
Main article: Lulu discography
Filmography
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Cucumber Castle (1970)
The Cherry Picker (1972)
Alicja (1982) (voice)
To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999)
Other television appearances
Episode 28 of BBC's Monty Python's Flying Circus (1972, cameo appearance)
Starred in several episdoes of drama Perfect Scoundrels (TV series) from 1990 to 1992.
See also
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lulu (singer)
List of number-one hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one in the United States
Mononymous person
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Sadly booted out of Strictly Come Dancing this weekend.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/07/11 at 7:57 pm
The person of the day...Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 20th century. He is a Southern Baptist. He rose to celebrity status as his sermons were broadcast on radio and television.
Graham has preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other person in history. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, many to the altar call song "Just As I Am". As of 2008, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.
Graham transferred in January 1937 from Bob Jones College to Florida Bible Institute, and then finally to Wheaton College in 1939. Graham attended Wheaton College from 1939 to 1943, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology. While attending college, he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.
Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called Songs in the Night, Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945, and in 1947, at age 30, he became the youngest person to serve as a sitting college president during his tenure at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Graham served as the president of Northwestern College from 1948 to 1952.
Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces, but shortly after applying for a commission contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI) which was co-founded by Torrey Johnson and evangelist Charles Templeton. He traveled throughout the United States and Europe as an evangelist for YFCI. Unlike many evangelists then and now, Graham had little formal theological training; when his friend Chuck Templeton urged him to join him in applying to Princeton Theological Seminary, Graham declined to do so.
Hearst intervention
Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected circus tents in a parking ilot. The Los Angeles revival is considered to be the time when Graham became a national religious figure. Graham's rise to national prominence is partly because of the assistance he received from news mogul William Randolph Hearst, whose interest in Graham was that he respected Graham for being his own person and following what he believed, though the two never met. Most observers believe that Hearst appreciated Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth and thought that Graham would be helpful in promoting Hearst's conservative anti-communist views. Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Billy Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.
The increased media exposure from Hearst's newspaper chain and national magazines caused the crusade event to run for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Henry Luce put him on the cover of TIME in 1954. At the Los Angeles revival, a fellow evangelist accused Graham of setting religion back 100 years. Graham replied, "I did indeed want to set religion back, not just 100 years but 1,900 years, to the Book of Acts, when first century followers of Christ were accused of turning the Roman Empire upside down."
Crusades
Billy Graham has conducted many evangelistic crusades since 1948. He began this form of ministry in 1947 and continued until recently. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. He arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir and then preached the gospel and invited people to come forward (a practice begun by Dwight L. Moody). These people, called inquirers, were then given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a counselor who clarified any questions the inquirer may have had and would pray with that person. The inquirers were often given resources, such as a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in his audience came forward upon his request.
Graham was offered a five-year, $5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals because of his pre-arranged commitments. Graham had missions in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden, in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks. In 1959, he led his first crusade, which was in London.
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
In 1950, Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with its headquarters in Minneapolis. The association later relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:
Hour of Decision, a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years
Mission television specials that have been regularly broadcast in prime time in almost every market in the U.S. and Canada
A syndicated newspaper column, My Answer, carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Media Services
Decision magazine, the official publication of the Association
Christianity Today was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor
Passageway.org, the website for a children's program created by BGEA
World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films
Civil Rights Movement and Anti-Segregation
Graham's stance on civil rights and segregation was inconsistent in his early years. Like many white public figures, he had shown no concern for segregation until the civil rights movement began to take off in the early 1950s, and many of his early crusades were segregated. In response to the civil rights movement, he "zig-zagged" for some years - refusing to speak to some segregated auditoriums, while speaking to others. His memoirs say that in 1953 he dramatically tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience. But he later retreated on the issue in Dallas, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to Brown v. Board of Education, Graham assured audiences that the Bible had nothing to say about segregation. Subsequently, he emerged as an opponent of segregation and racism, reminding audiences of Christanity's pact with the marginalised and oppressed. (Michael G Long, ed., The Legacy of Billy Graham: Critical Reflections on America's Greatest Evangelist, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 150–1) He also got in a fight with a southern KKK member about why integration of blacks into the Southern society was important. Graham said, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation… The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross." Graham paid bail money to secure the release of Martin Luther King, Jr. from jail during the 1960s civil rights movement; he invited King to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City in 1957. During that 16-week stint, Graham was heard by 2.3 million listeners, who gathered to hear him at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square. However, due to his anxieties about addressing the politics of racism and being seen to publicly cooperate with the civil rights leader, he never invited King to appear with him again. (Michael G Long, ed., The Legacy of Billy Graham: Critical Reflections on America's Greatest Evangelist, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008, p. 150)
Later years
Graham with his son, Franklin, at Cleveland Stadium, June 1994
Graham's visibility and popularity extended into the secular world. He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair. He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters. During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace. During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed attending audiences to sit desegregated. His first crusade there was in 1973, during which he openly denounced apartheid.
Billy Graham in het Feyenoord stadion.ogg
Billy Graham at the Feyenoord-stadion in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (30 June 1955)
In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.
Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. He appeared in China in 1988—for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.
On September 22, 1991 Graham held the largest event he ever led in North America on The Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park. City officials estimated over 250,000 in attendance. In 1998, Graham spoke at TED (conference) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers.
On September 14, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Graham led a prayer and remembrance service at Washington National Cathedral, which was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. On June 24–26, 2005, Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade, three days at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City. But on the weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Billy Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health. He has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer. In August 2005, a frail Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker to assist with mobility during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, Graham spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
There had been controversy over where the burial place would be until a press release on June 13, 2007, saying that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice. Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site. At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.
On August 18, 2007, Graham, 88, was in fair condition in Mission Health & Hospitals of Asheville after undergoing treatment for intestinal bleeding, but his condition was not life-threatening.
In April, 2010, Graham, at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss, made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library. Graham's grandson, Will Graham told reporters that his grandfather has "got a lot more energy and he's talking about preaching one more time," stating that it would probably be a televised event rather than a stadium crusade.
Billy Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission. Graham has also reached hundreds of millions more through television, video, film, and webcasts.
On May 11, 2011, Billy Graham was admitted to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for treatment of pneumonia. He was released May 15, 2011, and returned home. Doctors said his response to treatment was excellent. According to his daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, in an interview aired on NPR on October 10, 2011, Billy Graham was recently placed on oxygen therapy.
Politics
Politically, Graham is a registered member of the Democratic Party. He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon. He did not completely ally himself with the religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party. He did not openly endorse political candidates, but he gave his support to some over the years.
He refused to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."
According to a 2006 Newsweek interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel.... When Newsweek asked Graham whether ministers—whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both—should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'".
Pastor to presidents
President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan greet Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast of 1981
Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US Presidents from Harry S Truman to Barack Obama. He visited in the Oval Office with Truman in 1950, urging him to counter communism in North Korea. However, Graham and his accompanying pastors were not aware of Washington protocol; they appeased the press corps waiting outside with details of the visit, with the three pastors even acquiescing to the calls of the press to kneel on the White House lawn, as if praying. Truman allegedly commented about Graham in Merle Miller's oral biography Plain Speaking:
But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He's...well, I hadn’t ought to say this, but he’s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the Presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don’t go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper.
Truman did not speak to Graham for years after their meeting. Graham has often told the story, usually as a warning that he would not reveal his conversations with world leaders.
Graham became a regular in the Oval Office during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he urged to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine, and it was at that time, on a Washington golf course, that he met and became close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon. Graham was invited by Eisenhower to visit with him when the former president was on his deathbed. Graham also counseled Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and the Bush family.
The single notable exception among modern presidents is John F. Kennedy, with whom Graham played golf, but Kennedy was Roman Catholic; Graham enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and prominently supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Nixon wrote to Graham after that election: "I have often told friends that when you went into the ministry, politics lost one of its potentially greatest practitioners." Graham spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.
Billy Graham meeting with President Barack Obama in Montreat, 2010
After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham was an adviser, visiting the White House and leading some of the private church services that the President organized there. Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel in a meeting they had with Golda Meir, but Graham turned down Nixon's offer. Nixon appeared at one of Graham's revivals in East Tennessee in 1970; the event drew one of the largest crowds to ever gather in Tennessee. Nixon became the first President to give a speech from an evangelist's platform. However, their friendship became strained when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes; they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation. Graham announced at that time, "I'm out of politics."
After a special law was passed on his behalf, Graham was allowed to conduct the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building in 1952. When Graham was hospitalized briefly in 1976, three Presidents called in one day to wish him well: former President Nixon, current President Ford and President-elect Carter.
He was one of Reagan's personal guests at his inauguration and gave the benediction at George H. W. Bush's inauguration. He stayed at the White House the night before George H. W. Bush (who called Graham "America's pastor") launched the Persian Gulf War. Two days before the 2000 presidential election, Graham spoke at a prayer breakfast in Florida with George W. Bush in attendance. At a New York revival in 2005, Bill Clinton recalled how he had attended Graham's revival as a boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.
1966
Graham has officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated at the funeral service of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 and the funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994. He was unable to officiate at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, because of recent double hip replacement surgery, which former President George H. W. Bush acknowledged during his eulogy. Graham had been Reagan's first choice. Because of Graham's hospitalization, the Reverend John Danforth, a Missouri Republican Senator during Reagan's tenure, officiated at the funeral. Failing health prevented Graham from officiating at the state funeral of Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007, as well as the funeral of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in July 2007.
On April 25, 2010, President Barack Obama visited Rev. Graham at his home in Montreat, North Carolina where they “had a private prayer.”
As with other presidents in the past, Graham met with former President George W. Bush during December 2010, for a tour of his library
Graham has frequently been honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world. Between 1950 and 1990, he appeared most frequently on Gallup's list of most admired people. The United States Postal Service has said that Graham is one of the few Americans, along with the current President, who can be delivered mail that simply reads his name and the country: "Billy Graham, America."
In 1967, he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school.
In 1971, Graham received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. After the Nixon tapes were released, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called for Graham to return the award. He was honored by the American Jewish Committee with its National Interreligious Award for his efforts on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations; the committee called him one of the century's greatest Christian friends of Jews. In the same year, Graham's hometown of Charlotte held "Billy Graham Day" at which President Nixon made an appearance.
He has received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan, America's highest civilian honors.
In 1986, Graham was given North Carolina's highest honor, the North Carolina Award, for public service.
President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole awarded Graham the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 1996.
On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to give the pre-race invocation at the Indianapolis 500.
In December 2001, he was presented with an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for his international contributions to civic and religious life over 60 years.
On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. A highway in Charlotte bears Graham's name, as does I-240 near Graham's home in Asheville.
For providing a platform during his events for many Christian musical artists, Graham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Gospel Music Association. Several songs by various artists have dedicated songs to or about Graham during his lifetime. Singer Michael W. Smith is active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan's Purse.
In 2000, former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years.
Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham.
A professorial chair is named after him at the Alabama Baptist-affiliated Samford University, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth. His alma mater Wheaton College has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. Graham has received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more. In San Francisco, CA, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, has often erroneously been called the Billy Graham Civic Auditorium and falsely considered to be named in his honor, but is actually named after the rock & roll promoter Bill Graham.
The movie Billy: The Early Years premiered in theaters officially on October 10, 2008, less than one month before Graham's 90th birthday. Graham has yet to comment on the film, but his son, Franklin released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie." Graham's eldest daughter Gigi, however, has praised the movie and has also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film.
In 2011, Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Graham was once president, named its newest campus building the Billy Graham Community Life Commons
Graham has authored the following books:
Calling Youth to Christ (1947)
America's Hour of Decision (1951)
I Saw Your Sons at War (1953)
Peace with God (1953, 1984)
Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins (1955)
The Secret of Happiness (1955, 1985)
Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers (1958)
My Answer (1960)
Billy Graham Answers Your Questions (1960)
World Aflame (1965)
The Challenge (1969)
The Jesus Generation (1971)
Angels: God's Secret Agents (1975, 1985)
How to Be Born Again (1977)
The Holy Spirit (1978)
Till Armageddon (1981)
Approaching Hoofbeats (1983)
A Biblical Standard for Evangelists (1984)
Unto the Hills (1986)
Facing Death and the Life After (1987)
Answers to Life's Problems (1988)
Hope for the Troubled Heart (1991)
Storm Warning (1992)
Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (1997, 2007)
Hope for Each Day (2002)
The Key to Personal Peace (2003)
Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade (2005)
The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (2006)
Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well (2011)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/08/11 at 9:47 am
The person of the day...Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially accessible recordings in the 1990s including "Nick of Time", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up on You", and the slow ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me". Raitt has received nine Grammy Awards in her career and is a lifelong political activist.
In the fall of 1970, while opening for McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from Newsweek Magazine, who began to spread word of her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer with Warner Bros. who soon released her debut album, Bonnie Raitt, in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, many of whom praised her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, very few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists.
While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, Give It Up, was released in 1972 to universal acclaim; though many critics still regard it as her best work, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's Takin' My Time was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales.
Raitt was beginning to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for Rolling Stone Magazine, but with 1974's Streetlights, reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By now, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's Home Plate.
In 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevon's eponymous album with his friend Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Commercial success
Berkeley Community Theater, 1976-1977
1977's Sweet Forgiveness gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough when it yielded a hit single in her cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway." Recast as a heavy R&B recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics, but its commercial success prompted a bidding war between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia – Warner war going on at the time", recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia...And then, Warner signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia — no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal."
Warner Bros. held higher expectations for Raitt's next album, 1979's The Glow, but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt would have one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) concerts at Madison Square Garden. The shows spawned a three-record gold album as well as a Warner Bros. feature film, No Nukes. The shows featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and numerous others.
For her next record, 1982's Green Light, Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records, but to her surprise, many of her peers and members of the press would compare her new sound to the burgeoning New Wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this would have a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Bros.
Drop from Warner Bros.
In 1983, as Raitt was finishing work on her follow-up album, entitled Tongue & Groove, Warner Bros. "cleaned house", dropping a number of major artists from their roster. Van Morrison and Arlo Guthrie were two of the most high-profile cases, and the day after mastering was completed on Tongue & Groove, Raitt was notified that she was to be dropped too. The album was shelved indefinitely, and Raitt was left without a label. By now, Raitt was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse.
Despite her personal and professional problems, Raitt continued to tour and participate in political activism. In 1985, she sang and appeared in the video of "Sun City", the anti-apartheid record written and produced by Steven Van Zandt. Along with her participation in Farm Aid and Amnesty International concerts, Raitt would later travel to Moscow in 1987 as part of the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert later shown on Showtime television. Also in 1987, Raitt would organize a benefit in Los Angeles, for Countdown '87 to Stop Contra Aid, featuring herself, Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, Holly Near and others.
Tongue and Groove's name change and release
Bonnie Raitt at 1990 Grammy Awards
Two years after dropping her from their label, Warner Bros. notified Raitt of their plans to release Tongue & Groove. "I said it wasn't really fair", recalled Raitt. "I think at this point they felt kind of bad. I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ability to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it, and that's when it came out as Nine Lives." A critical and commercial disappointment, 1986's Nine Lives would be Raitt's last new recording for Warner Bros.
In late 1987, she joined k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as female background vocals for Roy Orbison's television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, she began working on new material. By now, Raitt was clean and sober, having broken her substance abuse — for which she would credit Stevie Ray Vaughan in a Minnesota State Fair concert the night after Vaughan's 1990 death. During this time, Raitt considered signing with Prince's own label, Paisley Park, but negotiations would ultimately fall through. Instead she began recording a bluesy mix of pop and rock under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records.
Raitt had met Was through Hal Wilner, who was putting together Stay Awake, a tribute album to Disney music for A&M. Was and Wilner both wanted Raitt to sing lead on an adult-contemporary arrangement created by Was for "Baby Mine", the lullaby from Dumbo. Raitt was very pleased with the sessions, and she asked Don to produce her next album.
Peak commercial success
After nearly 20 years, Bonnie Raitt achieved belated commercial success with her tenth album, Nick of Time. Released in the spring of 1989, Nick of Time went to the top of the U.S. charts following Raitt's Grammy sweep in early 1990. At the same time, she walked away with a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "In the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album The Healer. Nick of Time (album) was also the first of many of her recordings to feature her longtime rhythm section of Ricky Fataar and James "Hutch" Hutchinson (Although previously Fataar had played on her Green Light album and Hutchinson had worked on Nine Lives). Nick of Time has sold over six million copies in the US alone.
She followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her 1991 album, Luck of the Draw which has currently sold nearly 8 million copies in the United States. Three years later, in 1994, she added two more Grammys with her album Longing In Their Hearts, her second no. 1 album. Both of these albums were multi-platinum successes. Raitt's collaboration with Was would amicably come to an end with 1995's live release, Road Tested. Released to solid reviews, it sold well enough to be certified gold.
For her next studio album, Raitt hired Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as her producers. "I loved working with Don Was but I wanted to give myself and my fans a stretch and do something different", Raitt said. Her work with Froom and Blake was released on Fundamental in 1998.
Current era
In March 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Silver Lining was released in 2002 while Souls Alike was released in September 2005.
Australian Country Music Artist Graeme Connors has said, "Bonnie Raitt does something with a lyric no one else can do; she bends it and twists it right into your heart." (ABC Radio NSW Australia interview with Interviewer Chris Coleman on 18 January 2007)
In 2007, she accepted an invitation to contribute to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino. With Jon Cleary, she sang a medley of "I'm in Love Again" and "All by Myself".
Raitt appeared on the June 7, 2008 broadcast of Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". She performed two blues songs with Kevin "Keb' Mo'" Moore: "No Getting Over You" and "There Ain't Nothin' in Ramblin'." Raitt also sang Dimming of the Day with Richard Thompson. This show, along with another on which Raitt with her band in October 2006, is archived on the Prairie Home Companion web site.
Political activism
Raitt's political involvement goes back to the early seventies. Her 1972 album "Give it up" had a dedication "to the people of North Vietnam ..." printed on the back. At that time, it took quite a bit of courage to do this at the onset of a career.
File:No-nukes-bonnie-1.jpg
Bonnie Raitt Performing at an Abalone Alliance Concert, in the early 1980s.
Raitt's web site urges fans to learn more about preserving the environment. She was a founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 and a catalyst for the larger anti-nuclear movement, becoming involved with groups like the Abalone Alliance and Alliance for Survival.
In 1994 at the urging of Dick Waterman, Raitt funded the replacement of a headstone for one of her mentors, Fred McDowell through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. Raitt would later finance memorial headstones in Mississippi for Memphis Minnie, Sam Chatmon, and Tommy Johnson again with the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund.
Bonnie Raitt is a staunch leftist. In July 2004, she drew thunderous applause at the Stockholm Jazz Festival for dedicating a classic to sitting (and later re-elected) U.S. President George W. Bush. She was quoted as saying, "We're gonna sing this for George Bush because he's out of here, people!" before she launched into the opening licks of "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)", a cover that was featured on her 1979 album The Glow. In 2002, she signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S.A. She has visited children in the program and sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.
Raitt worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2005 Fall/Winter and 2006 Spring/Summer/Fall tours.
Raitt is part of the No Nukes group which is against the expansion of nuclear power. In 2007 the group recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth".
During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign Raitt, along with Jackson Browne and bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson, performed at campaign appearances for candidate John Edwards.
Personal life
Raitt and actor Michael O'Keefe were married on April 27, 1991, and announced their divorce on November 9, 1999.
Discography
Main article: Bonnie Raitt discography
http://i689.photobucket.com/albums/vv255/Miss_Stephanie_photo/Artists/Bonnie.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y251/CrAzYbOuTgUiTaRs/raitt1.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: danootaandme on 11/08/11 at 1:31 pm
Absolutely love her :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/08/11 at 7:09 pm
Absolutely love her :)
Me too... I love her songs "Something To Talk About", "Not The Only One", "Love Sneakin' Up On You", among others... and in the mid-90s she covered Roy Orbison's "You Got It". I liked that cover when it was a hit in early 1995; in fact, that's a song of which I enjoy both the cover and the original.
My mom has a couple of Bonnie's albums.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/11/11 at 7:29 am
The person of the day...Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (pronounced /dɨˈkæpri.oʊ/; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator (2004), and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, DiCaprio started his career by appearing in television commercials prior to landing recurring roles in TV series such as the soap opera Santa Barbara and the sitcom Growing Pains in the early 1990s. He made his film debut in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3 (1991) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in This Boy's Life (1993). DiCaprio obtained recognition for his subsequent work in supporting roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and Marvin's Room (1996), as well as leading roles in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), before achieving international fame in James Cameron's Titanic (1997).
Since the 2000s, DiCaprio has been nominated for awards for his work in such films as Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), Blood Diamond (2006), The Departed (2006), and Revolutionary Road (2008). His latest films Shutter Island (2010) and Inception (2010) rank among the biggest commercial successes of his career. DiCaprio owns a production company named Appian Way Productions, whose productions include the films Gardener of Eden (2007) and Orphan (2009).
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism.
DiCaprio's career began with his appearance in several commercials and educational films. After being booted off the set of children's television series Romper Room for being disruptive at the age of five, DiCaprio followed his older stepbrother Adam Farrar into television commercials, landing an ad for Matchbox cars at 14. In 1990, he got his break on television when he was cast in the short-lived series based on the movie Parenthood. After Parenthood, DiCaprio had bit parts on several shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne, as well as a brief stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara, playing the young Mason Capwell. His involvement in Parenthood and the daily soap earned him a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor each.
1991–95
His debut film role was in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3, in which he played the stepson of an evil landlord, a role that DiCaprio described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair." Released in 1991, the movie went direct-to-video. Soon after, he became a recurring cast member on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the Seaver family. DiCaprio made his big screen breakthrough in 1992, when he was handpicked by Robert De Niro out of 400 young actors to play the lead role in This Boy's Life, co-starring Ellen Barkin and De Niro himself.
Later in 1993, DiCaprio co-starred as the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a comic-tragic odyssey of a dysfunctional Iowa family. Director Lasse Hallström admitted he was initially looking for a less good-looking actor but finally settled on DiCaprio as he had emerged as "the most observant " among all auditioners. Budgeted at US$11.0 million, the film became a financial and critical success, resulting in a domestic box office total of US$9.1 million and various accolades for DiCaprio, who was awarded the National Board of Review Award and nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal. New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised DiCaprio's performance, writing "the film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio, who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."
DiCaprio's first effort of 1995 was Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, a western film in which he appeared alongside Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, and Russell Crowe, playing the role of Hackman's alleged son named Kid. Sony Pictures was dubious over DiCaprio's casting, and as a result, Stone decided to pay for the actor's salary herself. The film was released to a dismal box office performance, barely grossing US$18.5 million in the United States, and received mixed reviews from critics. Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader observed that "Raimi tries to do a Sergio Leone, and though The Quick and the Dead is highly enjoyable in spots, it doesn't come across as very convincing." Afterwards DiCaprio starred in Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, played by David Thewlis. He replaced River Phoenix in the role of Rimbaud, who had died during pre-production on the project. A minor arthouse success, the film grossed US$0.34 million throughout its domestic theatrical run.
DiCaprio appeared alongside friends Kevin Connolly and Tobey Maguire in the mostly improvised short film called Don's Plum as a favor to aspiring director R.D. Robb. When Robb decided to expand the black-and-white film to feature length however, DiCaprio and Maguire obtained its blocking, arguing that they never intended to make it a theatrical release as it would have commercial value thanks to their stardom. Nevertheless, the film eventually premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival, where it was well-received by critics, with Time Out New York writer Mike D'Angelo calling it "the best film in Berlin." DiCaprio's last film of the year 1995 was The Basketball Diaries, a biopic about Jim Carroll.
1996–2001
In 1996, DiCaprio appeared opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet, an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. The project was one of the first films to cash in on DiCaprio's future star-status, with a worldwide box office take of $147 million.
Later that year, he starred in Jerry Zaks' family drama Marvin's Room, reuniting with Robert De Niro. Based on Scott McPherson's screenplay adaptation of his own 1991 stage play of the same name, the film revolves around two sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy after 17 years of estrangement. DiCaprio portrayed the character of Hank, Streep's troubled son, who has been committed to a mental asylum for setting fire to his mother's house. On his Chlotrudis Award-winning performance, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly commented: "The deeply gifted DiCaprio keeps right up with these older pros . The three are so full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent."
DiCaprio at a press conference for The Beach in February 2000
In 1997, DiCaprio starred in James Cameron's Titanic (1997), alongside Kate Winslet. Cast as twenty-year-old Jack Dawson, a penniless Wisconsin man who wins two tickets for the third-class on the fated RMS Titanic, DiCaprio initially refused to portray the character but was eventually encouraged to pursue the role by Cameron who strongly believed in his acting ability. Against expectations, the film went on to become the highest-grossing film to date (it was surpassed in 2010 by Cameron's directorial follow-up, Avatar), grossing more than US$1.843 billion in box-office receipts worldwide, and transformed DiCaprio into a commercial movie superstar, resulting in fan worship among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-Mania." He was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, including a second Golden Globe nomination. Upon the success of Titanic, DiCaprio stated in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to. It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either."
The following year, DiCaprio made a self-mocking cameo appearance in Woody Allen's caustic satire of the fame industry, Celebrity (1998). That year, he also starred in the dual roles of the villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask, based on the same-titled 1939 film. Despite receiving a rather mixed to negative response, the film became a box office success, grossing US$180 million internationally. Though DiCaprio's performance was generally well-received, with Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman writing that "the shockingly androgynous DiCaprio looks barely old enough to be playing anyone with hormones, but he's a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel," he was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for both incarnations the following year.
DiCaprio's next project was the drama film The Beach (2000), an adaption of Alex Garland's same-titled 1996 novel. Starring alongside Tilda Swinton and Virginie Ledoyen, he played an American backpacking tourist looking for the perfect way of life in a secret island commune in the Gulf of Thailand. Budgeted at $US50 million, the film became a financial success, grossing $US144 million worldwide, but as with DiCaprio's previous project, the film was largely panned by critics. Todd McCarthy of Variety noted that "Richard is too much the American Everyman and not enough of a well-defined individual to entirely capture one's interest and imagination, and DiCaprio, while perfectly watchable, does not endow him with the quirks or distinguishing marks to make this man from nowhere a dimensional character." The next year, he was nominated for another Razzie Award for his work on the film.
2002–07
DiCaprio's first film of 2002 was the crime-comedy Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, used his charm, confidence, and several different personas, to make millions in the 1960s writing bad checks. Directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken, the film was shot in 147 different locations in only 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. Catch Me If You Can received favourable reviews and proved to be an international success, becoming Dicaprio's highest-grossing film since Titanic with a total of US$351.1 million worldwide. Roger Ebert praised his performance, and noted that while "DiCaprio, who in recent films has played dark and troubled characters, is breezy and charming here, playing a boy who discovers what he is good at, and does it." The following year, DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his work on the film.
DiCaprio at the pre-premiere of Gangs of New York at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Also in 2002, DiCaprio appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Director Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in playing protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, a young leader of the Irish faction, and thus, Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless production on the film was plagued by blown-out budgets and producer-director squabbles, resulting in a marathon eight-month shoot and, at US$103 million, the most expensive film Scorsese had ever made. Upon its release, Gangs of New York became a financial and critical success however. DiCaprio's acting was well-received but remained overshadowed by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance among most critics.
Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of the eccentric and obsessive American film director and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004). Centering on Hughes' life from the late 1920s to 1947, DiCaprio initially developed the project with Michael Mann, who decided against directing it after back-to-back film biographies in Ali and The Insider. The actor eventually pitched John Logan's script to Scorsese, who quickly signed on to direct. Altogether, DiCaprio reportedly spent more than a year and a half in preparation for the film which was not necessarily shot in continuity because of actors and locations schedules. The Aviator became a critical and financial success. DiCaprio received rave reviews for his performance and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, also receiving another Academy Award nomination.
In 2006, DiCaprio starred in both Blood Diamond and The Departed. In Edward Zwick's war film Blood Diamond, he co-starred alongside Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. The film itself received generally favorable reviews, and DiCaprio was praised for the authenticity of his South African Afrikaner accent, known as a difficult accent to imitate. In Scorsese's The Departed he played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in an Irish Mob in Boston. Highly anticipated, the film was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and became one of the highest-rated wide release films of 2006. Budgeted at US$90 million, it also emerged as DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to date, easily beating The Aviator´s previous record of US$213.7 million. DiCaprio's performance in The Departed was applauded by critics and earned him a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor. The same year, both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild nominated DiCaprio twice in the Best Actor category for both of his 2006 features, and in addition, DiCaprio earned his third Academy Award nomination for Blood Diamond.
2008–present
In 2008, DiCaprio starred in Body of Lies, a spy film based on the novel of the same name by David Ignatius, set in context of the Middle East and the War on Terror, unfolding the story of three men battling a terrorist organization, and each other. Directed by Ridley Scott and co-starring Russell Crowe and Vince Colosimo, DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role, which he chose to pursue because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975). The film received mixed reviews from critics, and at a budget of US$67.5 million, became a moderate box office success, grossing US$115 million worldwide.
DiCaprio at a charity event in March 2009.
The same year, DiCaprio reunited with Kate Winslet to film the drama Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Winslet's then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that both should work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates after reading the script by Justin Haythe, knowing that plot had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Once DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production. He noted that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment." Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for Revolutionary Road,which earned them favorable reviews. For his portrayal DiCaprio garnered his seventh nomination from the Golden Globes.
DiCaprio continued his run with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island (2010), based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Co-starring Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams in supporting roles, the actor played U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island and comes to question his own sanity. With US$41 million, the film opened at number-one at the box office, giving both DiCaprio and Scorsese their best box office opening yet.
Also in 2010, DiCaprio starred in director Christopher Nolan's science-fiction film Inception. Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation, DiCaprio portrays the character of Dom Cobb, an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio, the first actor to be cast in the film, was "intrigued by this concept — this dream-heist notion and how this character's gonna unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life." Released to critical acclaim, the film grossed over US$21 million on its opening day, with an opening weekend gross of US$62.7 million.
DiCaprio is also set to star in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar, a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI. He was cast in the title role in Oliver Stone's film Travis McGee, in which he is expected to play a salvage consultant who helps his clients on recover lost property, and is attached to star as a father who kidnaps and tortures the man who kidnapped his daughter in the thriller Prisoners. In addition, DiCaprio is said to be involved in the pre-production of Ridley Scott's projects The Wolf of Wall Street and Brave New World, Marc Forster's The Chancellor Manuscript and the biopic Sinatra, a film about Frank Sinatra to be directed by Martin Scorsese. In July 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio had pulled out of a Viking movie to be directed by Mel Gibson amid controversy over Gibson's rage-fueled rant tapes and domestic violence probe. On November 1, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio's production company had acquired the rights to the Erik Larsen novel, The Devil in the White City. The novel tells the true story of Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer responsible for the death of hundreds of women during the Chicago World's Fair. It has also been announced that DiCaprio will star in the film, playing the role of serial killer H. H. Holmes. He was also cast in the role of Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of the novel The Great Gatsby.
On November 19, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio will produce and star in the upcoming 2013 movie based on the book Legacy of Secrecy by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. The storyline examines how, in the early 1960s, the combined forces of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mafia conspired to initiate and execute the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. DiCaprio is expected to play FBI informant Jack Van Laningham. The book asserts that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to Van Laningham that he had ordered JFK's assassination, while the CIA and the Mafia were conspiring together to try to assassinate Fidel Castro. After the assassination, as part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become a confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.
On June 8, 2011, DiCaprio was announced to be in talks for the role of the villainous Calvin Candie for the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained.
Personal life
Environmental activism and philanthropy
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. In the past, he has opted to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets, and it was reported that he drives a hybrid car and has solar panels installed on his house. In an interview with Ukula about his 2007 film 11th Hour, DiCaprio cited global warming as "the number-one environmental challenge."
At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. In 2010, his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award. The awards show, produced by VH1, is dedicated to honoring people who do good and is powered by Do Something, an organization that aims to empower and inspire young people.
In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children. In 2010, he donated $1,000,000 to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.
During the 2004 Presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. FEC showed DiCaprio gave $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the maximum contribution an individual can give in an election cycle.
In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's tiger summit. DiCaprio arrived late after two near-miss flights, causing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man". In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to free Tony, a tiger who has spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana.
Filmography
Acting
Year Title Role Notes
Film 1991 Critters 3 Josh
1992 Poison Ivy Guy
1993 This Boy's Life Tobias "Toby" Wolff Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape Arnie Grape Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1994 The Foot Shooting Party Bud
1995 The Quick and the Dead Fee Herod, "The Kid"
1995 The Basketball Diaries Jim Carroll
1995 Total Eclipse Arthur Rimbaud
1996 Romeo + Juliet Romeo Montague Silver Bear for Best Actor
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Claire Danes)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Claire Danes)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
1996 Marvin's Room Hank
1997 Titanic Jack Dawson Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Drama
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Kate Winslet)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Kate Winslet)
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998 The Man in the Iron Mask King Louis XIV/Philippe
1998 Celebrity Brandon Darrow Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Hissy Fit
2000 The Beach Richard Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry (Shared with Virginie Ledoyen)
2001 Don's Plum Derek Filmed in 1995
2002 Catch Me If You Can Frank William Abagnale Jr. Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liar
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
2002 Gangs of New York Amsterdam Vallon Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Cameron Diaz)
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock (Shared with Cameron Diaz)
2004 The Aviator Howard Hughes Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2006 The Departed William "Billy" Costigan Jr. Gransito Movie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor]
Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Best On-Screen Match-Up (Shared with Matt Damon & Jack Nicholson)
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2006 Blood Diamond Danny Archer Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2007 The 11th Hour Narrator/Producer Documentary
2008 Body of Lies Roger Ferris
2008 Revolutionary Road Frank Wheeler Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
2010 Shutter Island Teddy Daniels Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Horror/Thriller
Nominated—National Movie Award for Performance of the Year
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Inception)
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Scream Awards for Best Horror Actor
2010 Hubble 3D Narrator Documentary
2010 Inception Dom Cobb Scream Award for Best Science Fiction Actor
Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best WTF Moment (Shared with Ellen Page)
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Shutter Island)
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Team
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Scream Award for Best Ensemble
2011 J. Edgar J. Edgar Hoover
2012 The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby Filming
Year Title Role Notes
Television 1990 The Outsiders Kid Fighting Scout Episode: "Pilot"
1990 Parenthood Garry Buckman Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series
1990 The New Lassie Young Boy Episode: "Livewire"
1990 Santa Barbara Young Mason Capwell Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series
1991 Roseanne Darlene's Classmate Episode: "Home-Ec"
1991–1992 Growing Pains Luke Brower Joined the cast in the last season
Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series
As producer
Year Title Notes
Film 2004 The Assassination of Richard Nixon Executive producer
2004 The Aviator Executive producer
2007 The 11th Hour Producer
2007 Gardener of Eden Producer
2008–2010 Greensburg Producer
2009 Orphan Producer
2011 Red Riding Hood Producer
2011 The Ides of March Executive producer
Other accolades
Year Group Category Result
1993 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards New Generation Award Won
2004 Hollywood Film Festival Actor of the Year Won
2007 TV Land Award Little Screen/Big Screen Star Nominated
2009 Kids' Choice Awards Big Green Help Award Won
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http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr265/kmixzz/leonardodicaprio.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/11/11 at 7:47 am
The person of the day...Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (pronounced /dɨˈkæpri.oʊ/; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator (2004), and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, DiCaprio started his career by appearing in television commercials prior to landing recurring roles in TV series such as the soap opera Santa Barbara and the sitcom Growing Pains in the early 1990s. He made his film debut in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3 (1991) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in This Boy's Life (1993). DiCaprio obtained recognition for his subsequent work in supporting roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and Marvin's Room (1996), as well as leading roles in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), before achieving international fame in James Cameron's Titanic (1997).
Since the 2000s, DiCaprio has been nominated for awards for his work in such films as Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), Blood Diamond (2006), The Departed (2006), and Revolutionary Road (2008). His latest films Shutter Island (2010) and Inception (2010) rank among the biggest commercial successes of his career. DiCaprio owns a production company named Appian Way Productions, whose productions include the films Gardener of Eden (2007) and Orphan (2009).
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism.
DiCaprio's career began with his appearance in several commercials and educational films. After being booted off the set of children's television series Romper Room for being disruptive at the age of five, DiCaprio followed his older stepbrother Adam Farrar into television commercials, landing an ad for Matchbox cars at 14. In 1990, he got his break on television when he was cast in the short-lived series based on the movie Parenthood. After Parenthood, DiCaprio had bit parts on several shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne, as well as a brief stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara, playing the young Mason Capwell. His involvement in Parenthood and the daily soap earned him a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor each.
1991–95
His debut film role was in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3, in which he played the stepson of an evil landlord, a role that DiCaprio described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair." Released in 1991, the movie went direct-to-video. Soon after, he became a recurring cast member on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the Seaver family. DiCaprio made his big screen breakthrough in 1992, when he was handpicked by Robert De Niro out of 400 young actors to play the lead role in This Boy's Life, co-starring Ellen Barkin and De Niro himself.
Later in 1993, DiCaprio co-starred as the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a comic-tragic odyssey of a dysfunctional Iowa family. Director Lasse Hallström admitted he was initially looking for a less good-looking actor but finally settled on DiCaprio as he had emerged as "the most observant " among all auditioners. Budgeted at US$11.0 million, the film became a financial and critical success, resulting in a domestic box office total of US$9.1 million and various accolades for DiCaprio, who was awarded the National Board of Review Award and nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal. New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised DiCaprio's performance, writing "the film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio, who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."
DiCaprio's first effort of 1995 was Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, a western film in which he appeared alongside Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, and Russell Crowe, playing the role of Hackman's alleged son named Kid. Sony Pictures was dubious over DiCaprio's casting, and as a result, Stone decided to pay for the actor's salary herself. The film was released to a dismal box office performance, barely grossing US$18.5 million in the United States, and received mixed reviews from critics. Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader observed that "Raimi tries to do a Sergio Leone, and though The Quick and the Dead is highly enjoyable in spots, it doesn't come across as very convincing." Afterwards DiCaprio starred in Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, played by David Thewlis. He replaced River Phoenix in the role of Rimbaud, who had died during pre-production on the project. A minor arthouse success, the film grossed US$0.34 million throughout its domestic theatrical run.
DiCaprio appeared alongside friends Kevin Connolly and Tobey Maguire in the mostly improvised short film called Don's Plum as a favor to aspiring director R.D. Robb. When Robb decided to expand the black-and-white film to feature length however, DiCaprio and Maguire obtained its blocking, arguing that they never intended to make it a theatrical release as it would have commercial value thanks to their stardom. Nevertheless, the film eventually premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival, where it was well-received by critics, with Time Out New York writer Mike D'Angelo calling it "the best film in Berlin." DiCaprio's last film of the year 1995 was The Basketball Diaries, a biopic about Jim Carroll.
1996–2001
In 1996, DiCaprio appeared opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet, an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. The project was one of the first films to cash in on DiCaprio's future star-status, with a worldwide box office take of $147 million.
Later that year, he starred in Jerry Zaks' family drama Marvin's Room, reuniting with Robert De Niro. Based on Scott McPherson's screenplay adaptation of his own 1991 stage play of the same name, the film revolves around two sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy after 17 years of estrangement. DiCaprio portrayed the character of Hank, Streep's troubled son, who has been committed to a mental asylum for setting fire to his mother's house. On his Chlotrudis Award-winning performance, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly commented: "The deeply gifted DiCaprio keeps right up with these older pros . The three are so full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent."
DiCaprio at a press conference for The Beach in February 2000
In 1997, DiCaprio starred in James Cameron's Titanic (1997), alongside Kate Winslet. Cast as twenty-year-old Jack Dawson, a penniless Wisconsin man who wins two tickets for the third-class on the fated RMS Titanic, DiCaprio initially refused to portray the character but was eventually encouraged to pursue the role by Cameron who strongly believed in his acting ability. Against expectations, the film went on to become the highest-grossing film to date (it was surpassed in 2010 by Cameron's directorial follow-up, Avatar), grossing more than US$1.843 billion in box-office receipts worldwide, and transformed DiCaprio into a commercial movie superstar, resulting in fan worship among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-Mania." He was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, including a second Golden Globe nomination. Upon the success of Titanic, DiCaprio stated in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to. It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either."
The following year, DiCaprio made a self-mocking cameo appearance in Woody Allen's caustic satire of the fame industry, Celebrity (1998). That year, he also starred in the dual roles of the villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask, based on the same-titled 1939 film. Despite receiving a rather mixed to negative response, the film became a box office success, grossing US$180 million internationally. Though DiCaprio's performance was generally well-received, with Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman writing that "the shockingly androgynous DiCaprio looks barely old enough to be playing anyone with hormones, but he's a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel," he was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for both incarnations the following year.
DiCaprio's next project was the drama film The Beach (2000), an adaption of Alex Garland's same-titled 1996 novel. Starring alongside Tilda Swinton and Virginie Ledoyen, he played an American backpacking tourist looking for the perfect way of life in a secret island commune in the Gulf of Thailand. Budgeted at $US50 million, the film became a financial success, grossing $US144 million worldwide, but as with DiCaprio's previous project, the film was largely panned by critics. Todd McCarthy of Variety noted that "Richard is too much the American Everyman and not enough of a well-defined individual to entirely capture one's interest and imagination, and DiCaprio, while perfectly watchable, does not endow him with the quirks or distinguishing marks to make this man from nowhere a dimensional character." The next year, he was nominated for another Razzie Award for his work on the film.
2002–07
DiCaprio's first film of 2002 was the crime-comedy Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, used his charm, confidence, and several different personas, to make millions in the 1960s writing bad checks. Directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken, the film was shot in 147 different locations in only 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. Catch Me If You Can received favourable reviews and proved to be an international success, becoming Dicaprio's highest-grossing film since Titanic with a total of US$351.1 million worldwide. Roger Ebert praised his performance, and noted that while "DiCaprio, who in recent films has played dark and troubled characters, is breezy and charming here, playing a boy who discovers what he is good at, and does it." The following year, DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his work on the film.
DiCaprio at the pre-premiere of Gangs of New York at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Also in 2002, DiCaprio appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Director Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in playing protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, a young leader of the Irish faction, and thus, Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless production on the film was plagued by blown-out budgets and producer-director squabbles, resulting in a marathon eight-month shoot and, at US$103 million, the most expensive film Scorsese had ever made. Upon its release, Gangs of New York became a financial and critical success however. DiCaprio's acting was well-received but remained overshadowed by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance among most critics.
Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of the eccentric and obsessive American film director and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004). Centering on Hughes' life from the late 1920s to 1947, DiCaprio initially developed the project with Michael Mann, who decided against directing it after back-to-back film biographies in Ali and The Insider. The actor eventually pitched John Logan's script to Scorsese, who quickly signed on to direct. Altogether, DiCaprio reportedly spent more than a year and a half in preparation for the film which was not necessarily shot in continuity because of actors and locations schedules. The Aviator became a critical and financial success. DiCaprio received rave reviews for his performance and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, also receiving another Academy Award nomination.
In 2006, DiCaprio starred in both Blood Diamond and The Departed. In Edward Zwick's war film Blood Diamond, he co-starred alongside Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. The film itself received generally favorable reviews, and DiCaprio was praised for the authenticity of his South African Afrikaner accent, known as a difficult accent to imitate. In Scorsese's The Departed he played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in an Irish Mob in Boston. Highly anticipated, the film was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and became one of the highest-rated wide release films of 2006. Budgeted at US$90 million, it also emerged as DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to date, easily beating The Aviator´s previous record of US$213.7 million. DiCaprio's performance in The Departed was applauded by critics and earned him a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor. The same year, both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild nominated DiCaprio twice in the Best Actor category for both of his 2006 features, and in addition, DiCaprio earned his third Academy Award nomination for Blood Diamond.
2008–present
In 2008, DiCaprio starred in Body of Lies, a spy film based on the novel of the same name by David Ignatius, set in context of the Middle East and the War on Terror, unfolding the story of three men battling a terrorist organization, and each other. Directed by Ridley Scott and co-starring Russell Crowe and Vince Colosimo, DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role, which he chose to pursue because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975). The film received mixed reviews from critics, and at a budget of US$67.5 million, became a moderate box office success, grossing US$115 million worldwide.
DiCaprio at a charity event in March 2009.
The same year, DiCaprio reunited with Kate Winslet to film the drama Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Winslet's then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that both should work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates after reading the script by Justin Haythe, knowing that plot had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Once DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production. He noted that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment." Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for Revolutionary Road,which earned them favorable reviews. For his portrayal DiCaprio garnered his seventh nomination from the Golden Globes.
DiCaprio continued his run with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island (2010), based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Co-starring Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams in supporting roles, the actor played U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island and comes to question his own sanity. With US$41 million, the film opened at number-one at the box office, giving both DiCaprio and Scorsese their best box office opening yet.
Also in 2010, DiCaprio starred in director Christopher Nolan's science-fiction film Inception. Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation, DiCaprio portrays the character of Dom Cobb, an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio, the first actor to be cast in the film, was "intrigued by this concept — this dream-heist notion and how this character's gonna unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life." Released to critical acclaim, the film grossed over US$21 million on its opening day, with an opening weekend gross of US$62.7 million.
DiCaprio is also set to star in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar, a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI. He was cast in the title role in Oliver Stone's film Travis McGee, in which he is expected to play a salvage consultant who helps his clients on recover lost property, and is attached to star as a father who kidnaps and tortures the man who kidnapped his daughter in the thriller Prisoners. In addition, DiCaprio is said to be involved in the pre-production of Ridley Scott's projects The Wolf of Wall Street and Brave New World, Marc Forster's The Chancellor Manuscript and the biopic Sinatra, a film about Frank Sinatra to be directed by Martin Scorsese. In July 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio had pulled out of a Viking movie to be directed by Mel Gibson amid controversy over Gibson's rage-fueled rant tapes and domestic violence probe. On November 1, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio's production company had acquired the rights to the Erik Larsen novel, The Devil in the White City. The novel tells the true story of Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer responsible for the death of hundreds of women during the Chicago World's Fair. It has also been announced that DiCaprio will star in the film, playing the role of serial killer H. H. Holmes. He was also cast in the role of Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of the novel The Great Gatsby.
On November 19, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio will produce and star in the upcoming 2013 movie based on the book Legacy of Secrecy by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. The storyline examines how, in the early 1960s, the combined forces of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mafia conspired to initiate and execute the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. DiCaprio is expected to play FBI informant Jack Van Laningham. The book asserts that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to Van Laningham that he had ordered JFK's assassination, while the CIA and the Mafia were conspiring together to try to assassinate Fidel Castro. After the assassination, as part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become a confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.
On June 8, 2011, DiCaprio was announced to be in talks for the role of the villainous Calvin Candie for the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained.
Personal life
Environmental activism and philanthropy
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. In the past, he has opted to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets, and it was reported that he drives a hybrid car and has solar panels installed on his house. In an interview with Ukula about his 2007 film 11th Hour, DiCaprio cited global warming as "the number-one environmental challenge."
At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. In 2010, his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award. The awards show, produced by VH1, is dedicated to honoring people who do good and is powered by Do Something, an organization that aims to empower and inspire young people.
In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children. In 2010, he donated $1,000,000 to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.
During the 2004 Presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. FEC showed DiCaprio gave $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the maximum contribution an individual can give in an election cycle.
In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's tiger summit. DiCaprio arrived late after two near-miss flights, causing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man". In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to free Tony, a tiger who has spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana.
Filmography
Acting
Year Title Role Notes
Film 1991 Critters 3 Josh
1992 Poison Ivy Guy
1993 This Boy's Life Tobias "Toby" Wolff Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape Arnie Grape Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1994 The Foot Shooting Party Bud
1995 The Quick and the Dead Fee Herod, "The Kid"
1995 The Basketball Diaries Jim Carroll
1995 Total Eclipse Arthur Rimbaud
1996 Romeo + Juliet Romeo Montague Silver Bear for Best Actor
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Claire Danes)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Claire Danes)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
1996 Marvin's Room Hank
1997 Titanic Jack Dawson Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Drama
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Kate Winslet)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Kate Winslet)
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998 The Man in the Iron Mask King Louis XIV/Philippe
1998 Celebrity Brandon Darrow Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Hissy Fit
2000 The Beach Richard Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry (Shared with Virginie Ledoyen)
2001 Don's Plum Derek Filmed in 1995
2002 Catch Me If You Can Frank William Abagnale Jr. Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liar
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
2002 Gangs of New York Amsterdam Vallon Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Cameron Diaz)
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock (Shared with Cameron Diaz)
2004 The Aviator Howard Hughes Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2006 The Departed William "Billy" Costigan Jr. Gransito Movie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor]
Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Best On-Screen Match-Up (Shared with Matt Damon & Jack Nicholson)
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2006 Blood Diamond Danny Archer Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2007 The 11th Hour Narrator/Producer Documentary
2008 Body of Lies Roger Ferris
2008 Revolutionary Road Frank Wheeler Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
2010 Shutter Island Teddy Daniels Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Horror/Thriller
Nominated—National Movie Award for Performance of the Year
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Inception)
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Scream Awards for Best Horror Actor
2010 Hubble 3D Narrator Documentary
2010 Inception Dom Cobb Scream Award for Best Science Fiction Actor
Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best WTF Moment (Shared with Ellen Page)
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Shutter Island)
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Team
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Scream Award for Best Ensemble
2011 J. Edgar J. Edgar Hoover
2012 The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby Filming
Year Title Role Notes
Television 1990 The Outsiders Kid Fighting Scout Episode: "Pilot"
1990 Parenthood Garry Buckman Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series
1990 The New Lassie Young Boy Episode: "Livewire"
1990 Santa Barbara Young Mason Capwell Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series
1991 Roseanne Darlene's Classmate Episode: "Home-Ec"
1991–1992 Growing Pains Luke Brower Joined the cast in the last season
Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series
As producer
Year Title Notes
Film 2004 The Assassination of Richard Nixon Executive producer
2004 The Aviator Executive producer
2007 The 11th Hour Producer
2007 Gardener of Eden Producer
2008–2010 Greensburg Producer
2009 Orphan Producer
2011 Red Riding Hood Producer
2011 The Ides of March Executive producer
Other accolades
Year Group Category Result
1993 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards New Generation Award Won
2004 Hollywood Film Festival Actor of the Year Won
2007 TV Land Award Little Screen/Big Screen Star Nominated
2009 Kids' Choice Awards Big Green Help Award Won
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o296/lucylou108/Leonardo-Di-Caprio.jpg
http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr265/kmixzz/leonardodicaprio.jpg
I haven't seen his films in quite a while since Titanic.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/11/11 at 1:53 pm
I haven't seen his films in quite a while since Titanic.
Me neither. Can't believe it's been 14 years since that film came out... and almost a whole century since the actual Titanic disaster. :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/11/11 at 2:28 pm
I haven't seen his films in quite a while since Titanic.
Not one of my favourite flims.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/11/11 at 2:30 pm
Not one of my favourite flims.
I didn't much care for it either. People were raving about it and stuff...but when I got a chance to view it, I didn't think it was all that great. :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/12/11 at 6:17 am
I didn't much care for it either. People were raving about it and stuff...but when I got a chance to view it, I didn't think it was all that great. :-\\
The whole film is full of mistakes and inaccuracies.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/12/11 at 8:25 am
The person of the day...Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (pronounced /dɨˈkæpri.oʊ/; born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator (2004), and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, DiCaprio started his career by appearing in television commercials prior to landing recurring roles in TV series such as the soap opera Santa Barbara and the sitcom Growing Pains in the early 1990s. He made his film debut in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3 (1991) and received first notable critical praise for his performance in This Boy's Life (1993). DiCaprio obtained recognition for his subsequent work in supporting roles in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and Marvin's Room (1996), as well as leading roles in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), before achieving international fame in James Cameron's Titanic (1997).
Since the 2000s, DiCaprio has been nominated for awards for his work in such films as Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), Blood Diamond (2006), The Departed (2006), and Revolutionary Road (2008). His latest films Shutter Island (2010) and Inception (2010) rank among the biggest commercial successes of his career. DiCaprio owns a production company named Appian Way Productions, whose productions include the films Gardener of Eden (2007) and Orphan (2009).
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism.
DiCaprio's career began with his appearance in several commercials and educational films. After being booted off the set of children's television series Romper Room for being disruptive at the age of five, DiCaprio followed his older stepbrother Adam Farrar into television commercials, landing an ad for Matchbox cars at 14. In 1990, he got his break on television when he was cast in the short-lived series based on the movie Parenthood. After Parenthood, DiCaprio had bit parts on several shows, including The New Lassie and Roseanne, as well as a brief stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara, playing the young Mason Capwell. His involvement in Parenthood and the daily soap earned him a nomination for the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor each.
1991–95
His debut film role was in the comedic sci-fi horror film Critters 3, in which he played the stepson of an evil landlord, a role that DiCaprio described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair." Released in 1991, the movie went direct-to-video. Soon after, he became a recurring cast member on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the Seaver family. DiCaprio made his big screen breakthrough in 1992, when he was handpicked by Robert De Niro out of 400 young actors to play the lead role in This Boy's Life, co-starring Ellen Barkin and De Niro himself.
Later in 1993, DiCaprio co-starred as the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a comic-tragic odyssey of a dysfunctional Iowa family. Director Lasse Hallström admitted he was initially looking for a less good-looking actor but finally settled on DiCaprio as he had emerged as "the most observant " among all auditioners. Budgeted at US$11.0 million, the film became a financial and critical success, resulting in a domestic box office total of US$9.1 million and various accolades for DiCaprio, who was awarded the National Board of Review Award and nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal. New York Times critic Janet Maslin praised DiCaprio's performance, writing "the film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio, who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."
DiCaprio's first effort of 1995 was Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, a western film in which he appeared alongside Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, and Russell Crowe, playing the role of Hackman's alleged son named Kid. Sony Pictures was dubious over DiCaprio's casting, and as a result, Stone decided to pay for the actor's salary herself. The film was released to a dismal box office performance, barely grossing US$18.5 million in the United States, and received mixed reviews from critics. Jonathan Rosenbaum from the Chicago Reader observed that "Raimi tries to do a Sergio Leone, and though The Quick and the Dead is highly enjoyable in spots, it doesn't come across as very convincing." Afterwards DiCaprio starred in Total Eclipse, a fictionalized account of the homosexual relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, played by David Thewlis. He replaced River Phoenix in the role of Rimbaud, who had died during pre-production on the project. A minor arthouse success, the film grossed US$0.34 million throughout its domestic theatrical run.
DiCaprio appeared alongside friends Kevin Connolly and Tobey Maguire in the mostly improvised short film called Don's Plum as a favor to aspiring director R.D. Robb. When Robb decided to expand the black-and-white film to feature length however, DiCaprio and Maguire obtained its blocking, arguing that they never intended to make it a theatrical release as it would have commercial value thanks to their stardom. Nevertheless, the film eventually premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival, where it was well-received by critics, with Time Out New York writer Mike D'Angelo calling it "the best film in Berlin." DiCaprio's last film of the year 1995 was The Basketball Diaries, a biopic about Jim Carroll.
1996–2001
In 1996, DiCaprio appeared opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet, an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. The project was one of the first films to cash in on DiCaprio's future star-status, with a worldwide box office take of $147 million.
Later that year, he starred in Jerry Zaks' family drama Marvin's Room, reuniting with Robert De Niro. Based on Scott McPherson's screenplay adaptation of his own 1991 stage play of the same name, the film revolves around two sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy after 17 years of estrangement. DiCaprio portrayed the character of Hank, Streep's troubled son, who has been committed to a mental asylum for setting fire to his mother's house. On his Chlotrudis Award-winning performance, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly commented: "The deeply gifted DiCaprio keeps right up with these older pros . The three are so full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent."
DiCaprio at a press conference for The Beach in February 2000
In 1997, DiCaprio starred in James Cameron's Titanic (1997), alongside Kate Winslet. Cast as twenty-year-old Jack Dawson, a penniless Wisconsin man who wins two tickets for the third-class on the fated RMS Titanic, DiCaprio initially refused to portray the character but was eventually encouraged to pursue the role by Cameron who strongly believed in his acting ability. Against expectations, the film went on to become the highest-grossing film to date (it was surpassed in 2010 by Cameron's directorial follow-up, Avatar), grossing more than US$1.843 billion in box-office receipts worldwide, and transformed DiCaprio into a commercial movie superstar, resulting in fan worship among teenage girls and young women in general that became known as "Leo-Mania." He was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, including a second Golden Globe nomination. Upon the success of Titanic, DiCaprio stated in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to. It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either."
The following year, DiCaprio made a self-mocking cameo appearance in Woody Allen's caustic satire of the fame industry, Celebrity (1998). That year, he also starred in the dual roles of the villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask, based on the same-titled 1939 film. Despite receiving a rather mixed to negative response, the film became a box office success, grossing US$180 million internationally. Though DiCaprio's performance was generally well-received, with Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman writing that "the shockingly androgynous DiCaprio looks barely old enough to be playing anyone with hormones, but he's a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel," he was awarded a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for both incarnations the following year.
DiCaprio's next project was the drama film The Beach (2000), an adaption of Alex Garland's same-titled 1996 novel. Starring alongside Tilda Swinton and Virginie Ledoyen, he played an American backpacking tourist looking for the perfect way of life in a secret island commune in the Gulf of Thailand. Budgeted at $US50 million, the film became a financial success, grossing $US144 million worldwide, but as with DiCaprio's previous project, the film was largely panned by critics. Todd McCarthy of Variety noted that "Richard is too much the American Everyman and not enough of a well-defined individual to entirely capture one's interest and imagination, and DiCaprio, while perfectly watchable, does not endow him with the quirks or distinguishing marks to make this man from nowhere a dimensional character." The next year, he was nominated for another Razzie Award for his work on the film.
2002–07
DiCaprio's first film of 2002 was the crime-comedy Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, used his charm, confidence, and several different personas, to make millions in the 1960s writing bad checks. Directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken, the film was shot in 147 different locations in only 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet. Catch Me If You Can received favourable reviews and proved to be an international success, becoming Dicaprio's highest-grossing film since Titanic with a total of US$351.1 million worldwide. Roger Ebert praised his performance, and noted that while "DiCaprio, who in recent films has played dark and troubled characters, is breezy and charming here, playing a boy who discovers what he is good at, and does it." The following year, DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his work on the film.
DiCaprio at the pre-premiere of Gangs of New York at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Also in 2002, DiCaprio appeared in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Director Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in playing protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, a young leader of the Irish faction, and thus, Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless production on the film was plagued by blown-out budgets and producer-director squabbles, resulting in a marathon eight-month shoot and, at US$103 million, the most expensive film Scorsese had ever made. Upon its release, Gangs of New York became a financial and critical success however. DiCaprio's acting was well-received but remained overshadowed by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance among most critics.
Forging a collaboration with Scorsese, the two paired again for a biopic of the eccentric and obsessive American film director and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004). Centering on Hughes' life from the late 1920s to 1947, DiCaprio initially developed the project with Michael Mann, who decided against directing it after back-to-back film biographies in Ali and The Insider. The actor eventually pitched John Logan's script to Scorsese, who quickly signed on to direct. Altogether, DiCaprio reportedly spent more than a year and a half in preparation for the film which was not necessarily shot in continuity because of actors and locations schedules. The Aviator became a critical and financial success. DiCaprio received rave reviews for his performance and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, also receiving another Academy Award nomination.
In 2006, DiCaprio starred in both Blood Diamond and The Departed. In Edward Zwick's war film Blood Diamond, he co-starred alongside Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. The film itself received generally favorable reviews, and DiCaprio was praised for the authenticity of his South African Afrikaner accent, known as a difficult accent to imitate. In Scorsese's The Departed he played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in an Irish Mob in Boston. Highly anticipated, the film was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and became one of the highest-rated wide release films of 2006. Budgeted at US$90 million, it also emerged as DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to date, easily beating The Aviator´s previous record of US$213.7 million. DiCaprio's performance in The Departed was applauded by critics and earned him a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor. The same year, both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild nominated DiCaprio twice in the Best Actor category for both of his 2006 features, and in addition, DiCaprio earned his third Academy Award nomination for Blood Diamond.
2008–present
In 2008, DiCaprio starred in Body of Lies, a spy film based on the novel of the same name by David Ignatius, set in context of the Middle East and the War on Terror, unfolding the story of three men battling a terrorist organization, and each other. Directed by Ridley Scott and co-starring Russell Crowe and Vince Colosimo, DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role, which he chose to pursue because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975). The film received mixed reviews from critics, and at a budget of US$67.5 million, became a moderate box office success, grossing US$115 million worldwide.
DiCaprio at a charity event in March 2009.
The same year, DiCaprio reunited with Kate Winslet to film the drama Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Winslet's then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that both should work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Richard Yates after reading the script by Justin Haythe, knowing that plot had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster. Once DiCaprio agreed to do the film, it went almost immediately into production. He noted that he saw his character as "unheroic" and "slightly cowardly" and that he was "willing to be just a product of his environment." Portraying a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet watched period videos promoting life in the suburbs to prepare themselves for Revolutionary Road,which earned them favorable reviews. For his portrayal DiCaprio garnered his seventh nomination from the Golden Globes.
DiCaprio continued his run with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island (2010), based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Co-starring Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams in supporting roles, the actor played U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island and comes to question his own sanity. With US$41 million, the film opened at number-one at the box office, giving both DiCaprio and Scorsese their best box office opening yet.
Also in 2010, DiCaprio starred in director Christopher Nolan's science-fiction film Inception. Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation, DiCaprio portrays the character of Dom Cobb, an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind. DiCaprio, the first actor to be cast in the film, was "intrigued by this concept — this dream-heist notion and how this character's gonna unlock his dreamworld and ultimately affect his real life." Released to critical acclaim, the film grossed over US$21 million on its opening day, with an opening weekend gross of US$62.7 million.
DiCaprio is also set to star in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar, a biopic about J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial first director of the FBI. He was cast in the title role in Oliver Stone's film Travis McGee, in which he is expected to play a salvage consultant who helps his clients on recover lost property, and is attached to star as a father who kidnaps and tortures the man who kidnapped his daughter in the thriller Prisoners. In addition, DiCaprio is said to be involved in the pre-production of Ridley Scott's projects The Wolf of Wall Street and Brave New World, Marc Forster's The Chancellor Manuscript and the biopic Sinatra, a film about Frank Sinatra to be directed by Martin Scorsese. In July 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio had pulled out of a Viking movie to be directed by Mel Gibson amid controversy over Gibson's rage-fueled rant tapes and domestic violence probe. On November 1, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio's production company had acquired the rights to the Erik Larsen novel, The Devil in the White City. The novel tells the true story of Dr. H. H. Holmes, a serial killer responsible for the death of hundreds of women during the Chicago World's Fair. It has also been announced that DiCaprio will star in the film, playing the role of serial killer H. H. Holmes. He was also cast in the role of Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of the novel The Great Gatsby.
On November 19, 2010, it was announced that DiCaprio will produce and star in the upcoming 2013 movie based on the book Legacy of Secrecy by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. The storyline examines how, in the early 1960s, the combined forces of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Mafia conspired to initiate and execute the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. DiCaprio is expected to play FBI informant Jack Van Laningham. The book asserts that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to Van Laningham that he had ordered JFK's assassination, while the CIA and the Mafia were conspiring together to try to assassinate Fidel Castro. After the assassination, as part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become a confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.
On June 8, 2011, DiCaprio was announced to be in talks for the role of the villainous Calvin Candie for the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained.
Personal life
Environmental activism and philanthropy
A committed environmentalist, DiCaprio has received praise from environmental groups for his activism. In the past, he has opted to fly on commercial flights instead of chartering private jets, and it was reported that he drives a hybrid car and has solar panels installed on his house. In an interview with Ukula about his 2007 film 11th Hour, DiCaprio cited global warming as "the number-one environmental challenge."
At the 2007 Oscar ceremony, DiCaprio and former Vice President Al Gore appeared to announce that the Academy Awards had incorporated environmentally intelligent practices throughout the planning and production processes, thus affirming their commitment to the environment, and on July 7, 2007, DiCaprio presented at the American leg of Live Earth. In 2010, his environmental work earned DiCaprio a nomination for the VH1 Do Something Award. The awards show, produced by VH1, is dedicated to honoring people who do good and is powered by Do Something, an organization that aims to empower and inspire young people.
In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, the site of his childhood home. It was rebuilt after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and opened in early 1999. During the filming of Blood Diamond, DiCaprio worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and was said to be extremely touched by his interactions with the children. In 2010, he donated $1,000,000 to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.
During the 2004 Presidential election, DiCaprio campaigned and donated to John Kerry's presidential bid. FEC showed DiCaprio gave $2300 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the maximum contribution an individual can give in an election cycle.
In November 2010, DiCaprio donated $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's tiger summit. DiCaprio arrived late after two near-miss flights, causing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man". In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to free Tony, a tiger who has spent the last decade at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana.
Filmography
Acting
Year Title Role Notes
Film 1991 Critters 3 Josh
1992 Poison Ivy Guy
1993 This Boy's Life Tobias "Toby" Wolff Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape Arnie Grape Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Emerging Actor
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1994 The Foot Shooting Party Bud
1995 The Quick and the Dead Fee Herod, "The Kid"
1995 The Basketball Diaries Jim Carroll
1995 Total Eclipse Arthur Rimbaud
1996 Romeo + Juliet Romeo Montague Silver Bear for Best Actor
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Claire Danes)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Claire Danes)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
1996 Marvin's Room Hank
1997 Titanic Jack Dawson Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor – Drama
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (Shared with Kate Winslet)
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Kate Winslet)
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998 The Man in the Iron Mask King Louis XIV/Philippe
1998 Celebrity Brandon Darrow Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Hissy Fit
2000 The Beach Richard Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry (Shared with Virginie Ledoyen)
2001 Don's Plum Derek Filmed in 1995
2002 Catch Me If You Can Frank William Abagnale Jr. Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liar
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
2002 Gangs of New York Amsterdam Vallon Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss (Shared with Cameron Diaz)
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock (Shared with Cameron Diaz)
2004 The Aviator Howard Hughes Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2006 The Departed William "Billy" Costigan Jr. Gransito Movie Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor]
Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Best On-Screen Match-Up (Shared with Matt Damon & Jack Nicholson)
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2006 Blood Diamond Danny Archer Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated—Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Drama
2007 The 11th Hour Narrator/Producer Documentary
2008 Body of Lies Roger Ferris
2008 Revolutionary Road Frank Wheeler Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
2010 Shutter Island Teddy Daniels Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor – Horror/Thriller
Nominated—National Movie Award for Performance of the Year
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Inception)
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Scream Awards for Best Horror Actor
2010 Hubble 3D Narrator Documentary
2010 Inception Dom Cobb Scream Award for Best Science Fiction Actor
Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actor
Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best WTF Moment (Shared with Ellen Page)
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor (Also for Shutter Island)
Nominated—People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Team
Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—Scream Award for Best Ensemble
2011 J. Edgar J. Edgar Hoover
2012 The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby Filming
Year Title Role Notes
Television 1990 The Outsiders Kid Fighting Scout Episode: "Pilot"
1990 Parenthood Garry Buckman Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series
1990 The New Lassie Young Boy Episode: "Livewire"
1990 Santa Barbara Young Mason Capwell Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Daytime Series
1991 Roseanne Darlene's Classmate Episode: "Home-Ec"
1991–1992 Growing Pains Luke Brower Joined the cast in the last season
Nominated—Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series
As producer
Year Title Notes
Film 2004 The Assassination of Richard Nixon Executive producer
2004 The Aviator Executive producer
2007 The 11th Hour Producer
2007 Gardener of Eden Producer
2008–2010 Greensburg Producer
2009 Orphan Producer
2011 Red Riding Hood Producer
2011 The Ides of March Executive producer
Other accolades
Year Group Category Result
1993 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards New Generation Award Won
2004 Hollywood Film Festival Actor of the Year Won
2007 TV Land Award Little Screen/Big Screen Star Nominated
2009 Kids' Choice Awards Big Green Help Award Won
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Catch Me If You Can is a very good film and one I can easily watch over again.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 11/12/11 at 11:54 am
I remember when Titanic came out, Leonardo DiCaprio was basically just a "pretty boy." Seeing a lot of his films since, he really is a remarkable actor.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/12/11 at 1:20 pm
The whole film is full of mistakes and inaccuracies.
Many of which do not precisely tell what happened in the actual disaster. Also due to the fact that the film was set 85 years in the past (from when it was filmed). The trick is to use only props that could have existed back then (or look like they could have).
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/13/11 at 8:51 am
The person of the day...Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money. Kimmel is also a television producer, having produced shows such as Crank Yankers, Sports Show with Norm Macdonald, and The Andy Milonakis Show.
Kimmel began working in the radio industry while in high school, hosting a Sunday night interview show on UNLV's college station KUNV. While attending Arizona State University, he became a popular caller to the KZZP-FM afternoon show hosted by radio personalities Mike Elliott and Kent Voss in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1989, Kimmel landed his first paying job alongside Voss as morning drive co-host of The Me and Him Show at KZOK-FM in Seattle, Washington. Ten months later, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK (for reasons unknown) and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida. Kimmel went from Tampa to host his own show at KCMJ in Palm Springs, California, where Kimmel convinced a young Carson Daly to drop out of college and become his intern. After a morning stint at KRQQ In Tucson, Arizona, Kimmel landed at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, California. He spent five years as "Jimmy The Sports Guy" for the Kevin and Bean morning show. During this time he met and befriended a struggling comedian named Adam Carolla.
Comedy Central
Kimmel began his television career as the comedic counterpart to Ben Stein on the game show Win Ben Stein's Money, which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. His quick wit and loutish everyman personality were counterpoints to Stein's monotone performing style and patrician demeanor. The combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.
In 1999, during his time with Win Ben Stein's Money, Kimmel was also co-host with Adam Carolla and co-creator (with Daniel Kellison) of Comedy Central's The Man Show. Kimmel permanently left Win Ben Stein's Money in 2001, replaced by comedian Nancy Pimental, who was eventually replaced by Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono. The Man Show's success allowed Kimmel, Carolla and Kellison to create and produce, under the banner Jackhole Industries, Crank Yankers for Comedy Central (on which Kimmel plays the characters "Elmer Higgins", "Terrence Catheter", "The Nudge", "Karl Malone" and himself), and later The Andy Milonakis Show for MTV2. Kimmel also produced and co-wrote the feature film Windy City Heat, which won the Comedia Award for Best Film at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Main article: Jimmy Kimmel Live!
In January 2003, Kimmel permanently left The Man Show to host his own late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel Live was briefly also broadcast on Irish digital TV channel 3e. In the April 2007 issue of Stuffmagazine.com, Kimmel was named the "biggest badass on TV". Kimmel said it was an honor but clearly a mistake.
Since the show's second season, it has not actually been broadcast live. This is due to an incident during the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit, when Kimmel appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for his show. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Officials with Detroit's ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV, immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized. The incident led ABC officials to force Kimmel to tape his show an hour before it airs in most of the country to check for offending content.
Kimmel usually ends his show with, "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time". When Matt Damon did actually appear on the show to be interviewed, he walked in and sat down only to be told just a few seconds later by Kimmel, "Sorry, but once again we are completely out of time." Damon seemed to become angry.
In February 2008 Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called, "I'm fudgeing Ben Affleck", as "revenge" after his then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon recorded a similar video, "I'm fudgeing Matt Damon". Silverman's video originally aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and became an "instant YouTube sensation." Kimmel's "revenge" video featured himself, Ben Affleck, and a large lineup of stars, particularly in scenes spoofing the 1985 "We Are the World" video: Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Dominic Monaghan, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Lance Bass, Macy Gray, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Perry Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Pete Wentz, Meat Loaf, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Applegate, Dom Joly, Mike Shinoda, Lauren Conrad and Joan Jett, among others. After this Jimmy's sidekick, Guillermo, appeared in a spoof of The Bourne Ultimatum, which starred Damon. He was then chased down by Damon as Matt cursed about Kimmel being behind all this. Guillermo also stopped Damon on the red carpet one time and before he could finish the interview he said, "Sorry we are out of time." The most recent encounter was titled "The Handsome Men's Club" which featured Kimmel, along with other "Handsome Men" including Matthew McConaughey, Rob Lowe, Lenny Kravitz, and many more, speaking about being handsome and all the jobs that come with it. At the end of the skit Kimmel has a door slammed in his face by none other than Matt Damon, stating that they had run out of time and then Damon continues with a sinister laugh.
As a tradition, celebrities voted off Dancing with the Stars appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, causing Kimmel to describe himself as "the three-headed dog the stars must pass on their way to No-Dancing Hell". In the 2008 season of his show, Kimmel started another tradition of ceremonially burning the dancers' shoes after they were voted off DWTS.
Other television work
In Spring 1996, Kimmel appeared as "Jimmy the Fox Guy" in promos on the Fox network.
Kimmel's other television work included being the on-air football prognosticator for Fox NFL Sunday for four years. He has had numerous appearances on other talk shows including, but not limited to, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Howard Stern Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Late Show with David Letterman. Kimmel has appeared on The Late Show five times, most recently on April 21, 2008. Kimmel served as roastmaster for the New York Friars' Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and Comedy Central Roasts of Pamela Anderson. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, along with his parking lot security guard Guillermo.
In August 2006, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would be the host of their new game show Set for Life. The show debuted on July 20, 2007. On April 6, 2007, Kimmel filled in for Larry King on Larry King Live. That particular show was about the paparazzi and Kimmel reproached Emily Gould, an editor from Gawker.com, about the web site's alleged stalking of celebrities. On July 8, 2007, Kimmel managed the National League in the 2007 Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game in San Francisco. He played in the game in 2004 and 2006 (Houston and Pittsburgh). On July 11, 2007, Kimmel along with basketball player LeBron James, hosted the 2007 ESPY Awards. The show aired on ESPN on July 15, 2007. Kimmel hosted the American Music Awards on ABC four times, in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Kimmel guest hosted Live with Regis and Kelly during the week of October 22, 2007 – October 26, 2007, commuting every day between New York and Los Angeles. In the process, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest distance (22,406 miles (36,059 km)) travelled in one work week.
Kimmel has performed in several animated films, often voicing dogs. His voice appeared in Garfield and Road Trip, and he portrayed Death's Dog in the Family Guy episode "Mr. Saturday Knight"; Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane later presented Kimmel with a figurine of his character on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Kimmel also did voice work for Robot Chicken. Kimmel's cousin "Sal" (Sal Iacono) has accepted and won a wrestling match with WWE superstar Santino Marella. On January 14, 2010, in the midst of the 2010 Tonight Show host and time slot conflict, Kimmel was the special guest of Jay Leno on The Jay Leno Show's "10 at 10" segment. Kimmel derided Leno in front of a live studio audience for taking back the 11:35 pm time slot from Conan O'Brien, and repeatedly insulted Leno. He ended the segment with a plea that Leno "leave our shows alone," as Kimmel and O'Brien had "kids" while Leno only had "cars".
Kimmel also made a brief appearance in the TV commercial "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" promoting the 2010 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops, along with Kobe Byrant. He is seen taking cover from bullets, then firing an RPG-7 with the words PROUD N00b on it, with the aftershock from the weapon sending him tumbling backwards.
Personal life
Kimmel and his then fiancée, Gina, married in June 1988. They have two children, Katie (born 1991) and Kevin (born 1993). Katie Kimmel is an art student in Chicago. The marriage ended in separation in early 2002. Kimmel then dated comedian Sarah Silverman for five years, splitting with her in March 2009. He started dating current girlfriend, Molly McNearney, in October 2009. McNearney is also a co-head writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Kimmel plays the bass clarinet. He got a chance to showcase his talent during a July 20, 2008, concert in Costa Mesa, California, featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, when he took the stage and played bass clarinet on their hit song "The Impression That I Get."
Kimmel has spoken publicly of being a narcoleptic.
Kimmel co-founded the annual LA Feast of San Gennaro, which celebrates Italian culture through entertainment, music and cuisine. The festival also honors outstanding members of the Los Angeles community and raises funds to aid needy children and families in the city. He hosted Los Angeles' eighth annual feast of San Gennaro from September 28 to 30, 2009. Kimmel served as Master of Ceremonies for the National Italian American Foundation's 34th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., on October 24, 2009. He resides across the street from actor John Krasinski (well known for his role as Jim Halpert on the show The Office) and his wife, actress Emily Blunt.
Awards
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Pat Sajak Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
1999
with Ben Stein Succeeded by
Bob Barker and Tom Bergeron
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/13/11 at 2:29 pm
Kimmel began his television career as the comedic counterpart to Ben Stein on the game show Win Ben Stein's Money, which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. His quick wit and loutish everyman personality were counterpoints to Stein's monotone performing style and patrician demeanor. The combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.
I remember him on "Win Ben Stein's Money." He served as co-host on that show, taking on the role of "main" host in the second round, when Ben would replace the eliminated contestant and act as one himself, but that was only to "defend" the total of his remaining money. Kimmel also served as the main host in the final (bonus) round and ask the questions when the remaining contestant and Ben would each go into isolation booths to be sequentially quizzed. Still, he would always read the categories in the maingame as they appeared on the screens. Those categories provided hilarity.
I have watched him on late-night TV, but not recently. He's a witty guy.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/13/11 at 3:09 pm
The person of the day...Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money. Kimmel is also a television producer, having produced shows such as Crank Yankers, Sports Show with Norm Macdonald, and The Andy Milonakis Show.
Kimmel began working in the radio industry while in high school, hosting a Sunday night interview show on UNLV's college station KUNV. While attending Arizona State University, he became a popular caller to the KZZP-FM afternoon show hosted by radio personalities Mike Elliott and Kent Voss in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1989, Kimmel landed his first paying job alongside Voss as morning drive co-host of The Me and Him Show at KZOK-FM in Seattle, Washington. Ten months later, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK (for reasons unknown) and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida. Kimmel went from Tampa to host his own show at KCMJ in Palm Springs, California, where Kimmel convinced a young Carson Daly to drop out of college and become his intern. After a morning stint at KRQQ In Tucson, Arizona, Kimmel landed at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, California. He spent five years as "Jimmy The Sports Guy" for the Kevin and Bean morning show. During this time he met and befriended a struggling comedian named Adam Carolla.
Comedy Central
Kimmel began his television career as the comedic counterpart to Ben Stein on the game show Win Ben Stein's Money, which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. His quick wit and loutish everyman personality were counterpoints to Stein's monotone performing style and patrician demeanor. The combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.
In 1999, during his time with Win Ben Stein's Money, Kimmel was also co-host with Adam Carolla and co-creator (with Daniel Kellison) of Comedy Central's The Man Show. Kimmel permanently left Win Ben Stein's Money in 2001, replaced by comedian Nancy Pimental, who was eventually replaced by Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono. The Man Show's success allowed Kimmel, Carolla and Kellison to create and produce, under the banner Jackhole Industries, Crank Yankers for Comedy Central (on which Kimmel plays the characters "Elmer Higgins", "Terrence Catheter", "The Nudge", "Karl Malone" and himself), and later The Andy Milonakis Show for MTV2. Kimmel also produced and co-wrote the feature film Windy City Heat, which won the Comedia Award for Best Film at the Montreal Comedy Festival.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Main article: Jimmy Kimmel Live!
In January 2003, Kimmel permanently left The Man Show to host his own late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel Live was briefly also broadcast on Irish digital TV channel 3e. In the April 2007 issue of Stuffmagazine.com, Kimmel was named the "biggest badass on TV". Kimmel said it was an honor but clearly a mistake.
Since the show's second season, it has not actually been broadcast live. This is due to an incident during the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit, when Kimmel appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for his show. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Officials with Detroit's ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV, immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized. The incident led ABC officials to force Kimmel to tape his show an hour before it airs in most of the country to check for offending content.
Kimmel usually ends his show with, "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time". When Matt Damon did actually appear on the show to be interviewed, he walked in and sat down only to be told just a few seconds later by Kimmel, "Sorry, but once again we are completely out of time." Damon seemed to become angry.
In February 2008 Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called, "I'm fudgeing Ben Affleck", as "revenge" after his then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon recorded a similar video, "I'm fudgeing Matt Damon". Silverman's video originally aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and became an "instant YouTube sensation." Kimmel's "revenge" video featured himself, Ben Affleck, and a large lineup of stars, particularly in scenes spoofing the 1985 "We Are the World" video: Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Dominic Monaghan, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Lance Bass, Macy Gray, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Perry Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Pete Wentz, Meat Loaf, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Applegate, Dom Joly, Mike Shinoda, Lauren Conrad and Joan Jett, among others. After this Jimmy's sidekick, Guillermo, appeared in a spoof of The Bourne Ultimatum, which starred Damon. He was then chased down by Damon as Matt cursed about Kimmel being behind all this. Guillermo also stopped Damon on the red carpet one time and before he could finish the interview he said, "Sorry we are out of time." The most recent encounter was titled "The Handsome Men's Club" which featured Kimmel, along with other "Handsome Men" including Matthew McConaughey, Rob Lowe, Lenny Kravitz, and many more, speaking about being handsome and all the jobs that come with it. At the end of the skit Kimmel has a door slammed in his face by none other than Matt Damon, stating that they had run out of time and then Damon continues with a sinister laugh.
As a tradition, celebrities voted off Dancing with the Stars appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, causing Kimmel to describe himself as "the three-headed dog the stars must pass on their way to No-Dancing Hell". In the 2008 season of his show, Kimmel started another tradition of ceremonially burning the dancers' shoes after they were voted off DWTS.
Other television work
In Spring 1996, Kimmel appeared as "Jimmy the Fox Guy" in promos on the Fox network.
Kimmel's other television work included being the on-air football prognosticator for Fox NFL Sunday for four years. He has had numerous appearances on other talk shows including, but not limited to, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Howard Stern Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Late Show with David Letterman. Kimmel has appeared on The Late Show five times, most recently on April 21, 2008. Kimmel served as roastmaster for the New York Friars' Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and Comedy Central Roasts of Pamela Anderson. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, along with his parking lot security guard Guillermo.
In August 2006, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would be the host of their new game show Set for Life. The show debuted on July 20, 2007. On April 6, 2007, Kimmel filled in for Larry King on Larry King Live. That particular show was about the paparazzi and Kimmel reproached Emily Gould, an editor from Gawker.com, about the web site's alleged stalking of celebrities. On July 8, 2007, Kimmel managed the National League in the 2007 Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game in San Francisco. He played in the game in 2004 and 2006 (Houston and Pittsburgh). On July 11, 2007, Kimmel along with basketball player LeBron James, hosted the 2007 ESPY Awards. The show aired on ESPN on July 15, 2007. Kimmel hosted the American Music Awards on ABC four times, in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Kimmel guest hosted Live with Regis and Kelly during the week of October 22, 2007 – October 26, 2007, commuting every day between New York and Los Angeles. In the process, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest distance (22,406 miles (36,059 km)) travelled in one work week.
Kimmel has performed in several animated films, often voicing dogs. His voice appeared in Garfield and Road Trip, and he portrayed Death's Dog in the Family Guy episode "Mr. Saturday Knight"; Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane later presented Kimmel with a figurine of his character on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Kimmel also did voice work for Robot Chicken. Kimmel's cousin "Sal" (Sal Iacono) has accepted and won a wrestling match with WWE superstar Santino Marella. On January 14, 2010, in the midst of the 2010 Tonight Show host and time slot conflict, Kimmel was the special guest of Jay Leno on The Jay Leno Show's "10 at 10" segment. Kimmel derided Leno in front of a live studio audience for taking back the 11:35 pm time slot from Conan O'Brien, and repeatedly insulted Leno. He ended the segment with a plea that Leno "leave our shows alone," as Kimmel and O'Brien had "kids" while Leno only had "cars".
Kimmel also made a brief appearance in the TV commercial "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" promoting the 2010 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops, along with Kobe Byrant. He is seen taking cover from bullets, then firing an RPG-7 with the words PROUD N00b on it, with the aftershock from the weapon sending him tumbling backwards.
Personal life
Kimmel and his then fiancée, Gina, married in June 1988. They have two children, Katie (born 1991) and Kevin (born 1993). Katie Kimmel is an art student in Chicago. The marriage ended in separation in early 2002. Kimmel then dated comedian Sarah Silverman for five years, splitting with her in March 2009. He started dating current girlfriend, Molly McNearney, in October 2009. McNearney is also a co-head writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Kimmel plays the bass clarinet. He got a chance to showcase his talent during a July 20, 2008, concert in Costa Mesa, California, featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, when he took the stage and played bass clarinet on their hit song "The Impression That I Get."
Kimmel has spoken publicly of being a narcoleptic.
Kimmel co-founded the annual LA Feast of San Gennaro, which celebrates Italian culture through entertainment, music and cuisine. The festival also honors outstanding members of the Los Angeles community and raises funds to aid needy children and families in the city. He hosted Los Angeles' eighth annual feast of San Gennaro from September 28 to 30, 2009. Kimmel served as Master of Ceremonies for the National Italian American Foundation's 34th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., on October 24, 2009. He resides across the street from actor John Krasinski (well known for his role as Jim Halpert on the show The Office) and his wife, actress Emily Blunt.
Awards
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Pat Sajak Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
1999
with Ben Stein Succeeded by
Bob Barker and Tom Bergeron
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http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d35/Sarah_956/JimmyK.jpg
I used to watch The Man Show with Adam Corolla.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/15/11 at 4:12 pm
The person of the day...Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.
Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1960s she became known internationally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "Colour My World", "A Sign of the Times", and "Don't Sleep in the Subway." She has sold in excess of 68 million records throughout her career.
In October 1942, Clark made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, hoping to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas. During an air raid, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery audience, and she volunteered a rendering of "Mighty Lak a Rose" to an enthusiastic response in the theatre. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes designed to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the United Kingdom with fellow child performer Julie Andrews. Clark became known as "Britain's Shirley Temple," and she was considered a mascot by the British Army, whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for good luck as they advanced into battle.
In 1944, while performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, Clark was discovered by film director Maurice Elvey, who cast her as precocious orphaned waif Irma in his weepy war drama Medal for the General. In quick succession, she starred in Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I'm Going!, London Town, and Here Come the Huggetts, the first in a series of Huggett Family films based on a British radio series. Although most of the films she made in the UK during the 1940s and 1950s were B-movies, she worked with Anthony Newley in Vice Versa (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in The Card.
In 1945, Clark was featured in the comic strip Radio Fun, in which she was billed as "Radio's Merry Mimic".
In 1946, Clark launched her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, Cabaret Cartoons, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, titled simply Petula Clark. A second, Pet's Parlour, followed in 1949. In later years, she starred in This is Petula Clark (1966–1967) and The Sound of Petula (1972–1974).
In 1949, Clark branched into recording with her first release, "Put Your Shoes On, Lucy," for EMI. Because neither EMI nor Decca, for whom she also had recorded, were keen to sign her to a long-term contract, her father, whose own theatrical ambitions had been thwarted by his parents, teamed with Alan A. Freeman to form Polygon Records in order to better control her singing career. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950s, including "The Little Shoemaker" (1954), "Majorca" (1955), "Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955) and "With All My Heart" (1956). Although Clark released singles in the United States as early as 1951 (the first was "Tell Me Truly" b/w "Song Of The Mermaid" on the Coral label), it would take thirteen years before the American record-buying public would discover her.
In 1955, Clark became linked romantically with Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson. Speculation that the couple planned to marry became rife. However, with the increasing glare of being in the public spotlight, and Clark's growing fame — her career in France was just beginning — Henderson, reportedly not wanting to end up as "Mr. Petula Clark", decided to end the relationship. Their professional relationship continued for a couple of years, culminating in the BBC Radio series Pet and Mr. Piano, the last time they worked together, although they remained on friendly terms. In 1962, he penned a ballad about their break-up, called "There's Nothing More To Say", for Clark's LP In Other Words. In the last month of 1955, Clark became infatuated with a certain Joken Hing. This romance didn't last.
Near the end of 1955, Polygon Records was sold to Nixa Records, then part of Pye Records, which lead to the establishment of Pye Nixa Records (subsequently simply Pye). This turn of events effectively signed Clark to the Pye label in the UK, for whom she would record for the remainder of the 1950s, throughout the 1960s, and early into the 1970s.
International fame
In 1958, Clark was invited to appear at the Paris Olympia where, despite her misgivings and a bad cold, she was received with acclaim. The following day she was invited to the office of Vogue Records to discuss a contract. It was there that she met publicist Claude Wolff, to whom she was attracted immediately, and when told he would work with her if she signed with the label, she agreed. Her initial French recordings were huge successes, and in 1960 she embarked on a concert tour of France and Belgium with Sacha Distel, who remained a close friend until his death in 2004. Gradually she moved further into the continent, recording in German, French, Italian and Spanish, and establishing herself as a multi-lingual performer.
1962 EP
In June 1961, Clark married Wolff, first in a civil ceremony in Paris, then a religious one in her native England. Wanting to escape the strictures of child stardom imposed upon her by the British public, and anxious to escape the influence of her father, she relocated to France, where she and Wolff had two daughters, Barbara Michelle and Katherine Natalie, in quick succession. (Their son Patrick was born in 1972.) While Clark focused on her new career in France, she continued to achieve hit records in the UK into the early 1960s, developing a parallel career on both sides of the Channel. Her 1961 recording of "Sailor" became her first #1 hit in the U.K., while such follow-up recordings as "Romeo" and "My Friend the Sea" landed her in the British Top Ten later that year. In France, "Ya Ya Twist" (a French-language cover of the Lee Dorsey rhythm and blues song "Ya Ya" and the only successful recording of a twist song by a female) and "Chariot" (the original version of "I Will Follow Him") became smash hits in 1962, while German and Italian versions of her English and French recordings charted as well. Her recordings of several Serge Gainsbourg songs also were big sellers.
In 1964, Clark wrote the soundtrack for the French crime film A Couteaux Tirés (aka Daggers Drawn) and made a cameo appearance as herself in the movie. Although it was only a mild success, it added a new dimension — that of film composer — to her career. Additional film scores she composed include Animato (1969), La bande à Bebel (1966), and Pétain (1989). Six themes from the latter were released on the CD In Her Own Write in 2007.
In 1963 and 1964, Clark's British recording career foundered. The composer-arranger Tony Hatch, who had been assisting her with her work for Vogue Records in France and Pye Records in the UK, flew to her home in Paris with new song material he hoped would interest her, but she found none of it appealing. Desperate, he played for her a few chords of an incomplete song that had been inspired by his recent first trip to New York City, which he suggested might be offered to The Drifters. Upon hearing the melody, Clark told him that if he could write lyrics as good as the melody, she wanted to record the tune as her next single. Thus "Downtown" came into being.
"Downtown" era
Neither Clark, who was performing in Canada when the song first received major air-play, nor Hatch realized the impact the song would have on their respective careers. Released in four different languages in late 1964, "Downtown" was a success in the UK, France (in both the English and the French versions), the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Italy, and also Rhodesia, Japan, and India. During a visit to London, Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith heard it and acquired the rights for the United States. "Downtown" went to #1 on the American charts in January 1965, and three million copies were sold in America. It was the first of fifteen consecutive Top 40 hits Clark achieved in the United States, including "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "This Is My Song" (from the Charles Chaplin film A Countess from Hong Kong), and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". The American recording industry honored her with Grammy Awards for "Best Rock & Roll Record" for "Downtown" in 1964 and for "Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance" for "I Know a Place" in 1965. In 2003, her recording of "Downtown" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Ad for the NBC-TV special that sparked controversy even before it aired
Clark's recording successes led to frequent appearances on American variety programs hosted by Ed Sullivan and Dean Martin, guest shots on Hullabaloo, Shindig!, The Kraft Music Hall, and The Hollywood Palace, and inclusion in musical specials such as The Best on Record and Rodgers and Hart Today.
In 1968, NBC-TV invited Clark to host her own special in the U.S., and in doing so she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory," an anti-war song that she had composed, with guest Harry Belafonte, she took hold of his arm, to the dismay of a representative from the Chrysler Corporation, the show's sponsor, who feared that the moment would incur the racist bigotry of Southern viewers. When he insisted that they substitute a different take, with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from one another, Clark and the executive producer of the show — her husband, Wolff — refused, destroyed all other takes of the song and delivered the finished program to NBC with the touch intact. The program aired on 8 April 1968, with high ratings and critical acclaim. (To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original telecast, Clark and Wolff appeared at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan on 22 September 2008, to discuss the broadcast and its impact, following a broadcast of the program.)
Clark later was the hostess of two more specials, another one for NBC and one for ABC - one which served as a pilot for a projected weekly series. Clark declined the offer in order to please her children, who disliked living in Los Angeles.
Clark revived her movie career in the late 1960s, starring in two big musical films. In Finian's Rainbow (1968), she starred opposite Fred Astaire and she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. With her role, she again made history by becoming Astaire's final on-screen dance partner. The following year she was cast with Peter O'Toole in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, a musical adaptation of the classic James Hilton novella. (Her last film to date has been the British production Never Never Land, released in 1980.) After that, her output of musical hits in the States diminished markedly, although she continued to record and make television appearances into the 1970s. By the mid-1970s, Clark scaled back her career in order to devote more time to her family. On December 31, 1976, she performed her hit song Downtown on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee.
Herb Alpert and his A&M record label benefitted from Clark's interest in encouraging new talent. In 1968, she brought French composer/arranger Michel Colombier to the States to work as her musical director and introduced him to Alpert. (He went on to co-write Purple Rain with Prince, composed the acclaimed pop symphony Wings and a number of soundtracks for American films.) Richard Carpenter credited her with bringing him and his sister Karen to Alpert's attention when they performed at a premiere party for Clark's film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Post-"Downtown" era
During the early 1970s, Clark had chart singles on both sides of the Atlantic with: "Melody Man" (1970); "The Song Of My Life" (1971); "I Don't Know How To Love Him" (1972), "The Wedding Song (There Is Love)" (1972) and "Loving Arms" (1974).
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Clark toured in concerts in the States, and she often appeared in supper clubs such as the Copacabana in New York City, the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where she consistently broke house attendance records. During this period, she also appeared in print and radio ads for the Coca Cola Corp., television commercials for Plymouth automobiles, print and TV spots for Burlington Industries, television and print ads for Chrysler Sunbeam, and print ads for Sanderson Wallpaper in the UK.
In 1954, Clark had starred in a stage production of The Constant Nymph, but it wasn't until 1981, at the urging of her children, that she returned to legitimate theatre, starring as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music in London's West End. Opening to rave reviews and what was then the largest advance sale in British theatre history, Clark — proclaimed by Maria Von Trapp herself as "the best Maria ever" — extended her initial six-month run to thirteen to accommodate the huge demand for tickets. In 1983, she took on the title role in George Bernard Shaw's Candida. Later stage work includes Someone Like You in 1989 and 1990, for which she composed the score; Blood Brothers, in which she made her Broadway debut in 1993 at the Music Box Theatre, followed by the American tour; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, appearing in both the West End and American touring productions from 1995 through 2000. In 2004, she repeated her performance of Norma Desmond in a production at the Cork Opera House in the Republic of Ireland, which was later broadcast by the BBC. With more than 2,500 performances, she has played the role more often than any other actress.
A new disco re-mix of Downtown called Downtown '88 was released in 1988 registering Clark's first UK singles chart success since 1972, making the Top Ten in the UK in December 1988. A live vocal performance of this version was performed on the UK TV chart show Top Of The Pops. Clark recorded new material regularly throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and in 1992 released "Oxygen", a single produced by Nik Kershaw.
In both 1998 and 2002, Clark toured extensively throughout the UK. In 2000, she presented a self-written one-woman show, highlighting her life and career, to large critical and audience acclaim at the St. Denis Theater in Montreal. A 2003 concert appearance at the Olympia in Paris has been issued in both DVD and compact disc formats. In 2004, she toured Australia and New Zealand, appeared at the Hilton in Atlantic City, the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, Humphrey's in San Diego, and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and participated in a multi-performer tribute to the late Peggy Lee at the Hollywood Bowl. Following another British concert tour in early spring 2005, she appeared with Andy Williams in his Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri, for several months, and she returned for another engagement in the fall of 2006, following scattered concert dates throughout the U.S. and Canada.
In November 2006, Clark was the subject of a BBC Four documentary entitled Petula Clark: Blue Lady and appeared with Michael Ball and Tony Hatch in a concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane broadcast by BBC Radio the following month. In December that year she made her first appearance in Iceland. Duets, a compilation including Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, and the Everly Brothers, among others, was released in February 2007, and Solitude and Sunshine, a studio recording of all new material by composer Rod McKuen, was released in July of that year. She was the host of the March 2007 PBS pledge-drive special My Music: The British Beat, an overview of music's British invasion of the United States in the 1960s, followed by a number of concert dates throughout the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. She can be heard on the soundtrack of the 2007 independent film Downtown: A Street Tale. Une Baladine (in English, a wandering minstrel), an authorized pictorial biography by Francoise Piazza, was published in France and Switzerland in October 2007, and the following month Clark promoted it in bookshops and at book fairs.
Clark was presented with the 2007 Film & TV Music Award for Best Use of a Song in a Television Program for "Downtown" in the ABC series Lost. She completed a concert tour of England and Wales in Summer 2008, followed by concerts in Switzerland and the Philippines. Then & Now, a compilation of greatest hits and several new Clark compositions, entered the British album charts in June 2008 and won Clark her first-ever Silver Disc for an album. Open Your Heart: A Love Song Collection, a compilation of previously unreleased material and new and remixed recordings, was released in January 2009. Additionally, her 1969 NBC special Portrait of Petula, already released on DVD for Region 2 viewers, is also being produced for Region 1. A collection of holiday songs titled This Is Christmas, which includes some new Clark compositions in addition to previously released material, was released in November 2009.
In 1998, Clark was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2010, Clark became the President of the Hastings Musical Festival; she toured Australia, New Zealand and Quebec to sell out crowds, and appeared on the iconic "Vivement Dimanche" show on French television, where she promised a return to Paris in the new year. (She is to appear in concert at the Casino de Paris on 7th November of 2011.) Her Triple Best of CD, "Une Baladine" included 10 new tracks and one new studio recording "SOS Mozart" a writing collaboration of Gilbert Bécaud and Pierre Delanoë. Both her 3CD set and her new recording of "SOS Mozart" were produced by David Hadzis at the Arthanor Productions studio in Geneva and appeared on the French charts. She is patron of 2011 Dinard British Film Festival.
Filmography
Medal for the General (1944)
Strawberry Roan (1945)
Murder in Reverse (1945)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Trouble at Townsend (1946)
London Town (1946)
Vice Versa (1948)
Easy Money (1948)
Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
Vote for Huggett (1949)
The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
Don't Ever Leave Me (1949)
The Romantic Age (1949)
Dance Hall (1950)
White Corridors (1951)
Madame Louise (1951)
The Card (1952)
Made in Heaven (1952)
The Runaway Bus (1954)
The Gay Dog (1954)
The Happiness of Three Women (1954)
Track the Man Down (1955)
That Woman Opposite (1957)
6.5 Special (1958)
À Couteaux Tirés (1964) (also composed score) (aka "Daggers Drawn" for the American release)
Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
Drôles de Zèbres (1977)
Never, Never Land (1980)
Sans Famille (1981 French television miniseries)
Discography
Main article: Petula Clark discography
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/16/11 at 2:35 am
The person of the day...Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.
Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1960s she became known internationally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "Colour My World", "A Sign of the Times", and "Don't Sleep in the Subway." She has sold in excess of 68 million records throughout her career.
In October 1942, Clark made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, hoping to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas. During an air raid, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery audience, and she volunteered a rendering of "Mighty Lak a Rose" to an enthusiastic response in the theatre. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes designed to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the United Kingdom with fellow child performer Julie Andrews. Clark became known as "Britain's Shirley Temple," and she was considered a mascot by the British Army, whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for good luck as they advanced into battle.
In 1944, while performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, Clark was discovered by film director Maurice Elvey, who cast her as precocious orphaned waif Irma in his weepy war drama Medal for the General. In quick succession, she starred in Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I'm Going!, London Town, and Here Come the Huggetts, the first in a series of Huggett Family films based on a British radio series. Although most of the films she made in the UK during the 1940s and 1950s were B-movies, she worked with Anthony Newley in Vice Versa (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in The Card.
In 1945, Clark was featured in the comic strip Radio Fun, in which she was billed as "Radio's Merry Mimic".
In 1946, Clark launched her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, Cabaret Cartoons, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, titled simply Petula Clark. A second, Pet's Parlour, followed in 1949. In later years, she starred in This is Petula Clark (1966–1967) and The Sound of Petula (1972–1974).
In 1949, Clark branched into recording with her first release, "Put Your Shoes On, Lucy," for EMI. Because neither EMI nor Decca, for whom she also had recorded, were keen to sign her to a long-term contract, her father, whose own theatrical ambitions had been thwarted by his parents, teamed with Alan A. Freeman to form Polygon Records in order to better control her singing career. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950s, including "The Little Shoemaker" (1954), "Majorca" (1955), "Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955) and "With All My Heart" (1956). Although Clark released singles in the United States as early as 1951 (the first was "Tell Me Truly" b/w "Song Of The Mermaid" on the Coral label), it would take thirteen years before the American record-buying public would discover her.
In 1955, Clark became linked romantically with Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson. Speculation that the couple planned to marry became rife. However, with the increasing glare of being in the public spotlight, and Clark's growing fame — her career in France was just beginning — Henderson, reportedly not wanting to end up as "Mr. Petula Clark", decided to end the relationship. Their professional relationship continued for a couple of years, culminating in the BBC Radio series Pet and Mr. Piano, the last time they worked together, although they remained on friendly terms. In 1962, he penned a ballad about their break-up, called "There's Nothing More To Say", for Clark's LP In Other Words. In the last month of 1955, Clark became infatuated with a certain Joken Hing. This romance didn't last.
Near the end of 1955, Polygon Records was sold to Nixa Records, then part of Pye Records, which lead to the establishment of Pye Nixa Records (subsequently simply Pye). This turn of events effectively signed Clark to the Pye label in the UK, for whom she would record for the remainder of the 1950s, throughout the 1960s, and early into the 1970s.
International fame
In 1958, Clark was invited to appear at the Paris Olympia where, despite her misgivings and a bad cold, she was received with acclaim. The following day she was invited to the office of Vogue Records to discuss a contract. It was there that she met publicist Claude Wolff, to whom she was attracted immediately, and when told he would work with her if she signed with the label, she agreed. Her initial French recordings were huge successes, and in 1960 she embarked on a concert tour of France and Belgium with Sacha Distel, who remained a close friend until his death in 2004. Gradually she moved further into the continent, recording in German, French, Italian and Spanish, and establishing herself as a multi-lingual performer.
1962 EP
In June 1961, Clark married Wolff, first in a civil ceremony in Paris, then a religious one in her native England. Wanting to escape the strictures of child stardom imposed upon her by the British public, and anxious to escape the influence of her father, she relocated to France, where she and Wolff had two daughters, Barbara Michelle and Katherine Natalie, in quick succession. (Their son Patrick was born in 1972.) While Clark focused on her new career in France, she continued to achieve hit records in the UK into the early 1960s, developing a parallel career on both sides of the Channel. Her 1961 recording of "Sailor" became her first #1 hit in the U.K., while such follow-up recordings as "Romeo" and "My Friend the Sea" landed her in the British Top Ten later that year. In France, "Ya Ya Twist" (a French-language cover of the Lee Dorsey rhythm and blues song "Ya Ya" and the only successful recording of a twist song by a female) and "Chariot" (the original version of "I Will Follow Him") became smash hits in 1962, while German and Italian versions of her English and French recordings charted as well. Her recordings of several Serge Gainsbourg songs also were big sellers.
In 1964, Clark wrote the soundtrack for the French crime film A Couteaux Tirés (aka Daggers Drawn) and made a cameo appearance as herself in the movie. Although it was only a mild success, it added a new dimension — that of film composer — to her career. Additional film scores she composed include Animato (1969), La bande à Bebel (1966), and Pétain (1989). Six themes from the latter were released on the CD In Her Own Write in 2007.
In 1963 and 1964, Clark's British recording career foundered. The composer-arranger Tony Hatch, who had been assisting her with her work for Vogue Records in France and Pye Records in the UK, flew to her home in Paris with new song material he hoped would interest her, but she found none of it appealing. Desperate, he played for her a few chords of an incomplete song that had been inspired by his recent first trip to New York City, which he suggested might be offered to The Drifters. Upon hearing the melody, Clark told him that if he could write lyrics as good as the melody, she wanted to record the tune as her next single. Thus "Downtown" came into being.
"Downtown" era
Neither Clark, who was performing in Canada when the song first received major air-play, nor Hatch realized the impact the song would have on their respective careers. Released in four different languages in late 1964, "Downtown" was a success in the UK, France (in both the English and the French versions), the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Italy, and also Rhodesia, Japan, and India. During a visit to London, Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith heard it and acquired the rights for the United States. "Downtown" went to #1 on the American charts in January 1965, and three million copies were sold in America. It was the first of fifteen consecutive Top 40 hits Clark achieved in the United States, including "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "This Is My Song" (from the Charles Chaplin film A Countess from Hong Kong), and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". The American recording industry honored her with Grammy Awards for "Best Rock & Roll Record" for "Downtown" in 1964 and for "Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance" for "I Know a Place" in 1965. In 2003, her recording of "Downtown" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Ad for the NBC-TV special that sparked controversy even before it aired
Clark's recording successes led to frequent appearances on American variety programs hosted by Ed Sullivan and Dean Martin, guest shots on Hullabaloo, Shindig!, The Kraft Music Hall, and The Hollywood Palace, and inclusion in musical specials such as The Best on Record and Rodgers and Hart Today.
In 1968, NBC-TV invited Clark to host her own special in the U.S., and in doing so she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory," an anti-war song that she had composed, with guest Harry Belafonte, she took hold of his arm, to the dismay of a representative from the Chrysler Corporation, the show's sponsor, who feared that the moment would incur the racist bigotry of Southern viewers. When he insisted that they substitute a different take, with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from one another, Clark and the executive producer of the show — her husband, Wolff — refused, destroyed all other takes of the song and delivered the finished program to NBC with the touch intact. The program aired on 8 April 1968, with high ratings and critical acclaim. (To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original telecast, Clark and Wolff appeared at the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan on 22 September 2008, to discuss the broadcast and its impact, following a broadcast of the program.)
Clark later was the hostess of two more specials, another one for NBC and one for ABC - one which served as a pilot for a projected weekly series. Clark declined the offer in order to please her children, who disliked living in Los Angeles.
Clark revived her movie career in the late 1960s, starring in two big musical films. In Finian's Rainbow (1968), she starred opposite Fred Astaire and she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. With her role, she again made history by becoming Astaire's final on-screen dance partner. The following year she was cast with Peter O'Toole in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, a musical adaptation of the classic James Hilton novella. (Her last film to date has been the British production Never Never Land, released in 1980.) After that, her output of musical hits in the States diminished markedly, although she continued to record and make television appearances into the 1970s. By the mid-1970s, Clark scaled back her career in order to devote more time to her family. On December 31, 1976, she performed her hit song Downtown on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee.
Herb Alpert and his A&M record label benefitted from Clark's interest in encouraging new talent. In 1968, she brought French composer/arranger Michel Colombier to the States to work as her musical director and introduced him to Alpert. (He went on to co-write Purple Rain with Prince, composed the acclaimed pop symphony Wings and a number of soundtracks for American films.) Richard Carpenter credited her with bringing him and his sister Karen to Alpert's attention when they performed at a premiere party for Clark's film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Post-"Downtown" era
During the early 1970s, Clark had chart singles on both sides of the Atlantic with: "Melody Man" (1970); "The Song Of My Life" (1971); "I Don't Know How To Love Him" (1972), "The Wedding Song (There Is Love)" (1972) and "Loving Arms" (1974).
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Clark toured in concerts in the States, and she often appeared in supper clubs such as the Copacabana in New York City, the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where she consistently broke house attendance records. During this period, she also appeared in print and radio ads for the Coca Cola Corp., television commercials for Plymouth automobiles, print and TV spots for Burlington Industries, television and print ads for Chrysler Sunbeam, and print ads for Sanderson Wallpaper in the UK.
In 1954, Clark had starred in a stage production of The Constant Nymph, but it wasn't until 1981, at the urging of her children, that she returned to legitimate theatre, starring as Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music in London's West End. Opening to rave reviews and what was then the largest advance sale in British theatre history, Clark — proclaimed by Maria Von Trapp herself as "the best Maria ever" — extended her initial six-month run to thirteen to accommodate the huge demand for tickets. In 1983, she took on the title role in George Bernard Shaw's Candida. Later stage work includes Someone Like You in 1989 and 1990, for which she composed the score; Blood Brothers, in which she made her Broadway debut in 1993 at the Music Box Theatre, followed by the American tour; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, appearing in both the West End and American touring productions from 1995 through 2000. In 2004, she repeated her performance of Norma Desmond in a production at the Cork Opera House in the Republic of Ireland, which was later broadcast by the BBC. With more than 2,500 performances, she has played the role more often than any other actress.
A new disco re-mix of Downtown called Downtown '88 was released in 1988 registering Clark's first UK singles chart success since 1972, making the Top Ten in the UK in December 1988. A live vocal performance of this version was performed on the UK TV chart show Top Of The Pops. Clark recorded new material regularly throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and in 1992 released "Oxygen", a single produced by Nik Kershaw.
In both 1998 and 2002, Clark toured extensively throughout the UK. In 2000, she presented a self-written one-woman show, highlighting her life and career, to large critical and audience acclaim at the St. Denis Theater in Montreal. A 2003 concert appearance at the Olympia in Paris has been issued in both DVD and compact disc formats. In 2004, she toured Australia and New Zealand, appeared at the Hilton in Atlantic City, the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, Humphrey's in San Diego, and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and participated in a multi-performer tribute to the late Peggy Lee at the Hollywood Bowl. Following another British concert tour in early spring 2005, she appeared with Andy Williams in his Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri, for several months, and she returned for another engagement in the fall of 2006, following scattered concert dates throughout the U.S. and Canada.
In November 2006, Clark was the subject of a BBC Four documentary entitled Petula Clark: Blue Lady and appeared with Michael Ball and Tony Hatch in a concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane broadcast by BBC Radio the following month. In December that year she made her first appearance in Iceland. Duets, a compilation including Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, and the Everly Brothers, among others, was released in February 2007, and Solitude and Sunshine, a studio recording of all new material by composer Rod McKuen, was released in July of that year. She was the host of the March 2007 PBS pledge-drive special My Music: The British Beat, an overview of music's British invasion of the United States in the 1960s, followed by a number of concert dates throughout the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. She can be heard on the soundtrack of the 2007 independent film Downtown: A Street Tale. Une Baladine (in English, a wandering minstrel), an authorized pictorial biography by Francoise Piazza, was published in France and Switzerland in October 2007, and the following month Clark promoted it in bookshops and at book fairs.
Clark was presented with the 2007 Film & TV Music Award for Best Use of a Song in a Television Program for "Downtown" in the ABC series Lost. She completed a concert tour of England and Wales in Summer 2008, followed by concerts in Switzerland and the Philippines. Then & Now, a compilation of greatest hits and several new Clark compositions, entered the British album charts in June 2008 and won Clark her first-ever Silver Disc for an album. Open Your Heart: A Love Song Collection, a compilation of previously unreleased material and new and remixed recordings, was released in January 2009. Additionally, her 1969 NBC special Portrait of Petula, already released on DVD for Region 2 viewers, is also being produced for Region 1. A collection of holiday songs titled This Is Christmas, which includes some new Clark compositions in addition to previously released material, was released in November 2009.
In 1998, Clark was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2010, Clark became the President of the Hastings Musical Festival; she toured Australia, New Zealand and Quebec to sell out crowds, and appeared on the iconic "Vivement Dimanche" show on French television, where she promised a return to Paris in the new year. (She is to appear in concert at the Casino de Paris on 7th November of 2011.) Her Triple Best of CD, "Une Baladine" included 10 new tracks and one new studio recording "SOS Mozart" a writing collaboration of Gilbert Bécaud and Pierre Delanoë. Both her 3CD set and her new recording of "SOS Mozart" were produced by David Hadzis at the Arthanor Productions studio in Geneva and appeared on the French charts. She is patron of 2011 Dinard British Film Festival.
Filmography
Medal for the General (1944)
Strawberry Roan (1945)
Murder in Reverse (1945)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Trouble at Townsend (1946)
London Town (1946)
Vice Versa (1948)
Easy Money (1948)
Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
Vote for Huggett (1949)
The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
Don't Ever Leave Me (1949)
The Romantic Age (1949)
Dance Hall (1950)
White Corridors (1951)
Madame Louise (1951)
The Card (1952)
Made in Heaven (1952)
The Runaway Bus (1954)
The Gay Dog (1954)
The Happiness of Three Women (1954)
Track the Man Down (1955)
That Woman Opposite (1957)
6.5 Special (1958)
À Couteaux Tirés (1964) (also composed score) (aka "Daggers Drawn" for the American release)
Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
Drôles de Zèbres (1977)
Never, Never Land (1980)
Sans Famille (1981 French television miniseries)
Discography
Main article: Petula Clark discography
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/hrstumpde/Soundtrack/2011%20Posts/2011%20July/Petula/petula-clark002.jpg
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk105/the_franci/Stuff%20for%20sale/Program-Petula-Clark-front.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCnHWas3HQ
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/16/11 at 7:43 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCnHWas3HQ
the only song I know.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/16/11 at 1:31 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvKj8lTuVtk
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/16/11 at 3:15 pm
The person of the day...Martha Plimpton
Martha Campbell Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress and singer and former model. Plimpton is a screen, stage and television actress. She first appeared as Jonsy in the feature film River Rats (1984) before rising to prominence in the Richard Donner film The Goonies (1985) portraying the character Stef. She then appeared in The Mosquito Coast (1986) portraying Emily Spellgood. Plimpton's role garnered her further success within the feature film industry. Throughout her career Plimpton has appeared in many feature films including critically successful films Running on Empty (1988), Parenthood (1989), Eye of God (1997), The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), Hair High (2004) and Small Town Murder Songs (2011).
Plimpton has also developed and established a very successful career in stage productions. She has appeared on Broadway and in theatre throughout her career. She is recognised on Broadway for her roles in The Coast of Utopia (2006-2007), Top Girls (2007-2008), Pal Joey (2008-2009) and Shining City (2006-2007). She has performed in theatre productions of The Playboy of the Western World, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Glass Menagerie, Hedda Gabler, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Heidi Chronicles and Uncle Vanya. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Boston Marriage (2002), Pericles, Prince of Tyre (2002) and Runaways (2002).
Plimpton has appeared in many television roles throughout her career. She has appeared in guest roles on Family Ties (1985), ER (1999), Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2002), 7th Heaven (2004), Law and Order: Criminal Intent (2006), Surface (2006), The Good Wife (2009 & 2010), Medium (2009), Greys Anatomy (2009), Fringe (2010) and How To Make It In America (2010).
Plimpton currently plays Virginia Chance on the FOX television series Raising Hope. For her role she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011.
Plimpton's roles in film and television are very often favourable among viewers and critics. Plimpton has garnered three consecutive Tony Award nominations: A Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2007 for her role in Top Girls. Best Featured Actress in a Play again in 2008 for Coast of Utopia. Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2009 for Pal Joey. Plimpton's roles in television have earned her two primetime Emmy award nominations: In 2002, for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for portraying Claire Rinato on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and in 2011 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her critically praised portayal of Virginia Chance on Raising Hope.
Plimpton began her career in modeling, securing an early 1980s campaign for Calvin Klein, making an impression as a sophisticated but tomboyish little girl. She made her screen debut in 1981, when at the age of 11 she had a small part in the film Rollover. In 1984, she appeared in the Deep South independent drama The River Rat opposite Tommy Lee Jones. Her breakthrough performance was as Stef Steinbrenner in the 1985 feature film The Goonies. She also appeared that year in a featured role on the television sitcom Family Ties.
This would begin a trend of Plimpton being typecast in the role of a rebellious tomboy for several years, beginning with her critically lauded performance as the Reverend Spellgood (Andre Gregory)'s daughter in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast, starring Harrison Ford. The critically praised but commercially unsuccessful 1987 film Shy People was followed by a performance in the 1988 ensemble comedy Stars and Bars. This was released shortly before Running on Empty, an Academy Award-nominated film starring River Phoenix, for which she was nominated for a Young Artist Award.
She began what became a career trend, mixing small independent film appearances with supporting roles in big-budget films. She appeared in the 1989 Woody Allen film Another Woman; that year, she co-starred with Jami Gertz as a cancer patient in the German film Zwei Frauen (released in America as Silence Like Glass). The film was nominated for Outstanding Feature Film at the German Film Awards. Plimpton shaved her head bald to play a cancer patient in Zwei Frauen, and her reputation for playing rebellious teenagers secured her the role of the indignant teenage daughter (who shaves her head) of Dianne Wiest in Parenthood. Plimpton appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix (then credited as Leaf Phoenix), the younger brother of her former boyfriend, River, who portrayed her on-screen brother. Parenthood grossed over $126 million dollars and received two Academy Award nominations, making it her most successful movie performance to date since The Goonies.
Plimpton attending the 61st Academy Awards, 1989
1990s
In 1991, Plimpton appeared in the Robert De Niro film Stanley & Iris in a supporting role. In 1992, Plimpton appeared as a lesbian terrorist in the independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland. She played the starring role in the film Samantha.
The success of Samantha garnered Plimpton a variety of roles in 1993. She appeared with Cuba Gooding, Jr., in the television film Daybreak and was a part of the mostly improvised television film Chantilly Lace. She had a featured role in the big-budget films Josh and S.A.M. and played the lead in the critically blasted film adaptation of the Carolyn Chute novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine. Plimpton also appeared that year as herself in the independent film My Life's in Turnaround, a movie about filmmakers trying to make a movie. Plimpton continued to make appearances in featured roles in both independent films and mainstream movies from 1994 through 1997, most notably as a close friend of radical feminist Valerie Solanas in the film I Shot Andy Warhol.
In 1997, the Showtime Network cast Plimpton as the female lead in a television film called The Defenders: Payback. The show was a retooling of the classic television show by the same name, and the characters were descendants of character Lawrence Preston, a role reprised by actor E.G. Marshall. The intent was to spin the program off into a series akin to Law & Order, but Marshall died in 1998. Two additional episodes (The Defenders: Choice of Evils and The Defenders: Taking the First) were aired as specials that year. The decision was made to not continue production (despite high ratings and critical praise) due to Marshall's death.
Plimpton became involved with The Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where she appeared in Hedda Gabler (2001) among others. In 1998 she appeared in the John Waters film Pecker; the film was lambasted but Plimpton's work was praised. This also occurred with her appearance in the 1999 crafty 200 Cigarettes. In 1999, Plimpton had a recurring role in the television drama ER as Meg Corwyn.
2000s
In 2001, she co-starred with Jacqueline Bisset in The Sleepy Time Gal, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival.
In 2002, she appeared in the documentary film Searching for Debra Winger and was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on the television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Plimpton was the voice of Miss Crumbles in the 2004 animated film Hair High by Bill Plympton. In 2004, she also guest-starred on an episode of 7th Heaven; she received her first writing credit for a different episode of the show that year entitled "Red Socks". She continues to act in television, film and on stage. She had a recurring role on the NBC show Surface (2005–06).
Plimpton attending the 63rd Tony Awards, 2009
From October 2006 until May 2007, she was in The Coast of Utopia, a trilogy of plays by Tom Stoppard that played at the Lincoln Center. For her work in this play she won a Drama Desk Award and was nominated for a Tony award. In October 2007 Plimpton completed a starring role in A Midsummer Night's Dream on Broadway in New York City. She then began rehearsals for the play Cymbeline. She co-founded a production company, Everything is Horrible, which has produced a number of short films for the internet.
Plimpton received her second nomination for a Tony Award in 2008, Best Performance by a Featured Actress In a Play, for her work in Top Girls at the Biltmore Theater.
In November 2008, she earned rave reviews as Gladys Bumps in the Roundabout Theatre Company production of the classical Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey on Broadway and garnered her third consecutive Tony nomination, this time for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Plimpton appeared in the 2008 Entertainment Weekly photo issue spread as one of "The Hardest Working Actors In Showbiz." In the spread she appears with Lance Reddick, Celia Weston, John Slattery, Bobby Cannavale, James Rebhorn, Lynn Cohen, Matt Servitto and Bob Balaban. Plimpton says in the write-up about her "I went to jury duty the other day, and somebody said, 'You always play drug addicts!' I've played a few on TV, and I imagine because the shows get replayed, it seems like more. But yeah, people tend to see me as this pregnant teenage heroin addict."
2010s
In November 2009, Plimpton signed on as a main cast member on the Fox sitcom Raising Hope. The show premiered on September 21, 2010, receiving strong reviews for both Plimpton and the pilot itself. The New York Times called Raising Hope "the most promising" of "the best new fall shows," and said "Plimpton isn't the only reason 'Raising Hope' could be the best new sitcom of the season, but she is the main reason." On July 14, 2011, Plimpton was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal as Virginia Chance in Raising Hope and submitted the episode "Say Cheese" on her behalf.
Plimpton performed "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch of Game 3 of the 2010 World Series in Texas on Fox, October 30, 2010.
On December 15, 2010, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre announced that Plimpton will be the guest of honor at their second-annual "Salute to Women in the Arts".
In 2010, starred in Ed Gass-Donnelly's independent, crime, thriller Small Town Murder Songs, and was given the trophy for best actress by the Whistler Film Festival.
Other work
Plimpton is friends with singer Lucy Wainwright Roche. In 2008, she performed a duet with Roche on the E.P. 8 More singing the Bruce Springsteen song Hungry Heart. In 2010 she sang another Springsteen song, this time Thunder Road, on the public radio program Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, accompanied by acclaimed whistler Eric Gilliland. She has appeared multiple times as a featured guest on public radio's The Leonard Lopate Show, and performed in a roast of Lopate celebrating the 25th anniversary of his radio program.
Plimpton sits on the board of directors of The Players, a New York City social club founded in 1888 by actor Edwin Booth. In 2009 she was profiled by The New York Times for their "A Night Out With..." series, in which Plimpton hosted an evening of poker at The Players.
In January 2010, she performed a one-woman show called Martha Plimpton Sings? for the Lincoln Center's American Songbook program. The show explored her experiences growing up in 1970s New York City. Her performance, well received by critics, included such songs as "Jolly Coppers on Parade", "Woman Is the ****** of the World", and The Smiths's "Ask" tied together with humorous monologues.
Plimpton also narrates audiobooks, notably the novels Diary by Chuck Palahniuk and Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh.
Media references
She is referenced in the Lawrence Arms song "Light Breathing (Me and Martha Plimpton in a Fancy Elevator)," a song detailing the singer unexpectedly stepping into an elevator with her and being unable to overcome shyness to ask her out.
Personal Life
River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton on the red carpet at the 61st Academy Awards, 1989
Plimpton is a member of the Carradine family.
Plimpton's high-profile relationship with River Phoenix, including their appearance together at the Academy Awards, overshadowed her work. Their relationship would later end due to Plimpton's objection to his recreational drug use, from which he died in 1993.
Plimpton was engaged to stage actor Jon Patrick Walker in March 1995. The couple were planning to wed in April 1996, according to Plimpton's spokeswomen, who said, "She is just extraordinarily pleased", "Her immediate reaction was to call everyone she knew". Shortly thereafter the couple announced they would not be proceding with their nuptials.
Filmography
Year Film Role Other notes
1981 Rollover Fewster's Older Daughter
1984 The River Rat Jonsy
1985 The Goonies Stef Steinbrenner Nominated, Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress- Motion Picture, Young Artist Award
1986 A Life in the Day
The Mosquito Coast Emily Spellgood Nominated, Best Young Female Superstar in Motion Pictures, Young Artist Award
1987 Shy People Grace Nominated, Best Supporting Female, Independent Spirit Award
1988 Stars and Bars Bryant
Running on Empty Lorna Phillips Nominated, Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama Young Artist Award
Another Woman Laura
1989 Zwei Frauen Claudia Jacoby
Parenthood Julie Buckman-Higgins
1990 Stanley and Iris Kelly King
1992 A Blink of Paradise Mother
Inside Monkey Zetterland Sofie
Samantha Samantha
1993 The Perfect Woman
Josh and S.A.M. Alison (The Liberty Maid)
My Life's In Turnaround Herself
1994 The Beans of Egypt, Maine Earlene Pomerleau
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle Jane Grant
1995 Last Summer in the Hamptons Chloe
1996 I Shot Andy Warhol Stevie
Beautiful Girls Jan
I'm Not Rappaport Laurie Campbell
1997 Colin Fitz Ann
Eye of God Ainsley Dupree
1998 Music from Another Room Karen Swan
Pecker Tina
1999 200 Cigarettes Monica
2001 The Sleepy Time Gal Rebecca
2004 Hair High Miss Crumbles Voice
2006 Marvelous Gwen
2007 Dante's Inferno Celia
2008 Gone to the Dogs Leslie
Puppy Love Leslie
2010 I Thought About You Gloria
Small Town Murder Songs Sam
Remember Me Helen Craig
Television
Year Series Role Episode and other notes
1985 Family Ties Jessie Black "You've Got a Friend"
1999 ER Meg Corwin "Humpty Dumpty"
"The Peace of Wild Things"
"Truth and Consequences"
"Sins of the Fathers"
2002 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Claire Rinato "Denial" (Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series)
2003 Karen Sisco Chelsea Wentworth "The One That Got Away"
Hack Louise O'Connor "Black Eye"
2004 7th Heaven Venus "Regret to Inform"
2006 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Jo Gage "Blind Spot"
Surface Mr. Big/Dr. Morris "Fugitives on the Run"
"Experiment Gone Awry"
2009 The Good Wife Patti Nyholm "Crash"
Medium Rosemary Widdick "Pain Killer"
Grey's Anatomy Pam Michaelson "Good Mourning"
"Goodbye"
2010 Fringe Sheriff Ann Mathis "Northwest Passage"
How to Make It in America Edie Weitz "Never Say Die"
"Keep on Truck'n"
"Big in Japan"
"Unhappy Birthday"
"Paper, Denim + Dollars"
The Good Wife Patti Nyholm "Heart"
2010–present Raising Hope Virginia Chance Series Regular
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2011)
Theatre
Broadway
Top Girls Nominated, Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play
The Coast of Utopia Nominated, Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play; Won Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play; Won Outer Critic's Circle for Best Featured Actress in a Play
Cymbeline
Pal Joey Nominated, Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical; Nominated, Drama Desk Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Sixteen Wounded
Shining City
The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
The Libertine
Playboy of the Western World
The Glass Menagerie
Hedda Gabler
Absolution (Director)
Off Broadway
Flesh and Blood
Hurly Burly
Boston Marriage
The False Servant
Hobson's Choice Won Obie Award for Outstanding Performance
Suburbia
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
The Haggadah
Runaways
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Uncle Vanya
The Heidi Chronicles
The Sisters Rosensweig
Robbers
New York Philharmonic
Company (musical)
Awards and recognition
Plimpton has garnered three consecutive Tony Award nominations: In 2007 for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Top Girls, in the same category in 2008 for Coast of Utopia, and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2009 for Pal Joey. In 2002 she received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She received another Emmy nomination in 2011 for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy for her work in the first season of Raising Hope. She submitted the episode "Say Cheese."
Plimpton won the 2001 Obie Award for Outstanding Performance for Hobson's Choice. She also won the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2008 for her role in Coast of Utopia, and was nominated again for a Drama Desk Award in 2009 for Pal Joey.
In film, Plimpton has been nominated for three Young Artist Awards: Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress for Goonies, Best Young Female Superstar in Motion Pictures for The Mosquito Coast, and Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture for Running on Empty. She was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the Best Supporting Female category for her performance in Shy People.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q259/dbeaucha/1amartha_plimpton.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn33/speakmylanguage/21137946jw7.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 11/16/11 at 5:26 pm
the only song I know.
It was the only one of hers I knew for a while...until I heard "Don't Sleep In The Subway" some time ago.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/16/11 at 8:39 pm
The person of the day...Martha Plimpton
Martha Campbell Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress and singer and former model. Plimpton is a screen, stage and television actress. She first appeared as Jonsy in the feature film River Rats (1984) before rising to prominence in the Richard Donner film The Goonies (1985) portraying the character Stef. She then appeared in The Mosquito Coast (1986) portraying Emily Spellgood. Plimpton's role garnered her further success within the feature film industry. Throughout her career Plimpton has appeared in many feature films including critically successful films Running on Empty (1988), Parenthood (1989), Eye of God (1997), The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), Hair High (2004) and Small Town Murder Songs (2011).
Plimpton has also developed and established a very successful career in stage productions. She has appeared on Broadway and in theatre throughout her career. She is recognised on Broadway for her roles in The Coast of Utopia (2006-2007), Top Girls (2007-2008), Pal Joey (2008-2009) and Shining City (2006-2007). She has performed in theatre productions of The Playboy of the Western World, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Glass Menagerie, Hedda Gabler, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Heidi Chronicles and Uncle Vanya. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Boston Marriage (2002), Pericles, Prince of Tyre (2002) and Runaways (2002).
Plimpton has appeared in many television roles throughout her career. She has appeared in guest roles on Family Ties (1985), ER (1999), Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2002), 7th Heaven (2004), Law and Order: Criminal Intent (2006), Surface (2006), The Good Wife (2009 & 2010), Medium (2009), Greys Anatomy (2009), Fringe (2010) and How To Make It In America (2010).
Plimpton currently plays Virginia Chance on the FOX television series Raising Hope. For her role she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011.
Plimpton's roles in film and television are very often favourable among viewers and critics. Plimpton has garnered three consecutive Tony Award nominations: A Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2007 for her role in Top Girls. Best Featured Actress in a Play again in 2008 for Coast of Utopia. Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2009 for Pal Joey. Plimpton's roles in television have earned her two primetime Emmy award nominations: In 2002, for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for portraying Claire Rinato on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and in 2011 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her critically praised portayal of Virginia Chance on Raising Hope.
Plimpton began her career in modeling, securing an early 1980s campaign for Calvin Klein, making an impression as a sophisticated but tomboyish little girl. She made her screen debut in 1981, when at the age of 11 she had a small part in the film Rollover. In 1984, she appeared in the Deep South independent drama The River Rat opposite Tommy Lee Jones. Her breakthrough performance was as Stef Steinbrenner in the 1985 feature film The Goonies. She also appeared that year in a featured role on the television sitcom Family Ties.
This would begin a trend of Plimpton being typecast in the role of a rebellious tomboy for several years, beginning with her critically lauded performance as the Reverend Spellgood (Andre Gregory)'s daughter in the 1986 film The Mosquito Coast, starring Harrison Ford. The critically praised but commercially unsuccessful 1987 film Shy People was followed by a performance in the 1988 ensemble comedy Stars and Bars. This was released shortly before Running on Empty, an Academy Award-nominated film starring River Phoenix, for which she was nominated for a Young Artist Award.
She began what became a career trend, mixing small independent film appearances with supporting roles in big-budget films. She appeared in the 1989 Woody Allen film Another Woman; that year, she co-starred with Jami Gertz as a cancer patient in the German film Zwei Frauen (released in America as Silence Like Glass). The film was nominated for Outstanding Feature Film at the German Film Awards. Plimpton shaved her head bald to play a cancer patient in Zwei Frauen, and her reputation for playing rebellious teenagers secured her the role of the indignant teenage daughter (who shaves her head) of Dianne Wiest in Parenthood. Plimpton appeared alongside Joaquin Phoenix (then credited as Leaf Phoenix), the younger brother of her former boyfriend, River, who portrayed her on-screen brother. Parenthood grossed over $126 million dollars and received two Academy Award nominations, making it her most successful movie performance to date since The Goonies.
Plimpton attending the 61st Academy Awards, 1989
1990s
In 1991, Plimpton appeared in the Robert De Niro film Stanley & Iris in a supporting role. In 1992, Plimpton appeared as a lesbian terrorist in the independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland. She played the starring role in the film Samantha.
The success of Samantha garnered Plimpton a variety of roles in 1993. She appeared with Cuba Gooding, Jr., in the television film Daybreak and was a part of the mostly improvised television film Chantilly Lace. She had a featured role in the big-budget films Josh and S.A.M. and played the lead in the critically blasted film adaptation of the Carolyn Chute novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine. Plimpton also appeared that year as herself in the independent film My Life's in Turnaround, a movie about filmmakers trying to make a movie. Plimpton continued to make appearances in featured roles in both independent films and mainstream movies from 1994 through 1997, most notably as a close friend of radical feminist Valerie Solanas in the film I Shot Andy Warhol.
In 1997, the Showtime Network cast Plimpton as the female lead in a television film called The Defenders: Payback. The show was a retooling of the classic television show by the same name, and the characters were descendants of character Lawrence Preston, a role reprised by actor E.G. Marshall. The intent was to spin the program off into a series akin to Law & Order, but Marshall died in 1998. Two additional episodes (The Defenders: Choice of Evils and The Defenders: Taking the First) were aired as specials that year. The decision was made to not continue production (despite high ratings and critical praise) due to Marshall's death.
Plimpton became involved with The Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where she appeared in Hedda Gabler (2001) among others. In 1998 she appeared in the John Waters film Pecker; the film was lambasted but Plimpton's work was praised. This also occurred with her appearance in the 1999 crafty 200 Cigarettes. In 1999, Plimpton had a recurring role in the television drama ER as Meg Corwyn.
2000s
In 2001, she co-starred with Jacqueline Bisset in The Sleepy Time Gal, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival.
In 2002, she appeared in the documentary film Searching for Debra Winger and was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on the television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Plimpton was the voice of Miss Crumbles in the 2004 animated film Hair High by Bill Plympton. In 2004, she also guest-starred on an episode of 7th Heaven; she received her first writing credit for a different episode of the show that year entitled "Red Socks". She continues to act in television, film and on stage. She had a recurring role on the NBC show Surface (2005–06).
Plimpton attending the 63rd Tony Awards, 2009
From October 2006 until May 2007, she was in The Coast of Utopia, a trilogy of plays by Tom Stoppard that played at the Lincoln Center. For her work in this play she won a Drama Desk Award and was nominated for a Tony award. In October 2007 Plimpton completed a starring role in A Midsummer Night's Dream on Broadway in New York City. She then began rehearsals for the play Cymbeline. She co-founded a production company, Everything is Horrible, which has produced a number of short films for the internet.
Plimpton received her second nomination for a Tony Award in 2008, Best Performance by a Featured Actress In a Play, for her work in Top Girls at the Biltmore Theater.
In November 2008, she earned rave reviews as Gladys Bumps in the Roundabout Theatre Company production of the classical Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey on Broadway and garnered her third consecutive Tony nomination, this time for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
Plimpton appeared in the 2008 Entertainment Weekly photo issue spread as one of "The Hardest Working Actors In Showbiz." In the spread she appears with Lance Reddick, Celia Weston, John Slattery, Bobby Cannavale, James Rebhorn, Lynn Cohen, Matt Servitto and Bob Balaban. Plimpton says in the write-up about her "I went to jury duty the other day, and somebody said, 'You always play drug addicts!' I've played a few on TV, and I imagine because the shows get replayed, it seems like more. But yeah, people tend to see me as this pregnant teenage heroin addict."
2010s
In November 2009, Plimpton signed on as a main cast member on the Fox sitcom Raising Hope. The show premiered on September 21, 2010, receiving strong reviews for both Plimpton and the pilot itself. The New York Times called Raising Hope "the most promising" of "the best new fall shows," and said "Plimpton isn't the only reason 'Raising Hope' could be the best new sitcom of the season, but she is the main reason." On July 14, 2011, Plimpton was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal as Virginia Chance in Raising Hope and submitted the episode "Say Cheese" on her behalf.
Plimpton performed "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch of Game 3 of the 2010 World Series in Texas on Fox, October 30, 2010.
On December 15, 2010, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre announced that Plimpton will be the guest of honor at their second-annual "Salute to Women in the Arts".
In 2010, starred in Ed Gass-Donnelly's independent, crime, thriller Small Town Murder Songs, and was given the trophy for best actress by the Whistler Film Festival.
Other work
Plimpton is friends with singer Lucy Wainwright Roche. In 2008, she performed a duet with Roche on the E.P. 8 More singing the Bruce Springsteen song Hungry Heart. In 2010 she sang another Springsteen song, this time Thunder Road, on the public radio program Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, accompanied by acclaimed whistler Eric Gilliland. She has appeared multiple times as a featured guest on public radio's The Leonard Lopate Show, and performed in a roast of Lopate celebrating the 25th anniversary of his radio program.
Plimpton sits on the board of directors of The Players, a New York City social club founded in 1888 by actor Edwin Booth. In 2009 she was profiled by The New York Times for their "A Night Out With..." series, in which Plimpton hosted an evening of poker at The Players.
In January 2010, she performed a one-woman show called Martha Plimpton Sings? for the Lincoln Center's American Songbook program. The show explored her experiences growing up in 1970s New York City. Her performance, well received by critics, included such songs as "Jolly Coppers on Parade", "Woman Is the ****** of the World", and The Smiths's "Ask" tied together with humorous monologues.
Plimpton also narrates audiobooks, notably the novels Diary by Chuck Palahniuk and Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh.
Media references
She is referenced in the Lawrence Arms song "Light Breathing (Me and Martha Plimpton in a Fancy Elevator)," a song detailing the singer unexpectedly stepping into an elevator with her and being unable to overcome shyness to ask her out.
Personal Life
River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton on the red carpet at the 61st Academy Awards, 1989
Plimpton is a member of the Carradine family.
Plimpton's high-profile relationship with River Phoenix, including their appearance together at the Academy Awards, overshadowed her work. Their relationship would later end due to Plimpton's objection to his recreational drug use, from which he died in 1993.
Plimpton was engaged to stage actor Jon Patrick Walker in March 1995. The couple were planning to wed in April 1996, according to Plimpton's spokeswomen, who said, "She is just extraordinarily pleased", "Her immediate reaction was to call everyone she knew". Shortly thereafter the couple announced they would not be proceding with their nuptials.
Filmography
Year Film Role Other notes
1981 Rollover Fewster's Older Daughter
1984 The River Rat Jonsy
1985 The Goonies Stef Steinbrenner Nominated, Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress- Motion Picture, Young Artist Award
1986 A Life in the Day
The Mosquito Coast Emily Spellgood Nominated, Best Young Female Superstar in Motion Pictures, Young Artist Award
1987 Shy People Grace Nominated, Best Supporting Female, Independent Spirit Award
1988 Stars and Bars Bryant
Running on Empty Lorna Phillips Nominated, Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama Young Artist Award
Another Woman Laura
1989 Zwei Frauen Claudia Jacoby
Parenthood Julie Buckman-Higgins
1990 Stanley and Iris Kelly King
1992 A Blink of Paradise Mother
Inside Monkey Zetterland Sofie
Samantha Samantha
1993 The Perfect Woman
Josh and S.A.M. Alison (The Liberty Maid)
My Life's In Turnaround Herself
1994 The Beans of Egypt, Maine Earlene Pomerleau
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle Jane Grant
1995 Last Summer in the Hamptons Chloe
1996 I Shot Andy Warhol Stevie
Beautiful Girls Jan
I'm Not Rappaport Laurie Campbell
1997 Colin Fitz Ann
Eye of God Ainsley Dupree
1998 Music from Another Room Karen Swan
Pecker Tina
1999 200 Cigarettes Monica
2001 The Sleepy Time Gal Rebecca
2004 Hair High Miss Crumbles Voice
2006 Marvelous Gwen
2007 Dante's Inferno Celia
2008 Gone to the Dogs Leslie
Puppy Love Leslie
2010 I Thought About You Gloria
Small Town Murder Songs Sam
Remember Me Helen Craig
Television
Year Series Role Episode and other notes
1985 Family Ties Jessie Black "You've Got a Friend"
1999 ER Meg Corwin "Humpty Dumpty"
"The Peace of Wild Things"
"Truth and Consequences"
"Sins of the Fathers"
2002 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Claire Rinato "Denial" (Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series)
2003 Karen Sisco Chelsea Wentworth "The One That Got Away"
Hack Louise O'Connor "Black Eye"
2004 7th Heaven Venus "Regret to Inform"
2006 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Jo Gage "Blind Spot"
Surface Mr. Big/Dr. Morris "Fugitives on the Run"
"Experiment Gone Awry"
2009 The Good Wife Patti Nyholm "Crash"
Medium Rosemary Widdick "Pain Killer"
Grey's Anatomy Pam Michaelson "Good Mourning"
"Goodbye"
2010 Fringe Sheriff Ann Mathis "Northwest Passage"
How to Make It in America Edie Weitz "Never Say Die"
"Keep on Truck'n"
"Big in Japan"
"Unhappy Birthday"
"Paper, Denim + Dollars"
The Good Wife Patti Nyholm "Heart"
2010–present Raising Hope Virginia Chance Series Regular
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (2011)
Theatre
Broadway
Top Girls Nominated, Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play
The Coast of Utopia Nominated, Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play; Won Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play; Won Outer Critic's Circle for Best Featured Actress in a Play
Cymbeline
Pal Joey Nominated, Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical; Nominated, Drama Desk Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Sixteen Wounded
Shining City
The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
The Libertine
Playboy of the Western World
The Glass Menagerie
Hedda Gabler
Absolution (Director)
Off Broadway
Flesh and Blood
Hurly Burly
Boston Marriage
The False Servant
Hobson's Choice Won Obie Award for Outstanding Performance
Suburbia
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
The Haggadah
Runaways
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Uncle Vanya
The Heidi Chronicles
The Sisters Rosensweig
Robbers
New York Philharmonic
Company (musical)
Awards and recognition
Plimpton has garnered three consecutive Tony Award nominations: In 2007 for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Top Girls, in the same category in 2008 for Coast of Utopia, and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in 2009 for Pal Joey. In 2002 she received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She received another Emmy nomination in 2011 for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy for her work in the first season of Raising Hope. She submitted the episode "Say Cheese."
Plimpton won the 2001 Obie Award for Outstanding Performance for Hobson's Choice. She also won the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2008 for her role in Coast of Utopia, and was nominated again for a Drama Desk Award in 2009 for Pal Joey.
In film, Plimpton has been nominated for three Young Artist Awards: Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress for Goonies, Best Young Female Superstar in Motion Pictures for The Mosquito Coast, and Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture for Running on Empty. She was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the Best Supporting Female category for her performance in Shy People.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q259/dbeaucha/1amartha_plimpton.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn33/speakmylanguage/21137946jw7.jpg
She turned out to be a very beautiful woman. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 11/17/11 at 10:44 am
The person of the day...Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot OC, OOnt (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and internationally as a folk-rock legend.
Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", and "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country charts with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965—brought him international recognition in the 1960s. He experienced chart success in Canada with his own recordings, beginning in 1962 with the number-three hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One". Lightfoot's recordings made an impact on the international music charts in the 1970s, with songs such as "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970) (number 5 on the US charts), "Sundown" (1974), "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), (all reaching Number 1) and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976) (reaching number 2).
Some of Lightfoot's albums have achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by some of the world's most renowned recording artists, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., The Kingston Trio, Marty Robbins, George Hamilton IV, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Viola Wills, Richie Havens, The Dandy Warhols, Harry Belafonte, Tony Rice, Sandy Denny (with Fotheringay), The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Scott Walker, Sarah McLachlan, John Mellencamp, Toby Keith, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell, Anne Murray, and Olivia Newton-John.
Robbie Robertson of The Band declared that Lightfoot was one of his "favourite Canadian songwriters and is absolutely a national treasure." Bob Dylan, also a Lightfoot fan, called him one of his favourite songwriters, and in an often-quoted tribute to his fellow songwriter, Dylan once observed that when he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever." Lightfoot was a featured musical performer at the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (arts) in 1979, and the Companion of the Order of Canada—Canada's highest civilian honor — in 2003.
In 1965 Lightfoot signed a management contract with Albert Grossman, who also represented Bob Dylan. That same year, he signed a recording contract with United Artists and released his own version of "I'm Not Saying" as a single. Appearances at the Newport Folk Festival, the Tonight Show, and New York's Town Hall increased his following and his reputation. In 1966, he released his debut album Lightfoot!, which brought him increased recognition as both a singer and a songwriter. It featured many now-famous songs, including "For Lovin' Me," "Early Mornin' Rain," "Steel Rail Blues," and "Ribbon of Darkness." On the strength of the Lightfoot! album, which mixed Canadian and universal themes, Lightfoot became one of the first Canadian singers to achieve real stardom in his own country without having to move to the United States.
Lightfoot was commissioned by the CBC to write the "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" for a special broadcast on January 1, 1967, to start Canada's Centennial year. Between 1966 and 1969, Lightfoot recorded four additional albums for United Artists: The Way I Feel (1967), Did She Mention My Name? (1968), Back Here on Earth (1968), and the live recording Sunday Concert (1969). During those years, he consistently placed singles in the Canadian top 40, including "Go-Go Round", "Spin, Spin", and "The Way I Feel". His biggest hit of the era was a rendition of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", which peaked at #3 on the Canadian charts in December 1965. Did She Mention My Name? featured "Black Day In July", about the 1967 Detroit riots.
Internationally, Lightfoot's albums from this time were well-received, but did not produce any hit singles. Outside of Canada, he remained better known as a songwriter than as a performer.
Lightfoot's success as a live performer continued to grow throughout the late 1960s. He embarked on his first Canadian national tour in 1967, and also performed in New York City. Between 1967 and 1974, Lightfoot toured Europe and was well-received on two tours of Australia.
UA would later consistently release "Best of" album compilations in the 1970s, after Lightfoot became a success on his next label Warner Bros./Reprise.
Warner Bros./Reprise years
Lightfoot was signed to Warner Bros./Reprise in 1970 and had a major hit in the United States with his recording of "If You Could Read My Mind". It sold over one million copies by early 1971, and was awarded a gold disc. The song was originally featured on his 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger, which did not sell well. After the success of the song, the album was re-released under the new title If You Could Read My Mind. It reached #5 nationally and the success of the song represented a major turning point in Gordon Lightfoot's career. It also had the second recorded version of "Me and Bobby McGee", as well as "The Pony Man","Your Love's Return", and "The Minstrel of The Dawn".
Over the next seven years, he recorded a series of successful albums that established him as a singer-songwriter:
Summer Side of Life (1971), with songs "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder", "Miguel", "Cabaret", "Nous Vivons Ensemble", and the title track
Don Quixote (1972), with "Beautiful", "Looking at the Rain", "Christian Island (Georgian Bay)", and the title track, which is a concert favorite
Old Dan's Records (1972), with the title track, the two-sided single "That Same Old Obsession"/"You Are What I Am", and the songs "It's Worth Believin'" and "Can't Depend on Love"
Sundown (1974). Besides the title track, it includes "Carefree Highway", "Seven Island Suite", "The Watchman's Gone", "High and Dry", "Circle of Steel" ,and "Too Late for Prayin
Cold on the Shoulder (1975). Along with title track are songs "Bend in the Water", "The Soul Is the Rock", "Rainbow Trout", "All the Lovely Ladies" and the hit "Rainy Day People"
A double compilation LP Gord's Gold (in 1975) containing nine new versions of his most popular songs from the United Artists era
Summertime Dream (1976), along with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" are the songs "Race Among the Ruins", "Spanish Moss", "Never Too Close", and the title track
Endless Wire (1978) with "Daylight Katy", "If Children Had Wings", "Sweet Guenevire", "The Circle Is Small", and the title track
During the 1970s Lightfoot's songs covered a wide range of subjects, including "Don Quixote", about Cervantes' famous literary character, "Ode to Big Blue", about the widespread killing of whales, "Beautiful", about the simple joys of love, "Carefree Highway", about the freedom of the open road, "Protocol", about the futility of war, and "Alberta Bound", which was inspired by a lonely teenaged girl named Grace he met on a bus while travelling to Calgary in 1971.
In 1972 Lightfoot curtailed his touring schedule after contracting Bell's palsy, a condition that left his face partially paralyzed temporarily. Despite his illness, Lightfoot had several major hits during the 1970s. In June 1974 his classic single "Sundown" from the album Sundown went to No.1 on the American and Canadian charts. It would be his only number one hit in the United States. He performed it twice on NBC's The Midnight Special series. "Carefree Highway" (about Arizona State Route 74 in Phoenix, Arizona) was the follow-up single from the same album. It charted in the Top 10 in both countries. Lightfoot wrote it after traveling from Flagstaff, Arizona on Interstate 17 to Phoenix.
In 1976 Lightfoot had a hit song about a shipwreck on Lake Superior. In late November 1975 Lightfoot had read a Newsweek magazine article about the loss of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank during a severe storm on November 10 with the loss of all 29 crew members. His song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", most of the lyrics of which were based on the facts contained in the article, reached number two on the United States Billboard charts, and was a number one hit in Canada. "Sundown" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" continue to receive heavy airplay on many classic rock stations. In 1978 Lightfoot had another top 40 hit on the United States Hot 100, "The Circle Is Small (I Can See It in Your Eyes)," which reached number 33. He continues his practice of meeting privately with the family members of the men who perished in the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking when his touring schedule allows.
During the 1980s and 1990s Lightfoot recorded six more original albums and a compilation for Warner Bros./Reprise: Dream Street Rose (1980), Shadows (1982), Salute (1983), East of Midnight (1986), another compilation Gord's Gold, Vol. 2 (1988), Waiting for You (1993), and A Painter Passing Through (1998).
The album Dream Street Rose has the folk-pop sound that Lightfoot established during the previous decade. In addition to the title song, it includes songs such as "Ghosts of Cape Horn" and "On the High Seas". It also includes the Leroy Van Dyke 1950s composition "The Auctioneer," a bluegrass-like number that was a concert staple for Lightfoot from the mid 60s to the 80s.
The album Shadows represents a departure from the acoustic sound of the 1970s and introduces an adult-contemporary sound. Songs like "Shadows" and "Thank You for the Promises" contain an underlying sadness and resignation. The 1982 American released single "Baby Step Back" marked his last time in the top 50 in that country. The 1983 album Salute produced no hit singles; the 1986 East of Midnight album had several Adult Contemporary songs like "A Passing Ship","Morning Glory", and "I'll Tag Along" (East of Midnight). A single from "East of Midnight", "Anything for Love", made the Billboard Country & Western chart.
In April 1987, Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against composer Michael Masser, claiming that Masser's melody for the song "The Greatest Love of All"—recorded by George Benson (1977) and Whitney Houston (1985)—stole 24 bars from Lightfoot's 1971 hit song "If You Could Read My Mind." The transitional section that begins "I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow" of the Masser song has the same melody as "I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone, and I just can't get it back" of Lightfoot's song. Lightfoot later stated that he did not want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser.
Lightfoot rounded out the decade with his follow-up compilation Gord's Gold, Vol. 2, in late 1988, which contained re-recorded versions of his most popular songs, including a re-make of the 1970 song "The Pony Man". The original had been brisk in pace, acoustic, and about three minutes long. This new version was slower, clocking in at four minutes plus.
During the 90s Lightfoot returned to his acoustic roots and recorded two albums. Waiting for You (1993) includes songs like "Restless", "Wild Strawberries", and Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells." 1998's A Painter Passing Through reintroduced a sound more reminiscent of his early recordings, with songs like "Much to My Surprise", "Red Velvet", "Drifters", and "I Used to Be a Country Singer". Throughout the decade, Lightfoot played about 50 concerts a year. In 1999 Rhino Records released Songbook, a four-CD boxed set of Lightfoot recordings with rare and unreleased tracks from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s plus a small hardback booklet for his fans that described how he created his songs and gave facts about his career.
In April 2000 Lightfoot taped a live concert in Reno, Nevada—a one hour show that was broadcast by CBC in October, and as a PBS special across the United States. PBS stations offered a videotape of the concert as a pledge gift, and a tape and DVD were released in 2001 in Europe and North America. This was the first Lightfoot concert video released. In April 2001 Lightfoot performed at the Tin Pan South Legends concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, closing the show. In May he performed "Ring Them Bells" at Massey Hall in honor of Bob Dylan's 60th birthday.
Illness and return to performing
By January 2002 Lightfoot had written 30 new songs for his next studio album. He recorded guitar and vocal demos of some of these new songs. In September, before the second concert of a two-night stand in Orillia, Lightfoot suffered severe stomach pain and was airlifted to McMaster Medical Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. He underwent surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, and he remained in serious condition in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Lightfoot endured a six-week coma and a tracheotomy, and he underwent four surgical operations. All of his remaining 2002 concert dates were canceled. More than three months after being taken to the McMaster Medical Center, Lightfoot was released in December to continue his recovery at home.
In 2003 Lightfoot underwent follow-up surgery to continue the treatment of his abdominal condition. In November he signed a new recording contract with Linus Entertainment and began rehearsing with his band for the first time since his illness. Also in 2003, Borealis Records, a related label to Linus Entertainment, released Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. On this album, various artists, including The Cowboy Junkies, Bruce Cockburn, Jesse Winchester, Maria Muldaur, and The Tragically Hip interpreted Lightfoot's songs. The final track on the album, "Lightfoot", was the only song not previously released by Lightfoot. It was composed and performed by Aengus Finnan.
In January 2004 Lightfoot completed work on his album Harmony, which he had mostly recorded prior to his illness. The album was released on his new home label of Linus Records on May 11 of that year. It was his 20th original album and included a single and new video for "Inspiration Lady." Other songs were "Clouds Of Loneliness," "Sometimes I Wish," "Flyin' Blind", and "No Mistake About It." The album contained the upbeat yet reflective track called "End Of All Time", reminiscent of the style of the Marshall Tucker Band and The Allman Brothers Band.
In July 2004 he made a surprise comeback performance, his first since falling ill, at Mariposa in Orillia, performing "I'll Tag Along" solo. In August he performed a five-song solo set in Peterborough, Ontario, at a flood relief benefit. In November he made his long-awaited return to the concert stage with two sold-out benefit shows in Hamilton, Ontario.
Lightfoot returned to the music business with his new album selling well and an appearance on Canadian Idol, where the six top contestants each performed a song of his, culminating in a group performance – on their own instruments – of his Canadian Railroad Trilogy. In 2005, he made a low-key tour called the Better Late Than Never Tour.
On September 14, 2006, while in the middle of a performance, Lightfoot suffered a minor stroke that eventually left him without the use of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand. He returned to performing nine days later and for a brief time used a substitute guitarist for more difficult guitar work. Since early 2007, Lightfoot has regained full use of his right hand and plays all of the guitar parts in concert as he originally wrote them. He has continued to perform into 2011.
While a tour was being planned for 2008, Lightfoot's manager, Barry Harvey, died at age 56 on 4 December 2007. In late 2009, Lightfoot undertook a 26-city tour.
In February 2010 Gordon Lightfoot was the victim of a death hoax originating from Twitter, when a prankster spread a rumor that Lightfoot had died. Lightfoot was at a dental appointment at the time the rumors spread and found out when listening to the radio on his drive home. Lightfoot dispelled those rumors by phoning Charles Adler of CJOB, the DJ and radio station he heard reporting his demise, and did an interview expressing that he was alive and well.
Legacy
Gordon Lightfoot's music career has spanned more than five decades, producing more than 200 recordings. He helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s, with his songs recorded by artists such as Bob Dylan, Gene Clark, Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Buffett, and Jim Croce. The Canadian band The Guess Who recorded a song called "Lightfoot" on their 1968 album Wheatfield Soul; the lyrics contain many Lightfoot song titles.
Lightfoot sound
The signature Lightfoot sound, both in the studio and on tour, centres around Lightfoot's distinct baritone voice and folk-based twelve-string acoustic guitar. Over the years, a handful of key musicians contributed significantly to that sound. From 1965 to 1970, lead guitarist Red Shea was the most important supporting player, with bassists Paul Wideman and John Stockfish filling out the arrangements.
Performing in Toronto, 2008, playing twelve-string guitar
In 1969 bassist Rick Haynes joined the band, and lead guitarist Terry Clements joined the following year. Red Shea left the touring band in 1970, but continued to record with Lightfoot until 1975. He hosted his own Canadian variety show, played with Ian Tyson, and became band leader for Tommy Hunter's TV show in the 1980s on CBC. Shea played on most of Lightfoot's early hits, and his musical influence on later band configurations is undeniable. Shea died in June 2008 of pancreatic cancer. Haynes and Clements remained with Lightfoot and composed the core of Gordon Lightfoot's band.
In 1975, Pee Wee Charles added the important pedal steel guitar element to the band's sound, applying this traditional country instrument in a unique and creative way to Lightfoot's songs. Drummer Barry Keane joined the following year and in 1981, keyboardist Mike Heffernan completed the ensemble. This five-piece backup band remained intact until 1987, when Pee Wee Charles left the band to operate a radio station in Southern Ontario. Haynes, Keane, and Heffernan continue to tour and record with Lightfoot to this day. Terry Clements died on February 20, 2011, at the age of 63, following a stroke. Gordon Lightfoot will continue touring in 2011 with his new guitarist Carter Lancaster from Hamilton Ontario whom he calls a "great player".
Personal life
Lightfoot has been married twice. His first marriage in April 1963 was to a Swedish woman, Brita Ingegerd Olaisson, with whom he had two children, Fred and Ingrid. They divorced in 1973, the marriage ending in part due to his infidelity (with his then girlfriend, Cathy Smith). He has acknowledged that his musical touring and the difficulty of fidelity in a long-distance relationship, contributed to the failure of at least two relationships:
When you're away from the woman, continually confronted by other women, you suddenly find yourself in a weak moment. Then you've gone and stepped over the traces and you gotta go home and confront your old lady. It's a two-way street. You're going to have to offer her the same deal. You can't ask the woman to be faithful if you're not going to be faithful to her. That's where it's broken down for me twice.
The song "If You Could Read My Mind" was written in reflection upon his disintegrating marriage. At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that you lack" is altered to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that we lack." He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.
After being alone for 19 years between marriages, he married Elizabeth Moon in 1989. They have two children: Miles and Meredith.
He has played with some of his band members for more than 30 years.
Honours and awards
Lightfoot's star on Canada's Walk of Fame
As an individual, apart from various awards associated with his albums and singles, Gordon Lightfoot has received sixteen Juno Awards—for top folk singer in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, for top male vocalist in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, and as composer of the year in 1972 and 1976. He has received ASCAP awards for songwriting in 1971, 1974, 1976, and 1977, and has been nominated for five Grammy Awards. In 1974 Lightfoot's song "Sundown" was named pop record of the year by the Music Operators of America. In 1980 he was named Canadian male recording artist of the decade, for his work in the 1970s.
Lightfoot was chosen as the celebrity captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the NHL's 75th anniversary season in 1991–1992.
Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998.
In May 2003 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. Lightfoot is a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the province of Ontario. In 1977, he received the Vanier Award from the Canadian Jaycees. In 2007 Canada Post honored Lightfoot and three other legendary Canadian music artists (Anne Murray, Paul Anka, and Joni Mitchell) with postage stamps highlighting their names and images.
Between 1986 and 1988 Lightfoot's friend Ken Danby (1940–2007), the realist painter, worked on a large (60 x 48 inches) portrait of Lightfoot dressed in the white suit he wore on the cover of the album East of Midnight. The picture was backlit by the sun, creating a visually iconic image of the singer.
Discography
Main article: Gordon Lightfoot discography
Lightfoot! (1966)
The Way I Feel (1967)
Did She Mention My Name (1968)
Back Here on Earth (1968)
Sunday Concert (1969)
Sit Down Young Stranger (1970)
Summer Side of Life (1971)
Don Quixote (1972)
Old Dan's Records (1972)
Sundown (1974)
Cold on the Shoulder (1975)
Summertime Dream (1976)
Endless Wire (1978)
Dream Street Rose (1980)
Shadows (1982)
Salute (1983)
East of Midnight (1986)
Waiting for You (1993)
A Painter Passing Through (1998)
Harmony (2004)
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o107/chickmanc/blackriver06031.jpg
http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu335/damialle/donquixote.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 11/17/11 at 1:06 pm
One of my favorite G.L.'s songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3G0KYax65E
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 11/17/11 at 2:27 pm
My favorite G.L.'s song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0DqPSF2fyo
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 11/17/11 at 2:39 pm
One of my favorite G.L.'s songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3G0KYax65E
Cat
the only song I know, not too familiar with him.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 11/17/11 at 3:00 pm
My favorite G.L.'s song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0DqPSF2fyo
That's my SECOND favorite G.L. song.
Cat