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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: Womble on 02/14/10 at 7:47 pm
The word of the day...Heart
Your heart is the organ in your chest that pumps the blood around your body. People also use heart to refer to the area of their chest that is closest to their heart
You can refer to someone's heart when you are talking about their deep feelings and beliefs.
You use heart when you are talking about someone's character and attitude towards other people, especially when they are kind and generous.
If you refer to things of the heart, you mean love and relationships
The heart of something is the most central and important part of it.
http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee335/PicPocket74/coffee%20art/Copyofhearts.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae1/cillymiu/Heart/lovimage0sbnF.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h47/satasiza/heart.jpg
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r183/All_About_Anime/heart.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j301/brunette58/heart-1.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a100/jowanna__daatio/patterns/heart.jpg
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn290/RAWRxitsmaya/REAL_HEART.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae1/cillymiu/Heart/shwluvh1.jpg
Love the heart pics, Ninny. Thanks for sharing. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/14/10 at 7:51 pm
Originally I was going to James Cook, the English explorer, navigator and cartographer, who died this day in 1779 in Hawaii, but the info was far too much to handle.
I was reading in the Sunday paper all about his death (in Hawaii). They thought he was a living god...then, unfortunately for him, they changed their minds! :o There is a monument to James Cook on the big island of Hawaii with the surrounding land deemed as English territory (forever England).
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/14/10 at 7:53 pm
Love the heart pics, Ninny. Thanks for sharing. :)
Ditto. O0 And a perfect day to post all of that info.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 8:03 pm
Love the heart pics, Ninny. Thanks for sharing. :)
Thanks Vinny :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/14/10 at 8:04 pm
Ditto. O0 And a perfect day to post all of that info.
Thanks Jeff :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/15/10 at 8:09 am
The word of the day...Dollhouse
a toy house with small furniture and sometimes dolls in it for children to play with
a house so small that it is likened to a child's plaything
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series created by writer-director Joss Whedon under Mutant Enemy Productions. The show premiered on February 13, 2009 on the Fox network. ...
A dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and ...
A Doll's House (Et dukkehjem) is an 1879 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/darsvet2/dollhouse.jpg
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/darsvet2/dollhouse2.jpg
http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac93/Fistfulofcoupons/doll-house.gif
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa118/meiweihuang/doll%20house/belledollhouse016edSmall.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj77/PKtech/TV/dollhouse1-liten.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/15/10 at 8:12 am
The person born on this day...Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom (born Patricia Claire Blume; 15 February 1931) is an English film and stage actress
Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Grew) and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales. Her paternal grandparents, originally named Blumenthal, as well as her maternal grandparents, originally named Griewski, were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Bloom attended secondary school at the independent Badminton School in Bristol.
Career
After training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Bloom made her debut on BBC radio programmes. She made her stage debut in 1946, when she was 15, with the Oxford Repertory Theatre. Her London stage debut was in 1947 in the hit Christopher Fry play The Lady's Not For Burning, which also featured the young Richard Burton, starred John Gielgud and Pamela Brown and which, subsequently, was produced, with the aforementioned four, on Broadway in New York. The following year, she received great acclaim for her portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet, the first of many works by William Shakespeare in which Bloom would appear.
Bloom has appeared in a number of plays and theatrical works in both London and New York. Those works include Look Back in Anger, Rashomon, and Bloom's favorite role, that of Blanche in the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. Bloom has also performed in a one woman show that included monologues from several of her stage performances.
Bloom's first film role was in 1948, for the film The Blind Goddess. She was chosen by Charlie Chaplin in 1952 to appear in his film Limelight, which catapulted Bloom to stardom, and remains one of her most memorable roles. She was subsequently featured in a number of "costume" roles in films such as Alexander the Great, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer, and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. Bloom also appeared in Laurence Olivier's film version of Richard III, Ibsen's A Doll's House, The Outrage with Paul Newman and Laurence Harvey, as well as the films The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Look Back in Anger, both with Richard Burton.
In the 1960s she began to play more contemporary roles, including an unhinged housewife in The Chapman Report, a psychologist in the Oscar winning film Charly, and Theodora in The Haunting. She also appeared in the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Her most recent appearance in a Hollywood film was in the 1996 Sylvester Stallone film Daylight.
Bloom has appeared on television, perhaps the most memorable of which was her portrayal of Lady Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited (1981). Other roles included two prominent BBC Television productions for director Rudolph Cartier; co-starring with Sean Connery in Anna Karenina (1961), and playing Cathy in Wuthering Heights with Keith Michell as Heathcliff (1962). She also appeared as First Lady Edith Wilson in Backstairs at the White House (1979); as Joy Gresham, the wife of C. S. Lewis in Shadowlands (For that performance she received the BAFTA Award as Best Actress. (1985), and as the older Sophy in the 1992 miniseries The Camomile Lawn on Britain's Channel 4. Her most recent appearance in a miniseries was in the 2006 version of The Ten Commandments.
On continuing television series, she has appeared on the New York-based Law & Order: Criminal Intent. From 1991 to 1993, she portrayed villainess Orlena Grimaldi on the daytime drama As the World Turns. She also had major roles in several of the BBC-Shakespeare Play television presentations and has led workshops on Shakespearean performance practices.
In January 2006, she appeared on the London stage in Arthur Allan Seidelman's production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri, a two-hander in which she co-starred with Billy Zane.
In December of 2009, she appeared in the BBC's Doctor Who alongside David Tennant in his final story as the Tenth Doctor, as a Time Lord credited only as "The Woman." though Russell T Davies alludes that the character is supposed to be The Doctor's mother in his book "A Writers Tale"
Personal life
Bloom has married three times. Her first marriage, in 1959, was to actor Rod Steiger, whom she had met when they both performed in the play Rashomon. Their daughter is opera singer Anna Steiger. Steiger and Bloom divorced in 1969. In that same year, Bloom married producer Hillard Elkins. The marriage lasted three years and the couple divorced in 1972. Bloom's third marriage on April 29, 1990 was to writer Philip Roth, her longtime companion. The couple divorced in 1995.
Bloom has written two memoirs about her life and career. The first, Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress, was released in 1982 and was an in-depth look at her career and the film and stage roles she had portrayed. Her second book, Leaving a Doll's House: A Memoir, was published in 1996, and went into greater details about her personal life; she discussed not only her marriages but her romantic relationships with Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. The book created a stir when Bloom detailed the highly complicated relationship between her and Philip Roth during their marriage. The details Bloom shared were unflattering to Roth, and created a controversy regarding the true nature of their relationship. The character of Eve Frame in Roth's 1998 novel I Married a Communist is clearly intended as a retort.
Selected filmography
* 1952: Limelight
* 1953: The Man Between
* 1955: "Richard III"
* 1956: Alexander the Great)
* 1957: The Brothers Karamazov
* 1958: The Buccaneer
* 1958: Look Back in Anger
* 1960: Schachnovelle
* 1961: The Chapman report
* 1962: The wonderful world of the Brothers Grimm
* 1962: The Haunting
* 1963: Eighty thousand suspects
* 1964: The Outrage
* 1965: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
* 1968: Charly
* 1968: Three into two won’t go
* 1968: The illustrated man
* 1970: A Severed Head
* 1973: The going up of David Lev
* 1973: A doll’s house
* 1976: Islands in the stream
* 1981: Brideshead Revisited
* 1981: Clash of the titans
* 1983: Separate tables
* 1984: Ellis Island
* 1985: Ann and Debbie (TV)
* 1986: Shadows on the sun
* 1987: Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
* 1987: Queenie
* 1988: The lady and the highwayman
* 1988: Shadow on the sun
* 1989: Crimes and Misdemeanors
* 1992: It’s nothing personal
* 1994: Remember
* 1994: A village affair
* 1995: Mighty Aphrodite
* 1996: Daylight
* 1997: What the deaf man heard
* 2000: Yesterday’s children
* 2000: Love and murder: Love and murder
* 2002: The Book of Eve
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq85/cornershop15/ClaireBloomRichardBurton2-1.jpg
http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww31/haroldfilm/ClaireBloom.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa218/sulamite3/Doctor%20Who/claire-bloom.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/15/10 at 8:13 am
The word of the day...Dollhouse
a toy house with small furniture and sometimes dolls in it for children to play with
a house so small that it is likened to a child's plaything
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series created by writer-director Joss Whedon under Mutant Enemy Productions. The show premiered on February 13, 2009 on the Fox network. ...
A dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and ...
A Doll's House (Et dukkehjem) is an 1879 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/darsvet2/dollhouse.jpg
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu120/darsvet2/dollhouse2.jpg
http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac93/Fistfulofcoupons/doll-house.gif
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh82/quiroz923/Doll%20House/dollHouse074.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z269/depot09/barbie_doll_house.jpg
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/ss124/TamariaHolt01/house.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa118/meiweihuang/doll%20house/belledollhouse016edSmall.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj77/PKtech/TV/dollhouse1-liten.jpg
Sorry,never owned a dollhouse. ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/15/10 at 8:17 am
The person who died on this day...Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat "King" Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death; he is widely considered one of the most important musical personalities in United States history. Cole's first mainstream vocal hit was his 1943 recording of one of his compositions, "Straighten Up and Fly Right," based on a black folk tale that his father had used as a theme for a sermon. Johnny Mercer invited him to record it for the fledgling Capitol Records label. It sold over 500,000 copies, proving that folk-based material could appeal to a wide audience. Although Cole would never be considered a rocker, the song can be seen as anticipating the first rock and roll records. Indeed, Bo Diddley, who performed similar transformations of folk material, counted Cole as an influence.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Cole began recording and performing more pop-oriented material for mainstream audiences, often accompanied by a string orchestra. His stature as a popular icon was cemented during this period by hits such as "The Christmas Song" (Cole recorded that tune four times: on June 14, 1946, as a pure Trio recording, on August 19, 1946, with an added string section, on August 24, 1953, and in 1961 for the double album The Nat King Cole Story; this final version, recorded in stereo, is the one most often heard today), "Nature Boy" (1948), "Mona Lisa" (1950), "Too Young" (the #1 song in 1951), and his signature tune "Unforgettable" (1951). While this shift to pop music led some jazz critics and fans to accuse Cole of selling out, he never totally abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956, for instance, he recorded an all-jazz album After Midnight. Cole had one of his last big hits two years before his death, in 1963, with the classic "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer", which reached #6 on the Pop chart.
Making television history
On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC-TV. The Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by an African-American, which created controversy at the time.
Beginning as a 15-minute pops show on Monday night, the program was expanded to a half hour in July 1957. Despite the efforts of NBC, as well as many of Cole's industry colleagues—many of whom, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte, Frankie Laine, Mel Tormé, Peggy Lee, and Eartha Kitt worked for industry scale (or even for no pay) in order to help the show save money—The Nat King Cole Show was ultimately done in by lack of a national sponsorship. Companies such as Rheingold Beer assumed regional sponsorship of the show, but a national sponsor never appeared.
The last episode of "The Nat King Cole Show" aired December 17, 1957. Cole had survived for over a year, and it was he, not NBC, who ultimately decided to pull the plug on the show. NBC, as well as Cole himself, had been operating at an extreme financial loss. Commenting on the lack of sponsorship his show received, Cole quipped shortly after its demise, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." This statement, with the passing of time, has fueled the urban legend that Cole's show had to close down despite enormous popularity. In fact, the Cole program was routinely beaten by the competition at ABC, which was then riding high with its travel and western shows. In addition, musical variety series have always been risky enterprises with a fickle public; among the one-season casualties are Frank Sinatra in 1957, Judy Garland in 1963, and Julie Andrews in 1972.
In 1964, Cole made one of his final television appearances on The Jack Benny Program. In his typically magnanimous fashion, Benny allowed his guest star to steal the show. Cole sang “When I Fall in Love” in perhaps his finest and most memorable performance. Cole was introduced as “the best friend a song ever had” and traded very humorous banter with Benny. Cole highlighted a classic Benny skit in which Benny is upstaged by an emergency stand-in drummer. Introduced as Cole’s cousin, five-year-old James Bradley Jr. stunned Benny with incredible drumming talent and participated with Cole in playful banter at Benny’s expense. It would prove to be one of Cole's last performances.
Racism
Unbalanced scales.svg
This article may be inaccurate in or unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (August 2009)
Nat King Cole corner in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba
Cole fought racism all his life and refused to perform in segregated venues. In 1956, he was assaulted on stage during a concert in Birmingham, Alabama, (while singing the song "Little Girl") by three members of the North Alabama White Citizens Council (a group led by Education of Little Tree author Asa "Forrest" Carter, himself not among the attackers), who apparently were attempting to kidnap him. The three male attackers ran down the aisles of the auditorium towards Cole and his band. Although local law enforcement quickly ended the invasion of the stage, the ensuing melée toppled Cole from his piano bench and injured his back. Cole did not finish the concert and never again performed in the South. A fourth member of the group who had participated in the plot was later arrested in connection with the act. All were later tried and convicted for their roles in the crime.
In 1956 he was contracted to perform in Cuba and wanted to stay at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Havana, but was not allowed to because it operated a color bar. Cole honored his contract, however, and the concert at the Tropicana was a huge success. The following year, he returned to Cuba for another concert, singing many songs in Spanish. There is now a tribute to him in the form of a bust and a jukebox in the Hotel Nacional.
1950s and beyond
Throughout the 1950s, Cole continued to rack up hit after hit, including "Smile", "Pretend", "A Blossom Fell", and "If I May". His pop hits were collaborations with well-known arrangers and conductors of the day, including Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Ralph Carmichael. Riddle arranged several of Cole's 1950s albums, including his first 10-inch long-play album, his 1953 Nat King Cole Sings For Two In Love. In 1955, his single "Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" reached #7 on the Billboard chart. Jenkins arranged Love Is the Thing, which hit #1 on the album charts in April 1957.
In 1958, Cole went to Havana, Cuba to record Cole Español, an album sung entirely in Spanish. The album was so popular in Latin America, as well as in the USA, that two others of the same variety followed: A Mis Amigos (sung in Spanish and Portuguese) in 1959 and More Cole Español in 1962. A Mis Amigos contains the Venezuelan hit "Ansiedad," whose lyrics Cole had learned while performing in Caracas in 1958. Cole learned songs in languages other than English by rote.
After the change in musical tastes during the late 1950s, Cole's ballad singing did not sell well with younger listeners, despite a successful stab at rock n' roll with "Send For Me" (peaked at #6 pop). Along with his contemporaries Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett, Cole found that the pop singles chart had been almost entirely taken over by youth-oriented acts. In 1960, Nat's longtime collaborator Nelson Riddle left Capitol Records for Frank Sinatra's newly formed Reprise Records label. Riddle and Cole recorded one final hit album, Wild Is Love, based on lyrics by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne. Cole later retooled the concept album into an off-Broadway show, "I'm With You."
Cole did manage to record some hit singles during the 1960s, including the country-flavored hit "Ramblin' Rose" in August 1962 as well as "Dear Lonely Hearts", "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days Of Summer" (his final hit, reaching #6 pop), and "That Sunday, That Summer".
Cole performed in many short films, sitcoms, and television shows and played W. C. Handy in the film St. Louis Blues (1958). He also appeared in The Nat King Cole Story, China Gate, and The Blue Gardenia (1953). Cat Ballou (1965), his final film, was released several months after his death.
Death and posthumous achievements
Cole's vault at Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Cole was a heavy smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes. He believed smoking kept his voice low. (He would smoke several cigarettes in succession before a recording for this very purpose.) He died of lung cancer on February 15, 1965, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. His funeral was held at St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. His remains were interred inside Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.
His last album, L-O-V-E, was recorded in early December 1964—just a few days before he entered the hospital for cancer treatment—and was released just prior to his death. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965. A "Best Of" album went gold in 1968. His 1957 recording of "When I Fall In Love" reached #4 in the UK charts in 1987.
In 1983, an archivist for EMI Electrola Records, EMI (Capitol's parent company) Records' subsidiary in Germany, discovered some songs Cole had recorded but that had never been released, including one in Japanese and another in Spanish ("Tu Eres Tan Amable"). Capitol released them later that year as the LP "Unreleased."
Cole was inducted into both the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1990, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1997 was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
In 1991, Mosaic Records released "The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio," an 18-compact-disc set consisting of 349 songs. (This special compilation also was available as a 27 LP set.)
Cole's youngest brother, Freddy Cole, and Cole's daughter Natalie are also singers. In the summer of 1991, Natalie Cole and her father had a hit when Natalie mixed her own voice with her father's 1961 rendition of "Unforgettable" as part of a tribute album to her father's music. The song and album of the same name won seven Grammy awards in 1992.
Marriage, children and other personal details
There has been some confusion as to Cole's actual year of birth. Cole himself used four different dates on official documents: 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1919. However, Nathaniel is listed with his parents and older siblings in the 1920 U.S. Federal census for Montgomery Ward 7 and his age is given as nine months old. Since this is a contemporary record, it is very likely he was born in 1919. This is also consistent with the 1930 census which finds him at age 11 with his family in Chicago's Ward 3. In the 1920 census, the race of all members of the family (Ed, Perlina, Eddie M., Edward D., Evelina and Nathaniel) is recorded as mulatto. Cole's birth year is also listed as 1919 on the Nat King Cole Society's web site.
Cole's first marriage, to Nadine Robinson, ended in 1948. On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), just six days after his divorce from Nadine became final, Cole married singer Maria Hawkins Ellington. Although Maria had sung with Duke Ellington's band, she is not related to Duke Ellington. Maria and Cole were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They had five children: daughter Natalie (born 1950); adopted daughter Carole (the daughter of Maria's sister), (1944-2009), who died of lung cancer aged 64; adopted son Nat Kelly Cole (1959-1995), who died of AIDS at 36; and twin girls Casey and Timolin (born 1961).
In 1948, Cole purchased a house in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any undesirables moving in. Cole retorted, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain." The Ku Klux Klan, still active in Los Angeles well into the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn.
Cole carried on affairs throughout his marriages. By the time he developed lung cancer, he was estranged from his wife Maria in favor of actress Gunilla Hutton, best known as Nurse Goodbody of "Hee Haw" fame. But he was with Maria during his illness, and she stayed with him until his death. In an interview, Maria expressed no lingering resentment over his affairs. Instead, she emphasized his musical legacy and the class he exhibited in all other aspects of his life.
An official United States postage stamp featuring Cole's likeness was issued in 1994.
In 2000 Cole was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the major influences for early Rock and Roll.
Politics
Cole sang at the 1956 Republican National Convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California, on August 23, 1956. There, his "singing of 'That's All There Is To That' was greeted with applause." He was also present at the Democratic National Convention in 1960 to throw his support behind President John F. Kennedy. Cole was also among the dozens of entertainers recruited by Frank Sinatra to perform at the Kennedy Inaugural gala in 1961. Cole frequently consulted with President Kennedy (and later President Johnson) on civil rights.
Notable TV appearances (other than his own show)
* Ed Sullivan: Nat King Cole was on The Ed Sullivan Show six times before his own show ran regularly in 1957. He appeared twice after his show ended, once in 1958
o Nat King Cole appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show by: (Season, Episode and Production Number, Air Date, Episode Title)
+ Season 9 (380.9-2 02-Oct-1955)
# Scheduled: Nat King Cole; "Fanny" cast and Josh Logan
+ Season 9 (383.9-5 23-Oct-1955)
# Scheduled: Nat King Cole & wife Maria; Jack Palance and Rod Steiger
+ Season 9 (404.9-26 18-Mar-1956)
# Scheduled: Marcel Marceau; Eli Wallach; Nat King Cole and Cesare Siepe
+ Season 9 (405.9-27 25-Mar-1956)
# Scheduled: Nat King Cole; Jack Carter and Reese & Davis
+ Season 9 (411.9-33 06-May-1956)
# Scheduled: Tony Martin; Nat King Cole; Edie Adams; The Lovers and Will Jordan
+ Season 9 (416.9-38 10-Jun-1956)
# Scheduled: Nat King Cole; Bob Hope (on film); Jack Carter and film: "A Short Vision"
+ Season 11 (510.11-29 13-Apr-1958)
# Scheduled: Nat King Cole; Mickey Mantle; Yogi Berra and Jack Norworth
+ Season 14 (648.14-16 29-Jan-1961)
# Scheduled: Carmen McRae; Carol Channing and Nat King Cole
* Dinah Shore: Nat King Cole was also on The Dinah Shore Show – singing "Mr. Cole Won’t Rock & Roll" — in the early-1960s.
* Your Show of Shows ... aka Sid Caesar's Show of Shows - Episode dated September 12, 1953.
* What's My Line? (Mystery Guest, December 6, 1953)
* An Evening With Nat King Cole BBC Special 1963.
Discography
Main article: Nat King Cole discography
Filmography
Features
* Citizen Kane (1941) (off-screen)
* Here Comes Elmer (1943)
* Pistol Packin' Mama (1943)
* Pin Up Girl (1944)
* Stars on Parade (1944)
* Swing in the Saddle (1944)
* See My Lawyer (1945)
* Breakfast in Hollywood (1946)
* Killer Diller (1948)
* Make Believe Ballroom (1949)
* The Blue Gardenia (1953)
* Small Town Girl (1953)
* Rock 'n' Roll Revue (1955)
* Rhythm and Blues Revue (1955)
* Basin Street Revue (1956)
* The Scarlet Hour (1956)
* Istanbul (1957)
* China Gate (1957)
* St. Louis Blues (1958)
* Night of the Quarter Moon (1959)
* Schlager-Raketen (1960)
* Cat Ballou (1965)
Short subjects
* King Cole Trio & Benny Carter Orchestra (1950)
* Nat King Cole and Joe Adams Orchestra (1952)
* Nat King Cole and Russ Morgan and His Orchestra (1953)
* The Nat King Cole Musical Story (1955)
See also
Music portal
* List of African American firsts
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s88/jasongwalls/nat.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r33/musicalheatwave/natkingcole.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/15/10 at 8:22 am
Unforgettable. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/15/10 at 11:44 am
Unforgettable. :)
Great song.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/16/10 at 7:12 am
The word of the day...Crowd
A crowd is a large group of people who have gathered together, for example to watch or listen to something interesting, or to protest about something
A particular crowd is a group of friends, or a set of people who share the same interests or job.
When people crowd around someone or something, they gather closely together around them.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad279/thelafayettetheater/crowd.jpg
http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt344/Quickrick/shocked-crowd.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx132/michaelvancouver/olympiccrowds030.jpg
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr165/antopatterson/orchardroad-crowd.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/vv191/Hondo6599/P1030476.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz163/AmberScherer/Live%20Love%20Laugh%20Music/theresalilloveineveryone.jpg
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/Patrick-AUS/Austria/Salzburg/IMG_0934.jpg
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz72/ids-houston/IDS%20Craigslist/02-ikeacrowd240x16.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q260/Alisaura/Europe%202009/Dublin%20II/P7250630sml.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/16/10 at 7:14 am
The person born on this day...John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE (16 February 1926 – 25 July 2003) was an English film and stage director.
Schlesinger was born in London into a middle class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta (née Regensburg) and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician. After Uppingham School and graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, he worked as an actor.
Career
One of his earliest films, the British Transport Films' documentary Terminus (1960), gained a Venice Film Festival Gold Lion and a British Academy Award. His first two fiction movies, A Kind of Loving (1962) and Billy Liar (1963) were set in the North of England. A Kind of Loving won the Golden Bear award at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.
His third Darling (1965) described tartly the modern urban way of life in London and was one of the first films about 'swinging London'. Schlesinger's next movie was Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's popular novel. Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969) was internationally acclaimed and it won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.
His later films include Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), The Day of the Locust (1975), Marathon Man (1976), Yanks (1979), Pacific Heights (1990), A Question of Attribution (1991), The Innocent (1993) and The Next Best Thing (2000).
Schlesinger also directed Timon of Athens (1965) for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the musical I and Albert (1972) at London's Piccadilly Theatre. From 1973 he was an associate director of the Royal National Theatre.
Openly gay, Schlesinger dealt with homosexuality in Midnight Cowboy, Sunday Bloody Sunday and The Next Best Thing, and two main characters in Marathon Man were at least implicitly gay. Speaking about Midnight Cowboy's unflattering portrayal of homosexuality, he stated that he was against political correctness and the self-censorship it encourages, which would prevent such a film from being made today.
Schlesinger also directed a notable party political broadcast for the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom general election, 1992 which featured Prime Minister John Major returning to Brixton in south London where he had spent his teenage years, which highlighted his humble background, atypical for a Conservative politician. Schlesinger admitted to voting for all three main political parties in the UK at one time or another.
The book and TV series The Glittering Prizes, writer Frederic Raphael, who won the Best Screenwriting Oscar for his work on Schlesinger's film Darling, feature a character believed to be based on Schlesinger.
Death
Schlesinger underwent a quadruple heart bypass in 1998, before suffering a stroke in December 2000. He was taken off life support at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs on July 24, 2003 by his life partner of over 30 years, photographer Michael Childers. Schlesinger died early the following day at the age of 77.
Filmography
Feature and television films
* A Kind of Loving (1962)
* Billy Liar (1963)
* Darling (1965)
* Far From the Madding Crowd (1967)
* Midnight Cowboy (1969)
* Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
* Visions of Eight (1973)
* The Day of the Locust (1975)
* Marathon Man (1976)
* Yanks (1979)
* Honky Tonk Freeway (1981)
* Privileged (1982)
* Separate Tables (1983) (TV)
* An Englishman Abroad (1983) (TV)
* The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
* The Believers (1987)
* Madame Sousatzka (1988)
* Pacific Heights (1990)
* A Question of Attribution (1991) (TV)
* The Innocent (1993)
* Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV)
* Eye for an Eye (1996)
* The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998) (TV)
* The Next Best Thing (2000)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/16/10 at 7:19 am
The person who died on this day...Eddie Foy
Eddie Foy, Sr. (born Edwin Fitzgerald March 9, 1856, in Greenwich Village, New York City; died February 16, 1928, Kansas City, Missouri), was an actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian.
Foy's parents, Richard and Mary Fitzgerald immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1855 and lived first in New York's Bowery, then in Greenwich Village, where Eddie was born. Richard Fitzgerald died in an insane asylum in 1862 from syphilis-induced dementia, and his widow took her four children (Eddie was second oldest) to Chicago, where she reportedly at one time tended the mentally ill widow of Abraham Lincoln. Six-year-old Eddie began performing in in the streets and local saloons to support his family. At 15, he changed his name to Foy and with a partner began dancing in bars, traveling throughout the western United States. He worked for a time as a supernumerary in theatrical productions, sharing a stage at times with such leading men of the time as Edwin Booth and Joseph Jefferson. With another partner, Jim Thompson, Foy went west again and gained his first professional recognition in mining camps and cow towns. In one such town, Dodge City, Kansas, Foy and his partner lingered for some time and Foy became acquainted with notable citizens Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Doc Holliday. Foy in later years told of an altercation over a girl with fellow actor Charles Chapin, who was drunkenly taking pot-shots at Foy. The gunfire awakened Wyatt Earp, who disarmed the actor and sent both the players home to sleep it off. Foy is also rumored to have been in Tombstone, Arizona in October 1881 appearing at the local theatre when the Gunfight at the OK Corral occurred on the 26th of that month.
In 1879, Foy married Rose Howland, one of the singing Howland Sisters, who were traveling the same circuit. Three years later, Foy and troupe relocated to Philadelphia and joined the Carncross Minstrels. That same year, however, Rose Foy died in childbirth, as did the child she was delivering. Foy lingered with the troupe for two seasons, then returned to the road. He joined David Henderson's troupe and traveled all around the U.S. dancing, doing comedy, and acting in farces. In San Francisco, he met Lola Sefton and was romantically involved with her for ten years, until her death in 1894. Although some sources claim they were married, no record of their marriage has ever been found, nor apparently did Foy ever state clearly that a marriage had occurred. They had no children.
Return to Chicago
Sheet music for Wedding Bells from Sinbad with Eddie Foy on the cover, 1891
He returned to Chicago in 1888 as the star comedian in variety shows and revues, initially for his own company. He played the variety circuits for years in a series of song and dance acts, eventually rising to musical comedy stardom in such Broadway hits as The Strollers (1901), and Mr. Bluebeard (1903). Foy specialized in eccentric routines and costumes, often appearing in drag to hilarious effect. His upper lip extended well below his teeth, giving him an unusual V-shaped grin, and making him look like he had no upper teeth. As a result he spoke with a slurred lisp that audiences adored.
In 1896, Foy married his third wife, Madeline Morando, a dancer with his company. She gave him eleven children, of whom seven survived. These were: Bryan (1896-1977) who became a producer at Warner Bros; Charley (1898-1984), an actor; Mary (1901-1987); Madeline (1903-1988), an actress; Eddie Jr. (1905-1983) who carved out a successful career as an actor and entertainer on stage and screen, including The Pajama Game, and Bells Are Ringing; Richard (1905-1947) and Irving (1908-2003), a writer. Eddie Jr.'s son, Eddie III, was a casting director with Columbia Pictures for over 40 years.
Eddie Foy's plaque in Eddie Foy Park
Between 1901 and 1912 Foy Sr. played the leading comic roles in a series of musical comedies in New York City and on tour including The Strollers (1901), The Wild Rose (1902), Mr. Bluebeard (1903), Piff! Paff! Pouf! (1904), The Earl and the Girl (1905), The Orchid (1907), Mr Hamlet of Broadway (1908/9), Up and Down Broadway (1910), and Over the River (1912). It was while on tour with Mr. Bluebeard that he became a hero of Chicago’s infamous Iroquois Theater Fire, December 30, 1903. A malfunctioning spotlight set fire to the scenery backstage, and Foy stayed onstage until the last minute, trying to keep the audience from panicking. Unfortunately the theatre’s safety features were woefully inadequate, the theatre personnel untrained, and some of the exits had been locked from the outside; at least 600 people perished. Foy escaped by crawling through a sewer.
Eddie Foy and The Seven Little Foys
The headstone of Eddie Foy in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
Between 1910 and 1913, he formed a family vaudeville act, and "Eddie Foy and The Seven Little Foys" quickly turned into a national institution. While Eddie was a stern disciplinarian backstage (his wife Madeline died in 1918) he portrayed an indulgent papa onstage, and the Foys toured successfully for over a decade and appeared in one motion picture. When Eddie remarried - to Marie Reilly Coombs - in 1923, the children went their separate ways. A dedicated trouper, the elder Foy continued to appear in vaudeville and starred in the hit Broadway comedy "The Fallen Star" in 1927. He died of a heart attack while headlining on the Orpheum circuit in Kansas City, Mo. at age 71.
All his children except Bryan are buried with their father at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York. The family’s story was filmed in 1955 as The Seven Little Foys, with Bob Hope as Eddie Sr. and James Cagney as George M. Cohan; Charley Foy narrated. Eddie Foy Jr. appeared as his father in several films: Frontier Marshal (1939), Lillian Russell (1940), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) Wilson (1944), as well as a television version of The Seven Little Foys with Mickey Rooney (1964).
See also
* Iroquois Theater Fire
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/16/10 at 12:54 pm
Unforgettable. :)
Thats what you are.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/16/10 at 4:08 pm
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Too bad this didn't last long. :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/16/10 at 5:08 pm
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Too bad this didn't last long. :(
I forgot about that show :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/17/10 at 6:57 am
I forgot about that show :)
That show could've lasted a couple of more years.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/17/10 at 7:13 am
The word of the day...Backstage
In a theatre, backstage refers to the areas behind the stage.
out of view of the public; behind the scenes; "Working backstage to gain political support for his proposal"
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/17/10 at 7:31 am
The person born on this day...Jerry O'Connell
Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell (born February 17, 1974) is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan.
O'Connell was born in New York City, the son of Linda (née Witkowski), an art teacher, and Michael O'Connell, an advertising agency art director. His maternal grandfather, Charles S. Witkowski, was the mayor of Jersey City, NJ. O'Connell is of Irish descent on his father's side and Polish ancestry on his mother's. O'Connell was raised in Manhattan with a younger brother Charlie O'Connell, also an actor. O'Connell began his acting career at a young age. As a child, he did commercial work for Duncan Hines cookies. Shortly after at the age of eleven, he landed his first feature film role as the character Vern Tessio in Rob Reiner's Stand by Me. As a teenager, he starred in the Canadian TV series My Secret Identity from 1988–91, and attended Manhattan's Professional Children's School.
O'Connell attended New York University (NYU) from 1991 to 1994, majoring in film. While there, he studied screen writing and competed on the NYU fencing team, serving a stint as captain of the sabre squad. However, he left NYU several credits short of graduation in 1999.
Adult career
O'Connell starred in the sci-fi sitcom My Secret Identity from 1988-1991 as the teen hero who develops superhuman traits. During a summer break from NYU, Jerry starred in the feature film Calendar Girl alongside Jason Priestley and Gabriel Olds. He also appeared in the short-lived ABC sitcom, Camp Wilder with Jay Mohr and Hilary Swank in 1992. In his Junior year, O'Connell auditioned for the TV pilot Sliders. He was offered the role of Quinn Mallory in the series, which ran for three seasons on Fox and two seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel. He served as producer during his fourth and final season, and is credited with writing and directing several episodes.
O'Connell has since gone on to star in such movies as Jerry Maguire, Body Shots, Mission to Mars, Tomcats, Scream 2, and Kangaroo Jack. O'Connell has also tried his hand at screenwriting and sold his first screenplay, for First Daughter, to New Regency in 1999. The film was released in 2004 by 20th Century Fox-based Davis Entertainment. O'Connell served as executive producer on the film, which starred Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton.
O'Connell starred as Detective Woody Hoyt on the NBC crime drama Crossing Jordan (2001) until its cancellation, and was engaged to TV personality Giuliana DePandi. He starred opposite her in the Ugly Betty episode "Derailed". O'Connell has also starred as Hoyt in several episodes of Las Vegas. In 2004, he wore a diaper on Last Call with Carson Daly, during a mock commercial skit for the GoodNites bedwetting product. The National Enquirer caught him filming the skit and printed a photo of him in his diaper.
In 2005, O'Connell guest-starred in one episode of the animated series Justice League Unlimited. In the episode, entitled "The Clash", he played Captain Marvel.
His younger brother Charlie O'Connell, an alumnus of NYU who was most recently seen as The Bachelor, is also an actor who has appeared with Jerry in several productions, usually playing the brother of Jerry's character, such as in Sliders and Crossing Jordan.
In 2007-08 Jerry O'Connell starred in ABC's Carpoolers, which ran from October 2, 2007 to March 4, 2008. Although it has not appeared in the Fall '08 lineup, it could come back in the future seasons on ABC.
In early 2008, O'Connell acted in a widely circulated Internet video parody of the leaked Tom Cruise video on Scientology. He also co-wrote and appeared in a video parody called "Young Hillary Clinton," satirizing Hillary Clinton's 2008 primary campaign. On February 2, 2008, O'Connell hosted VH1's Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Bash, which aired the night before Super Bowl XLII and featured musical guests Maroon 5 and Mary J. Blige. On April 28, 2008, O'Connell appeared as a guest star on ABC's Samantha Who?.
In the fall of 2008 O'Connell starred in Fox's Do Not Disturb, costarring Niecy Nash, but Fox cancelled the show after only three episodes.
Most recently, he appeared in the 2009 thriller film Obsessed as "Ben", the best friend and co-worker of the film's protagonist Derek Charles (Idris Elba).
Jerry will appear in Eastwick on ABC, alongside his wife who stars in the series. Jerry will play a good man hiding a horrible secret. His character is a single father, a widower, with a young son who is a part of this secret. Kat will be drawn to him, and she will be put in danger as a result.
O'Connell portrayed Derrick Jones in Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3-D, which also stars Elizabeth Shue.
It has been announced that O'connell will co-star with David Tennant in the new NBC legal drama Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.
Personal life
On July 14, 2007, O'Connell married actress and former model Rebecca Romijn near Los Angeles in Calabasas, California.
A self-proclaimed "Super Super Fan" of The Howard Stern Show, O'Connell placed last in the "Celebrity" version of the "Super Fan Contest" that took place on May 13, 2008. His opponents were Jimmy Kimmel and Jeff Probst. Kimmel ultimately won the contest by a large margin.
After weeks of officially stating that the couple was "trying" to get pregnant, a publicist for the pair confirmed that Romijn was pregnant with twin girls. When talking about having children, O'Connell said "I am excited I am having girls. I know guys are supposed to say, 'I want a boy. I want to play baseball,' but I think I'm going to be good raising girls...I can't wait. They're going to be tough chicks. They're only having sex when I'm dead. If they don't date boys at all and just want to be infatuated with their father, that's what I'm really going for. The nunnery!" O'Connell and Romijn welcomed their twin girls, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip, on December 28, 2008.
O'Connell enrolled in Southwestern Law School in the fall of 2009.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1986 Stand by Me Vern Tessio
1988 Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach Kid at beach Uncredited
1993 Calendar Girl Scott Foreman
1996 Joe's Apartment Joe
Jerry Maguire Frank Cushman
1997 Scream 2 Derek
1998 Can't Hardly Wait Trip McNeely Uncredited
1999 Body Shots Michael Penorisi
2000 Clayton
Mission to Mars Phil Ohlmyer
2001 Tomcats Michael Delaney
2002 The New Guy Highland Party Twin
Buying the Cow David Collins
2003 Kangaroo Jack Charlie Carbone
2004 Fat Slags Sean Cooley
2005 'Yours, Mine and Ours Max/Mac
2006 The Alibi Businessman
Man About Town David Lilly
Room 6 Lucas Dylan
2008 The Parody Video Tom Cruise Wants You to See Tom Cruise Short film
2009 Baby on Board Curtis
Obsessed Ben
2010 Piranha 3-D Derrick Jones
Cat Tale Biscuit (voice)
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1987 The Room Upstairs Carl 1 episode
1988 The Equalizer Bobby Episode: "The Child Broker"
Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss Ralph Parker TV movie
1988-91 My Secret Identity Andrew Clements Cast member
1989 Charles in Charge David Landon Episode: "The Organization Man"
1990 TGIF Brody Unknown episodes
1992 Camp Wilder Brody Wilder Episode: "See Spot Go"
1995 The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky Mac TV movie
Blue River Lawrence Sellars
1995-99 Sliders Quinn Mallory Cast member
1999 The 60's Brian Herlihy TV movie
2001 Night Visions Andy Episode: "Rest Stop"
2002 Going to California Pete Rossock Episode: "Searching For Eddie Van Halen"
Rome Fire Ryan Wheeler TV movie
2002-7 Crossing Jordan Detective Woody Hoyt Cast member
2003 MADtv Ted Levin Episode: 8.12
2004 Without a Trace Joe Gibson Episode: "Hawks and Handsaws"
The Screaming Cocktail Hour Singer TV series
2004-6 Las Vegas Detective Woody Hoyt 5 episode
2005 Justice League Unlimited Captain Marvel Episode: "Clash"
2007 On the Lot Jerry 'The Move' Episode "6 Cut to 5 & 5 Directors Compete"
Ugly Betty Joel Episode: "Derailed"
The Batman Nightwing 2 episodes: "The Metal Face of Comedy", "Artifacts"
2007-8 Carpoolers Laird Cast member
2008 Samantha Who? Craig Episode: "The Gallery Show"
Do Not Disturb Neal 6 episodes
2009 Midnight Bayou Declan Fitzpatrick TV movie
Eastwick Colin Friesen Episode: "Magic Snow and Creepy Gene"
2010 Rex Is Not Your Lawyer TBA Upcoming TV series
Producer
* Sliders (1995) TV series (producer: 1998–1999)
* First Daughter (2004)
Director
* Sliders (1997) TV series - "Stoker"
* Sliders (1999) TV series - "Slidecage," "Lipschitz Live," "Data World," "Roads Taken"
Writer
* Sliders (1999) - "Way out West",
* First Daughter (2004) - screenplay
Music videos
* "David Duchovny" - Bree Sharp
* "Heartbreaker" - Mariah Carey (1999)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/17/10 at 7:39 am
The person who died on this day...Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg (November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with director Harold Clurman, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the non-profit Actors Studio, in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school". In 1969, Strasberg founded the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City and in Hollywood to teach the work he pioneered.
He was the chief proponent of "Method acting" from the 1920s until his death in 1982, and according to acting author Mel Gussow, "he revolutionized the art of acting and had a profound influence on performance in American theater and movies". From his base in New York, he trained several generations of theatre and film's most illustrious talents, including Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Al Pacino and director Elia Kazan.
Former student Elia Kazan directed James Dean in East of Eden (1955), for which Kazan and Dean were nominated for Academy Awards. Dean once wrote that Actors Studio was "the greatest school of the theater the best thing that can happen to an actor". In more recent years, directors like Sidney Lumet have intentionally used actors skilled in Strasberg's "Method".
Kazan, in his autobiography, wrote, "He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home.... e was the force that held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together, and made them 'permanent.'" :61 Today, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and Harvey Keitel lead this nonprofit studio dedicated to the development of actors, playwrights, and directors.
Kazan biographer Richard Schickel described Strasberg's first experiences to the "art" of acting:
He dropped out of high school, worked in a shop that made hairpieces, drifted into the theater via a settlement house company and … had his life-shaping revelation when Stanislavsky brought his Moscow Art Theatre to the United States in 1923. He had seen good acting before, of course, but never an ensemble like this with actors completely surrendering their egos to the work.... e observed, first of all, that all the actors, whether they were playing leads or small parts, worked with the same commitment and intensity. No actors idled about posing and preening (or thinking about where they might dine after the performance). More important, every actor seemed to project some sort of unspoken, yet palpable, inner life for his or her character. This was acting of a sort that one rarely saw on the American stage ... here there was little stress on the psychology of the characters or their interactions.... Strasberg was galvanized. He knew that his own future as an actor – he was a slight and unhandsome man – was limited. But he soon perceived that as a theoretician and teacher of this new 'system' it might become a major force in American theater.
Strasberg eventually left the Clare Tree Major School to study with students of Stanislavsky – Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslavsky – at the American Laboratory Theater. In 1925 Strasberg had his first professional appearance in Processional, a play produced by the Theater Guild. According to Schickel:
What Strasberg... took away from the Actor's Lab was a belief that just as an actor could be prepared physically for his work with dance, movement and fencing classes, he could be mentally prepared by resort to analogous mental exercises. They worked on relaxation as well as concentration. They worked with nonexistent objects that helped prepare them for the exploration of equally ephemeral emotions. They learned to used “affective memory”, as Strasberg called the most controversial aspect of his teaching — summoning emotions from their own lives to illuminate their stage roles.... Strasberg believed he could codify this system, a necessary precursor to teaching it to anyone who wanted to learn it... e became a director more preoccupied with getting his actors to work in the “correct” way than he was in shaping the overall presentation.
Acting director and teacher
Group Theater
He gained a reputation with the Theater Guild of New York and helped form the Group Theater in New York in 1931. There he created a technique which became known as "the Method" or "method acting." His teaching style owed much to the Russian director, Stanislavsky, whose book, An Actor Prepares, dealt with the psychology of interpretation in acting. He began by directing, but his time was gradually taken up by the training of actors. Called "America’s first true theatrical collective," the Lab immediately offered a few tuition-free scholarships for its three-year program to "promising students".
Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio
Publishers Weekly wrote "The Group Theatre... ith its self-defined mission to reconnect theater to the world of ideas and actions, staged plays that confronted social and moral issues... ith members Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Stella and Luther Adler, Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan and an ill-assorted band of idealistic actors living hand to mouth are seen welded in a collective of creativity that was also a tangle of jealousies, love affairs and explosive feuds." Playwright Arthur Miller said "the Group Theatre was unique and probably will never be repeated. For awhile it was literally the voice of Depression America".
Co-founder Harold Clurman, in describing what Strasberg brought to the Group Theater, wrote:
Lee Strasberg is one of the few artists among American theater directors. He is the director of introverted feeling, of strong emotion curbed by ascetic control, sentiment of great intensity muted by delicacy, pride, fear, shame. The effect he produces is a clasic hush, tense and tragic, a constant conflict so held in check that a kind of beautiful spareness results. The roots are clearly in the intimate experience of a complex psychology, an acute awareness of human contradiction and suffering.
Actors
In 1947, Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford, also members of the Group Theatre, started the Actors Studio as a non-profit workshop for professional and aspiring actors to concentrate on their craft away from the pressures of the commercial theatre. Strasberg assumed leadership of the studio in 1951 as its artistic director. "As a teacher and acting theorist, he revolutionized American actor training and engaged such remarkable performers as Kim Hunter, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, and Al Pacino." Since its inception the Studio has been a nonprofit educational corporation chartered by the state of New York, and has been supported entirely by contributions and benefits.... We have here the possibility of creating a kind of theatre that would be a shining medal for our country", Strasberg said in 1959. UCLA acting teacher Robert Hethmon writes, "The Actors Studio is a refuge. Its privacy is guarded ferociously against the casual intruder, the seeker of curiousities, and the exploiter... he Studio helps actors to meet the enemy within... and contributes greatly to Strasberg's utterly pragmatic views on training the actor and solving his problems ... is kept deliberately modest in its circumstances, its essence being the private room where Lee Strasberg and some talented actors can work."
Strasberg wrote, "At the studio, we do not sit around and feed each other's egos. People are shocked how severe we are on each other." Admission to the Actors Studio was usually by audition with more than a thousand actors auditioning each year and the directors usually conferring membership on only five or six each year. "The Studio was, and is sui generis", said Elia Kazan, proudly. Beginning in a small, private way, with a strictly off-limits-to-outsiders policy, the Studio quickly earned a high reputation in theatre circles. "It became the place to be, the forum where all the most promising and unconventional young actors were being cultivated by sharp young directors..." Actors who have worked at the studio include Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Patricia Neal, Rod Steiger, Mildred Dunnock, Eva Marie Saint, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Ben Gazzara, Sidney Poitier, Karl Malden, Shelley Winters and Sally Field.
Strasberg acting with Al Pacino in Godfather II
Al Pacino
The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life. Lee Strasberg hasn't been given the credit he deserves. Brando doesn't give Lee any credit ... Next to Charlie , it sort of launched me. It really did. That was a remarkable turning point in my life. It was directly responsible for getting me to quit all those jobs and just stay acting.
Marlon Brando
Movie stars spawned by Strasberg's Actors Studio were of a new type which is often labeled the "rebel hero", wrote Pamela Wojcik. Historian Sam Staggs writes that "Brando was the hot, sleek engine on the Actors Studio express", and called him " embodiment of Method acting", but Brando was trained primarily by Stella Adler, a former member of the Group Theatre who had a falling out with Strasberg over his interpretations of Stanislavsky's ideas." He based his acting technique on the Method, once stating, "t made me a real actor. The idea is you learn to use everything that happened in your life and you learn to use it in creating the character you're working on. You learn to dig into your unconscious and make use of every experience you ever had."
Playwright Tennessee Williams
James Dean
According to James Dean biographer W. Bast, "Proud of this accomplishment, Dean referred to the studio in a 1952 letter, when he was 21 years old, to his family as 'The greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock ... ery few get into it.... It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong.'"
Marilyn Monroe
Film author Maurice Zolotow wrote: "Between The Seven Year Itch and Some Like it Hot only four years elapsed, but her world had changed. She had become one of the most celebrated personalities in the world. She had divorced Joe Di Maggio. She had married Arthur Miller. She had become a disciple of Lee Strasberg. She was seriously studying acting. She was reading good books."
Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams' plays have been populated by graduates of the studio, where he felt that "studio actors had a more intense and honest style of acting". He wrote, "They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life." Williams was also a founder of the group and a key member of its playwright's wing, and later wrote A Streetcar Named Desire, Brando's greatest early role.
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda recalled that at the age of five, she and her brother, actor Peter Fonda, acted out Western stories similar to those her father, Henry Fonda, played in the movies. She attended Vassar College and went to Paris for two years to study art. Upon returning, she met Lee Strasberg and the meeting changed the course of her life, Fonda saying, "I went to the Actor's Studio and Lee Strasberg told me I had talent. Real talent. It was the first time that anyone, except my father--who had to say so--told me I was good. At anything. It was a turning point in my life. I went to bed thinking about acting. I woke up thinking about acting. It was like the roof had come off my life!"
Teaching methods and philosophy
In describing his teaching philosophy, Strasberg wrote, "The two areas of discovery that were of primary importance in my work at the Actors Studio and in my private classes where improvisation and affective memory. It is finally by using these techniques that the actor can express the appropriate emotions demanded of the character".
Methods of teaching
Strasberg demanded great discipline of his actors as well as great depths of psychological truthfulness. He once explained his approach in this way:
The human being who acts is the human being who lives. That is a terrifying circumstance. Essentially the actor acts a fiction, a dream; in life the stimuli to which we respond are always real. The actor must constantly respond to stimuli that are imaginary. And yet this must happen not only just as it happens in life, but actually more fully and more expressively. Although the actor can do things in life quite easily, when he has to do the same thing on the stage under fictitious conditions he has difficulty because he is not equipped as a human being merely to playact at imitating life. He must somehow believe. He must somehow be able to convince himself of the rightness of what he is doing in order to do things fully on the stage.
According to film critic/author Mel Gussow, Strasberg required that an actor, when preparing for a role, delve not only into the character's life in the play, but also, "ar more importantly, into the character's life before the curtain rises. In rehearsal, the character's prehistory, perhaps going back to childhood, is discussed and even acted out. The play became the climax of the character's existence."
On February 17, 1982, Lee Strasberg died from a heart attack in New York City, aged 80. With him at his death at the hospital were his wife, Anna, and their two sons. He was interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. A day before his unexpected death, he was officially notified that he had been elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame. His last public appearance was on February 14, 1982 at Night of 100 Stars in the Radio City Music Hall, a benefit for the Actors Fund. Along with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, he danced in the chorus line with the Rockettes.
Actress Ellen Burstyn recalled that evening:
Late in the evening, I wandered into the greenroom and saw Lee sitting next to Anna, watching the taping on the monitor. I sat next to him and we chatted a little. Lee wasn't one for small talk, so I didn't stay long. But before I got up, I said, 'Lee, I've been asked to run for president of Actors Equity.' He reached over and patted me on the back, 'That's wonderful, dahling. Congratulations.' Those were the last words he ever said to me.... Two days later, early in the morning, I was still asleep when the door to my bedroom opened. I woke up and saw my friend and assistant, Katherine Cortez, enter the room and walk toward me.... 'We just got a call. Lee Strasberg died.' No, no, no, I wailed, over and over. 'I'm not ready', and pulled the covers over my head. I had told myself that I must be prepared for this, but I was not prepared. What was I to do now? Who would I work for when I was preparing for a role? Who would I go to when I was in trouble?.... His memorial service was held at the Shubert Theater where A Chorus Line was playing. Lee's coffin was brought down the aisle and placed center stage. Everybody in the theater world came – actors, writers, directors, producers, and most, if not all, his students. He was a giant of the theater and was deeply mourned. Those of us who had the great good fortune to be fertilized and quickened by his genius would feel the loss of him for the rest of our lives.
In an 80th birthday interview, he said that he was looking forward to his next 20 years in the theater. According to friends, he was healthy until the day he died. "It was so unexpected", Al Pacino said. "What stood out was how youthful he was. He never seemed as old as his years. He was an inspiration." Actress Jane Fonda said after hearing of his death, "I'm not sure I even would have become an actress were it not for him. He will be missed, but he leaves behind a great legacy."
Legacy
Influence on American films
"Whether directly influenced by Strasberg or not", wrote acting author Pamela Wojcik, "the new male stars all to some degree or other adapted Method techniques to support their identification as rebels... He recreates romance as a drama of male neuroticism and also invests his characterization 'with an unprecedented aura of verisimilitude'." Acting teacher and author Alison Hodge explains: "Seemingly spontaneous, intuitive, brooding, 'private', lit with potent vibrations from an inner life of conflict and contradiction, their work exemplified the style of heightened naturalism which (whether Brando agrees or not) Lee Strasberg devoted his life to exploring and promoting."
Pamela Wojcik adds:
Because of their tendency to substitute their personal feelings for those of the characters they were playing, Actors Studio performers were well suited to become Hollywood stars.... In short, Lee Strasberg transformed a socialistic, egalitarian theory of acting into a celebrity-making machine.... It does not matter who 'invented' Marlon Brando or how regularly or faithfully he, Dean, or Clift attended the Studio or studied the Method at the feet of Lee Strasberg. In their signature roles – the most influential performances in the history of American films – these three performers revealed new kinds of body language and new ways of delivering dialogue. In the pauses between words, in the language 'spoken' by their eyes and faces, they gave psychological realism an unprecedented charge. Verbally inarticulate, they were eloquent 'speakers' of emotion. Far less protective of their masculinity than earlier film actors, they enacted emotionally wounded and vulnerable outsiders struggling for self-understanding, and their work shimmered with a mercurial neuroticism... he Method-trained performers in films of the fifties added an enhanced verbal and gesture naturalism and a more vivid inner life.
Actors Studio West
In 1966, Strasberg established Actors Studio West in Los Angeles. In 1969, he founded the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and Harvey Keitel lead this nonprofit studio dedicated to the development of actors, playwrights, and directors. In 1974, at the suggestion of his former student Al Pacino, Strasberg acted in a key supporting role alongside Pacino in Godfather II and again in the 1979 film, And Justice for All.
Work on Broadway
Note: All works are plays and the original productions unless otherwise noted.
* Four Walls (1927) - Actor
* The Vegetable (1929) - Director
* Red Rust (1929) - Actor
* Green Grow the Lilacs (1931) - Actor
* The House of Connelly (1931) - Co-Director
* 1931 (1931) - Director
* Success Story (1932) - Director
* Men in White (1933) - Director
* Gentlewoman (1934) - Director
* Gold Eagle Guy (1934) - Director
* Paradise Lost (1935) - Produced by Group Theatre
* Case of Clyde Griffiths (1936) - Director, Produced by Group Theatre
* Johnny Johnson (1936) - Director, Produced by Group Theatre
* Many Mansions (1937) - Director
* Golden Boy (1937) - Produced by Group Theatre
* Roosty (1938) - Director
* Casey Jones (1938) - Produced by Group Theatre
* All the Living (1938) - Director
* Dance Night (1938) - Director
* Rocket to the Moon (1938) - Produced by Group Theatre
* The Gentle People (1939) - Produced by Group Theatre
* Awake and Sing! (1939), revival - Produced by Group Theatre
* Summer Night (1939) - Director
* Night Music (1940) - Produced by Group Theatre
* The Fifth Column (1940) - Director
* Clash by Night (1941) - Director
* A Kiss for Cinderella (1942), revival - Director
* R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1942), revival - Director
* Apology (1943) - Producer and Director
* South Pacific (1943, apparently no relation to the Broadway musical South Pacific) - Director
* Skipper Next to God (1948) - Director
* The Big Knife (1949) - Director
* The Closing Door (1949) - Director
* The Country Girl (1950) - Co-Producer
* Peer Gynt (1951), (revival) - Director
* Strange Interlude (1963), (revival) - Produced by The Actors Studio - Tony Award Co-nomination for Best Producer of a Play
* Marathon '33 (1963) - Production supervisor
* The Three Sisters (1964), (revival) - Director, Produced by The Actors Studio
Film acting credits
* The Godfather Part II (1974; Academy Award nomination: Best Actor in a Supporting Role)
* The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
* ... And Justice for All (1979)
* Going in Style (1979)
* Gideon's Trumpet (1980)
See also
* Method acting
* Notable alumni of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/17/10 at 1:12 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsxBx4Qdmto&feature=PlayList&p=FF2DBD08925155B5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/17/10 at 1:49 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsxBx4Qdmto&feature=PlayList&p=FF2DBD08925155B5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=7
I was originally going to pick him as the person of the day, I'm not sure why I changed it :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/17/10 at 3:01 pm
I was originally going to pick him as the person of the day, I'm not sure why I changed it :-\\
A great singer, greatly missed.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/17/10 at 4:57 pm
A great singer, greatly missed.
Yes he is :\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/17/10 at 6:15 pm
The person born on this day...Jerry O'Connell
Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell (born February 17, 1974) is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan.
O'Connell was born in New York City, the son of Linda (née Witkowski), an art teacher, and Michael O'Connell, an advertising agency art director. His maternal grandfather, Charles S. Witkowski, was the mayor of Jersey City, NJ. O'Connell is of Irish descent on his father's side and Polish ancestry on his mother's. O'Connell was raised in Manhattan with a younger brother Charlie O'Connell, also an actor. O'Connell began his acting career at a young age. As a child, he did commercial work for Duncan Hines cookies. Shortly after at the age of eleven, he landed his first feature film role as the character Vern Tessio in Rob Reiner's Stand by Me. As a teenager, he starred in the Canadian TV series My Secret Identity from 1988–91, and attended Manhattan's Professional Children's School.
O'Connell attended New York University (NYU) from 1991 to 1994, majoring in film. While there, he studied screen writing and competed on the NYU fencing team, serving a stint as captain of the sabre squad. However, he left NYU several credits short of graduation in 1999.
Adult career
O'Connell starred in the sci-fi sitcom My Secret Identity from 1988-1991 as the teen hero who develops superhuman traits. During a summer break from NYU, Jerry starred in the feature film Calendar Girl alongside Jason Priestley and Gabriel Olds. He also appeared in the short-lived ABC sitcom, Camp Wilder with Jay Mohr and Hilary Swank in 1992. In his Junior year, O'Connell auditioned for the TV pilot Sliders. He was offered the role of Quinn Mallory in the series, which ran for three seasons on Fox and two seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel. He served as producer during his fourth and final season, and is credited with writing and directing several episodes.
O'Connell has since gone on to star in such movies as Jerry Maguire, Body Shots, Mission to Mars, Tomcats, Scream 2, and Kangaroo Jack. O'Connell has also tried his hand at screenwriting and sold his first screenplay, for First Daughter, to New Regency in 1999. The film was released in 2004 by 20th Century Fox-based Davis Entertainment. O'Connell served as executive producer on the film, which starred Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton.
O'Connell starred as Detective Woody Hoyt on the NBC crime drama Crossing Jordan (2001) until its cancellation, and was engaged to TV personality Giuliana DePandi. He starred opposite her in the Ugly Betty episode "Derailed". O'Connell has also starred as Hoyt in several episodes of Las Vegas. In 2004, he wore a diaper on Last Call with Carson Daly, during a mock commercial skit for the GoodNites bedwetting product. The National Enquirer caught him filming the skit and printed a photo of him in his diaper.
In 2005, O'Connell guest-starred in one episode of the animated series Justice League Unlimited. In the episode, entitled "The Clash", he played Captain Marvel.
His younger brother Charlie O'Connell, an alumnus of NYU who was most recently seen as The Bachelor, is also an actor who has appeared with Jerry in several productions, usually playing the brother of Jerry's character, such as in Sliders and Crossing Jordan.
In 2007-08 Jerry O'Connell starred in ABC's Carpoolers, which ran from October 2, 2007 to March 4, 2008. Although it has not appeared in the Fall '08 lineup, it could come back in the future seasons on ABC.
In early 2008, O'Connell acted in a widely circulated Internet video parody of the leaked Tom Cruise video on Scientology. He also co-wrote and appeared in a video parody called "Young Hillary Clinton," satirizing Hillary Clinton's 2008 primary campaign. On February 2, 2008, O'Connell hosted VH1's Pepsi Smash Super Bowl Bash, which aired the night before Super Bowl XLII and featured musical guests Maroon 5 and Mary J. Blige. On April 28, 2008, O'Connell appeared as a guest star on ABC's Samantha Who?.
In the fall of 2008 O'Connell starred in Fox's Do Not Disturb, costarring Niecy Nash, but Fox cancelled the show after only three episodes.
Most recently, he appeared in the 2009 thriller film Obsessed as "Ben", the best friend and co-worker of the film's protagonist Derek Charles (Idris Elba).
Jerry will appear in Eastwick on ABC, alongside his wife who stars in the series. Jerry will play a good man hiding a horrible secret. His character is a single father, a widower, with a young son who is a part of this secret. Kat will be drawn to him, and she will be put in danger as a result.
O'Connell portrayed Derrick Jones in Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3-D, which also stars Elizabeth Shue.
It has been announced that O'connell will co-star with David Tennant in the new NBC legal drama Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.
Personal life
On July 14, 2007, O'Connell married actress and former model Rebecca Romijn near Los Angeles in Calabasas, California.
A self-proclaimed "Super Super Fan" of The Howard Stern Show, O'Connell placed last in the "Celebrity" version of the "Super Fan Contest" that took place on May 13, 2008. His opponents were Jimmy Kimmel and Jeff Probst. Kimmel ultimately won the contest by a large margin.
After weeks of officially stating that the couple was "trying" to get pregnant, a publicist for the pair confirmed that Romijn was pregnant with twin girls. When talking about having children, O'Connell said "I am excited I am having girls. I know guys are supposed to say, 'I want a boy. I want to play baseball,' but I think I'm going to be good raising girls...I can't wait. They're going to be tough chicks. They're only having sex when I'm dead. If they don't date boys at all and just want to be infatuated with their father, that's what I'm really going for. The nunnery!" O'Connell and Romijn welcomed their twin girls, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip, on December 28, 2008.
O'Connell enrolled in Southwestern Law School in the fall of 2009.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1986 Stand by Me Vern Tessio
1988 Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach Kid at beach Uncredited
1993 Calendar Girl Scott Foreman
1996 Joe's Apartment Joe
Jerry Maguire Frank Cushman
1997 Scream 2 Derek
1998 Can't Hardly Wait Trip McNeely Uncredited
1999 Body Shots Michael Penorisi
2000 Clayton
Mission to Mars Phil Ohlmyer
2001 Tomcats Michael Delaney
2002 The New Guy Highland Party Twin
Buying the Cow David Collins
2003 Kangaroo Jack Charlie Carbone
2004 Fat Slags Sean Cooley
2005 'Yours, Mine and Ours Max/Mac
2006 The Alibi Businessman
Man About Town David Lilly
Room 6 Lucas Dylan
2008 The Parody Video Tom Cruise Wants You to See Tom Cruise Short film
2009 Baby on Board Curtis
Obsessed Ben
2010 Piranha 3-D Derrick Jones
Cat Tale Biscuit (voice)
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1987 The Room Upstairs Carl 1 episode
1988 The Equalizer Bobby Episode: "The Child Broker"
Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss Ralph Parker TV movie
1988-91 My Secret Identity Andrew Clements Cast member
1989 Charles in Charge David Landon Episode: "The Organization Man"
1990 TGIF Brody Unknown episodes
1992 Camp Wilder Brody Wilder Episode: "See Spot Go"
1995 The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky Mac TV movie
Blue River Lawrence Sellars
1995-99 Sliders Quinn Mallory Cast member
1999 The 60's Brian Herlihy TV movie
2001 Night Visions Andy Episode: "Rest Stop"
2002 Going to California Pete Rossock Episode: "Searching For Eddie Van Halen"
Rome Fire Ryan Wheeler TV movie
2002-7 Crossing Jordan Detective Woody Hoyt Cast member
2003 MADtv Ted Levin Episode: 8.12
2004 Without a Trace Joe Gibson Episode: "Hawks and Handsaws"
The Screaming Cocktail Hour Singer TV series
2004-6 Las Vegas Detective Woody Hoyt 5 episode
2005 Justice League Unlimited Captain Marvel Episode: "Clash"
2007 On the Lot Jerry 'The Move' Episode "6 Cut to 5 & 5 Directors Compete"
Ugly Betty Joel Episode: "Derailed"
The Batman Nightwing 2 episodes: "The Metal Face of Comedy", "Artifacts"
2007-8 Carpoolers Laird Cast member
2008 Samantha Who? Craig Episode: "The Gallery Show"
Do Not Disturb Neal 6 episodes
2009 Midnight Bayou Declan Fitzpatrick TV movie
Eastwick Colin Friesen Episode: "Magic Snow and Creepy Gene"
2010 Rex Is Not Your Lawyer TBA Upcoming TV series
Producer
* Sliders (1995) TV series (producer: 1998–1999)
* First Daughter (2004)
Director
* Sliders (1997) TV series - "Stoker"
* Sliders (1999) TV series - "Slidecage," "Lipschitz Live," "Data World," "Roads Taken"
Writer
* Sliders (1999) - "Way out West",
* First Daughter (2004) - screenplay
Music videos
* "David Duchovny" - Bree Sharp
* "Heartbreaker" - Mariah Carey (1999)
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t67/ryu_036/jerry-oconnell.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h94/LegacyGB/oconnell_chargers.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/DeeLightning/Other/0408.jpg
what a great actor. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/18/10 at 6:52 am
what a great actor. :)
He sure has changed since Stand By Me.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/18/10 at 7:03 am
The Word of the day...Cuckoo
A cuckoo is a bird that has a call of two quick notes, and lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
If you say that someone is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, you are criticizing them because they think there are no problems and that things will happen exactly as they want them to, when this is obviously not the case.
A cuckoo clock is a clock with a door from which a toy cuckoo comes out and makes noises like a cuckoo every hour or half hour.
fathead: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
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http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e53/AimeeLeigh79/CUCKOO.jpg
http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad63/naichang/Cuckoo.jpg
http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq241/dohuyquang/cuckoo.jpg
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq180/djgrey2008/cuckoo.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/sammy_hain/cuckoo.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww303/rareitem1996/Cuckoo.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/stevieellen/cuckoo.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/18/10 at 7:06 am
The person born on this day...Milos Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman (Czech pronunciation: ; born February 18, 1932), better known as Miloš Forman (), is a Czech film director, screenwriter, actor and professor. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both garnering him the Academy Award as a director. He was also nominated for The People vs. Larry Flynt. Forman was born in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic), the son of Anna (née Svabova), who ran a summer hotel, and Rudolf Forman, a professor. His parents were Protestants; his father was arrested for distributing banned books during the Nazi occupation and died in Buchenwald in 1944, and his mother died in Auschwitz in 1943. Forman lived with relatives during World War II and later discovered that his biological father was a Jewish architect.
After the war, Forman attended King George College public school in the spa town PodÄ›brady, where his fellow students were Václav Havel and the MašĂn brothers. Later on he studied screenwriting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Career
Forman directed several Czech comedies in Czechoslovakia. However, in 1968 when the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country to end the Prague Spring, he was in Paris negotiating for the production of his first American film. The Czech studio for which he worked fired him, claiming that he was out of the country illegally. He moved to New York, where he later became a professor of film at Columbia University and co-chair (with his former teacher František Daniel) of Columbia's film division. One of his protégées was future director James Mangold, whom Forman had advised about scriptwriting.
In spite of initial difficulties, he started directing in his new home country, and achieved success in 1975 with the adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which won five Academy Awards including one for direction. In 1977, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Other notable successes have been Amadeus, which won eight Academy Awards, and The People vs. Larry Flynt, for which he received a Best Director Academy Award Nomination and a Golden Globe win.
Forman's early movies are still very popular among Czechs. Many of the situations and phrases made it into common use: for example, the Czech term zhasnout (to switch lights off) from The Firemen's Ball, associated with petty theft in the movie, has been used to describe the large-scale asset stripping happening in the country during the 1990s.
In 1997 he received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Forman co-starred alongside Edward Norton in the actor's directorial debut, Keeping the Faith (2000), as the wise friend to Norton's young, conflicted priest.
In 2009 he received an honorary degree from Emerson College in Boston.
Personal life
In 2006, he received the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award presented by the Prague Society for International Cooperation.
Forman's two twin sons Petr Forman and Matěj Forman (born in 1964) are also movie and theatre actors.
Forman became a U.S. citizen in 1977.
Asteroid 11333 Forman was named after Forman.
He is married to Martina Zborilova-Forman. They have twin sons, Jim and Andy. They live in Connecticut.
Filmography
Year Film Oscar nominations Oscar wins
1963 Audition
1964 Black Peter
1965 Loves of a Blonde 1
1967 The Firemen's Ball 1
1971 Taking Off
1973 Visions of Eight
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 9 5
1979 Hair
1981 Ragtime 8
1984 Amadeus 11 8
1989 Valmont 1
1996 The People vs. Larry Flynt 2
1999 Man on the Moon
2006 Goya's Ghosts
2009 The Ghost of Munich
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn231/romadeus/milosforman.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/18/10 at 7:11 am
The person who died on this day...Johnny Appleseed
Johnny Appleseed (September 26, 1774 – February 18, 1845), born John Chapman, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples.
He was also a missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem, or Swedenborgian Church, so named because it teaches the theological doctrines contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.He was raised on a small farm on Massachusetts. His favorite place was his father's apple orchard, as he loved apples. When ever settlers passed by, he heard of fertile soils, and that inspired him to plant apple seeds through the frontier.
Heading to the frontier
In 1792, 18-year-old Chapman went west, taking 11-year-old half-brother Nathaniel and his sister Emily (full sister) with him. Their destination was the headwaters of the Susquehanna. There are stories of him practicing his nurseryman craft in the Wilkes-Barre area and of picking seeds from the pomace at Potomac cider mills in the late 1790s. Another story has Chapman living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Grant's Hill in 1794 at the time of the Whiskey Rebellion.
Land records show that John Chapman was in what is today Licking County, Ohio in 1800. Congress had passed resolutions in 1798 to give land there, ranging from 160 to 2,240 acres (65-900 hectares), to Revolutionary War veterans, but soldiers did not actually receive letters of patent to their grants until 1802. By the time the veterans arrived, John's nurseries, located on the Isaac Stadden farm, had trees big enough to transplant.
Nathaniel Chapman arrived with his second family and sister in 1805. At that point, the younger Nathaniel Chapman rejoined the elder, and his sister had gotten married. John spent the rest of his life as an itinerant planter and sometime-preacher.
By 1806, when he arrived in Jackson County, Ohio, wading down the Ohio River with a load of seeds, he was known as Johnny Appleseed.
Business plan
The popular image of Johnny Appleseed had him spreading apple seeds randomly, everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares, and returned every year or two to tend the nursery. Many of these nurseries were located in the Mohican area of north-central Ohio. This area included the towns of Mansfield, Lucas, Perrysville, and Loudonville.
Appleseed's managers were asked to sell trees on credit, if at all possible, but he would accept corn meal, cash or used clothing in barter. The notes did not specify an exact maturity date—that date might not be convenient—and if it did not get paid on time, or even get paid at all, Johnny Appleseed did not press for payment. Appleseed was hardly alone in this pattern of doing business, but he was unusual in remaining a wanderer his entire life.
"Here's your primitive Christian!" Illustration from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1871
He obtained the apple seeds free; cider mills wanted more apple trees planted since it would eventually bring them more business. Johnny Appleseed dressed in the worst of the used clothing he received, giving away the better clothing in barter. He wore no shoes, even in the snowy winter. There was always someone in need he could help out, for he did not have a house to maintain. When he heard a horse was to be put down, he had to buy the horse, buy a few grassy acres nearby, and turn the horse out to recover. If it did, he would give the horse to someone needy, exacting a promise to treat the horse humanely.
Subsistence lifestyle
Chapman often eschewed normal clothing, even in the cold of winter, and generally led a harsh, subsistent lifestyle. Contrary to popular belief, Johnny actually didn't wear pots on his head or torn rags for clothing, although he did go barefoot in summers to save leather. According to Harper's New Monthly Magazine, towards the end of his career, he was present when an itinerant missionary was exhorting an open-air congregation in Mansfield, Ohio. The sermon was long and quite severe on the topic of extravagance, because the pioneers were starting to buy such indulgences as calico and store-bought tea. “Where now is there a man who, like the primitive Christians, is traveling to heaven bare-footed and clad in coarse raiment?” the preacher repeatedly asked, until Johnny Appleseed, his endurance worn out, walked up to the preacher, put his bare foot on the stump which had served as a podium, and said, “Here's your primitive Christian!” The flummoxed sermonizer dismissed the congregation.
Life as a missionary
He spent most of his time traveling from house to house on the frontier. He would tell stories to children, spread the Swedenborgian gospel ("news right fresh from heaven") to the adults, receiving a floor to sleep on for the night, sometimes supper in return. "We can hear him read now, just as he did that summer day, when we were busy quilting up stairs, and he lay near the door, his voice rising denunciatory and thrilling—strong and loud as the roar of wind and waves, then soft and soothing as the balmy airs that quivered the morning-glory leaves about his gray beard. His was a strange eloquence at times, and he was undoubtedly a man of genius", reported a lady who knew him in his later years. He would often tear a few pages from one of Swedenborg's books and leave them with his hosts.
He made several trips back east, both to visit his sister and to replenish his supply of Swedenborgian literature. He typically would visit his orchards every year or two and collect his earnings.
Attitudes towards animals
Johnny Appleseed's beliefs made him care deeply about animals. His concern extended even to insects. Henry Howe, who visited all 88 counties in Ohio in the early 1800s, collected these stories in the 1830s, when Johnny Appleseed was still alive:
One cool autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew in the blaze and were burnt. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterwards remarked, “God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures.”
Another time he made a camp-fire at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night, but finding it occupied by a bear and cubs, he removed his fire to the other end, and slept on the snow in the open air, rather than disturb the bear.
Attitude towards marriage
When Johnny Appleseed was asked why he did not marry, his answer was always that two female spirits would be his wives in the after-life if he stayed single on earth. However, Henry Howe reported that Appleseed had been a frequent visitor to Perrysville, Ohio, where Appleseed is remembered as being a constant snuff customer, with beautiful teeth. He was to propose to Miss Nancy Tannehill there—only to find that he was a day late; she had accepted a prior proposal:
On one occasion Miss PRICE’s mother asked Johnny if he would not be a happier man, if he were settled in a home of his own, and had a family to love him. He opened his eyes very wide–they were remarkably keen, penetrating grey eyes, almost black–and replied that all women were not what they professed to be; that some of them were deceivers; and a man might not marry the amiable woman that he thought he was getting, after all.
Now we had always heard that Johnny had loved once upon a time, and that his lady love had proven false to him. Then he said one time he saw a poor, friendless little girl, who had no one to care for her, and sent her to school, and meant to bring her up to suit himself, and when she was old enough he intended to marry her. He clothed her and watched over her; but when she was fifteen years old, he called to see her once unexpectedly, and found her sitting beside a young man, with her hand in his, listening to his silly twaddle.
I peeped over at Johnny while he was telling this, and, young as I was, I saw his eyes grow dark as violets, and the pupils enlarge, and his voice rise up in denunciation, while his nostrils dilated and his thin lips worked with emotion. How angry he grew! He thought the girl was basely ungrateful. After that time she was no protegé of his.
Johnny Appleseed, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1871
Health
It has been suggested that Johnny may have had Marfan syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. One of the primary characteristics of Marfan Syndrome is extra-long and slim limbs. All sources seem to agree that Johnny Appleseed was slim, but while other accounts suggest that he was tall, Harper's describes him as "small and wiry."
Those who propose the Marfan theory suggest that his compromised health may have made him feel the cold less intensely. His long life, however, suggests he did not have Marfan's, and while Marfan's is closely associated with death from cardiovascular complications, Johnny Appleseed died in his sleep, from winter plague (presumably pneumonia).
Gravesite
41°6′36″N 85°7′25″W / 41.11°N 85.12361°W / 41.11; -85.12361
There is some controversy and vagueness concerning the date of his death and his burial. Harper's New Monthly Magazine of November, 1871 (which is taken by many as the primary source of information about John Chapman) says he died in the summer of 1847. The Fort Wayne Sentinel, however, printed his obituary on March 22, 1845, saying that he died on March 18:
"On the same day in this neighborhood, at an advanced age, Mr. John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed).
The deceased was well known through this region by his eccentricity, and the strange garb he usually wore. He followed the occupation of a nurseryman, and has been a regular visitor here upwards of 10 years. He was a native of Pennsylvania we understand but his home—if home he had—for some years past was in the neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, where he has relatives living. He is supposed to have considerable property, yet denied himself almost the common necessities of life—not so much perhaps for avarice as from his peculiar notions on religious subjects. He was a follower of Swedenborg and devoutly believed that the more he endured in this world the less he would have to suffer and the greater would be his happiness hereafter—he submitted to every privation with cheerfulness and content, believing that in so doing he was securing snug quarters hereafter.
In the most inclement weather he might be seen barefooted and almost naked except when he chanced to pick up articles of old clothing. Notwithstanding the privations and exposure he endured, he lived to an extreme old age, not less than 80 years at the time of his death — though no person would have judged from his appearance that he was 60. "He always carried with him some work on the doctrines of Swedenborg with which he was perfectly familiar, and would readily converse and argue on his tenets, using much shrewdness and penetration.
His death was quite sudden. He was seen on our streets a day or two previous."
The actual site of his grave is disputed as well. Developers of Fort Wayne, Indiana's Canterbury Green apartment complex and golf course claim his grave is there, marked by a rock. That is where the Worth cabin in which he died sat.
However, Steven Fortriede, director of the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) and author of the 1978 "Johnny Appleseed", believes another putative gravesite, one designated as a National Historic Landmark and located in Johnny Appleseed Park in Fort Wayne, is the correct site. Johnny Appleseed Park was known until recently as Archer Park and was the former Archer farm.
The Worth family attended First Baptist Church in Fort Wayne, according to records at ACPL, which has one of the nation's top genealogy collections. According to an 1858 interview with Richard Worth Jr., Chapman was buried "respectably" in the Archer cemetery, and Fortriede believes use of the term "respectably" indicates Chapman was buried in the hallowed ground of Archer cemetery instead of near the cabin where he died.
John H. Archer, grandson of David Archer, wrote in a letter dated October 4, 1900:
The historical account of his death and burial by the Worths and their neighbors, the Pettits, Goinges, Porters, Notestems, Parkers, Beckets, Whitesides, Pechons, Hatfields, Parrants, Ballards, Randsells, and the Archers in David Archer's private burial grounds is substantially correct. The grave, more especially the common head-boards used in those days, have long since decayed and become entirely obliterated, and at this time I do not think that any person could with any degree of certainty come within fifty feet of pointing out the location of his grave. Suffice it to say that he has been gathered in with his neighbors and friends, as I have enumerated, for the majority of them lie in David Archer's graveyard with him
The Johnny Appleseed Commission to the Common Council of the City of Fort Wayne reported, "as a part of the celebration of Indiana's 100th birthday in 1916 an iron fence was placed in the Archer graveyard by the Horticulture Society of Indiana setting off the grave of Johnny Appleseed. At that time, there were men living who had attended the funeral of Johnny Appleseed. Direct and accurate evidence was available then. There was little or no reason for them to make a mistake about the location of this grave. They located the grave in the Archer burying ground."
Legacy
Despite his altruism and charity, Johnny Appleseed left an estate of over 1,200 acres (500 ha) of valuable nurseries to his sister. He also owned four plots in Allen County, Indiana, including a nursery in Milan Township, Allen County, Indiana, with 15,000 trees. He could have left more if he had been diligent in his bookkeeping. He bought the southwest quarter (160 acres) of section 26, Mohican Township, Ashland County, Ohio, but he did not record the deed and lost the property.
The financial panic of 1837 took a toll on his estate. Trees only brought two or three cents each, as opposed to the "flippenny bit" (about six and a quarter cents) that he usually got. Some of his land was sold for taxes following his death, and litigation used up much of the rest.
A memorial in Fort Wayne's Swinney Park purports to honor him but not to mark his grave. Also in Fort Wayne, since 1975, a Johnny Appleseed Festival has been held in mid-September in Johnny Appleseed Park. Musicians, demonstrators, and vendors dress in early 19th century dress, and offer food and beverages which would have been available then. An outdoor drama is also an annual event in Mansfield, Ohio.
March 11 or September 26 are sometimes celebrated as Johnny Appleseed Day. The September date is Appleseed's acknowledged birthdate, but the March date is sometimes preferred because it is during planting season, even though it is disputed as the day of his death. Other sources report that he died on February 18th.
Johnny Appleseed Elementary School is a public school located in Leominster, MA, his birthplace. Mansfield, Ohio, one of Appleseed's stops in his peregrinations, was home to Johnny Appleseed Middle School until it closed in 1989.
A large terra cotta sculpture of Johnny Appleseed, created by Viktor Schreckengost, decorates the front of the Lakewood High School Civic Auditorium in Lakewood, Ohio. Although the local Board of Education deemed Appleseed too "eccentric" a figure to grace the front of the building, renaming the sculpture simply "Early Settler," students, teachers, and parents alike still call the sculpture by its intended name: "Johnny Appleseed."
In modern culture
1948 Disney movie
Johnny Appleseed is remembered in American popular culture by his traveling song or Swedenborgian hymn ("The Lord is good to me...") which is today sung before meals in some American households.
Many books and films have been based on the life of Johnny Appleseed. One notable account is from the first chapter of The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan.
One of the more successful films was Melody Time, the animated 1948 film from Walt Disney Studios featuring Dennis Day. The Legend of Johnny Appleseed, a 19-minute segment, tells the story of an apple farmer who sees others going west, wistfully wishing he was not tied down by his orchard, until an angel appears, singing an apple song, setting Johnny on a mission. When he treats a skunk kindly, all animals everywhere thereafter trust him. The cartoon features lively tunes, and a childlike simplicity of message, offering a bright, well-groomed park environment instead of a dark and rugged malarial swamp, friendly, pet-like creatures instead of dangerous animals, and a lack of hunger, loneliness, disease, and extremes of temperature. Uniquely for a cartoon of its period, it shows Johnny at the moment of his death, followed by his resurrection in heaven and the commitment to "sow the clouds" with apple trees. . This animated short was included in Disney's American Legends, a compilation of four animated shorts. (Note: Showing a character in Heaven is not unique to this cartoon. In Make Mine Music (1946), the segment entitled "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" ends with the whale being killed and then singing in Heaven.)
Supposedly, the only surviving tree planted by Johnny Appleseed is on the farm of Richard and Phyllis Algeo of Nova, Ohio Some marketers claim it is a Rambo, although the Rambo was introduced to America in the 1640s by Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, more than a century before John Chapman was born. Some even make the claim that the Rambo was "Johnny Appleseed's favorite variety", ignoring that he had religious objections to grafting and preferred wild apples to all named varieties. It appears most nurseries are calling the tree the "Johnny Appleseed" variety, rather than a Rambo. Unlike the mid-summer Rambo, the Johnny Appleseed variety ripens in September and is a baking/applesauce variety similar to an Albemarle Pippen. Nurseries offer the Johnny Appleseed tree as an immature apple tree for planting, with scions from the Algeo stock grafted on them. Orchardists do not appear to be marketing the fruit of this tree.
References to Johnny Appleseed abound in popular culture. Johnny Appleseed is a character in Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Apple Inc. uses a "John Appleseed" character in many of its recent adverts, video tutorials, and keynote presentation examples; this was also the alias of Mike Markkula under which he published several programs for the Apple II. Rock music bands NOFX, Guided by Voices, and Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros have all released songs titled "Johnny Appleseed". "Johnny Appleseed" also featured in a comic series in "The Victor" in UK, early Sixties. In Philip Roth's novel American Pastoral, the central character imagines himself as Johnny Appleseed when he moves from Newark to a rural community; in this case the figure stands for an innocent, childlike version of the American pioneer spirit.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b137/loujean/Disney-All-Johnny-Appleseed-360538.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e256/caker23/VANEWappleseed02.jpg
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u2/schmoogie813/PicturesSeptember2007-June2008016.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/18/10 at 7:57 am
The Word of the day...Cuckoo
A cuckoo is a bird that has a call of two quick notes, and lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
If you say that someone is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, you are criticizing them because they think there are no problems and that things will happen exactly as they want them to, when this is obviously not the case.
A cuckoo clock is a clock with a door from which a toy cuckoo comes out and makes noises like a cuckoo every hour or half hour.
fathead: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/rr157/probins_pekins/Picture002.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb88/soapydishwater/Guest%20House%20Hens/lowresHelga1.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e53/AimeeLeigh79/CUCKOO.jpg
http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad63/naichang/Cuckoo.jpg
http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq241/dohuyquang/cuckoo.jpg
http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq180/djgrey2008/cuckoo.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b206/sammy_hain/cuckoo.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww303/rareitem1996/Cuckoo.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/stevieellen/cuckoo.jpg
I go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/18/10 at 8:12 am
I go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Love those Cocoa Puffs.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/18/10 at 8:23 am
Love those Cocoa Puffs.
It'd always stayed chocolately.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/18/10 at 10:17 am
It'd always stayed chocolately.
You can't beat chocolate for breakfast ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/18/10 at 8:27 pm
You can't beat chocolate for breakfast ;D
chocolate is nutritious.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/19/10 at 2:18 pm
The Word of the day...Cuckoo
A cuckoo is a bird that has a call of two quick notes, and lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
If you say that someone is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, you are criticizing them because they think there are no problems and that things will happen exactly as they want them to, when this is obviously not the case.
A cuckoo clock is a clock with a door from which a toy cuckoo comes out and makes noises like a cuckoo every hour or half hour.
fathead: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhtHxPI3cxM
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/19/10 at 2:20 pm
The Word of the day...Cuckoo
A cuckoo is a bird that has a call of two quick notes, and lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
If you say that someone is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, you are criticizing them because they think there are no problems and that things will happen exactly as they want them to, when this is obviously not the case.
A cuckoo clock is a clock with a door from which a toy cuckoo comes out and makes noises like a cuckoo every hour or half hour.
fathead: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNjPgE1muTM
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/19/10 at 5:43 pm
I'm sorry but I was away all day. I will do the word & persons of the day tomorrow.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/19/10 at 6:03 pm
I'm sorry but I was away all day. I will do the word & persons of the day tomorrow.
I had not noticed.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:30 am
I'm sorry but I was away all day. I will do the word & persons of the day tomorrow.
You will do word & persons of the yesterday tomorrow?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:33 am
You will do word & persons of the yesterday tomorrow?
I'll do one right now :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:38 am
I'll do one right now :)
I was preparing one for earlier today and my Internet link went hatwire and lost the almost completed person, I do not feel in the right mood to do it all again.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:42 am
The word of the day...Field(s)
A field is an area of grass, for example in a park or on a farm. A field is also an area of land on which a crop is grown.
A sports field is an area of grass where sports are played.
A field is an area of land or sea bed under which large amounts of a particular mineral have been found
A magnetic, gravitational, or electric field is the area in which that particular force is strong enough to have an effect
A particular field is a particular subject of study or type of activity.
A field is an area of a computer's memory or a program where data can be entered, edited, or stored.
You can refer to the area where fighting or other military action in a war takes place as the field or the field of battle.
Your field of vision or your visual field is the area that you can see without turning your head.
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc8/str1nger/Field.jpg
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd202/clydegrly/Trip/Tripday1ish002.jpg
http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu105/Hangar519/pics463.jpg
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r150/breetie/s5.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c295/taka_hinte/garibaldi%20field%20study/DSC01667.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g154/wesleytyler/Desktops/sunflowers11.jpg
http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx104/healingoasis/Original_movie_poster_for_the_film_.jpg
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa259/shadowtheatre/Earth_magnetic_field.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q278/SimplyNiki143/Sports/MINE007.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:44 am
I was preparing one for earlier today and my Internet link went hatwire and lost the almost completed person, I do not feel in the right mood to do it all again.
Ugh I hate when that happens. Were you going to do Gordon Brown?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:45 am
Ugh I hate when that happens. Were you going to do Gordon Brown?
I had someone else in mind, I will try again later on.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:47 am
Were you going to do Gordon Brown?
Just looked, there is a lot there on him.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:47 am
The person born on this day...Sidney Poitier
ir Sidney Poitier, KBE (pronounced /ËpwÉ‘ËtjeÉŞ/ or /ËpwÉ‘ËtieÉŞ/; born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and diplomat. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by consciously defying racial stereotyping, gave a new dramatic credibility for black actors to mainstream film audiences in the Western world.
In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films—To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner—making him the top box office star of that year. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
Poitier has directed a number of popular movies such as Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), and Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder). In 2002, 38 years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."
Since 1997 he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
oitier joined the American Negro Theater, but was rejected by audiences. His tone deafness made him - contrary to what was expected of black actors at the time - unable to sing or dance. Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which he received excellent reviews. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance in No Way Out, as a doctor treating a white bigot, was noticed and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and more prominent than what most black actors of the time were being cast.
Poitier's breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in Blackboard Jungle (1955). At age twenty-seven though, like most of the actors in the film, he was not a teenager.
Poitier was the first male black actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award (for The Defiant Ones, 1958). Tony Curtis is on record as saying he had approval of Poitier as his co-star. He also said the director's first choice for his role was Robert Mitchum, but Mitchum refused to work with a black man. Curtis made these comments on the 1999 program Private Screenings with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne.
He was also the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963). (James Baskett was the first to receive an Oscar, an Honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus in the Walt Disney production of Song of the South in 1948, while Hattie McDaniel predated them both, winning as Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1939's Gone with the Wind).
He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident (1965), and A Patch of Blue (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw at the box office, the commercial peak of his career, with three successful films, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night. The last film featured his most successful character, Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania detective whose subsequent career was the subject of two sequels: They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970) and The Organization (1971).
However, Poitier began to be criticized for typecasting himself as playing overidealized black characters who were not permitted to have any sexuality or personality faults, such as his character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Poitier was aware of this pattern himself, but was conflicted on the matter; he wanted more varied roles, but also felt obliged to set a good example with his characters to defy previous stereotypes as he was the only major black actor in the American film industry at the time. For instance, Poitier, along with his producers, was able to make Virgil Tibbs a dignified and astute detective who is capable of making errors in judgment.
Directorial career
Poitier has directed several films, the most successful being the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, which for years was the highest grossing film directed by a person of African descent. His feature film directorial debut was the western Buck and the Preacher in which Poitier also starred, alongside Harry Belafonte. Poitier replaced original director Joseph Sargent. The trio of Poitier, Cosby, and Belafonte reunited again (with Poitier again directing) in Uptown Saturday Night. Poitier also directed Cosby in Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad. Poitier also directed the first popular dance battle movie Fast Forward in 1985.
Personal life
Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950 until 1965. He has been married to Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian descent, since January 23, 1976. He has four daughters by his first wife and two by his second: Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, Gina, Anika, Sydney Tamiia.
He has written three autobiographical books, This Life (1980), The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000) and Life Beyond Measure - letters to my Great-Granddaughter (2008). The second one became an Oprah's Book Club selection. Its translation in Traditional Chinese (ISBN 9570484969) was done by Fongfong Olivia Wei, and subsequently published by Triumph Publishing Company in Taipei, Taiwan in the year 2002.
Later life
In April 1997, Poitier was appointed as ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan, a position he currently holds. He is also the ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO. During the period of 1998 to 2003, he served as a Member of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company.
In 2001, Poitier received an Academy Honorary Award for his overall contribution to American cinema.
In August 2009, Poitier received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
Filmography
Actor
Year Film Role Notes
1947 Sepia Cinderella Extra uncredited
1949 From Whence Cometh My Help Himself documentary
1950 No Way Out Dr. Luther Brooks
1951 Cry, The Beloved Country Reverend Msimangu
1952 Red Ball Express Cpl. Andrew Robertson
1954 Go, Man, Go! Inman Jackson
1955 Blackboard Jungle Gregory W. Miller
1956 Good-bye, My Lady Gates
1957 Edge of the City Tommy Tyler Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Something of Value Kimani Wa Karanja
Band of Angels Rau-Ru
The Mark of the Hawk Obam
1958 Virgin Island Marcus
The Defiant Ones Noah Cullen BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1959 Porgy and Bess Porgy Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1960 All the Young Men Sgt. Eddie Towler
1961 A Raisin in the Sun Walter Lee Younger Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Paris Blues Eddie Cook
1962 Pressure Point Doctor (Chief Psychiatrist)
1963 The Long Ships Aly Mansuh
Lilies of the Field Homer Smith Academy Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actor
1965 The Bedford Incident Ben Munceford
The Greatest Story Ever Told Simon of Cyrene
A Patch of Blue Gordon Ralfe Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
The Slender Thread Alan Newell
1966 Duel at Diablo Toller (contract horse dealer)
1967 To Sir, with Love Mark Thackeray
In the Heat of the Night Det. Virgil Tibbs Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Dr. John Wade Prentice
1968 For Love of Ivy Jack Parks
1969 The Lost Man Jason Higgs
1970 King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis Narrator documentary
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! Virgil Tibbs
1971 Brother John John Kane
Not Me Boss!!
The Organization Detective Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs SFPD Homicide
1972 Buck and the Preacher Buck
1973 A Warm December Matt Younger
1974 Uptown Saturday Night Steve Jackson
1975 The Wilby Conspiracy Shack Twala
Let's Do it Again Clyde Williams
1977 A Piece of the Action Manny Durrell
1979 Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist Narrator short subject
1988 Shoot to Kill Warren Stantin
Little Nikita* Roy Parmenter
1992 Sneakers Donald Crease
1994 A Century of Cinema Himself documentary
1996 Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick Himself documentary
1997 The Jackal FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston
2001 Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey Narrator documentary
2004 MacKenzie Himself documentary
2008 Mr. Warmth:The Don Rickles Project Himself documentary
Director
Year Film
1972 Buck and the Preacher
1973 A Warm December
1974 Uptown Saturday Night
1975 Let's Do it Again
1977 A Piece of the Action
1980 Stir Crazy
1982 Hanky Panky
1985 Fast Forward
1990 Ghost Dad
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Separate but Equal Thurgood Marshall Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
1995 Children of the Dust Gypsy Smith
1996 To Sir, with Love II Mark Thackeray
1997 Mandela and De Klerk Nelson Mandela Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
1998 David and Lisa Dr. Jack Miller
1999 The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn Noah Dearborn
Free of Eden Will Cleamons
2001 The Last Brickmaker in America Henry Cobb
Awards and recognition
* 1958 British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best Foreign Actor for The Defiant Ones
* 1958 Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for The Defiant Ones
* 1963 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lilies of the Field
* 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field
* 1963 Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for Lilies of the Field
* 1974 Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Because Poitier is a citizen of The Bahamas, a Commonwealth realm that subscribes to the British Honours System, this is a substantive (as opposed to honorary) knighthood, which entitles him to the style "Sir". Poitier does not use the style, nor does his wife use the style "Lady Poitier"
* 1992 AFI Life Achievement Award
* 1995 SAG Life Achievement Award
* 1997 Appointed non-resident Bahamian Ambassador to Japan
* 1999 Kennedy Center Honors
* 2000 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn
* 2001 NAACP Image Award - Hall of Fame Award
* 2001 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album - Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) and Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man
* 2002 Honorary Oscar - "For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence"
* 2009 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
See also
* List of African American firsts
* David Hampton, an impostor who posed as Poitier's son "David" in 1983, which inspired a play and a film, Six Degrees of Separation
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:48 am
Just looked, there is a lot there on him.
I know what to do!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:48 am
Just looked, there is a lot there on him.
Yeah your right.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:50 am
British Person of the Day: Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Immediately before this he had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also holds the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.
Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by transferring responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. Controversial moves included the abolition of advance corporation tax (ACT) relief in his first budget, and the removal in his final budget of the 10 per cent "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.
After an initial rise in opinion polls, Brown's time as Prime Minister has seen his approval ratings fall and the Labour Party suffer its worst local election results in 40 years. Despite public and parliamentary pressure on his leadership, he remains leader of the Labour Party.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:51 am
British Person of the Day: Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Immediately before this he had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also holds the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.
Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by transferring responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. Controversial moves included the abolition of advance corporation tax (ACT) relief in his first budget, and the removal in his final budget of the 10 per cent "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.
After an initial rise in opinion polls, Brown's time as Prime Minister has seen his approval ratings fall and the Labour Party suffer its worst local election results in 40 years. Despite public and parliamentary pressure on his leadership, he remains leader of the Labour Party.
http://frankowenspaintbrush.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/gordon-brown.jpg
During an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school he received a kick to the head and suffered a retinal detachment. This left him blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and weeks spent lying in a darkened room. Later at Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the same symptoms in his right eye. Brown underwent experimental surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and his eye was saved.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:53 am
The person who died on this day...Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American film actor and star, noted for his athletic physique, distinct smile (which he called "The Grin") and, later, his willingness to play roles that went against his initial "tough guy" image. Initially dismissed as "Mr Muscles and Teeth", in the late 1950s Lancaster abandoned his "all-American" image and gradually came to be regarded as one of the best actors of his generation.
Lancaster was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once, for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that performance, and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1980).
ough initially unenthusiastic about acting, he returned from service, auditioned for a Broadway play and was offered a role. Although Harry Brown's A Sound of Hunting was not successful, Lancaster's performance drew the attention of a Hollywood agent, Harold Hecht, who introduced him to Hal Wallis who cast Lancaster in The Killers (1946). (Hecht and Lancaster later formed several production companies in the 50's to give Lancaster greater creative control.) The tall, muscular actor won significant acclaim and appeared in two more films the following year. Subsequently, he played in a variety of films, especially in dramas, thrillers, and military and adventure films. In two, The Flame and the Arrow and The Crimson Pirate, a friend from his circus years, Nick Cravat, played a leading role, and both actors impressed audiences with their acrobatic prowess.
In 1953, Lancaster played one of his best remembered roles with Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity. The American Film Institute acknowledged the iconic status of the scene from that film in which he and Deborah Kerr make love on a Hawaiian beach amid the crashing waves. The organization named it one of "AFI's top 100 Most Romantic Films" of all time. In the mid-1950s, Lancaster went on challenging himself with varied cinematic roles, and he satisfied longtime aspirations by forming a film production partnership, Hecht-Lancaster Productions (eventually Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions) as well, having a pioneering role in the development of independent cinema. His work was recognized in 1960 when he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a Golden Globe Award, and the New York Film Critics Award for his performance in Elmer Gantry. In 1966, at the age of 52, Lancaster appeared nude in the film, The Swimmer.
Lancaster made several films over the years with Kirk Douglas, including I Walk Alone (1948), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), The Devil's Disciple (1959), Seven Days in May (1964), and Tough Guys (1986), which fixed the notion of the pair as something of a team in the public imagination. Douglas was always second-billed under Lancaster in these films, but with the exception of I Walk Alone, in which Douglas played a villain, their roles were usually more or less the same size.
During the later part of his career, Lancaster left adventure and acrobatic movies behind and portrayed more distinguished characters. This period brought him work on several European productions, with directors such as Luchino Visconti and Bernardo Bertolucci. Lancaster sought demanding roles and, if he liked a part or a director, was prepared to work for much lower pay than he might have earned elsewhere; he even helped to finance movies whose artistic value he believed in. He also mentored directors such as Sydney Pollack and John Frankenheimer and appeared in several TV films.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Lancaster has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Personal life
Lancaster vigorously guarded his private life. He was married three times; his first two ended in divorce: to June Ernst from 1935 to 1946; to Norma Anderson from 1946 to 1969; to Susan Martin from September 1990 until his death. All five of his children were with Anderson: Bill (who became a screenwriter), James, Susan, Joanna, and Sighle (pronounced Sheila). He was romantically involved with Deborah Kerr during the filming of From Here to Eternity in 1953.
Lancaster was an unabashed liberal, who frequently spoke out with support for racial minorities. He was also instrumental in the formation of many liberal groups, through financial support. At one point, he was rumored to be a member of the Communist Party, because of his involvement in many liberal causes. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and political movements such as McCarthyism, and he helped pay for the successful defense of a soldier accused of fragging another soldier during the war. In 1968, Lancaster actively supported the presidential candidacy of antiwar Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, and frequently spoke on his behalf in the Democratic primaries. In 1985, Lancaster, a longtime supporter of gay rights, joined the fight against AIDS after his close friend, Rock Hudson, contracted the disease. He campaigned for Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election.
Health problems and death
As Lancaster grew older, heart trouble increasingly hindered him from working. He nearly died during a routine gall bladder operation in January 1980. Following two minor heart attacks he had to undergo an emergency quadruple heart bypass in 1983, after which he was in frail health. He suffered a severe stroke in November 1990, which left him partly paralyzed and with restricted speech. Lancaster died in his Century City apartment in Los Angeles from a third heart attack on October 20, 1994, at the age of 80. He is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Westwood Village in Los Angeles.
Filmography and awards
Year Film Role Notes
1946 The Killers 'Swede' Andersen
1947 Brute Force Joe Collins
Desert Fury Tom Hanson
1948 I Walk Alone Frankie Madison
All My Sons Chris Keller
Sorry, Wrong Number Henry Stevenson
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands William Earle 'Bill' Saunders
1949 Criss Cross Steve Thompson / Narrator
Rope of Sand Michael (Mike) Davis
1950 The Flame and the Arrow Dardo Bartoli
Mister 880 Steve Buchanan
1951 Vengeance Valley Owen Daybright
Jim Thorpe -- All-American Jim Thorpe
Ten Tall Men Sgt Mike Kincaid
1952 The Crimson Pirate Capitan Vallo
Come Back, Little Sheba Doc Delaney
1953 South Sea Woman Master Gunnery Sgt. James O'Hearn
From Here to Eternity 1st Sgt. Milton Warden New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Three Sailors and a Girl Marine (uncredited)
1954 His Majesty O'Keefe Captain David Dion O'Keefe/Narrator
Apache Massai
Vera Cruz Joe Erin
1955 The Kentuckian Elias Wakefield (Big Eli) Director
Nominated — Golden Lion
The Rose Tattoo Alvaro Mangiacavallo
1956 Trapeze Mike Ribble Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlin
The Rainmaker Bill Starbuck, aka Bill Smith, Bill Harley, Tornado Johnson Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Marshal Wyatt Earp
Sweet Smell of Success J.J. Hunsecker
1958 Run Silent Run Deep Lt. Jim Bledsoe
Separate Tables John Malcolm
1959 The Devil's Disciple The Rev. Anthony Anderson
1960 The Unforgiven Ben Zachary
Elmer Gantry Elmer Gantry Academy Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1961 The Young Savages Hank Bell
Judgment at Nuremberg Dr. Ernst Janning
1962 Birdman of Alcatraz Robert Stroud BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Volpi Cup
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1963 A Child is Waiting Dr. Ben Clark
The Leopard (Gattopardo, Il) Prince Don Fabrizio Salina
The List of Adrian Messenger Cameo
1964 Seven Days in May Gen. James Mattoon Scott
The Train Paul Labiche
1965 The Hallelujah Trail Col. Thaddeus Gearhart
1966 The Professionals Bill Dolworth
1967 All About People Narrator
1968 The Scalphunters Joe Bass
The Swimmer Ned Merrill
1969 Castle Keep Maj. Abraham Falconer
The Gypsy Moths Mike Rettig
1970 Airport Mel Bakersfeld
1971 Lawman Bannock Marshal Jered Maddox
Valdez Is Coming Valdez
1972 Ulzana's Raid McIntosh
1973 Scorpio Cross
Executive Action James Farrington
1974 The Midnight Man Jim Slade Director
Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Conversation Piece) The Professor David di Donatello for Best Actor
Moses the Lawgiver (TV mini-series) Moses
1976 ' 'Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson Ned Buntline
1900 (Novecento) Alfredo's Grandfather
Victory at Entebbe (TV) Shimon Peres
The Cassandra Crossing Col. Stephen Mackenzie
1977 Twilight's Last Gleaming Gen. Lawrence Dell
The Island of Dr. Moreau Dr. Paul Moreau Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1978 Go Tell the Spartans Maj. Asa Barker
1979 Zulu Dawn Col. Anthony Durnford
1980 Atlantic City Lou Pascal BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
David di Donatello for Best Actor
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1981 Cattle Annie and Little Britches Bill Doolin
La pelle Gen. Mark Clark
1982 Marco Polo TV mini-series TeobaldoVisconti / Pope Gregory X
Verdi (TV mini-series) Narrator in American version
1983 Local Hero Felix Happer Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
The Osterman Weekend Maxwell Danforth
1985 Scandal Sheet Harold Fallen
Little Treasure Delbert Teschemacher
1986 Väter und Söhne - Eine deutsche Tragödie (TV mini-series) Geheimrat Carl Julius Deutz
On Wings of Eagles (TV mini-series) Lieutenant Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons
Barnum Phineas Taylor 'P.T.' Barnum
1986 Tough Guys Harry Doyle
1987 Il Giorno prima Dr. Herbert Monroe
1988 Rocket Gibraltar Levi Rockwell
1989 Field of Dreams Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham
La Bottega dell'orefice The Jeweller
I Promessi sposi (TV mini-series) Cardinal Federigo Borromeo
1990 The Phantom of the Opera Gerard Carriere
Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair (TV) Leon Klinghoffer
1991 Separate But Equal (TV) John W. Davis
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 5:54 am
During an end-of-term rugby union match at his old school he received a kick to the head and suffered a retinal detachment. This left him blind in his left eye, despite treatment including several operations and weeks spent lying in a darkened room. Later at Edinburgh, while playing tennis, he noticed the same symptoms in his right eye. Brown underwent experimental surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and his eye was saved.
He was one lucky guy.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:54 am
The word of the day...Field(s)
A field is an area of grass, for example in a park or on a farm. A field is also an area of land on which a crop is grown.
A sports field is an area of grass where sports are played.
A field is an area of land or sea bed under which large amounts of a particular mineral have been found
A magnetic, gravitational, or electric field is the area in which that particular force is strong enough to have an effect
A particular field is a particular subject of study or type of activity.
A field is an area of a computer's memory or a program where data can be entered, edited, or stored.
You can refer to the area where fighting or other military action in a war takes place as the field or the field of battle.
Your field of vision or your visual field is the area that you can see without turning your head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNJBopK25I
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:56 am
The person born on this day...Sidney Poitier
ir Sidney Poitier, KBE (pronounced /ËpwÉ‘ËtjeÉŞ/ or /ËpwÉ‘ËtieÉŞ/; born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and diplomat. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by consciously defying racial stereotyping, gave a new dramatic credibility for black actors to mainstream film audiences in the Western world.
In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films—To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner—making him the top box office star of that year. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
Poitier has directed a number of popular movies such as Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), and Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder). In 2002, 38 years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."
Since 1997 he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
oitier joined the American Negro Theater, but was rejected by audiences. His tone deafness made him - contrary to what was expected of black actors at the time - unable to sing or dance. Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which he received excellent reviews. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance in No Way Out, as a doctor treating a white bigot, was noticed and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and more prominent than what most black actors of the time were being cast.
Poitier's breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in Blackboard Jungle (1955). At age twenty-seven though, like most of the actors in the film, he was not a teenager.
Poitier was the first male black actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award (for The Defiant Ones, 1958). Tony Curtis is on record as saying he had approval of Poitier as his co-star. He also said the director's first choice for his role was Robert Mitchum, but Mitchum refused to work with a black man. Curtis made these comments on the 1999 program Private Screenings with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne.
He was also the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963). (James Baskett was the first to receive an Oscar, an Honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus in the Walt Disney production of Song of the South in 1948, while Hattie McDaniel predated them both, winning as Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1939's Gone with the Wind).
He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident (1965), and A Patch of Blue (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw at the box office, the commercial peak of his career, with three successful films, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night. The last film featured his most successful character, Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania detective whose subsequent career was the subject of two sequels: They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970) and The Organization (1971).
However, Poitier began to be criticized for typecasting himself as playing overidealized black characters who were not permitted to have any sexuality or personality faults, such as his character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Poitier was aware of this pattern himself, but was conflicted on the matter; he wanted more varied roles, but also felt obliged to set a good example with his characters to defy previous stereotypes as he was the only major black actor in the American film industry at the time. For instance, Poitier, along with his producers, was able to make Virgil Tibbs a dignified and astute detective who is capable of making errors in judgment.
Directorial career
Poitier has directed several films, the most successful being the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, which for years was the highest grossing film directed by a person of African descent. His feature film directorial debut was the western Buck and the Preacher in which Poitier also starred, alongside Harry Belafonte. Poitier replaced original director Joseph Sargent. The trio of Poitier, Cosby, and Belafonte reunited again (with Poitier again directing) in Uptown Saturday Night. Poitier also directed Cosby in Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad. Poitier also directed the first popular dance battle movie Fast Forward in 1985.
Personal life
Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950 until 1965. He has been married to Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian descent, since January 23, 1976. He has four daughters by his first wife and two by his second: Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, Gina, Anika, Sydney Tamiia.
He has written three autobiographical books, This Life (1980), The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000) and Life Beyond Measure - letters to my Great-Granddaughter (2008). The second one became an Oprah's Book Club selection. Its translation in Traditional Chinese (ISBN 9570484969) was done by Fongfong Olivia Wei, and subsequently published by Triumph Publishing Company in Taipei, Taiwan in the year 2002.
Later life
In April 1997, Poitier was appointed as ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan, a position he currently holds. He is also the ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO. During the period of 1998 to 2003, he served as a Member of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company.
In 2001, Poitier received an Academy Honorary Award for his overall contribution to American cinema.
In August 2009, Poitier received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
Filmography
Actor
Year Film Role Notes
1947 Sepia Cinderella Extra uncredited
1949 From Whence Cometh My Help Himself documentary
1950 No Way Out Dr. Luther Brooks
1951 Cry, The Beloved Country Reverend Msimangu
1952 Red Ball Express Cpl. Andrew Robertson
1954 Go, Man, Go! Inman Jackson
1955 Blackboard Jungle Gregory W. Miller
1956 Good-bye, My Lady Gates
1957 Edge of the City Tommy Tyler Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Something of Value Kimani Wa Karanja
Band of Angels Rau-Ru
The Mark of the Hawk Obam
1958 Virgin Island Marcus
The Defiant Ones Noah Cullen BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1959 Porgy and Bess Porgy Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1960 All the Young Men Sgt. Eddie Towler
1961 A Raisin in the Sun Walter Lee Younger Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Paris Blues Eddie Cook
1962 Pressure Point Doctor (Chief Psychiatrist)
1963 The Long Ships Aly Mansuh
Lilies of the Field Homer Smith Academy Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actor
1965 The Bedford Incident Ben Munceford
The Greatest Story Ever Told Simon of Cyrene
A Patch of Blue Gordon Ralfe Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
The Slender Thread Alan Newell
1966 Duel at Diablo Toller (contract horse dealer)
1967 To Sir, with Love Mark Thackeray
In the Heat of the Night Det. Virgil Tibbs Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Dr. John Wade Prentice
1968 For Love of Ivy Jack Parks
1969 The Lost Man Jason Higgs
1970 King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis Narrator documentary
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! Virgil Tibbs
1971 Brother John John Kane
Not Me Boss!!
The Organization Detective Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs SFPD Homicide
1972 Buck and the Preacher Buck
1973 A Warm December Matt Younger
1974 Uptown Saturday Night Steve Jackson
1975 The Wilby Conspiracy Shack Twala
Let's Do it Again Clyde Williams
1977 A Piece of the Action Manny Durrell
1979 Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist Narrator short subject
1988 Shoot to Kill Warren Stantin
Little Nikita* Roy Parmenter
1992 Sneakers Donald Crease
1994 A Century of Cinema Himself documentary
1996 Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick Himself documentary
1997 The Jackal FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston
2001 Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey Narrator documentary
2004 MacKenzie Himself documentary
2008 Mr. Warmth:The Don Rickles Project Himself documentary
Director
Year Film
1972 Buck and the Preacher
1973 A Warm December
1974 Uptown Saturday Night
1975 Let's Do it Again
1977 A Piece of the Action
1980 Stir Crazy
1982 Hanky Panky
1985 Fast Forward
1990 Ghost Dad
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Separate but Equal Thurgood Marshall Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
1995 Children of the Dust Gypsy Smith
1996 To Sir, with Love II Mark Thackeray
1997 Mandela and De Klerk Nelson Mandela Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
1998 David and Lisa Dr. Jack Miller
1999 The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn Noah Dearborn
Free of Eden Will Cleamons
2001 The Last Brickmaker in America Henry Cobb
Awards and recognition
* 1958 British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best Foreign Actor for The Defiant Ones
* 1958 Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for The Defiant Ones
* 1963 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lilies of the Field
* 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field
* 1963 Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for Lilies of the Field
* 1974 Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Because Poitier is a citizen of The Bahamas, a Commonwealth realm that subscribes to the British Honours System, this is a substantive (as opposed to honorary) knighthood, which entitles him to the style "Sir". Poitier does not use the style, nor does his wife use the style "Lady Poitier"
* 1992 AFI Life Achievement Award
* 1995 SAG Life Achievement Award
* 1997 Appointed non-resident Bahamian Ambassador to Japan
* 1999 Kennedy Center Honors
* 2000 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn
* 2001 NAACP Image Award - Hall of Fame Award
* 2001 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album - Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) and Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man
* 2002 Honorary Oscar - "For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence"
* 2009 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
See also
* List of African American firsts
* David Hampton, an impostor who posed as Poitier's son "David" in 1983, which inspired a play and a film, Six Degrees of Separation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aSFoY3W3NM
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 5:57 am
British Person of the Day: Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party. Immediately before this he had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government from 1997 to 2007 under Tony Blair.
Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also holds the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.
Brown's time as Chancellor was marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to cover much domestic policy and by transferring responsibility for banking supervision to the Financial Services Authority. Controversial moves included the abolition of advance corporation tax (ACT) relief in his first budget, and the removal in his final budget of the 10 per cent "starting rate" of personal income tax which he had introduced in 1999.
After an initial rise in opinion polls, Brown's time as Prime Minister has seen his approval ratings fall and the Labour Party suffer its worst local election results in 40 years. Despite public and parliamentary pressure on his leadership, he remains leader of the Labour Party.
http://frankowenspaintbrush.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/gordon-brown.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7R7q1lSZfs
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 6:41 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNJBopK25I
Nice song...I looked at this quick and I thought it said "Fields of Gold String" ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 6:43 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aSFoY3W3NM
It's been awhile since I've seen the movie.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/20/10 at 6:49 am
Don't forget...Sally Fields
http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss20/SurfinGidget/sallyfield-nc.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 6:51 am
Don't forget...Sally Fields
http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss20/SurfinGidget/sallyfield-nc.jpg
...or WC Fields!
http://blog.lakesregionhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/wc-fields.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 6:52 am
It's been awhile since I've seen the movie.
I want my own copy of it, everytime I see the DVD in the shops, it is always expensive.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/20/10 at 8:00 am
Don't forget...Sally Fields
http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss20/SurfinGidget/sallyfield-nc.jpg
Now she does commercials for Boniva.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/20/10 at 8:01 am
The person born on this day...Sidney Poitier
ir Sidney Poitier, KBE (pronounced /ËpwÉ‘ËtjeÉŞ/ or /ËpwÉ‘ËtieÉŞ/; born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and diplomat. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by consciously defying racial stereotyping, gave a new dramatic credibility for black actors to mainstream film audiences in the Western world.
In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three well-received films—To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner—making him the top box office star of that year. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
Poitier has directed a number of popular movies such as Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), and Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder). In 2002, 38 years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."
Since 1997 he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
oitier joined the American Negro Theater, but was rejected by audiences. His tone deafness made him - contrary to what was expected of black actors at the time - unable to sing or dance. Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which he received excellent reviews. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance in No Way Out, as a doctor treating a white bigot, was noticed and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and more prominent than what most black actors of the time were being cast.
Poitier's breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in Blackboard Jungle (1955). At age twenty-seven though, like most of the actors in the film, he was not a teenager.
Poitier was the first male black actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award (for The Defiant Ones, 1958). Tony Curtis is on record as saying he had approval of Poitier as his co-star. He also said the director's first choice for his role was Robert Mitchum, but Mitchum refused to work with a black man. Curtis made these comments on the 1999 program Private Screenings with Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne.
He was also the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963). (James Baskett was the first to receive an Oscar, an Honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus in the Walt Disney production of Song of the South in 1948, while Hattie McDaniel predated them both, winning as Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1939's Gone with the Wind).
He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident (1965), and A Patch of Blue (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw at the box office, the commercial peak of his career, with three successful films, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night. The last film featured his most successful character, Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania detective whose subsequent career was the subject of two sequels: They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970) and The Organization (1971).
However, Poitier began to be criticized for typecasting himself as playing overidealized black characters who were not permitted to have any sexuality or personality faults, such as his character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Poitier was aware of this pattern himself, but was conflicted on the matter; he wanted more varied roles, but also felt obliged to set a good example with his characters to defy previous stereotypes as he was the only major black actor in the American film industry at the time. For instance, Poitier, along with his producers, was able to make Virgil Tibbs a dignified and astute detective who is capable of making errors in judgment.
Directorial career
Poitier has directed several films, the most successful being the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, which for years was the highest grossing film directed by a person of African descent. His feature film directorial debut was the western Buck and the Preacher in which Poitier also starred, alongside Harry Belafonte. Poitier replaced original director Joseph Sargent. The trio of Poitier, Cosby, and Belafonte reunited again (with Poitier again directing) in Uptown Saturday Night. Poitier also directed Cosby in Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad. Poitier also directed the first popular dance battle movie Fast Forward in 1985.
Personal life
Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950 until 1965. He has been married to Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian descent, since January 23, 1976. He has four daughters by his first wife and two by his second: Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, Gina, Anika, Sydney Tamiia.
He has written three autobiographical books, This Life (1980), The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000) and Life Beyond Measure - letters to my Great-Granddaughter (2008). The second one became an Oprah's Book Club selection. Its translation in Traditional Chinese (ISBN 9570484969) was done by Fongfong Olivia Wei, and subsequently published by Triumph Publishing Company in Taipei, Taiwan in the year 2002.
Later life
In April 1997, Poitier was appointed as ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan, a position he currently holds. He is also the ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO. During the period of 1998 to 2003, he served as a Member of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company.
In 2001, Poitier received an Academy Honorary Award for his overall contribution to American cinema.
In August 2009, Poitier received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
Filmography
Actor
Year Film Role Notes
1947 Sepia Cinderella Extra uncredited
1949 From Whence Cometh My Help Himself documentary
1950 No Way Out Dr. Luther Brooks
1951 Cry, The Beloved Country Reverend Msimangu
1952 Red Ball Express Cpl. Andrew Robertson
1954 Go, Man, Go! Inman Jackson
1955 Blackboard Jungle Gregory W. Miller
1956 Good-bye, My Lady Gates
1957 Edge of the City Tommy Tyler Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Something of Value Kimani Wa Karanja
Band of Angels Rau-Ru
The Mark of the Hawk Obam
1958 Virgin Island Marcus
The Defiant Ones Noah Cullen BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1959 Porgy and Bess Porgy Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1960 All the Young Men Sgt. Eddie Towler
1961 A Raisin in the Sun Walter Lee Younger Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Paris Blues Eddie Cook
1962 Pressure Point Doctor (Chief Psychiatrist)
1963 The Long Ships Aly Mansuh
Lilies of the Field Homer Smith Academy Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Berlin Film Festival: Silver Bear for Best Actor
1965 The Bedford Incident Ben Munceford
The Greatest Story Ever Told Simon of Cyrene
A Patch of Blue Gordon Ralfe Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
The Slender Thread Alan Newell
1966 Duel at Diablo Toller (contract horse dealer)
1967 To Sir, with Love Mark Thackeray
In the Heat of the Night Det. Virgil Tibbs Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Dr. John Wade Prentice
1968 For Love of Ivy Jack Parks
1969 The Lost Man Jason Higgs
1970 King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis Narrator documentary
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! Virgil Tibbs
1971 Brother John John Kane
Not Me Boss!!
The Organization Detective Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs SFPD Homicide
1972 Buck and the Preacher Buck
1973 A Warm December Matt Younger
1974 Uptown Saturday Night Steve Jackson
1975 The Wilby Conspiracy Shack Twala
Let's Do it Again Clyde Williams
1977 A Piece of the Action Manny Durrell
1979 Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist Narrator short subject
1988 Shoot to Kill Warren Stantin
Little Nikita* Roy Parmenter
1992 Sneakers Donald Crease
1994 A Century of Cinema Himself documentary
1996 Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick Himself documentary
1997 The Jackal FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston
2001 Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey Narrator documentary
2004 MacKenzie Himself documentary
2008 Mr. Warmth:The Don Rickles Project Himself documentary
Director
Year Film
1972 Buck and the Preacher
1973 A Warm December
1974 Uptown Saturday Night
1975 Let's Do it Again
1977 A Piece of the Action
1980 Stir Crazy
1982 Hanky Panky
1985 Fast Forward
1990 Ghost Dad
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Separate but Equal Thurgood Marshall Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
1995 Children of the Dust Gypsy Smith
1996 To Sir, with Love II Mark Thackeray
1997 Mandela and De Klerk Nelson Mandela Nominated - Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
1998 David and Lisa Dr. Jack Miller
1999 The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn Noah Dearborn
Free of Eden Will Cleamons
2001 The Last Brickmaker in America Henry Cobb
Awards and recognition
* 1958 British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best Foreign Actor for The Defiant Ones
* 1958 Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for The Defiant Ones
* 1963 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lilies of the Field
* 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field
* 1963 Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for Lilies of the Field
* 1974 Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Because Poitier is a citizen of The Bahamas, a Commonwealth realm that subscribes to the British Honours System, this is a substantive (as opposed to honorary) knighthood, which entitles him to the style "Sir". Poitier does not use the style, nor does his wife use the style "Lady Poitier"
* 1992 AFI Life Achievement Award
* 1995 SAG Life Achievement Award
* 1997 Appointed non-resident Bahamian Ambassador to Japan
* 1999 Kennedy Center Honors
* 2000 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn
* 2001 NAACP Image Award - Hall of Fame Award
* 2001 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album - Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) and Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man
* 2002 Honorary Oscar - "For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence"
* 2009 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
See also
* List of African American firsts
* David Hampton, an impostor who posed as Poitier's son "David" in 1983, which inspired a play and a film, Six Degrees of Separation
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x280/icebergslim1047/recipient2.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa304/earlyrizer/sidney_poitier.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k74/nicoletteautumn/SidneyPoitier.jpg
http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q134/jojetjes/HisExcellency.jpg
a very fine actor. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/20/10 at 8:38 am
http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu105/Hangar519/pics463.jpg
Wow! That guy is out standing in his field. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 9:21 am
Don't forget...Sally Fields
http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss20/SurfinGidget/sallyfield-nc.jpg
...or WC Fields!
http://blog.lakesregionhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/wc-fields.jpg
Good choices :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 9:22 am
a very fine actor. :)
Yes he is.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 9:23 am
Wow! That guy is out standing in his field. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Nice one ;D ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/20/10 at 11:37 am
Sidney Poitier..Loved him in "Lilies of the field"
Thanks.
Sally Field. Girl with (still) cute cheeks
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/20/10 at 11:46 am
Canadian person of the day:
Philip Anthony "Espo" Esposito, OC (born February 20, 1942 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and is considered to be one of the best to have ever played in the National Hockey League.
http://onestophockeycards.com/Error_69-70_OPC_-__Espo_a_B.jpg
In 1967, he came to Boston Bruins in a blockbuster trade, along with Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield. While the hitherto unremarkable Hodge and Stanfield became stars in the black-and-gold, Esposito blossomed into the greatest scorer of his day, becoming the first NHL player to score 100 points in a season with 126 in the 1969 season. He would top the "century" mark six times in all, including five consecutive seasons between 1971 and 1975 (plus a 99-point season in 1970), capturing the Art Ross Trophy in 1969 and 1971–74 as the top regular season scorer, and leading the league in goals for six straight seasons, (69/70 to 74/75).
http://www.distantreplay.org/NHL/images/players/PhilEspositoBos.jpg
Esposito was named to the NHL's First All-Star team six consecutive times (from 1969–74), and won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player in 1969 and 1974. His Boston fans printed and displayed bumper stickers during his best years to celebrate his scoring: they read, "Jesus saves, Espo scores on the rebound." Esposito, while not a fast or graceful skater, was best known for his unmovable presence in front of the opposition net from which he could score from all angles. Esposito has said: “Scoring is easy. You simply stand in the slot, take your beating and shoot the puck into the net.”
During these great years, centering one of the most renowned forward lines in history with Hodge on right wing and left winger Wayne Cashman, Esposito and fellow superstar Bobby Orr led the Bruins to Stanley Cup victories in 1970 and 1972, and first-place finishes in the league in 1971, 1972, and 1974.
During 1970–71, Esposito shattered the record for most goals scored in a season when he finished up with 76. This record stood until 1982 when Wayne Gretzky scored his 77th, 78th and 79th goal against the Buffalo Sabres on February 24, 1982 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Esposito was on hand to present the game puck to Gretzky. Esposito also set the single season point-scoring record in 1971 with 152, a mark likewise now held by Gretzky. Only three other players have reached the 150 point-scoring plateau — Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Bernie Nicholls — and only Gretzky, Lemieux, Brett Hull, Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny have scored 76 or more goals in a season. That season also saw Esposito shatter the single season mark for shots on goal with 550, an unsurpassed mark which only one other player has approached within a hundred (Alexander Ovechkin in 2008–09).
After his performance in the Summit Series, where he was the inspirational captain for Team Canada and its leading scorer in the series, he won the 1972 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's outstanding male athlete of the year and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Esposito also scored the first goal of the series and he scored or assisted four times in the deciding game. During that series, his scolding of Canadian fans, who booed the national team after a 5–3 loss to the Soviet Union in Game Four, was credited with firing up his teammates :
"If the Russian fans boo their players in Moscow like you people are booing us, I'll come back and apologize personally to every one of you, but I really don't think that will happen. We gave it and are doing our best. All of us guys are really disheartened. . . . We came out here because we love Canada. They're a good hockey team, and we don't know what we could do better, but I promise we will figure it out. But it's totally ridiculous — I don't think it is fair that we should be booed."
http://www.1972summitseries.com/photos/esposito_and_tretiak.jpg
He retired in 1981, then only second to Gordie Howe in career goals and total points, and third in assists to Howe and Stan Mikita.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/content/Image/08-12-2009/Phil-Esposito.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/20/10 at 11:48 am
Canadian person of the day:
Philip Anthony "Espo" Esposito, OC (born February 20, 1942 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and is considered to be one of the best to have ever played in the National Hockey League.
http://onestophockeycards.com/Error_69-70_OPC_-__Espo_a_B.jpg
In 1967, he came to Boston Bruins in a blockbuster trade, along with Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield. While the hitherto unremarkable Hodge and Stanfield became stars in the black-and-gold, Esposito blossomed into the greatest scorer of his day, becoming the first NHL player to score 100 points in a season with 126 in the 1969 season. He would top the "century" mark six times in all, including five consecutive seasons between 1971 and 1975 (plus a 99-point season in 1970), capturing the Art Ross Trophy in 1969 and 1971–74 as the top regular season scorer, and leading the league in goals for six straight seasons, (69/70 to 74/75).
http://www.distantreplay.org/NHL/images/players/PhilEspositoBos.jpg
Esposito was named to the NHL's First All-Star team six consecutive times (from 1969–74), and won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player in 1969 and 1974. His Boston fans printed and displayed bumper stickers during his best years to celebrate his scoring: they read, "Jesus saves, Espo scores on the rebound." Esposito, while not a fast or graceful skater, was best known for his unmovable presence in front of the opposition net from which he could score from all angles. Esposito has said: “Scoring is easy. You simply stand in the slot, take your beating and shoot the puck into the net.”
During these great years, centering one of the most renowned forward lines in history with Hodge on right wing and left winger Wayne Cashman, Esposito and fellow superstar Bobby Orr led the Bruins to Stanley Cup victories in 1970 and 1972, and first-place finishes in the league in 1971, 1972, and 1974.
During 1970–71, Esposito shattered the record for most goals scored in a season when he finished up with 76. This record stood until 1982 when Wayne Gretzky scored his 77th, 78th and 79th goal against the Buffalo Sabres on February 24, 1982 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Esposito was on hand to present the game puck to Gretzky. Esposito also set the single season point-scoring record in 1971 with 152, a mark likewise now held by Gretzky. Only three other players have reached the 150 point-scoring plateau — Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Bernie Nicholls — and only Gretzky, Lemieux, Brett Hull, Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny have scored 76 or more goals in a season. That season also saw Esposito shatter the single season mark for shots on goal with 550, an unsurpassed mark which only one other player has approached within a hundred (Alexander Ovechkin in 2008–09).
After his performance in the Summit Series, where he was the inspirational captain for Team Canada and its leading scorer in the series, he won the 1972 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's outstanding male athlete of the year and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Esposito also scored the first goal of the series and he scored or assisted four times in the deciding game. During that series, his scolding of Canadian fans, who booed the national team after a 5–3 loss to the Soviet Union in Game Four, was credited with firing up his teammates :
"If the Russian fans boo their players in Moscow like you people are booing us, I'll come back and apologize personally to every one of you, but I really don't think that will happen. We gave it and are doing our best. All of us guys are really disheartened. . . . We came out here because we love Canada. They're a good hockey team, and we don't know what we could do better, but I promise we will figure it out. But it's totally ridiculous — I don't think it is fair that we should be booed."
http://www.1972summitseries.com/photos/esposito_and_tretiak.jpg
He retired in 1981, then only second to Gordie Howe in career goals and total points, and third in assists to Howe and Stan Mikita.
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/content/Image/08-12-2009/Phil-Esposito.jpg
Always liked Phil, Thanks Frank :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/20/10 at 11:51 am
Always liked Phil, Thanks Frank :)
I saw him last year at an Autograph show. (Didn't get his autograph, charging over $100 for it at the show)
I saw Phil (and Bobby Orr) play a couple of time at the Montreal Forum...back in the day.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 1:09 pm
Wow! That guy is out standing in his field. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
He-He!!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/20/10 at 1:12 pm
I saw him last year at an Autograph show. (Didn't get his autograph, charging over $100 for it at the show)
Disgraceful!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/20/10 at 6:02 pm
Disgraceful!
Some even charge more than that.
Think I'll charge $573.12 for my autograph. Any takers? :D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/20/10 at 8:00 pm
Some even charge more than that.
Think I'll charge $573.12 for my autograph. Any takers? :D
want to negoiate?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 2:42 am
Some even charge more than that.
Think I'll charge $573.12 for my autograph. Any takers? :D
Is your autograph on ebay?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 2:57 am
British Person of the Day: Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is a British actor and theatre director born in England. Rickman is known for his performances in film as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is also known for his prominent roles as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1991 blockbuster film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; as Colonel Brandon in the Oscar-winning 1995 Sense and Sensibility and, more recently, Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Early life
Rickman was born in Hammersmith, London to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. Rickman's mother was Welsh and a Methodist and his father was of Irish Catholic background. He has one elder brother David, a younger brother Michael and a younger sister Sheila. Rickman attended an infants' school in Acton that followed the Montessori method of education. When he was eight his father died, leaving his mother to bring up four children mostly alone. She married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life," Rickman later said. Rickman excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, and from Derwentwater Junior School he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he started getting involved in drama. After leaving Latymer, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and made his way as a graphic designer, which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18," he said. Rickman received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) which he attended from 1972–1974. While there, he studied Shakespeare's works and supported himself working as a dresser for Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson, and left after winning several prizes such as the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal.
Career
After graduating from the RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo And Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It. He was the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Christopher Hampton, which was a sellout. When the show went across the Atlantic in 1986, Rickman went on with it to Broadway and there earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance.
While with the RSC he shared a house with fellow company member Ruby Wax. Rickman put her into writing comedy and proceeded to direct several of her successful shows. "If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work", he said. In 1992, in an interview for The Big Issue magazine, Rickman said,
"You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognises something about themselves or they don't — You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking 'that was nice...now where's the cab?'"
To television audiences he also became known as Mr. Slope in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers. He played future Irish Taoiseach and president Éamon de Valera in the film Michael Collins alongside Liam Neeson as the title character. While playing romantic leads in British movies (Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility; Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply), he was generally typecast in Hollywood films as an over-the-top villain (German terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). His role in Die Hard earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of the "100 Best Heroes/Villains" as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.
Rickman has also played comedic roles in films such as Galaxy Quest, Dogma, and as Emma Thompson's foolish husband in Love Actually. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his performance as Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004's Something the Lord Made. Rickman was cast in 2005 as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film. Coincidentally, Rickman and David Learner, who occupied Marvin's costume for the TV adaptation and stage shows, studied together at RADA. He was very busy in 2006 with Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.
Rickman has performed on stage in Noel Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan, and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production.
His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa's Tango at the End of Winter in London's West End and the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua. He directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995. He also directed the film version in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law.
Rickman has also been featured in several musical works — most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard. Moreover, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track The Bell. Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002-released When Love Speaks CD, and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled In Demand, which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.
Rickman played Severus Snape, the seemingly sinister potions master of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga, in the six films of that series to date. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly named him one of their favourite people in pop culture, saying that in the Harry Potter films, "he may not be on screen long - but he owns every minute," and that he is capable of "turning a simple retort into a mini-symphony of contempt."
Rickman directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for best director. The production is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American woman who was killed on 16 March 2003 by an Israeli armoured bulldozer. The show played at the West End's Playhouse Theatre in London from March to May 2006. The play also ran at both the Galway Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival in 2006.
In 1995 Rickman turned down the role of Alec Trevelyan in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. Rickman has taken issue with being labelled as a "villain actor", citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991. He has further said that he has continued to portray characters of complex and varying emotions, and does not think it is fair to assign characters a label of good or evil, hero or villain. Prior to the book release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rickman had spoken on occasion about Snape quite easily, but with the controversy of the character following the events of the sixth book, Rickman refused to speak on the character.
In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically-acclaimed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton, alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. According to Miami Herald, Rickman's performance "makes the judge's villainy something to simultaneously savor and despise", with his "oozing moral rot and arrogance". Rickman will also be appearing as The Caterpillar in the upcoming 2010 Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry and Anne Hathaway.
Filmography
1978 Romeo and Juliet
1982 The Barchester Chronicles
1985 Return of the Native
1988 Die Hard
1989 The January Man
1990 Quigley Down Under
1991 Truly Madly Deeply
1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1991 Close My Eyes
1991 Closet Land
1992 Bob Roberts
1994 Mesmer
1995 An Awfully Big Adventure
1995 Sense and Sensibility
1996 Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny
1996 Michael Collins
1997 The Winter Guest
1998 Judas Kiss
1998 Dark Harbor
1999 Dogma
1999 Galaxy Quest
2000 Help! I'm a Fish!
2000 Blow Dry
2001 The Search for John Gissing
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in United States)
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2002 King of the Hill
2003 Love Actually
2004 Something the Lord Made
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2006 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2006 Snow Cake
2007 Nobel Son
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2008 Bottle Shock
2008 We're Here To Help
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2010 Alice in Wonderland
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
2010 The Villa Golitsyn
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Severus-Snape-severus-snape-117858_549_293.jpg
http://www.mtv.com/movies/photos/h/harry_potter_half_blood_prince_cast_071114/alan_rickman.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/21/10 at 3:05 am
Loved his turn as Hans Gruber in Die Hard... ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 3:18 am
Loved his turn as Hans Gruber in Die Hard... ;D
A great role for him, and I just have recently re-watched that film.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 3:19 am
Loved his turn as Hans Gruber in Die Hard... ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTxwg64FHfU
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 3:20 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTxwg64FHfU
The music is not the Beethoven music as used in Die Hard!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/21/10 at 6:47 am
British Person of the Day: Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is a British actor and theatre director born in England. Rickman is known for his performances in film as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is also known for his prominent roles as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1991 blockbuster film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; as Colonel Brandon in the Oscar-winning 1995 Sense and Sensibility and, more recently, Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Early life
Rickman was born in Hammersmith, London to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. Rickman's mother was Welsh and a Methodist and his father was of Irish Catholic background. He has one elder brother David, a younger brother Michael and a younger sister Sheila. Rickman attended an infants' school in Acton that followed the Montessori method of education. When he was eight his father died, leaving his mother to bring up four children mostly alone. She married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life," Rickman later said. Rickman excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, and from Derwentwater Junior School he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he started getting involved in drama. After leaving Latymer, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and made his way as a graphic designer, which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18," he said. Rickman received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) which he attended from 1972–1974. While there, he studied Shakespeare's works and supported himself working as a dresser for Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson, and left after winning several prizes such as the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal.
Career
After graduating from the RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo And Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It. He was the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Christopher Hampton, which was a sellout. When the show went across the Atlantic in 1986, Rickman went on with it to Broadway and there earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance.
While with the RSC he shared a house with fellow company member Ruby Wax. Rickman put her into writing comedy and proceeded to direct several of her successful shows. "If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work", he said. In 1992, in an interview for The Big Issue magazine, Rickman said,
"You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognises something about themselves or they don't — You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking 'that was nice...now where's the cab?'"
To television audiences he also became known as Mr. Slope in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers. He played future Irish Taoiseach and president Éamon de Valera in the film Michael Collins alongside Liam Neeson as the title character. While playing romantic leads in British movies (Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility; Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply), he was generally typecast in Hollywood films as an over-the-top villain (German terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). His role in Die Hard earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of the "100 Best Heroes/Villains" as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.
Rickman has also played comedic roles in films such as Galaxy Quest, Dogma, and as Emma Thompson's foolish husband in Love Actually. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his performance as Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004's Something the Lord Made. Rickman was cast in 2005 as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film. Coincidentally, Rickman and David Learner, who occupied Marvin's costume for the TV adaptation and stage shows, studied together at RADA. He was very busy in 2006 with Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.
Rickman has performed on stage in Noel Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan, and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production.
His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa's Tango at the End of Winter in London's West End and the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua. He directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995. He also directed the film version in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law.
Rickman has also been featured in several musical works — most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard. Moreover, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track The Bell. Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002-released When Love Speaks CD, and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled In Demand, which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.
Rickman played Severus Snape, the seemingly sinister potions master of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga, in the six films of that series to date. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly named him one of their favourite people in pop culture, saying that in the Harry Potter films, "he may not be on screen long - but he owns every minute," and that he is capable of "turning a simple retort into a mini-symphony of contempt."
Rickman directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for best director. The production is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American woman who was killed on 16 March 2003 by an Israeli armoured bulldozer. The show played at the West End's Playhouse Theatre in London from March to May 2006. The play also ran at both the Galway Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival in 2006.
In 1995 Rickman turned down the role of Alec Trevelyan in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. Rickman has taken issue with being labelled as a "villain actor", citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991. He has further said that he has continued to portray characters of complex and varying emotions, and does not think it is fair to assign characters a label of good or evil, hero or villain. Prior to the book release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rickman had spoken on occasion about Snape quite easily, but with the controversy of the character following the events of the sixth book, Rickman refused to speak on the character.
In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically-acclaimed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton, alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. According to Miami Herald, Rickman's performance "makes the judge's villainy something to simultaneously savor and despise", with his "oozing moral rot and arrogance". Rickman will also be appearing as The Caterpillar in the upcoming 2010 Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry and Anne Hathaway.
Filmography
1978 Romeo and Juliet
1982 The Barchester Chronicles
1985 Return of the Native
1988 Die Hard
1989 The January Man
1990 Quigley Down Under
1991 Truly Madly Deeply
1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1991 Close My Eyes
1991 Closet Land
1992 Bob Roberts
1994 Mesmer
1995 An Awfully Big Adventure
1995 Sense and Sensibility
1996 Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny
1996 Michael Collins
1997 The Winter Guest
1998 Judas Kiss
1998 Dark Harbor
1999 Dogma
1999 Galaxy Quest
2000 Help! I'm a Fish!
2000 Blow Dry
2001 The Search for John Gissing
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in United States)
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2002 King of the Hill
2003 Love Actually
2004 Something the Lord Made
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2006 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2006 Snow Cake
2007 Nobel Son
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2008 Bottle Shock
2008 We're Here To Help
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2010 Alice in Wonderland
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
2010 The Villa Golitsyn
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Severus-Snape-severus-snape-117858_549_293.jpg
http://www.mtv.com/movies/photos/h/harry_potter_half_blood_prince_cast_071114/alan_rickman.jpg
Thanks Phil, I've always enjoyed his acting.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 6:49 am
Thanks Phil, I've always enjoyed his acting.
As I see more of him, I am liking him more and more.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/21/10 at 6:51 am
The word of the day...Cheers
*
a word that people say to each other as they lift up their glasses to drink
*
goodbye British English informal
o
Cheers then. See you later.
*
thank you British English informal
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/cowgirl4/009.jpg
http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/rr251/Mistyman5/IM000977.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx51/CartR13/P2050195.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad305/ARCH2010/drink01.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad334/lauren_hoffman82/TriSummerFY10/kkk.jpg
http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab194/auntmaim/BC_DG.jpg
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy119/Mikevayne79/Ganbei.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj128/nicstockman/Cheers.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e190/Amberlynn13/cheers.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/21/10 at 6:52 am
The word of the day...Cheers
*
a word that people say to each other as they lift up their glasses to drink
*
goodbye British English informal
o
Cheers then. See you later.
*
thank you British English informal
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/cowgirl4/009.jpg
http://i489.photobucket.com/albums/rr251/Mistyman5/IM000977.jpg
http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx51/CartR13/P2050195.jpg
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/ad305/ARCH2010/drink01.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad334/lauren_hoffman82/TriSummerFY10/kkk.jpg
http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab194/auntmaim/BC_DG.jpg
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy119/Mikevayne79/Ganbei.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj128/nicstockman/Cheers.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e190/Amberlynn13/cheers.jpg
I'll drink to that!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/21/10 at 6:56 am
The person born on this day...Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955), best known as Kelsey Grammer, is an American actor, producer, director, writer, voice artist and comedian best known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC situation comedies Cheers (nine years) and Frasier (eleven years), and providing the voice of Sideshow Bob on the Fox animated series The Simpsons. He was nominated for numerous Emmys, including one for playing Frasier Crane on three different sitcoms (the third being a guest appearance on Wings). He has worked as a television producer, director, writer, and a voice artist. Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to Sally (née Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar & grill. He is descended from Massachusetts Governor Thomas Dudley. His parents' marriage ended when he was young; his mother took him to live with her, and he was raised partly in New Jersey by his maternal grandparents, Evangeline Dimmock and Gordon Cranmer.
Family tragedies
Grammer's family life has been plagued by tragedies. In 1968, when Grammer was thirteen years old, his father, whom he had seen only twice since his parents' divorce, was killed on the front lawn of his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1975, his sister, Karen, was raped and murdered after being abducted outside a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where her boyfriend worked. In 1980, his fraternal twin younger half-brothers were killed by a shark in a scuba diving accident.
Grammer has sworn to prevent his sister's murderer, Freddie Lee Glenn, from being paroled; in July 2009, Glenn was denied parole at least in part due to a letter Grammer submitted to the parole board.
Career
Stage
After leaving Juilliard, he had a three-year internship with the Old Globe Theatre, in San Diego, in the late 1970s, before a stint in 1980 at the Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He made his Broadway debut in 1981, as "Lennox," in Macbeth, taking the lead role when Philip Anglim withdrew after receiving negative reviews. In 1983, he performed on the demo of the Stephen Sondheim–James Lapine production Sunday in the Park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin. Also featured on the demo was Christine Baranski, who later starred as Mrs. Lovett to Grammer's Sweeney Todd in the 1999 LA Reprise! production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Grammer then played Michael Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello, with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. On April 18, 2010, Grammer will make his Broadway musical debut playing the role of Georges in a revival of the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical La Cage aux Folles.
Television
His television career began in the early 1980s when he portrayed Stephen Smith in the NBC miniseries Kennedy. Grammer came to broader public attention as Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcom Cheers. Grammer's former Juilliard classmate and Broadway co-star Patinkin suggested Grammer to the New York casting director, and he got what was supposed to be a six-episode job but ended up as a regular cast member. The character became the center of the successful spin-off Frasier. Grammer reprised his role of Dr. Frasier Crane in a commercial for Dr Pepper.
In 2001, he negotiated a US$700,000-per-episode salary for Frasier, and his 20-year run playing Dr. Frasier Crane ties a length set by James Arness in playing Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975.
In 2005, he returned to series television on Fox, by attempting to create an American adaptation of The Sketch Show, a British sketch show. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett, Kaitlin Olson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Paul F. Tompkins, as well as Lee Mack from the British version of the show. Grammer appeared in only short opening and closing segments in each episode. Many of the sketches from the British version were recreated, such as the "California Dreamin'," "English Course," and "Sign Language" sketches. Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was canceled after only four of them had aired.
In addition to being producer, he guest-starred as the Angel of Death on Medium.
In 2007, Grammer returned to the sitcom format as the central character in the American sitcom Back to You, co-starring with Patricia Heaton. It was canceled by Fox after its first season.
Grammer's ABC sitcom Hank was canceled in its first season on Nov 11, 2009, saying at the end, "Honestly, it just wasn't very funny."
Voice work
Grammer's smooth, deep voice and Mid-Atlantic accent make him popular for voiceover work. He has provided the voice of Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons, winning an Emmy for his work in the episode "The Italian Bob." He has appeared in eleven episodes since the show's inception in 1989, the most recent being "Wedding for Disaster" that aired in early 2009. Grammer supplied the voices for "Stinky Pete the Prospector" in Toy Story 2, Vladimir in the Fox animated movie Anastasia, Zozi the Bear in the subsequently produced prequel Bartok the Magnificent, and the title character in the short-lived animated series Gary the Rat. He provided the opening speech and piano in The Vandals' song "Phone Machine" from the album Fear of a Punk Planet, and sang a rewritten version of the "grinch" on an episode of Just Shoot Me!. He was the voice of the mad scientist, Dr. Frankenollie, in the Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain.
Production work
His production company, Grammnet Productions, produces the CW sitcoms Girlfriends and The Game, the CBS drama Medium, and is involved in many other projects.
Other work
In film, his recent work includes the role of Dr. Hank McCoy (also known as Beast) in X-Men: The Last Stand and the voice of Snowball in the live-action film adaptation of the George Orwell classic book Animal Farm. Kelsey starred in the movie Swing Vote; the plot is based in part on the tight races for President of the United States, in which the vote is so tight that it comes down to one man's vote to determine the winner. Kelsey plays the Republican incumbent, a role that aligns with his own views. He played another role as General George S. Patton in An American Carol.
As part of his voice-over work, Grammer's voice has been featured in commercials. He was the voice of the original GEICO gecko, a talking reptile created by The Martin Agency in 1999. In the commercial, the gecko pleads for people to stop calling him in error, mistaking gecko for GEICO. Since 2006, Grammer has provided the voice for television commercials advertising the Hyundai Sonata, Hyundai Santa Fe, Hyundai Veracruz, and Hyundai Azera. He was chosen because his "refined and luxurious voice" would help build the up-and-coming car maker's new image as an affordable luxury automobile.
Recently he went onto the Internet and started www.KelseyLive.com and developed a new concept which he refers to as a "Branded Social Television Network". The site is a cross between Facebook and MySpace but branded to him then mixed with Amazon as there is shopping and Television where you can find all his old Frasier and Cheers episodes plus other film and TV projects he has done in the past. From his site he plans on developing new content for the net and also the studios. His most current project involves an animated cat call Gary Geezley which is in pre-production currently.
Awards
He won a number of Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Golden Globes for his work on Frasier. He was the first American actor ever to be nominated for multiple Emmy awards for portraying the same character on three different television shows (Cheers, Frasier, and Wings).
Grammer has received at least 45 nominations for major awards and has won on 18 occasions. He has received 14 individual Emmy Award nominations for 4 different television shows (plus an additional 2 as part of the Frasier ensemble) and has won on 5 occasions. At the Golden Globes, he has received eight nominations and twice been victorious. He has received two People's Choice Awards, and in 1999 his directorial skills were recognised with a nomination for a Directors Guild of America award for directing an episode of Frasier. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in X-Men: The Last Stand. On May 22, 2001, he was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television.
The following table gives a selection of the awards he has won.
Year Award Category
1994 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
1995 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
1995 American Comedy Award Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (Frasier)
1996 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series Comedy/Musical (Frasier)
1996 American Comedy Award Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (Frasier)
1998 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
2001 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series Comedy/Musical (Frasier)
2004 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
2006 Emmy Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (The Simpsons)
Personal life
Family
Grammer has been married three times. His first marriage, to dance instructor Doreen Alderman, lasted from 1982 to 1990. They had one daughter, Spencer Grammer (born October 9, 1983), an actress on the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns and the ABC Family show Greek.
His second marriage, to stripper Leigh-Anne Csuhany in 1992, lasted one year. Grammer says that she was abusive and that, after talk of divorce, she attempted suicide, which resulted in the miscarriage of their child. During this marriage, Grammer had a daughter out of wedlock, Greer Kandace (born February 15, 1992), with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner.
Grammer has been married since August 1997 to Camille Donatacci, a former Playboy model. They have a daughter, Mason Olivia (born October 24, 2001), and a son, Jude Gordon (born August 28, 2004), both born via surrogate mother. Grammer and Donatacci have homes in Malibu, California; Colorado; and New York. They have a holiday home on Maui.
Defamation lawsuit
In 1995, Grammer was sued by ex-girlfriend Cerlette Lamme for defamation of character and invasion of privacy over content he included in his autobiography So Far.
Sex tape lawsuit
In 1998, Grammer filed a lawsuit against Internet Entertainment Group, which Grammer claimed had stolen from his home a videotape of him having sex with a woman. IEG countersued Grammer, denying they were in possession of such a tape, and Grammer's suit was eventually dropped. IEG President Seth Warshavsky told the New York Post, "We have been presented with another Kelsey Grammer tape. But we have no plans to air it. We are still evaluating it at this time." Grammer later told Maxim, "Whether or not you’re a celebrity—even if you’re just an old slob with a video camera—you don’t realize you shouldn’t do it. So you throw the tape in the back of a dark closet until your old girlfriend remembers it’s there because you’re famous now and she’s not. But if you’re not prepared to do the time, don’t do the crime."
Copyright lawsuit
In August 2008, Bradley Blakeman, a former aide to George W. Bush, filed a copyright lawsuit in federal court on Long Island over Grammer's movie Swing Vote, claiming that parts of its plot and marketing had been stolen from him. The lawsuit claimed that Blakeman had given a copyrighted screenplay called Go November to Grammer in 2006, and that Grammer agreed to develop the project and star as a Republican president but instead ended up playing a similar role in Swing Vote, which was released on August 1, 2008. Grammer's spokesman dismissed the claims as "frivolous" and a "waste of time". The lawsuit claims that Blakeman's copyrighted screenplay had the same basic plot as Swing Vote.
Substance abuse
Grammer began drinking at age nine and became a frequent abuser of alcohol. In 1988, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for drunk driving and cocaine possession. He was again arrested for cocaine possession in August 1990 and was sentenced to three years' probation, fined $500, and given 300 hours of community service. In January 1991, he was given an additional two years' probation for violating his original probation through additional cocaine use. In September 1996, he flipped his Dodge Viper while intoxicated and subsequently checked in to the Betty Ford Center for 30 days.
Health problems
Grammer suffered a heart attack on May 31, 2008. He told Jay Leno on the July 24, 2008, airing of The Tonight Show that he had to wait one and a half hours for paramedics to arrive. He was hospitalized in Hawaii after he had symptoms while paddle-boating with his wife, Camille. He was released on June 4, 2008, and was listed as "resting comfortably" at his Hawaiian residence. Seven weeks after his attack, Grammer told Entertainment Tonight that, although at the time his spokesman described the attack as mild, it was in fact more severe, almost leading to his death, as his heart had stopped.
Grammer blamed Fox's decision to cancel his TV sitcom Back to You for his health problems, stating that "It was a very stressful time for me, and a surprise that it was cancelled. But you know, everything that doesn't kill us—which it almost did—makes us stronger!"
On June 28, 2008, Grammer checked into an undisclosed New York hospital after complaints of feeling faint. His publicist said that it may have been due to a reaction to medication.
Politics
Grammer is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in someday running for United States Congress.
Grammer was a celebrity guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration, along with Drew Carey, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Fred Thompson.
Grammer endorsed Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential primary and later campaigned for John McCain in the general election.
When asked by Maxim magazine about his political ambitions, Grammer replied, "It's a notion I have about the future, to run for office, to do the world some good. Maybe in 15 years or so, there may be a run for office. But I don’t know what I’d run for."
Filmography
Films
Year Film Role Notes
1992 Galaxies Are Colliding Peter
1995 Runaway Brain Dr. Frankenollie Short film
1996 Down Periscope Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge
1997 Anastasia Vladimir
1998 The Real Howard Spitz Howard Spitz
1999 Animal Farm Napoleon
New Jersey Turnpikes Unknown
Standing on Fishes Verk
Toy Story 2 "Stinky Pete" the Prospector
Bartok the Magnificent Zozi Direct-to-video release
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas Narrator Direct-to-video release
2001 15 Minutes Robert Hawkins
Just Visiting Narrator Uncredited
2003 The Big Empty Agent Banks
Barbie of Swan Lake Rothbart Direct-to-video release
2004 Teacher's Pet Dr. Ivan Krank
2005 The Good Humor Man Mr. Skibness Also executive producer
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand Dr. Henry 'Hank' McCoy/Beast
2007 Even Money Detective Brunner
2008 Swing Vote President Andrew Boone
An American Carol General George S. Patton
2009 Fame Joel Cranston
2010 Crazy on the Outside Frank
Bunyan and Babe Norm Blandsford Post-production
Middle Men Frank Griffin Post-production
TBA Alligator Point TBA
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1982 Macbeth Ross TV film
1983 Kennedy Stephen Smith TV miniseries
1984 Kate & Allie David Hamill Episode 1.1: "Allie's First Date"
George Washington Lt. Stewart TV miniseries
1984-1985 Another World Dr. Canard Recurring role
1984-1993 Cheers Dr. Frasier Crane Appeared in 201 episodes
1986 Crossings Craig Lawson TV miniseries
1987 Biography George Washington Episode: "Benedict Arnold"
J.J. Starbuck Pierce Morgan Episode 1.3: "Murder in E Minor"
1988 Dance 'til Dawn Ed Strull TV film
1989 Top of the Hill Unknown TV film
227 Mr. Anderson Episode 4.24: "For Sale"
1990 The Tracey Ullman Show Mr. Brenna Episode 4.12: "Maria and the Mister"
1990- The Simpsons Sideshow Bob Has appeared in eleven episodes
1991 Baby Talk Russell Episode 1.7: "One Night with Elliot"
1992 Wings Dr. Frasier Crane Episode 3.16: "Planes, Trains and Visiting Cranes"
Star Trek: The Next Generation Captain Bateson Episode 5.18: "Cause and Effect"
1993 Roc Detective Rush Episode 2.25: "To Love and Die on Emerson Street: Part 2"
Beyond Suspicion Ron McNally TV film
1993-2004 Frasier Dr. Frasier Crane Appeared in all 264 episodes;
also executive producer and director of 37 episodes
1994 The Innocent Det. Frank Barlow TV film
1995 The John Larroquette Show Dr. Frasier Crane Episode 3.1: "More Changes"
1996 London Suite Sydney Nichols TV film
1997 Fired Up Tom Whitman Episodes 1.3: "Who's the Boss" and 2.3: "You Don't Know Jack"; also executive producer
1998 The Pentagon Wars Major General Partridge TV film
Just Shoot Me! Narrator Episode 3.10: "How the Finch Stole Christmas"
1999 Animal Farm Snowball TV film
2000 Stark Raving Mad Professor Tuttle 1.17: "The Grade"
2001 Neurotic Tendencies N/A TV film; executive producer, director and writer
2000-2008 Girlfriends Executive producer
2001 The Sports Pages Howard Greene TV film
2002 Mr. St. Nick Nick St. Nicholas/Santa Claus the 21st TV film
2002-2003 In-Laws N/A Executive producer
2003 Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor George Washington TV film
Becker Rick Cooper Episode 5.13: "But I've Got Friends I Haven't Used Yet"
Gary the Rat Gary "The Rat" Andrews Appeared in all 13 episodes;
also executive producer
2004 A Christmas Carol Ebenezer Scrooge TV film
The Soluna Project N/A TV film; executive producer
2005 Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show Various characters Appeared in all four aired episodes;
also executive producer
Out of Practice N/A Directed episodes 1.1 and 1.18
2006 Medium Angel of Death Episode 2.21: "Death Takes a Policy"
Also executive producer
My Ex Life N/A Director
2006-2009 The Game N/A Executive producer
2007 Dash 4 Cash N/A TV film; executive producer
Everybody Hates Chris N/A Directed episode 2.22: "Everybody Hates the Last Day"
2007-2008 Back to You Chuck Darling Appeared in all 17 episodes
Also executive producer
2009 Hank Lead role Also executive producer
Video games
* The Simpsons Game (2007) - Sideshow Bob
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/21/10 at 7:01 am
The person who died on this day...Murray the K
Murray Kaufman (February 14, 1922 – February 21, 1982) professionally known as Murray the K, was a famous and influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. During the early days of Beatlemania, he frequently referred to himself as "the Fifth Beatle". In the late '40s and early '50s, he worked in public relations and as a song plugger, helping to promote tunes like Bob Merrill's "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window." From there, he worked as a radio producer and co-host at WMCA (and briefly thereafter at WMGM), working with personalities such as Laraine Day on the late night interview program "Day At Night" and with Eva Gabor. At the same time, he was doing promotion for several baseball players, including Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, and his radio beginnings may be attributable to his connection with the New York Giants, whose manager, Leo Durocher, was the husband of Laraine Day. His work on those shows earned him his own late-night show that often featured his wife as co-host, as was popular at the time. For a while in the 1950s he was president of the National Conference of Disk Jockeys.
Murray the K Fan Club promo shot
Deejay: from AM to FM
"This meeting of the Swingin' Soiree is now in session!"
Kaufman's big break came in 1958 after he moved to WINS-AM to do the all-night show, which he titled "The Swingin' Soiree." Shortly after his arrival, WINS's high energy star disk jockey, Alan Freed, was indicted for tax evasion and forced off the air. Though Freed's spot was briefly occupied by Bruce Morrow, who later became known as Cousin Brucie on WABC, Murray soon was moved into the 7-11PM time period and remained there for the next seven years, always opening his show with Sinatra and making radio history with his innovative segues, jingles, sound effects, antics, and frenetic, creative programming. Jeff Rice, writing in M/C Journal, says that Tom Wolfe calls Murray "the original hysterical disk jockey"
Murray the K, the "Fifth Beatle"
"The Fifth Beatle"
Murray the K reached his peak of popularity in the mid 1960s when, as the top-rated radio host in New York City, he became an early and ardent supporter and friend of The Beatles. When the Beatles came to New York in February, 1964, Murray was the first DJ they welcomed into their circle, having heard about him and his Brooklyn Fox shows from American acts who visited England. Murray did his radio show from their Plaza Hotel room their first night in New York and accompanied them to Washington, D.C. for their first U.S. concert, was backstage at their Ed Sullivan Show premiere, and roomed with Beatles guitarist George Harrison in Miami, broadcasting his shows from there. He came to be referred to as the "Fifth Beatle," a moniker he said he was given either by Harrison during the train ride to the Beatles' first concert in Washington D.C. or by Ringo Starr at a press conference before that concert. (However, in The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit he is seen christening himself thus in a phone conversation with the Beatles on the morning of their arrival in New York). His radio station WINS picked up on the name and billed him as the Fifth Beatle, a moniker he came to regret. He was invited to the set of A Hard Day's Night in England and made several treks to England during 1964, giving WINS listeners more Beatle exclusives.
The move to FM
By the end of 1964, Murray found out that WINS was going to change to an all news format the following year. He resigned on the air in December '64 (breaking news about the sale of the station and the change in format before the station and Group W released it) and did his last show on February 27 prior to the format change that occurred in April 1965. A year later, in 1966, the FCC ruled that AM and FM radio stations could no longer simply simultaneously broadcast the same content, opening the door for Murray to become program director and primetime dj on WOR-FM — one of the first FM rock stations, soon airing such djs as Rosko and Scott Muni in the new FM format. Murray played long album cuts rather than singles, often playing groups of songs by one artist, or thematically linked songs, uninterrupted by commercials. He combined live in-studio interviews with folk-rock — he called it "attitude music" — and all forms of popular music in a free-form format. He played artists like Bob Dylan and Janis Ian, the long album versions of their songs that came to be known as the "FM cuts". Al Aronowitz quotes Murray as saying, about his this formula, "You didn't have to hype the record any more. The music was speaking for itself."
Dylan
During that time Murray was often a champion of the much-maligned electric Bob Dylan. He introduced him to boos at a huge Forest Hills Tennis Stadium concert in August 1965, saying "It's not rock, it's not folk, it's a new thing called Dylan."
He defended Dylan on a WABC-TV panel:
"Even in his months of seclusion after the motorcycle accident, WABC-TV dedicated a television show to a discussion of what Bob Dylan was really like. When one member of the panel accused Dylan of all but inventing juvenile delinquency, there was only Murray the K to defend him. 'Is Bob Dylan every kid's father?' Murray asked."
And he played his music, full length, on the radio.
Last years in radio
Murray's WOR-FM radio was a cultural phenomenon and commercially successful, but after a year management wanted more commercial appeal and tried to force Murray to use a set playlist; he refused, then had a heart attack. WOR switched to an oldies format and Murray the K left New York radio to host programs in Toronto - on CHUM -and on WHFS in the Washington D.C. area. He returned to New York in 1970 on the weekend show NBC Monitor and as a fill-in morning dj, and then in 1972 moved to a regular evening weekend program on WNBC radio where Don Imus was broadcasting; he was joined there by the legendary Wolfman Jack, a year later. Although it was low-key, Murray's WNBC show featured his own innovative trademark programming style, including telling stories that were illustrated by selected songs, his unique segues, and his pairing cuts by theme or idiosyncratic associations. In early 1975, he was brought on for a brief stint at legendary Long Island alternative rock station WLIR, and his final New York radio show ran later that year on WKTU-FM after which - already in ill health - he moved to Los Angeles.
1964 Holiday Revue at the Fox
Brooklyn Fox shows
Throughout his New York radio career, Kaufman was renowned for the multi-racial rock 'n' roll shows he produced three or four times a year, usually during the Easter school recess, the week before Labor Day, and between Christmas and New Year at the Brooklyn Fox Theater. Those shows featured the top performers of the era and introduced new acts, such as Dionne Warwick, Chuck Jackson, The Zombies, Little Anthony & The Imperials, the Ronettes, the Shangri-Las, Gene Pitney, Ben E. King, the Four Tops, Wayne Newton, Bobby Vinton (who was the leader of the house band when he asked for a chance to perform as a singer), The Lovin' Spoonful, Cream, and The Who, among many others. He was known for promoting original black and Latino artists rather than white covers of their songs, at a time when that was not popular.
Records, television, stage, and syndication
Throughout his radio career, from the 50s through the 70s, Murray also released numerous LP record albums, often compilations of hits by the acts that appeared in his famous Brooklyn Fox shows. These albums frequently had names such as "Murray the K's Blasts from the Past" or "Murray the K's Sing Along with the Original Golden Gassers".
"Meusurray" (named after a language Murray invented and used quite often on his 1010 WINS radio show) was a single by a girl group called The Delicates, released on the United Artists label. The Delicates were Denise Ferri, Arleen Lanzotti and Peggy Santiglia, known as Murray's "dancing girls". They wrote the song which was arranged by Don Costa. The Delicates also wrote and recorded his "Submarine Race Watcher" theme, used to open and close his radio show. It was during the "twist craze" that Kaufman introduced a song sung by an unidentified artist named, "The Lone Twister". Of course, the artist was Murray.
In the mid-'60s, Kaufman also produced and hosted television variety shows featuring rock performers. The best known was a national broadcast entitled It's What's Happening, Baby which was made under the auspices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The show aired on June 28, 1965 and featured performances by many of the popular artists of the day like Jan & Dean, Mary Wells, the Dave Clark Five, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles, The Drifters, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers and Little Anthony & the Imperials That show also introduced the first music video-style programming, pre-dating MTV by 15 years.
In 1967, Murray produced and wrote "Murray the K in New York" which expanded on the music video-style approach he began in It's What's Happening, Baby and featured an eclectic line-up of stars, including The Doors, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Spanky & Our Gang, and The Four Tops with guest appearances by Ed Sullivan and Joe Namath.
Other locally broadcast shows from the period included "Murray the K at Shea" with James Brown and The Four Seasons and "Music in the Year 2000."
In 1968, Murray produced and hosted a studio panel discussion program entitled "The Sound is Now"; it included appearances by Phil Ochs and Sonny and Cher who were grilled by Henry Morgan and Tex McCrary.
Kaufman also created Murray the K's World, a multimedia discothèque in an abandoned airplane hangar at Roosevelt Field on Long Island where live and recorded music played while slides and film were projected.
During the early 1970s, Murray acted as a special consultant to the stage show Beatlemania, and he toured the country giving interviews on behalf of the show.
In Los Angeles in the late 70s he hosted Watermark's syndicated "Soundtrack of the '60s" until ill health forced him to resign and forced the cancellation of "A Salute to Murray the K," a tribute concert slated for Madison Square Garden.
Film
Kaufman was parodied in the film The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash as a radio host named Bill Murray the K, played by actor Bill Murray. Kaufman appeared as a guest star on a 1960s series entitled "Coronet Blue," receiving very good reviews, and also appeared as himself, to not-so-good reviews, in I Wanna Hold Your Hand, a film by Academy Award winner Robert Zemeckis.
Kaufman also appeared - opposite Harvey Keitel - in the 1975 film That's the Way of the World directed by Sig Shore.
Family and death
He was married six times and had three sons, Peter (Altschuler), Jeff and Keith. His first wife, Anna May, died in childbirth. He was married to his second, Toni, for three years; his third, Beverly, for three months; his fourth, Claire, for about nine years in the 1950s; his fifth, Jackie Hayes (called "Jackie the K"), until about 1973; and finally, his sixth, actress Jackie Zeman for just one year, although they were together for seven years before marrying.
Kaufman died of cancer a week after his 60th birthday on February 21, 1982.
Legacy
He shares writing credit with his mother and Bobby Darin for Darin's breakout song, "Splish Splash"
Beginning in 1960, Kaufman's rock 'n' roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount theater (as co-host with Clay Cole), Manhattan's Academy of Music theater on 14th Street and, predominantly, the Brooklyn Fox theater provided an inter-racial environment in which the performers and the audiences both thrived. The week-long, eight-show-a-day presentations continued throughout the most explosive periods of civil rights unrest in the mid-'60s, culminating in Kaufman's final show at the RKO 58th Street theater in Manhattan with a line-up that included The Who and Cream in their American debuts.
Murray was the author of a 1966 book, Murray the K Tells It Like It Is, Baby.
Kaufman was program director and primetime evening DJ on the nation's first FM rock station WOR-FM, changing the way in which radio listeners heard rock music. During the short run of progressive rock programming - the station switched to an oldies format within the first year - listeners would have been able to hear the full, album versions of songs like Positively Fourth Street and Society's Child which were either played in shorter versions on AM radio or not played at all.
He is mentioned in the 1980 Ramones song Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? as well as Who Will Save Rock 'n' Roll by the Dictators.
He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.
Recordings made by Murray Kaufman
* 1955 Fraternity F-714 "The Crazy Otto Rag" as by Ludwig Von Kaufman/"Out Of The Bushes" as by Murray Kaufman (made before becoming a DJ at WMCA)
* 1958 Murray Kaufman Part 1/Part 2 (Part 1 is a 1010WINS radio jingle item featuring Murray and the Delicates and his themes; Part 2 is his "Ah, Bey, ah bey, koowi zowa zowa" chant, along with an explanation of its meaning.) The chant was lifted intact from a Thomas J. Valentino music library recording (on the Major Records label) entitled "African Drums With Native Chants" on the A side and "Drums (African)," "Native Work Chant (African)," and "Native Choral Chant (African)" on the B side.
* 1961 Atlantic 2130 "The Lone Twister"/"Twistin' Up A Storm" as by The Lone Twister
Murray the K's Sing Along with the Original Golden Gassers, 1961
Catchphrases
* "Ah Bey!"
* "kooma zowa zowa"
* "It's what's happening, baby!"
* "submarine race watching"
* "blast from the past"
* "Me-a-surray" language, his own version of pig Latin
* the "Swingin' Soiree"
* "golden gassers"
* the Record Review Board
* his hats
* "grand kook"
* "ain't that a kick in the head"
* "dancing girls"
* "play 'em red hot and blue"
* "the grand commodore"
* "the halvah plantation"
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/21/10 at 7:56 am
The person born on this day...Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955), best known as Kelsey Grammer, is an American actor, producer, director, writer, voice artist and comedian best known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC situation comedies Cheers (nine years) and Frasier (eleven years), and providing the voice of Sideshow Bob on the Fox animated series The Simpsons. He was nominated for numerous Emmys, including one for playing Frasier Crane on three different sitcoms (the third being a guest appearance on Wings). He has worked as a television producer, director, writer, and a voice artist. Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to Sally (née Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and owner of a coffee shop and a bar & grill. He is descended from Massachusetts Governor Thomas Dudley. His parents' marriage ended when he was young; his mother took him to live with her, and he was raised partly in New Jersey by his maternal grandparents, Evangeline Dimmock and Gordon Cranmer.
Family tragedies
Grammer's family life has been plagued by tragedies. In 1968, when Grammer was thirteen years old, his father, whom he had seen only twice since his parents' divorce, was killed on the front lawn of his home in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1975, his sister, Karen, was raped and murdered after being abducted outside a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where her boyfriend worked. In 1980, his fraternal twin younger half-brothers were killed by a shark in a scuba diving accident.
Grammer has sworn to prevent his sister's murderer, Freddie Lee Glenn, from being paroled; in July 2009, Glenn was denied parole at least in part due to a letter Grammer submitted to the parole board.
Career
Stage
After leaving Juilliard, he had a three-year internship with the Old Globe Theatre, in San Diego, in the late 1970s, before a stint in 1980 at the Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He made his Broadway debut in 1981, as "Lennox," in Macbeth, taking the lead role when Philip Anglim withdrew after receiving negative reviews. In 1983, he performed on the demo of the Stephen Sondheim–James Lapine production Sunday in the Park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin. Also featured on the demo was Christine Baranski, who later starred as Mrs. Lovett to Grammer's Sweeney Todd in the 1999 LA Reprise! production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Grammer then played Michael Cassio in a Broadway revival of Othello, with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer. On April 18, 2010, Grammer will make his Broadway musical debut playing the role of Georges in a revival of the Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical La Cage aux Folles.
Television
His television career began in the early 1980s when he portrayed Stephen Smith in the NBC miniseries Kennedy. Grammer came to broader public attention as Dr. Frasier Crane in the NBC sitcom Cheers. Grammer's former Juilliard classmate and Broadway co-star Patinkin suggested Grammer to the New York casting director, and he got what was supposed to be a six-episode job but ended up as a regular cast member. The character became the center of the successful spin-off Frasier. Grammer reprised his role of Dr. Frasier Crane in a commercial for Dr Pepper.
In 2001, he negotiated a US$700,000-per-episode salary for Frasier, and his 20-year run playing Dr. Frasier Crane ties a length set by James Arness in playing Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975.
In 2005, he returned to series television on Fox, by attempting to create an American adaptation of The Sketch Show, a British sketch show. The main cast consisted of Malcolm Barrett, Kaitlin Olson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Paul F. Tompkins, as well as Lee Mack from the British version of the show. Grammer appeared in only short opening and closing segments in each episode. Many of the sketches from the British version were recreated, such as the "California Dreamin'," "English Course," and "Sign Language" sketches. Only six episodes of the show were made, and it was canceled after only four of them had aired.
In addition to being producer, he guest-starred as the Angel of Death on Medium.
In 2007, Grammer returned to the sitcom format as the central character in the American sitcom Back to You, co-starring with Patricia Heaton. It was canceled by Fox after its first season.
Grammer's ABC sitcom Hank was canceled in its first season on Nov 11, 2009, saying at the end, "Honestly, it just wasn't very funny."
Voice work
Grammer's smooth, deep voice and Mid-Atlantic accent make him popular for voiceover work. He has provided the voice of Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons, winning an Emmy for his work in the episode "The Italian Bob." He has appeared in eleven episodes since the show's inception in 1989, the most recent being "Wedding for Disaster" that aired in early 2009. Grammer supplied the voices for "Stinky Pete the Prospector" in Toy Story 2, Vladimir in the Fox animated movie Anastasia, Zozi the Bear in the subsequently produced prequel Bartok the Magnificent, and the title character in the short-lived animated series Gary the Rat. He provided the opening speech and piano in The Vandals' song "Phone Machine" from the album Fear of a Punk Planet, and sang a rewritten version of the "grinch" on an episode of Just Shoot Me!. He was the voice of the mad scientist, Dr. Frankenollie, in the Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain.
Production work
His production company, Grammnet Productions, produces the CW sitcoms Girlfriends and The Game, the CBS drama Medium, and is involved in many other projects.
Other work
In film, his recent work includes the role of Dr. Hank McCoy (also known as Beast) in X-Men: The Last Stand and the voice of Snowball in the live-action film adaptation of the George Orwell classic book Animal Farm. Kelsey starred in the movie Swing Vote; the plot is based in part on the tight races for President of the United States, in which the vote is so tight that it comes down to one man's vote to determine the winner. Kelsey plays the Republican incumbent, a role that aligns with his own views. He played another role as General George S. Patton in An American Carol.
As part of his voice-over work, Grammer's voice has been featured in commercials. He was the voice of the original GEICO gecko, a talking reptile created by The Martin Agency in 1999. In the commercial, the gecko pleads for people to stop calling him in error, mistaking gecko for GEICO. Since 2006, Grammer has provided the voice for television commercials advertising the Hyundai Sonata, Hyundai Santa Fe, Hyundai Veracruz, and Hyundai Azera. He was chosen because his "refined and luxurious voice" would help build the up-and-coming car maker's new image as an affordable luxury automobile.
Recently he went onto the Internet and started www.KelseyLive.com and developed a new concept which he refers to as a "Branded Social Television Network". The site is a cross between Facebook and MySpace but branded to him then mixed with Amazon as there is shopping and Television where you can find all his old Frasier and Cheers episodes plus other film and TV projects he has done in the past. From his site he plans on developing new content for the net and also the studios. His most current project involves an animated cat call Gary Geezley which is in pre-production currently.
Awards
He won a number of Emmys, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Golden Globes for his work on Frasier. He was the first American actor ever to be nominated for multiple Emmy awards for portraying the same character on three different television shows (Cheers, Frasier, and Wings).
Grammer has received at least 45 nominations for major awards and has won on 18 occasions. He has received 14 individual Emmy Award nominations for 4 different television shows (plus an additional 2 as part of the Frasier ensemble) and has won on 5 occasions. At the Golden Globes, he has received eight nominations and twice been victorious. He has received two People's Choice Awards, and in 1999 his directorial skills were recognised with a nomination for a Directors Guild of America award for directing an episode of Frasier. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in X-Men: The Last Stand. On May 22, 2001, he was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television.
The following table gives a selection of the awards he has won.
Year Award Category
1994 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
1995 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
1995 American Comedy Award Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (Frasier)
1996 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series Comedy/Musical (Frasier)
1996 American Comedy Award Funniest Male Performer in a TV Series (Frasier)
1998 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
2001 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series Comedy/Musical (Frasier)
2004 Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Frasier)
2006 Emmy Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (The Simpsons)
Personal life
Family
Grammer has been married three times. His first marriage, to dance instructor Doreen Alderman, lasted from 1982 to 1990. They had one daughter, Spencer Grammer (born October 9, 1983), an actress on the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns and the ABC Family show Greek.
His second marriage, to stripper Leigh-Anne Csuhany in 1992, lasted one year. Grammer says that she was abusive and that, after talk of divorce, she attempted suicide, which resulted in the miscarriage of their child. During this marriage, Grammer had a daughter out of wedlock, Greer Kandace (born February 15, 1992), with hair and makeup stylist Barrie Buckner.
Grammer has been married since August 1997 to Camille Donatacci, a former Playboy model. They have a daughter, Mason Olivia (born October 24, 2001), and a son, Jude Gordon (born August 28, 2004), both born via surrogate mother. Grammer and Donatacci have homes in Malibu, California; Colorado; and New York. They have a holiday home on Maui.
Defamation lawsuit
In 1995, Grammer was sued by ex-girlfriend Cerlette Lamme for defamation of character and invasion of privacy over content he included in his autobiography So Far.
Sex tape lawsuit
In 1998, Grammer filed a lawsuit against Internet Entertainment Group, which Grammer claimed had stolen from his home a videotape of him having sex with a woman. IEG countersued Grammer, denying they were in possession of such a tape, and Grammer's suit was eventually dropped. IEG President Seth Warshavsky told the New York Post, "We have been presented with another Kelsey Grammer tape. But we have no plans to air it. We are still evaluating it at this time." Grammer later told Maxim, "Whether or not you’re a celebrity—even if you’re just an old slob with a video camera—you don’t realize you shouldn’t do it. So you throw the tape in the back of a dark closet until your old girlfriend remembers it’s there because you’re famous now and she’s not. But if you’re not prepared to do the time, don’t do the crime."
Copyright lawsuit
In August 2008, Bradley Blakeman, a former aide to George W. Bush, filed a copyright lawsuit in federal court on Long Island over Grammer's movie Swing Vote, claiming that parts of its plot and marketing had been stolen from him. The lawsuit claimed that Blakeman had given a copyrighted screenplay called Go November to Grammer in 2006, and that Grammer agreed to develop the project and star as a Republican president but instead ended up playing a similar role in Swing Vote, which was released on August 1, 2008. Grammer's spokesman dismissed the claims as "frivolous" and a "waste of time". The lawsuit claims that Blakeman's copyrighted screenplay had the same basic plot as Swing Vote.
Substance abuse
Grammer began drinking at age nine and became a frequent abuser of alcohol. In 1988, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for drunk driving and cocaine possession. He was again arrested for cocaine possession in August 1990 and was sentenced to three years' probation, fined $500, and given 300 hours of community service. In January 1991, he was given an additional two years' probation for violating his original probation through additional cocaine use. In September 1996, he flipped his Dodge Viper while intoxicated and subsequently checked in to the Betty Ford Center for 30 days.
Health problems
Grammer suffered a heart attack on May 31, 2008. He told Jay Leno on the July 24, 2008, airing of The Tonight Show that he had to wait one and a half hours for paramedics to arrive. He was hospitalized in Hawaii after he had symptoms while paddle-boating with his wife, Camille. He was released on June 4, 2008, and was listed as "resting comfortably" at his Hawaiian residence. Seven weeks after his attack, Grammer told Entertainment Tonight that, although at the time his spokesman described the attack as mild, it was in fact more severe, almost leading to his death, as his heart had stopped.
Grammer blamed Fox's decision to cancel his TV sitcom Back to You for his health problems, stating that "It was a very stressful time for me, and a surprise that it was cancelled. But you know, everything that doesn't kill us—which it almost did—makes us stronger!"
On June 28, 2008, Grammer checked into an undisclosed New York hospital after complaints of feeling faint. His publicist said that it may have been due to a reaction to medication.
Politics
Grammer is a member of the Republican Party and has expressed an interest in someday running for United States Congress.
Grammer was a celebrity guest at President George W. Bush's first inauguration, along with Drew Carey, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Fred Thompson.
Grammer endorsed Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential primary and later campaigned for John McCain in the general election.
When asked by Maxim magazine about his political ambitions, Grammer replied, "It's a notion I have about the future, to run for office, to do the world some good. Maybe in 15 years or so, there may be a run for office. But I don’t know what I’d run for."
Filmography
Films
Year Film Role Notes
1992 Galaxies Are Colliding Peter
1995 Runaway Brain Dr. Frankenollie Short film
1996 Down Periscope Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge
1997 Anastasia Vladimir
1998 The Real Howard Spitz Howard Spitz
1999 Animal Farm Napoleon
New Jersey Turnpikes Unknown
Standing on Fishes Verk
Toy Story 2 "Stinky Pete" the Prospector
Bartok the Magnificent Zozi Direct-to-video release
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas Narrator Direct-to-video release
2001 15 Minutes Robert Hawkins
Just Visiting Narrator Uncredited
2003 The Big Empty Agent Banks
Barbie of Swan Lake Rothbart Direct-to-video release
2004 Teacher's Pet Dr. Ivan Krank
2005 The Good Humor Man Mr. Skibness Also executive producer
2006 X-Men: The Last Stand Dr. Henry 'Hank' McCoy/Beast
2007 Even Money Detective Brunner
2008 Swing Vote President Andrew Boone
An American Carol General George S. Patton
2009 Fame Joel Cranston
2010 Crazy on the Outside Frank
Bunyan and Babe Norm Blandsford Post-production
Middle Men Frank Griffin Post-production
TBA Alligator Point TBA
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1982 Macbeth Ross TV film
1983 Kennedy Stephen Smith TV miniseries
1984 Kate & Allie David Hamill Episode 1.1: "Allie's First Date"
George Washington Lt. Stewart TV miniseries
1984-1985 Another World Dr. Canard Recurring role
1984-1993 Cheers Dr. Frasier Crane Appeared in 201 episodes
1986 Crossings Craig Lawson TV miniseries
1987 Biography George Washington Episode: "Benedict Arnold"
J.J. Starbuck Pierce Morgan Episode 1.3: "Murder in E Minor"
1988 Dance 'til Dawn Ed Strull TV film
1989 Top of the Hill Unknown TV film
227 Mr. Anderson Episode 4.24: "For Sale"
1990 The Tracey Ullman Show Mr. Brenna Episode 4.12: "Maria and the Mister"
1990- The Simpsons Sideshow Bob Has appeared in eleven episodes
1991 Baby Talk Russell Episode 1.7: "One Night with Elliot"
1992 Wings Dr. Frasier Crane Episode 3.16: "Planes, Trains and Visiting Cranes"
Star Trek: The Next Generation Captain Bateson Episode 5.18: "Cause and Effect"
1993 Roc Detective Rush Episode 2.25: "To Love and Die on Emerson Street: Part 2"
Beyond Suspicion Ron McNally TV film
1993-2004 Frasier Dr. Frasier Crane Appeared in all 264 episodes;
also executive producer and director of 37 episodes
1994 The Innocent Det. Frank Barlow TV film
1995 The John Larroquette Show Dr. Frasier Crane Episode 3.1: "More Changes"
1996 London Suite Sydney Nichols TV film
1997 Fired Up Tom Whitman Episodes 1.3: "Who's the Boss" and 2.3: "You Don't Know Jack"; also executive producer
1998 The Pentagon Wars Major General Partridge TV film
Just Shoot Me! Narrator Episode 3.10: "How the Finch Stole Christmas"
1999 Animal Farm Snowball TV film
2000 Stark Raving Mad Professor Tuttle 1.17: "The Grade"
2001 Neurotic Tendencies N/A TV film; executive producer, director and writer
2000-2008 Girlfriends Executive producer
2001 The Sports Pages Howard Greene TV film
2002 Mr. St. Nick Nick St. Nicholas/Santa Claus the 21st TV film
2002-2003 In-Laws N/A Executive producer
2003 Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor George Washington TV film
Becker Rick Cooper Episode 5.13: "But I've Got Friends I Haven't Used Yet"
Gary the Rat Gary "The Rat" Andrews Appeared in all 13 episodes;
also executive producer
2004 A Christmas Carol Ebenezer Scrooge TV film
The Soluna Project N/A TV film; executive producer
2005 Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show Various characters Appeared in all four aired episodes;
also executive producer
Out of Practice N/A Directed episodes 1.1 and 1.18
2006 Medium Angel of Death Episode 2.21: "Death Takes a Policy"
Also executive producer
My Ex Life N/A Director
2006-2009 The Game N/A Executive producer
2007 Dash 4 Cash N/A TV film; executive producer
Everybody Hates Chris N/A Directed episode 2.22: "Everybody Hates the Last Day"
2007-2008 Back to You Chuck Darling Appeared in all 17 episodes
Also executive producer
2009 Hank Lead role Also executive producer
Video games
* The Simpsons Game (2007) - Sideshow Bob
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Frasier was such a funny show,still is.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/21/10 at 9:23 am
British Person of the Day: Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is a British actor and theatre director born in England. Rickman is known for his performances in film as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is also known for his prominent roles as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1991 blockbuster film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; as Colonel Brandon in the Oscar-winning 1995 Sense and Sensibility and, more recently, Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Early life
Rickman was born in Hammersmith, London to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. Rickman's mother was Welsh and a Methodist and his father was of Irish Catholic background. He has one elder brother David, a younger brother Michael and a younger sister Sheila. Rickman attended an infants' school in Acton that followed the Montessori method of education. When he was eight his father died, leaving his mother to bring up four children mostly alone. She married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life," Rickman later said. Rickman excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, and from Derwentwater Junior School he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he started getting involved in drama. After leaving Latymer, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and made his way as a graphic designer, which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18," he said. Rickman received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) which he attended from 1972–1974. While there, he studied Shakespeare's works and supported himself working as a dresser for Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson, and left after winning several prizes such as the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal.
Career
After graduating from the RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo And Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It. He was the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Christopher Hampton, which was a sellout. When the show went across the Atlantic in 1986, Rickman went on with it to Broadway and there earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance.
While with the RSC he shared a house with fellow company member Ruby Wax. Rickman put her into writing comedy and proceeded to direct several of her successful shows. "If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work", he said. In 1992, in an interview for The Big Issue magazine, Rickman said,
"You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognises something about themselves or they don't — You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking 'that was nice...now where's the cab?'"
To television audiences he also became known as Mr. Slope in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers. He played future Irish Taoiseach and president Éamon de Valera in the film Michael Collins alongside Liam Neeson as the title character. While playing romantic leads in British movies (Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility; Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply), he was generally typecast in Hollywood films as an over-the-top villain (German terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). His role in Die Hard earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of the "100 Best Heroes/Villains" as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.
Rickman has also played comedic roles in films such as Galaxy Quest, Dogma, and as Emma Thompson's foolish husband in Love Actually. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his performance as Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004's Something the Lord Made. Rickman was cast in 2005 as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film. Coincidentally, Rickman and David Learner, who occupied Marvin's costume for the TV adaptation and stage shows, studied together at RADA. He was very busy in 2006 with Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.
Rickman has performed on stage in Noel Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan, and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production.
His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa's Tango at the End of Winter in London's West End and the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua. He directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995. He also directed the film version in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law.
Rickman has also been featured in several musical works — most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard. Moreover, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track The Bell. Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002-released When Love Speaks CD, and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled In Demand, which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.
Rickman played Severus Snape, the seemingly sinister potions master of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter saga, in the six films of that series to date. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly named him one of their favourite people in pop culture, saying that in the Harry Potter films, "he may not be on screen long - but he owns every minute," and that he is capable of "turning a simple retort into a mini-symphony of contempt."
Rickman directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for best director. The production is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American woman who was killed on 16 March 2003 by an Israeli armoured bulldozer. The show played at the West End's Playhouse Theatre in London from March to May 2006. The play also ran at both the Galway Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival in 2006.
In 1995 Rickman turned down the role of Alec Trevelyan in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. Rickman has taken issue with being labelled as a "villain actor", citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991. He has further said that he has continued to portray characters of complex and varying emotions, and does not think it is fair to assign characters a label of good or evil, hero or villain. Prior to the book release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rickman had spoken on occasion about Snape quite easily, but with the controversy of the character following the events of the sixth book, Rickman refused to speak on the character.
In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically-acclaimed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton, alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. According to Miami Herald, Rickman's performance "makes the judge's villainy something to simultaneously savor and despise", with his "oozing moral rot and arrogance". Rickman will also be appearing as The Caterpillar in the upcoming 2010 Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry and Anne Hathaway.
Filmography
1978 Romeo and Juliet
1982 The Barchester Chronicles
1985 Return of the Native
1988 Die Hard
1989 The January Man
1990 Quigley Down Under
1991 Truly Madly Deeply
1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
1991 Close My Eyes
1991 Closet Land
1992 Bob Roberts
1994 Mesmer
1995 An Awfully Big Adventure
1995 Sense and Sensibility
1996 Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny
1996 Michael Collins
1997 The Winter Guest
1998 Judas Kiss
1998 Dark Harbor
1999 Dogma
1999 Galaxy Quest
2000 Help! I'm a Fish!
2000 Blow Dry
2001 The Search for John Gissing
2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in United States)
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2002 King of the Hill
2003 Love Actually
2004 Something the Lord Made
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2006 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
2006 Snow Cake
2007 Nobel Son
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2008 Bottle Shock
2008 We're Here To Help
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2010 Alice in Wonderland
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
2010 The Villa Golitsyn
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Severus-Snape-severus-snape-117858_549_293.jpg
http://www.mtv.com/movies/photos/h/harry_potter_half_blood_prince_cast_071114/alan_rickman.jpg
I LOVE Alan Rickman. I think he plays a great sleezoid. I love the way he delivers the line in the first Harry Potter "Someone might think you were.....UP to something." I think he is a great actor.
I read this story one time that after Robin Hood, he sent a photo of him on top of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (which was taken towards the end of the movie) to her husband and wrote, "Happy Christmas" on it. ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/22/10 at 6:33 am
The word of the day...Garden(s)
In British English, a garden is a piece of land next to a house, with flowers, vegetables, other plants, and often grass. In American English, the usual word is yard, and a garden refers only to land which is used for growing flowers and vegetables.
If you garden, you do work in your garden such as weeding or planting.
Gardens are places like a park that have areas of plants, trees, and grass, and that people can visit and walk around.
Gardens is sometimes used as part of the name of a street.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/22/10 at 6:36 am
The person born on this day...Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, film producer and film director. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was eleven months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered States in 1980. Afterwards, she starred in her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood's most recognized child actors, going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles.
Following a turbulent childhood which was marked by drug and alcohol abuse and two stints in rehab, Barrymore wrote the 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. She successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress with a number of films including Poison Ivy, Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, and Everyone Says I Love You. Subsequently, she established herself in romantic comedies such as The Wedding Singer and Lucky You.
In 1990, she and partner Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films, with its first production the 1999 Barrymore film Never Been Kissed. Flower Films has gone on to produce the Barrymore vehicle films Charlie's Angels, 50 First Dates, and Music and Lyrics, as well as the cult film Donnie Darko. Barrymore's more recent projects include He's Just Not That into You, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and Everybody's Fine. A recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Barrymore appeared on the cover of the 2007 People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful issue.
Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, she has donated over $1 million to the program. In 2007, she became both CoverGirl's newest model and spokeswoman for the cosmetic and the face for Gucci's newest jewelry line.
In 2010 she was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for her portrayal of Little Edie in Grey Gardens.
Barrymore's career began when she auditioned for a dog food commercial at eleven months old. When she was bitten by her canine co-star, the producers were afraid she would cry, but she merely laughed, and was hired for the job. She made her film debut in Altered States (1980), in which she got a small part. A year later, she landed the role of Gertie, the younger sister of Elliott, in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which made her famous. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1984 for her role in Irreconcilable Differences, in which she starred as a young girl divorcing her parents. In a review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert states: "Barrymore is the right actress for this role precisely because she approaches it with such grave calm." He concludes with saying that "The Drew Barrymore character sees right through all of this. She doesn't care about careers, she wants to be given a happy home and her minimum daily requirement of love, and, in a way, the movie is about how Hollywood (and American success in general) tends to cut adults off from the natural functions of parents."
Rebellious era
In the wake of this sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood. She was already a regular at the famed Studio 54 when she was a little girl, smoking cigarettes at age nine, drinking alcohol by the time she was 11, smoking marijuana at 12, and snorting cocaine at 13. Her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was in rehab at age 13. A suicide attempt at age 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety." Barrymore later described this period of her life in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. The next year, following a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment and has never relapsed.
New image
In her late teens, Barrymore forged a new image as she played a manipulative teenage seductress in Poison Ivy (1992), which was a box office failure, but was popular on video and cable. That same year, at the age of 17, she posed nude for the cover of the July issue of Interview magazine with her then-fiancé, actor Jamie Walters, as well as appearing nude in pictures inside the issue. In 1993, Barrymore earned a second Golden Globe nomination for the film Guncrazy. Barrymore would go on to pose nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy. Steven Spielberg, who directed her in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial when she was a child, gave her a quilt for her twentieth birthday with a note that read, "Cover yourself up". Enclosed were copies of her Playboy pictures, with the pictures altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed. She would appear nude in five of her films during this period. During a 1995 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore climbed onto David Letterman's desk and bared her breasts to him, her back to the camera, in celebration of his birthday. She modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time. She underwent breast reduction surgery in 1992, and has said on the subject:
I really love my body and the way it is right now. There's something very awkward about women and their breasts because men look at them so much. When they're huge, you become very self-conscious. Your back hurts. You find that whatever you wear, you look heavy in. It's uncomfortable. I've learned something, though, about breasts through my years of pondering and pontificating, and that is: Men love them, and I love that.
Return to prominence
In 1995, Barrymore starred in Boys on the Side opposite Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker, and had a cameo role in Joel Schumacher's film Batman Forever, in which she portrayed a moll to Tommy Lee Jones' character, Two-Face. The following year, she made a cameo in the successful horror film Scream. Barrymore has continued to be highly bankable, and a top box office draw. She was frequently cast in romantic comedies such as Wishful Thinking (1996), The Wedding Singer (1998), and Home Fries (1998).
Barrymore at the Tribeca Film Festival, May 2007.
Besides a number of appearances in films produced by her company, Flower Films, including Charlie's Angels, Barrymore had a dramatic role in the comedy/drama Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), playing a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on the real-life story of Beverly D'Onofrio). In 2002, Barrymore appeared in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, alongside Sam Rockwell and Julia Roberts.
Flower Films
In 1995, Barrymore formed Flower Films, a production company, with business partner Nancy Juvonen. The first film produced by the company was 1999's Never Been Kissed. The second offering from the company was Charlie's Angels (2000), a major box office success in 2000 that helped solidify the standing of both Barrymore and the company.
When the production of Richard Kelly's debut film, Donnie Darko, was threatened, Barrymore stepped forward with financing from Flower Films and took the small role of Karen Pomeroy, the title character's English teacher. Although the film was less than successful at the box office in the wake of 9/11, it reached cult film status after the DVD release, inspiring numerous websites devoted to unraveling the plot twists and meanings.
In 2003, she reprised her role as Dylan Sanders in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in Olive, the Other Reindeer and appeared with Ben Stiller in Duplex in 2003. Flower Films produced 50 First Dates with co-star Adam Sandler's Happy Madison company in 2004. Summing up Barrymore's appeal, Roger Ebert, in his review of 50 First Dates, described Barrymore as having a "smiling, coy sincerity", describing the film as "ingratiating and lovable".
50 First Dates was followed by Fever Pitch (2005), and in 2007, Music and Lyrics and Lucky You. Barrymore's more recent projects include Beverly Hills Chihuahua in 2008, and 2009's He's Just Not That into You, Grey Gardens and Everybody's Fine.
Barrymore's directorial debut film Whip It, was released in October 2009. Whip It starred Ellen Page and Marcia Gay Harden and centered on an obsession with beauty pageants and the Austin, Texas Hurl Scouts roller derby team. Barrymore also co-starred in the film.
Other career highlights
Barrymore began a recurring character in the animated comedy Family Guy as Brian Griffin's simple-minded girlfriend, Jillian. She has since appeared in eight episodes. She was the subject of the 2005 documentary My Date with Drew. In it, an aspiring filmmaker and a fan of Barrymore's, uses his limited resources in an attempt to gain a date with her.
On February 3, 2004, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Josette Sheeran Shiner, Barrymore, Condoleezza Rice, and Paul Tergat
Barrymore's films have a worldwide box office gross that stands at over $2.3 billion. According to The Hollywood Reporter's annual Star Salary Top 10, she was one of the actresses with the second highest salary per movie for 2006.
On February 3, 2007, Barrymore hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) for the fifth time, making her the second female host (after Candice Bergen) in the show's history to do so. She hosted again on October 10, 2009, becoming the first female to host six times. Barrymore still holds the record as the youngest celebrity ever to host the show (1982, at age seven).
Barrymore became a CoverGirl Cosmetics' model and spokeswoman in 2007, and was No. 1 in People's annual 100 Most Beautiful People list. In 2007, she was named the new face for the Gucci jewelry line. Barrymore is signed to IMG Models New York City.
In May 2007, Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme and later donated $1 million to the cause.
Personal life
In 1991, at the age of 16, Barrymore became engaged to Leland Hayward, grandson of Hollywood producer Leland Hayward. However after a few months, this engagement was called off. Soon afterward, Barrymore was engaged to and lived with musician/actor Jamie Walters in 1992-93.
She was married to Welsh bartender turned bar owner Jeremy Thomas from March 20 to April 28, 1994. Her second marriage was to comedian Tom Green from July 7, 2001 to October 15, 2002. Green filed for divorce in December 2001. In 2002, Barrymore began dating Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, soon after they met at a concert. Their five year relationship, however, ended on January 10, 2007. She most recently dated Justin Long, however, they confirmed their split in July 2008. The couple reunited in 2009 and Us Weekly reported that they signed on to co-star in the upcoming film Going the Distance.
In the 1990s Barrymore was frequently described as bisexual, although she said in a 1997 interview that she had not "been with a woman in about two years". In 2004, she was quoted as saying "A woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful. Being with a woman is like exploring your own body, but through someone else. When I was younger I used to go with lots of women. Totally. I love it". In March 2007, former magazine editor Jane Pratt claimed on her Sirius Satellite Radio show that she had a romance with Barrymore in the mid-nineties.
Barrymore was formerly a vegetarian, but has since begun to eat meat.
Filmography
Actress
Barrymore at the Music and Lyrics London premiere.
Year Film Role Notes
1978 Suddenly, Love Bobbi Graham (Uncredited) TV movie
1980 Bogie Leslie Bogart TV movie
Altered States Margaret Jessup
1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Gertie Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1984 Firestarter Charlene "Charlie" McGee Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Irreconcilable Differences Casey Brodsky Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1985 Cat's Eye Our Girl, Amanda (all segments)
1986 Babes in Toyland Lisa Piper TV movie
1989 See You in the Morning Cathy Goodwin
Far From Home Joleen Cox
1991 Motorama Fantasy Girl
1992 2000 Malibu Road Lindsay 6 episodes
Waxwork II: Lost in Time Vampire Victim #1
Poison Ivy Ivy
Guncrazy Anita Minteer Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
1993 The Amy Fisher Story Amy Fisher
No Place to Hide Tinsel Hanley
Doppelganger Holly Gooding
Wayne's World 2 Bjergen Kjergen
1994 Inside the Goldmine Daisy
Bad Girls Lilly Laronette
1995 Boys on the Side Holly Pulchik-Lincoln
Mad Love Casey Roberts
Batman Forever Sugar
1996 Everyone Says I Love You Skylar Dandridge
Scream Casey Becker Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1997 Wishful Thinking Lena
Best Men Hope
1998 The Wedding Singer Julia Sullivan Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress also for Ever After
Ever After Danielle de Barbarac Saturn Award for Best Actress
Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress also for The Wedding Singer
Home Fries Sally Jackson
1999 Never Been Kissed Josie Geller Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Female
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
Olive, the Other Reindeer Olive voice
2000 The Simpsons Sophie (voice) 1 episode
Skipped Parts Fantasy Girl
Titan A.E. Akima voice
Charlie's Angels Dylan Sanders MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Fight
2001 Donnie Darko Karen Pomeroy
Freddy Got Fingered Mr. Davidson's Receptionist
Riding in Cars with Boys Beverly Donofrio
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Penny
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Dylan Sanders Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu
Duplex Nancy Kendricks
2004 50 First Dates Lucy Whitmore MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Female
People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Chemistry
My Date With Drew Herself
2005 Fever Pitch Lindsey Meeks
2006–2009 Family Guy Jillian Russell (voice) 7 episodes
2006 Curious George Maggie voice
2007 Music and Lyrics Sophie Fisher
Lucky You Billie Offer
2008 Beverly Hills Chihuahua Chloe voice
2009 He's Just Not That Into You Mary Harris
Grey Gardens Edith Bouvier Beale Made-for-cable HBO film
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Nominated – Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
Everybody's Fine Rosie
Whip It Smashly Simpson Also Directed by Drew Barrymore
2010 Going the Distance 'Post-production
Director
Year Film Notes
2004 Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start Director; Documentary
2009 Whip It Directorial debut
Producer credits
Year Film Notes
1999 Never Been Kissed Executive producer
2000 Charlie's Angels Producer
2001 Donnie Darko Executive producer
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Producer
Duplex Producer
2005 Fever Pitch Producer
2009 He's Just Not That Into You Executive producer
Whip It Executive producer
See also
* Barrymore family
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/22/10 at 6:52 am
The person who died on this day...Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. He directed many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew and the other Warners characters, including Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening and What's Opera, Doc? (all three of which were later inducted into the National Film Registry) and Jones' famous "Hunting Trilogy" of Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit! Duck! (1951–1953).
After his career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started Sib Tower 12 Productions and began producing cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a new series of Tom and Jerry shorts and the television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. He later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Productions, which created several one-shot specials, and periodically worked on Looney Tunes related works
Chuck Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, the independent studio that produced Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Warner Bros., in 1933 as an assistant animator. In 1935, he was promoted to animator, and assigned to work with new Schlesinger director Tex Avery. There was no room for the new Avery unit in Schlesinger's small studio, so Avery, Jones, and fellow animators Bob Clampett, Virgil Ross, and Sid Sutherland were moved into a small adjacent building they dubbed "Termite Terrace". When Clampett was promoted to director in 1937, Jones was assigned to his unit; the Clampett unit was briefly assigned to work with Jones' old employer, Ub Iwerks, when Iwerks subcontracted four cartoons to Schlesinger in 1937. Jones became a director (or "supervisor", the original title for an animation director in the studio) himself in 1938 when Frank Tashlin left the studio. Jones' first cartoon was The Night Watchman, which featured a cute kitten who would later evolve into Sniffles the mouse.
Many of Jones' cartoons of the 1930s and early 1940s were lavishly animated, but audiences and fellow Schlesinger staff members found them lacking in genuine humor. Often slow-moving and overbearing with "cuteness", Jones' early cartoons were an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney's shorts (especially with such cartoons as Tom Thumb in Trouble and the Sniffles cartoons). Jones finally broke away from traditional animation conventions with the cartoon The Dover Boys in 1942. Jones credits this cartoon as the film where he "learned how to be funny." The Dover Boys is also one of the first uses of Stylized animation in American film, breaking away from the more realistic animation styles influenced by the Disney Studio. This was also the period where Jones created many of his lesser-known characters, including Charlie Dog, Hubie and Bertie, and The Three Bears. Despite their relative obscurity today, the shorts starring these characters represent some of Jones' earliest work that was strictly intended to be funny.
During the World War II years, Jones worked closely with Theodor Geisel (also known as Dr. Seuss) to create the Private Snafu series of Army educational cartoons. Private Snafu comically educated soldiers on topics like spies and laziness in a more risque way than general audiences would have been used to at the time. Jones would later collaborate with Seuss on a number of adaptations of Seuss' books to animated form, most importantly How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1966.
A still from What's Opera, Doc?.
Jones hit his stride in the late 1940s, and continued to make his best-regarded works through the 1950s. Jones-created characters from this period includes Claude Cat, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Charlie Dog, Michigan J. Frog, and his three most popular creations, Pepe LePew, the Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. The Road Runner cartoons, in addition to the cartoons that are considered his masterpieces (all written and conceived by Michael Maltese), Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening, and What's Opera, Doc? are today hailed by critics as some of the best cartoons ever made.
The staff of the Jones' Unit A were as important to the success of these cartoons as Jones himself. Key members included writer Maltese, layout artist/background designer/co-director Maurice Noble, animator and co-director Abe Levitow, and animators Ken Harris and Ben Washam.
In 1950, Jones and Maltese began working on Rabbit Fire, a short that changed Daffy Duck's personality forever. They decided to make him a totally different character; instead of the wacky, comic relief character he had been, they turned Daffy into a vain, egomaniacal prima donna wanting to steal the spotlight from Bugs Bunny. Of his versions of Bugs and Daffy, Chuck Jones has said, "Bugs is who we want to be. Daffy is who we are."
Jones remained at Warner Bros. throughout the 1950s, except for a brief period in 1953 when Warner closed the animation studio. During this interim, Jones found employment at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he teamed with wit Disney animator Ward Kimball for a four month period of uncredited work on Sleeping Beauty (1959). Upon the reopening of the Warner animation department, Jones left the Disney studio and was rehired and reunited with most of his unit.
In the early-1960s, Jones and his wife Dorothy wrote the screenplay for the animated feature Gay Purr-ee. The finished film would feature the voices of Judy Garland, Robert Goulet and Red Buttons as cats in Paris, France. The feature was produced by UPA, and directed by his former Warner collaborator, Abe Levitow. Jones moonlighted to work on the film, since he had an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. UPA completed the film and made it available for distribution in 1962; it was picked up by Warner Bros. When Warner discovered that Jones had violated his exclusive contract with them, they terminated him. Jones' former animation unit was laid off after completing the final cartoon in their pipeline, The Iceman Ducketh, and the rest of the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio was closed in early 1963. (Jones frequently claimed, including in the aforementioned autobiography, that this happened because Warner finally learned they weren't making Mickey Mouse cartoons).
Jones on his own
With business partner Les Goldman, Jones started an independent animation studio Sib Tower 12 Productions, bringing on most of his unit from Warner Bros., including Maurice Noble and Michael Maltese. In 1963, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contracted with Sib Tower 12 to have Jones and his staff produce new Tom and Jerry cartoons. In 1964, Sib Tower 12 was absorbed by MGM and was renamed MGM Animation/Visual Arts. Jones' animated short film The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics won the 1965 Oscar for Best Animated Short. Jones also directed the classic animated short "The Bear That Wasn't".
As the Tom and Jerry series wound down (it would be discontinued in 1967), Jones moved on to television. In 1966, he produced and directed the TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, featuring the voice and facial features of Boris Karloff. Jones continued to work on TV specials such as Horton Hears a Who! (1970), but his main focus during this time was producing the feature film The Phantom Tollbooth, which did lukewarm business when MGM released it in 1970. Jones co-directed 1969's The Pogo Special Birthday Special, based on the Walt Kelly comic strip, and voiced the characters of Porky Pine and Bun Rab.
MGM closed the animation division in 1970, and Jones once again started his own studio, Chuck Jones Productions. He produced a Saturday morning children's TV series for the American Broadcasting Company called The Curiosity Shop in 1971. In 1973, he produced an animated version of the George Selden book The Cricket in Times Square, and would go on to produce two sequels. His most notable work during this period was three animated TV adaptations of short stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Brothers, The White Seal and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Jones resumed working with Warner Bros. in 1976 with the animated TV adaptation of The Carnival of the Animals with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Jones also produced the 1979 movie The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie which was a compilation of Jones' best theatrical shorts; Jones produced new Road Runner shorts for The Electric Company series and Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979), and even newer shorts were made for Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over (1980).
From 1977-1978, Jones wrote and drew the syndicated comic strip Crawford (also known as Crawford & Morgan) for the Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate.
In 1978, Jones' wife Dorothy died; three years later, he married Marian Dern, the writer of the comic strip Rick O'Shay.
Later years
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Jones was painting cartoon and parody art, sold through animation galleries by his daughter's company, Linda Jones Enterprises. Jones was the creative consultant and character designer for the first Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas special "A Chipmunk Christmas". He was also creating new cartoons for the Internet based on his new character, Thomas Timberwolf. He made a cameo appearance in the 1984 film Gremlins and directed the Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck animated sequences that bookend Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Jones also directed animated sequences various features such as a lengthy sequence in the 1992 film Stay Tuned and a shorter one seen at the start of the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire. Jones was not a fan of much contemporary animation, terming most of it, especially television cartoons such as those of Hanna-Barbera, "illustrated radio".
In 1988, Jones contributed to the creation of London's Museum of the Moving Image by spending several days working high on scaffolding creating a chase sequence directly onto the high walls of the museum.
Jones was a historical authority as well as a major contributor to the development of animation throughout the 20th century. He received an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in 1993.
In his later years, Jones became the most vocal alumnus of the Termite Terrace studio, frequently giving lectures, seminars, and working to educate newcomers in the animation field. Many of his principles, therefore, found their way back into the mainstream animation consciousness, and can be seen in films such as The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Jones has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7011 Hollywood Blvd.
Jones, whose work had been nominated eight times over his career for an Oscar (winning thrice, for For Scent-imental Reasons, So Much for So Little, and The Dot and the Line), received an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for "the creation of classic cartoons and cartoon characters whose animated lives have brought joy to our real ones for more than half a century." At that year's awards show, Robin Williams, a self-confessed "Jones-aholic," presented the Honorary award to Jones, calling him "The Orson Welles of cartoons."
Jones' final Looney Tunes cartoon was From Hare to Eternity in 1996, which starred Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, with Greg Burson voicing Bugs. The cartoon was dedicated to Friz Freleng, who had passed on in 1995. Jones did produce a few more Looney Tunes-based and non-related cartoons, a noticeable one being Chariots of Fur, his final Road Runner cartoon, in 1994.
Jones, the last surviving animation director from the "Termite Terrace" days of the WB cartoons, died of heart failure in 2002. He was cremated after the funeral service and his ashes were scattered at sea. Cartoon Network aired a 30-second segment with black dots tracing Jones' portrait with the words "We'll miss you - Cartoon Network." fading in on the right-hand side.
After his death, the Looney Tunes cartoon Daffy Duck for President, based on the book that Jones had written and using Jones' style for the characters, originally scheduled to be released in 2000, was released in 2004.
Examples of animated films or short subjects directed by Chuck Jones
* Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939)
* Elmer's Candid Camera (1940)
* Joe Glow, the Firefly (1941)
* The Dover Boys At Pimento University, or The Rivals Of Roquefort Hall (1942)
* Fin N' Catty (1943)
* The Weakly Reporter (1944)
* Hell-Bent for Election (Franklin D. Roosevelt campaign film, 1944)
* Fresh Airedale (1945)
* Fair and Worm-er (1946)
* A Pest in the House (1947)
* Scaredy Cat (1948)
* Long-Haired Hare (1949)
* For Scent-imental Reasons (1949)
* Fast and Furry-ous (1949)
* So Much for So Little (1949, made for Federal Security Agency's Public Health Service)
* The Rabbit of Seville (1950)
* The "Hunting Trilogy": Rabbit Fire (1951), Rabbit Seasoning (1952), and Duck! Rabbit! Duck! (1953)
* Feed the Kitty (1952)
* Duck Amuck (1953)
* Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953)
* Bully for Bugs (1953)
* Punch Trunk (1953)
* Feline Frame-Up (1954)
* One Froggy Evening (1955)
* Rocket-Bye Baby (1956)
* What's Opera, Doc? (1957)
* Robin Hood Daffy (1958)
* High Note (1960)
* Now Hear This (1962)
* The Dot and the Line (1965)
* The Bear That Wasn't (1967)
* How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special, 1966)
* Sesame Street (various cartoon segments, 1969)
* The Electric Company (1971)
* Horton Hears A Who! (TV special, 1970)
* The Phantom Tollbooth (feature film, 1970)
* Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (TV special, 1975)
See also
* Warner Bros. Cartoons
* Warner Bros. Animation
* A Boy Named Charlie Brown - storyboard
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/22/10 at 7:36 am
The person born on this day...Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, film producer and film director. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was eleven months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered States in 1980. Afterwards, she starred in her breakout role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood's most recognized child actors, going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles.
Following a turbulent childhood which was marked by drug and alcohol abuse and two stints in rehab, Barrymore wrote the 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. She successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress with a number of films including Poison Ivy, Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, and Everyone Says I Love You. Subsequently, she established herself in romantic comedies such as The Wedding Singer and Lucky You.
In 1990, she and partner Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films, with its first production the 1999 Barrymore film Never Been Kissed. Flower Films has gone on to produce the Barrymore vehicle films Charlie's Angels, 50 First Dates, and Music and Lyrics, as well as the cult film Donnie Darko. Barrymore's more recent projects include He's Just Not That into You, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and Everybody's Fine. A recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Barrymore appeared on the cover of the 2007 People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful issue.
Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, she has donated over $1 million to the program. In 2007, she became both CoverGirl's newest model and spokeswoman for the cosmetic and the face for Gucci's newest jewelry line.
In 2010 she was awarded the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for her portrayal of Little Edie in Grey Gardens.
Barrymore's career began when she auditioned for a dog food commercial at eleven months old. When she was bitten by her canine co-star, the producers were afraid she would cry, but she merely laughed, and was hired for the job. She made her film debut in Altered States (1980), in which she got a small part. A year later, she landed the role of Gertie, the younger sister of Elliott, in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which made her famous. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1984 for her role in Irreconcilable Differences, in which she starred as a young girl divorcing her parents. In a review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert states: "Barrymore is the right actress for this role precisely because she approaches it with such grave calm." He concludes with saying that "The Drew Barrymore character sees right through all of this. She doesn't care about careers, she wants to be given a happy home and her minimum daily requirement of love, and, in a way, the movie is about how Hollywood (and American success in general) tends to cut adults off from the natural functions of parents."
Rebellious era
In the wake of this sudden stardom, Barrymore endured a notoriously troubled childhood. She was already a regular at the famed Studio 54 when she was a little girl, smoking cigarettes at age nine, drinking alcohol by the time she was 11, smoking marijuana at 12, and snorting cocaine at 13. Her nightlife and constant partying became a popular subject with the media. She was in rehab at age 13. A suicide attempt at age 14 put her back in rehab, followed by a three-month stay with singer David Crosby and his wife. The stay was precipitated, Crosby said, because she "needed to be around some people that were committed to sobriety." Barrymore later described this period of her life in her 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. The next year, following a successful juvenile court petition for emancipation, she moved into her own apartment and has never relapsed.
New image
In her late teens, Barrymore forged a new image as she played a manipulative teenage seductress in Poison Ivy (1992), which was a box office failure, but was popular on video and cable. That same year, at the age of 17, she posed nude for the cover of the July issue of Interview magazine with her then-fiancé, actor Jamie Walters, as well as appearing nude in pictures inside the issue. In 1993, Barrymore earned a second Golden Globe nomination for the film Guncrazy. Barrymore would go on to pose nude for the January 1995 issue of Playboy. Steven Spielberg, who directed her in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial when she was a child, gave her a quilt for her twentieth birthday with a note that read, "Cover yourself up". Enclosed were copies of her Playboy pictures, with the pictures altered by his art department so that she appeared fully clothed. She would appear nude in five of her films during this period. During a 1995 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, Barrymore climbed onto David Letterman's desk and bared her breasts to him, her back to the camera, in celebration of his birthday. She modeled in a series of Guess? jeans ads during this time. She underwent breast reduction surgery in 1992, and has said on the subject:
I really love my body and the way it is right now. There's something very awkward about women and their breasts because men look at them so much. When they're huge, you become very self-conscious. Your back hurts. You find that whatever you wear, you look heavy in. It's uncomfortable. I've learned something, though, about breasts through my years of pondering and pontificating, and that is: Men love them, and I love that.
Return to prominence
In 1995, Barrymore starred in Boys on the Side opposite Whoopi Goldberg and Mary-Louise Parker, and had a cameo role in Joel Schumacher's film Batman Forever, in which she portrayed a moll to Tommy Lee Jones' character, Two-Face. The following year, she made a cameo in the successful horror film Scream. Barrymore has continued to be highly bankable, and a top box office draw. She was frequently cast in romantic comedies such as Wishful Thinking (1996), The Wedding Singer (1998), and Home Fries (1998).
Barrymore at the Tribeca Film Festival, May 2007.
Besides a number of appearances in films produced by her company, Flower Films, including Charlie's Angels, Barrymore had a dramatic role in the comedy/drama Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), playing a teenage mother in a failed marriage with the drug-addicted father (based on the real-life story of Beverly D'Onofrio). In 2002, Barrymore appeared in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, alongside Sam Rockwell and Julia Roberts.
Flower Films
In 1995, Barrymore formed Flower Films, a production company, with business partner Nancy Juvonen. The first film produced by the company was 1999's Never Been Kissed. The second offering from the company was Charlie's Angels (2000), a major box office success in 2000 that helped solidify the standing of both Barrymore and the company.
When the production of Richard Kelly's debut film, Donnie Darko, was threatened, Barrymore stepped forward with financing from Flower Films and took the small role of Karen Pomeroy, the title character's English teacher. Although the film was less than successful at the box office in the wake of 9/11, it reached cult film status after the DVD release, inspiring numerous websites devoted to unraveling the plot twists and meanings.
In 2003, she reprised her role as Dylan Sanders in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in Olive, the Other Reindeer and appeared with Ben Stiller in Duplex in 2003. Flower Films produced 50 First Dates with co-star Adam Sandler's Happy Madison company in 2004. Summing up Barrymore's appeal, Roger Ebert, in his review of 50 First Dates, described Barrymore as having a "smiling, coy sincerity", describing the film as "ingratiating and lovable".
50 First Dates was followed by Fever Pitch (2005), and in 2007, Music and Lyrics and Lucky You. Barrymore's more recent projects include Beverly Hills Chihuahua in 2008, and 2009's He's Just Not That into You, Grey Gardens and Everybody's Fine.
Barrymore's directorial debut film Whip It, was released in October 2009. Whip It starred Ellen Page and Marcia Gay Harden and centered on an obsession with beauty pageants and the Austin, Texas Hurl Scouts roller derby team. Barrymore also co-starred in the film.
Other career highlights
Barrymore began a recurring character in the animated comedy Family Guy as Brian Griffin's simple-minded girlfriend, Jillian. She has since appeared in eight episodes. She was the subject of the 2005 documentary My Date with Drew. In it, an aspiring filmmaker and a fan of Barrymore's, uses his limited resources in an attempt to gain a date with her.
On February 3, 2004, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Josette Sheeran Shiner, Barrymore, Condoleezza Rice, and Paul Tergat
Barrymore's films have a worldwide box office gross that stands at over $2.3 billion. According to The Hollywood Reporter's annual Star Salary Top 10, she was one of the actresses with the second highest salary per movie for 2006.
On February 3, 2007, Barrymore hosted Saturday Night Live (SNL) for the fifth time, making her the second female host (after Candice Bergen) in the show's history to do so. She hosted again on October 10, 2009, becoming the first female to host six times. Barrymore still holds the record as the youngest celebrity ever to host the show (1982, at age seven).
Barrymore became a CoverGirl Cosmetics' model and spokeswoman in 2007, and was No. 1 in People's annual 100 Most Beautiful People list. In 2007, she was named the new face for the Gucci jewelry line. Barrymore is signed to IMG Models New York City.
In May 2007, Barrymore was named Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme and later donated $1 million to the cause.
Personal life
In 1991, at the age of 16, Barrymore became engaged to Leland Hayward, grandson of Hollywood producer Leland Hayward. However after a few months, this engagement was called off. Soon afterward, Barrymore was engaged to and lived with musician/actor Jamie Walters in 1992-93.
She was married to Welsh bartender turned bar owner Jeremy Thomas from March 20 to April 28, 1994. Her second marriage was to comedian Tom Green from July 7, 2001 to October 15, 2002. Green filed for divorce in December 2001. In 2002, Barrymore began dating Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti, soon after they met at a concert. Their five year relationship, however, ended on January 10, 2007. She most recently dated Justin Long, however, they confirmed their split in July 2008. The couple reunited in 2009 and Us Weekly reported that they signed on to co-star in the upcoming film Going the Distance.
In the 1990s Barrymore was frequently described as bisexual, although she said in a 1997 interview that she had not "been with a woman in about two years". In 2004, she was quoted as saying "A woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful. Being with a woman is like exploring your own body, but through someone else. When I was younger I used to go with lots of women. Totally. I love it". In March 2007, former magazine editor Jane Pratt claimed on her Sirius Satellite Radio show that she had a romance with Barrymore in the mid-nineties.
Barrymore was formerly a vegetarian, but has since begun to eat meat.
Filmography
Actress
Barrymore at the Music and Lyrics London premiere.
Year Film Role Notes
1978 Suddenly, Love Bobbi Graham (Uncredited) TV movie
1980 Bogie Leslie Bogart TV movie
Altered States Margaret Jessup
1982 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Gertie Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1984 Firestarter Charlene "Charlie" McGee Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor
Irreconcilable Differences Casey Brodsky Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1985 Cat's Eye Our Girl, Amanda (all segments)
1986 Babes in Toyland Lisa Piper TV movie
1989 See You in the Morning Cathy Goodwin
Far From Home Joleen Cox
1991 Motorama Fantasy Girl
1992 2000 Malibu Road Lindsay 6 episodes
Waxwork II: Lost in Time Vampire Victim #1
Poison Ivy Ivy
Guncrazy Anita Minteer Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
1993 The Amy Fisher Story Amy Fisher
No Place to Hide Tinsel Hanley
Doppelganger Holly Gooding
Wayne's World 2 Bjergen Kjergen
1994 Inside the Goldmine Daisy
Bad Girls Lilly Laronette
1995 Boys on the Side Holly Pulchik-Lincoln
Mad Love Casey Roberts
Batman Forever Sugar
1996 Everyone Says I Love You Skylar Dandridge
Scream Casey Becker Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1997 Wishful Thinking Lena
Best Men Hope
1998 The Wedding Singer Julia Sullivan Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress also for Ever After
Ever After Danielle de Barbarac Saturn Award for Best Actress
Nominated – Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress also for The Wedding Singer
Home Fries Sally Jackson
1999 Never Been Kissed Josie Geller Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Female
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss
Olive, the Other Reindeer Olive voice
2000 The Simpsons Sophie (voice) 1 episode
Skipped Parts Fantasy Girl
Titan A.E. Akima voice
Charlie's Angels Dylan Sanders MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Fight
2001 Donnie Darko Karen Pomeroy
Freddy Got Fingered Mr. Davidson's Receptionist
Riding in Cars with Boys Beverly Donofrio
2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Penny
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Dylan Sanders Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu
Duplex Nancy Kendricks
2004 50 First Dates Lucy Whitmore MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Performance - Female
People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Chemistry
My Date With Drew Herself
2005 Fever Pitch Lindsey Meeks
2006–2009 Family Guy Jillian Russell (voice) 7 episodes
2006 Curious George Maggie voice
2007 Music and Lyrics Sophie Fisher
Lucky You Billie Offer
2008 Beverly Hills Chihuahua Chloe voice
2009 He's Just Not That Into You Mary Harris
Grey Gardens Edith Bouvier Beale Made-for-cable HBO film
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Satellite Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Nominated – Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
Everybody's Fine Rosie
Whip It Smashly Simpson Also Directed by Drew Barrymore
2010 Going the Distance 'Post-production
Director
Year Film Notes
2004 Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start Director; Documentary
2009 Whip It Directorial debut
Producer credits
Year Film Notes
1999 Never Been Kissed Executive producer
2000 Charlie's Angels Producer
2001 Donnie Darko Executive producer
2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Producer
Duplex Producer
2005 Fever Pitch Producer
2009 He's Just Not That Into You Executive producer
Whip It Executive producer
See also
* Barrymore family
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She turned out to be such a hot actress.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/22/10 at 10:45 am
She turned out to be such a hot actress.
Yes she is.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/22/10 at 1:16 pm
British Person of the Day: Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953 in Westminster, London, England, UK) is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright. Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray. He is also long time comedy partner with Peter Richardson.
Career
He was educated at Westminster School, the University of Sussex at Brighton, and LAMDA.
Acting
Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil, the hippie housemate of Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson), Rick (Rik Mayall) and Mike (Christopher Ryan) in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones, which ran from 1982–84. Planer was one of the original cast of The Comic Strip team, pioneers of the alternative comedy movement in the UK. Originally a nightclub stage show, he appeared with its creator Peter Richardson as part of the double act The Outer Limits. Planer and Richardson also wrote the That's Life! parody on Not The Nine O'Clock News. He played Professor Dumbledore in a Harry Potter parody, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan.
Theatre
His first break in the theatre was understudying David Essex as Che Guevara in the original West End run of Evita. Nigel was in the original London cast of Chicago, as Amos Hart. He was a member of the original West End cast of Ben Elton's Queen musical We Will Rock You as Pop. From 10–15 July 2006 he played the part of the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show taking on the role in Manchester and Bromley. He most recently starred as The Wizard in the West End production of Wicked at The Apollo Victoria Theatre. He ended his run on 7 June 2008 and was replaced by Desmond Barrit. He recently appeared on a BBC 4 programme under the guise of 'Nicholas Craig' to be interviewed by Mark Lawson. He took over the role of Wilbur from Ian Talbot in the West End production of Hairspray on 2 February 2009.
Music
Nigel was one of the four members of the 1980s spoof rock band, Bad News, playing Den Dennis. As Neil from The Young Ones, Planer gained a number two hit single in 1984 in the form of "Hole in My Shoe", (originally a hit for Sixties band Traffic). A cover of Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle" was a less successful follow up, only reaching No.97 in the charts. After that, an album was produced, entitled Neil's Heavy Concept Album. Nigel also took Neil's stage act on the road in that year as Neil in the "Bad Karma in The UK" tour. This culminated in a month-long run at St. Mary's Hall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Young Ones also appeared on Cliff Richard's 1986 charity rerecording of "Living Doll", which spent three weeks at number one in the UK.
Voice acting
Nigel is the reader for the audiobook editions of many of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. He also appeared in the television adaptations of both Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and The Colour of Magic, and performed as a voice artist in the games Discworld 2 and Discworld Noir. Discworld Audiobooks narrated by Nigel Planer include (with number in parentheses indicating order of the book in the Discworld series):
* The Colour of Magic (1)
* The Light Fantastic (2)
* Mort (4)
* Sourcery (5)
* Wyrd Sisters (6)
* Pyramids (7)
* Guards! Guards! (8 )
* Moving Pictures (10)
* Reaper Man (11)
* Witches Abroad (12)
* Small Gods (13)
* Lords and Ladies (14)
* Men at Arms (15)
* Soul Music (16)
* Interesting Times (17)
* Maskerade (18)
* Feet of Clay (19)
* Hogfather (20)
* Jingo (21)
* The Last Continent (22)
* Carpe Jugulum (23)
Other voice roles include the narrator of Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Dr. Marmalade in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.
Credits
He is arguably best known in Britain for his work in television comedy and satire, including:
* Boom Boom...Out Go The Lights (1980)
* Shine on Harvey Moon (1982)
* The Young Ones (12 episodes) (1982–84)
* Roll Over Beethoven (1983–84)
* The Comic Strip Presents… (25 episodes) (1983–2005)
* King & Castle (1986–88)
* Filthy Rich & Catflap (6 episodes) (1987)
* Blackeyes by Dennis Potter (1989)
* Frankenstein's Baby (1990)
* Nicholas Craig — The Naked Actor (1990)
* Nicholas Craig's Interview Masterclass (1990)
* Nicholas Craig's Masterpiece Theatre (1992)
* The Nicholas Craig Masterclass (1992)
* Carry On Columbus (1992)
* The Magic Roundabout (English adaptation and narrator on previously unseen episodes)
* Sherlock Holmes (1993)
* Let's Get Divorced (1994)
* Wake Up! With Libby And Jonathan (1994)
* Blackadder the Third
* Yellowbeard
* French & Saunders
* Jonathan Creek
* The Grimleys (1997–2001)
* Wicked (2006–08)
* Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (2006)
* Flood (2007)
* Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008)'
* Hairspray (2009)
* M.I.High (2009)
He has published several books including the novels The Right Man (2000) (ISBN 0-09-927227-X) and Faking It (2003) (ISBN 0-09-940986-0). Nigel also wrote A Good Enough Dad (1992) (ISBN 0-09-929661-6) after his first son was born, talking about coping with becoming a father.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40248000/jpg/_40248987_neil2bbcok.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2009/6/19/1245411566123/Nigel-Planer-001.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/22/10 at 4:00 pm
British Person of the Day: Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953 in Westminster, London, England, UK) is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright. Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray. He is also long time comedy partner with Peter Richardson.
Career
He was educated at Westminster School, the University of Sussex at Brighton, and LAMDA.
Acting
Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil, the hippie housemate of Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson), Rick (Rik Mayall) and Mike (Christopher Ryan) in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones, which ran from 1982–84. Planer was one of the original cast of The Comic Strip team, pioneers of the alternative comedy movement in the UK. Originally a nightclub stage show, he appeared with its creator Peter Richardson as part of the double act The Outer Limits. Planer and Richardson also wrote the That's Life! parody on Not The Nine O'Clock News. He played Professor Dumbledore in a Harry Potter parody, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan.
Theatre
His first break in the theatre was understudying David Essex as Che Guevara in the original West End run of Evita. Nigel was in the original London cast of Chicago, as Amos Hart. He was a member of the original West End cast of Ben Elton's Queen musical We Will Rock You as Pop. From 10–15 July 2006 he played the part of the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show taking on the role in Manchester and Bromley. He most recently starred as The Wizard in the West End production of Wicked at The Apollo Victoria Theatre. He ended his run on 7 June 2008 and was replaced by Desmond Barrit. He recently appeared on a BBC 4 programme under the guise of 'Nicholas Craig' to be interviewed by Mark Lawson. He took over the role of Wilbur from Ian Talbot in the West End production of Hairspray on 2 February 2009.
Music
Nigel was one of the four members of the 1980s spoof rock band, Bad News, playing Den Dennis. As Neil from The Young Ones, Planer gained a number two hit single in 1984 in the form of "Hole in My Shoe", (originally a hit for Sixties band Traffic). A cover of Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle" was a less successful follow up, only reaching No.97 in the charts. After that, an album was produced, entitled Neil's Heavy Concept Album. Nigel also took Neil's stage act on the road in that year as Neil in the "Bad Karma in The UK" tour. This culminated in a month-long run at St. Mary's Hall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Young Ones also appeared on Cliff Richard's 1986 charity rerecording of "Living Doll", which spent three weeks at number one in the UK.
Voice acting
Nigel is the reader for the audiobook editions of many of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. He also appeared in the television adaptations of both Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and The Colour of Magic, and performed as a voice artist in the games Discworld 2 and Discworld Noir. Discworld Audiobooks narrated by Nigel Planer include (with number in parentheses indicating order of the book in the Discworld series):
* The Colour of Magic (1)
* The Light Fantastic (2)
* Mort (4)
* Sourcery (5)
* Wyrd Sisters (6)
* Pyramids (7)
* Guards! Guards! (8 )
* Moving Pictures (10)
* Reaper Man (11)
* Witches Abroad (12)
* Small Gods (13)
* Lords and Ladies (14)
* Men at Arms (15)
* Soul Music (16)
* Interesting Times (17)
* Maskerade (18)
* Feet of Clay (19)
* Hogfather (20)
* Jingo (21)
* The Last Continent (22)
* Carpe Jugulum (23)
Other voice roles include the narrator of Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids and Dr. Marmalade in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.
Credits
He is arguably best known in Britain for his work in television comedy and satire, including:
* Boom Boom...Out Go The Lights (1980)
* Shine on Harvey Moon (1982)
* The Young Ones (12 episodes) (1982–84)
* Roll Over Beethoven (1983–84)
* The Comic Strip Presents… (25 episodes) (1983–2005)
* King & Castle (1986–88)
* Filthy Rich & Catflap (6 episodes) (1987)
* Blackeyes by Dennis Potter (1989)
* Frankenstein's Baby (1990)
* Nicholas Craig — The Naked Actor (1990)
* Nicholas Craig's Interview Masterclass (1990)
* Nicholas Craig's Masterpiece Theatre (1992)
* The Nicholas Craig Masterclass (1992)
* Carry On Columbus (1992)
* The Magic Roundabout (English adaptation and narrator on previously unseen episodes)
* Sherlock Holmes (1993)
* Let's Get Divorced (1994)
* Wake Up! With Libby And Jonathan (1994)
* Blackadder the Third
* Yellowbeard
* French & Saunders
* Jonathan Creek
* The Grimleys (1997–2001)
* Wicked (2006–08)
* Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (2006)
* Flood (2007)
* Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (2008)'
* Hairspray (2009)
* M.I.High (2009)
He has published several books including the novels The Right Man (2000) (ISBN 0-09-927227-X) and Faking It (2003) (ISBN 0-09-940986-0). Nigel also wrote A Good Enough Dad (1992) (ISBN 0-09-929661-6) after his first son was born, talking about coping with becoming a father.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40248000/jpg/_40248987_neil2bbcok.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2009/6/19/1245411566123/Nigel-Planer-001.jpg
Thanks Phil. He was someone who I knew his name, but knew little about.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/23/10 at 7:14 am
The word of the day...Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a vehicle with two wheels and an engine.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/23/10 at 7:19 am
The person born on this day...Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda (born February 23, 1940) is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, the brother of Jane Fonda, and the father of Bridget and Justin Fonda (by first wife Susan Brewer, stepdaughter of Noah Dietrich). Fonda is an icon of the counterculture of the 1960s.
Fonda found work on Broadway where he achieved notice in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, before going to Hollywood to make films. He started his film career in romantic leading roles. He debuted in Tammy and the Doctor (1963), which he called "Tammy and the Chuckface". But Fonda's intensity impressed Robert Rossen, the director of Lilith (1964). Rossen envisioned a Jewish actor in the role of Stephen Evshevsky, a mental patient. Fonda earned the role after removing his boss' glasses from his face and putting them on so as to look more "Jewish". He also was in The Victors (1964), an "anti-war war movie" and played the male lead in The Young Lovers (1964), about out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
By the mid-1960s, Peter Fonda was not a conventional "leading man" in Hollywood. As Playboy magazine reported, Fonda had established a "solid reputation as a dropout". He had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long, alienating the "establishment" film industry. Desirable acting work became scarce. In the 1963-1964 season, he appeared in an episode of the ABC drama about college life, Channing.
Through his friendships with members of the Byrds, Fonda visited The Beatles in their rented house in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in August, 1965. While John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison were under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead". This phrase became the tag line for Lennon's song, "She Said She Said", which appeared in their groundbreaking Revolver (1966) album. In 1966, Fonda was arrested in the anti-war Sunset Strip riot which the police ended forcefully. The band Buffalo Springfield protested the department's handling of the incident in their song "For What It's Worth". Fonda would take a stab at being a singer himself in 1968, recording a 45 for the Chisa label: "November Night" (written by Gram Parsons) b/w "Catch The Wind" (the Donovan song), produced by Hugh Masakela.
Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was the lead character Heavenly Blues, a Hells Angels chapter president, in the Roger Corman directed film The Wild Angels (1966). The Wild Angels is still remembered for Fonda's "eulogy" delivered at the fiasco of a fallen Angel's funeral service, which was sampled in the Primal Scream recording "Loaded" (1991), and in other rock songs. Then Fonda played the male lead character in Corman's film The Trip (1967), a take on the experience and consequences of consuming LSD.
Easy Rider
Replica of the "Captain America"-Harley which Fonda rode in Easy Rider, on display in a German Museum.
In 1968, Fonda produced and starred in Easy Rider, the classic film for which he is best known. Easy Rider is about two long-haired bikers traveling through the southwest and southern United States in a world of intolerance and violence. The Fonda character was the charismatic, laconic "Captain America" whose motorcycle jacket bore a large American flag across the back. Dennis Hopper played the garrulous "Billy". Jack Nicholson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as George Hanson, an alcoholic civil rights lawyer who rides along. Fonda co-wrote Easy Rider with Terry Southern and Hopper, who directed.
Hopper filmed the cross-country road trip depicted in Easy Rider almost entirely on location. Fonda had secured funding in the neighborhood of $360,000 - (largely based on the fact he knew that was the budget Roger Corman needed to make The Wild Angels), and they released the film in 1969 to massive international success. Robbie Robertson was so moved by an advance screening that he approached Fonda and tried to convince him to let him write a complete score, even though the film was nearly due for wide release. Fonda refused, using the Byrds' song "Ballad of Easy Rider", Dylan's "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" sung by the Byrds' Roger McGuinn. Fonda, Hopper and Southern were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Later work
After the success of Easy Rider, both Hopper and Fonda were in a position to make any film project they wanted. While Hopper chose to make the drug addled jungle epic The Last Movie, (in which Fonda co-starred along with Michelle Phillips), Fonda directed the Western film, The Hired Hand. Fonda took the lead role in a cast that also featured Warren Oates, Verna Bloom and Beat poet Michael McClure. This was followed by the cult-classic "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry", a box-office smash in 1974, and "Open Season", which tanked. He would re-team with Warren Oates in Race With The Devil in 1975, and later would star in "Futureworld", a sequel to "Westworld", which was another box office failure. Despite generating mixed reviews upon its initial release, In 2001, The Hired Hand was fully restored and exhibited at a number of festivals to a generally enthusiastic critical response. Subsequently, the Sundance Channel released a DVD of the film in two separate editions that same year, and the film has since found an audience as a cult Western classic. In 1976, Fonda starred opposite Susan St. James as a musician on the run in "Outlaw Blues". In 1979, Fonda directed and starred in the drama Wanda Nevada alongside Brooke Shields. His father Henry Fonda made a brief appearance as well, making it the only time the father and son appeared together on film. In a later nod to his roles in The Wild Angels and Easy Rider, Fonda also had a cameo as the "Chief Biker" in the 1981 slapstick comedy The Cannonball Run.
Fonda received high-profile critical recognition and universal praise for his role in Ulee's Gold (1997). Fonda portrayed a stoic north Florida beekeeper who, in spite of his tumultuous family life, imparts a sense of integrity to his wayward convict son, and takes risks in acting protectively toward his drug-abusing daughter-in-law. His performance resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Fonda's movie career has made the more interesting for the extreme contrast between the wide-eyed and questing (though possibly amoral, certainly drug-dealing) rebel motorcyclist in Easy Rider and the upright war-veteran father he played nearly three decades later in Ulee's Gold — a character who tries to share the wisdom of age with his defiantly nihilistic son and who saves his addicted daughter-in-law's life. Two years later, Fonda appeared in the 1999 Steven Soderbergh neo noir crime film The Limey, as the money laundering/celebrity rock music producer Terry Valentine.
In 2002 Fonda was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
Fonda lent his voice talent to the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the aging hippie, The Truth.
In 2007, Fonda made a notable return to the big screen in the critically acclaimed remake of the 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma, appearing alongside Christian Bale and Russell Crowe as the bounty hunter Byron McElroy. The film received two Academy Award nominations, and positive reviews from critics. He also made an appearance in the last scenes of the Biker-comedy Wild Hogs as Damien Blade, founder of the biker gang Del Fuegos and father of Jack, a character played by Ray Liotta. This year also featured Fonda portraying Mephostophiles, one of two main villains in the 2007 film Ghost Rider, and he has also expressed interest in re-playing the character in Ghost Rider 2. In 2009, he appeared in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, the sequel to the cult hit, as 'The Roman', the main villain and an old acquaintance of Il Duce, the character played by Billy Connolly.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1963 Tammy and the Doctor Dr. Mark Cheswick
The Victors Weaver Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Male
1964 Lilith Stephen Evshevsky
The Young Lovers Eddie Slocum
1966 The Wild Angels Heavenly Blues
1967 The Trip Paul Groves
1968 Histories extradinaires Baron Wilhelm (segment "Metzengerstein")
1969 Easy Rider Wyatt Nominated — Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern
Nominated — Writers Guild of America Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern
1971 The Hired hand Harry Collings
The Last Movie Young Sheriff
1973 Idaho Transfer Director
Two People Evan Bonner
1974 Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry Larry Rider
Open Season Ken
1975 Race with the Devil Roger March
92 in the Shade Skelton
1976 Killer Force Bradley
Futureworld Chuck Browning
Fighting Mad Tom Hunter
1977 Outlaw Blues Bobby Ogden
1978 High-Ballin' Rane
1979 Wanda Nevada Beaudray Demerille
1981 Cannonball Run Chief Biker (cameo appearance)
1982 Split Image Kirklander
1983 Peppermint-Frieden Mr. Freedom
Dance of the Dwarfs Harry Bediker
DaijĂ´bu, mai furendo Gonzy Traumerai
Spasms Dr. Tom Brasilian
1985 A Reason to Live Gus Stewart TV movie
Certain Fury Rodney
1987 Hawken's Breed Hawken
1988 Mercenary Fighters Virelli
1989 The Rose Garden Herbert Schluter
1990 Fatal Mission Ken Andrews
1992 South Beach Jake
Family Express Nick
1993 Deadfall Pete
Bodies, Rest & Motion Motorcycle Rider
1994 Molly & Gina Larry Stanton
Love and a .45 Vergil Cheatham
Nadja Dracula/Dr. Van Helsing
1996 Escape from L.A. Pipeline
Grace of My Heart Guru Dave
1997 Ulee's Gold Ulysses 'Ulee' Jackson Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male
Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Painted Hero Ray the Cook
1999 The Passion of Ayn Rand Frank Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
The Limey Terry Valentine
2000 South of Heaven, West of Hell Shoshonee Bill
Thomas and the Magic Railroad Grandpa Burnett Stone
Second Skin Merv Gutman
2001 Wooly Boys Stoney
2002 The Laramie Project Doctor Cantway
2004 The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things Grandfather
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas The Truth (voice)
2005 Supernova Dr. Austin Shepard
2007 Ghost Rider Mephistopheles
Wild Hogs Damien Blade
3:10 to Yuma Byron McElroy Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
The Gathering Thomas Carrier
2008 Japan Alfred
Journey to the Center of the Earth Edward Dennison
2009 The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll August West
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day The Roman
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/23/10 at 7:23 am
The person who died on this day...Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer and director, famous as the first half of the comedy double-act Laurel and Hardy, whose career stretched from the silent films of the early 20th century until after World War II.
Laurel went on to join the Hal Roach studio, and began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette. He intended to work primarily as a writer and director, but fate stepped in. In 1927, Oliver Hardy, another member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and Laurel was asked to return to acting. Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in Slipping Wives, Duck Soup and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.
Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in a lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature, The Rogue Song. In 1931, their own first starring feature, Pardon Us was released, although they continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Trouble at Roach Studio
During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach and ended up having his contract terminated. After being tried for drunk driving, he counter-sued the Roach studio. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. Meanwhile, Laurel had divorced his first wife and married Virginia Ruth Rogers in 1935, whom he divorced to marry his third wife Vera Ivanova Shuvalova ("Illeana") in 1938. By 1941, he had once again married Virginia Ruth Rogers.
After returning to Roach studios, the first film Laurel and Hardy made was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach. In April 1940, their contract expired. Roach decided to make a film without Stan Laurel, but with Oliver Hardy, Zenobia.
During the start of Laurel and Hardy's partnership, Stan had a baby girl with Lois (his first wife), born in 1928, and named the baby after his wife, Lois. Stan and his daughter Lois had a very strong relationship. Stan would take Lois onto the sets and try to see her as much as he could, even when he divorced her mother. Stan also had a son, who died just ten days after birth in 1930 .
Fox Studios
In 1939, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make one motion picture and nine more over the following five months. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful though The Bullfighters, Great Guns and A-Haunting We Will Go did receive some praise. Laurel discovered he had diabetes, so he encouraged Oliver Hardy to make two films without him. In 1946, he divorced Virginia Ruth Rogers and married Ida Kitaeva Raphael. With Ida, he enjoyed a happy marriage until his death.
In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film, a French/Italian co-production titled Atoll K, was a disaster. (The film was titled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning home, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they toured Europe again in 1953.
During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks. In May 1954, Oliver Hardy had a heart attack and canceled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series, Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables, based on children's stories, but the plans were delayed because Laurel suffered a stroke. He recovered, and as he was planning to get back to work, Oliver Hardy had a massive stroke on 15 September 1956. Paralyzed and bedridden for several months, he was unable to speak or move.
Hardy's death
On 7 August 1957, Oliver Hardy died. Laurel did not attend his funeral, stating "Babe would understand." Afterward, Laurel decided he would never act again without his long-time friend, but he did write gags and sketches for fellow comedians. People who knew Laurel said he was absolutely devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered.
Life after Laurel and Hardy
Stan Laurel's grave at Forest Lawn. The Birth of Liberty mosaic is visible in the background.
In 1961, Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his pioneering work in comedy. He had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small apartment in the Oceana Hotel in Santa Monica. Always gracious to fans, he spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was listed in the telephone directory, and fans were amazed that they could dial the number and speak to Stan Laurel. Jerry Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, who offered suggestions for Lewis' production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis had even paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well.
Death
Laurel was a heavy smoker until suddenly giving up when he was about seventy years of age. He died on February 23, 1965, several days after suffering a heart attack. Just minutes away from death, Laurel told his nurse he would not mind going skiing right at that very moment. Somewhat taken aback, the nurse replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than have all these needles stuck into me!" A few minutes later the nurse looked in on him again and found that he had died.
Dick Van Dyke, a friend, and protege, and occasional impressionist of Laurel's during his later years, gave the eulogy at his funeral. Silent screen comedian Buster Keaton was overheard at Laurel's funeral giving his assessment of the comedian's considerable talents: "Chaplin wasn't the funniest, I wasn't the funniest, this man was the funniest."
Laurel wrote his own epitaph; "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was buried at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Legacy
* In 1989 a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Northumberland, England where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902, and where the steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Laurel meeting Hardy on his deathbed and reminiscing about their career .
* Laurel's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is situated at 7021 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, California.
* In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre .
* In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston, Cumbria.
* Above the door of the house where Stan Laurel lived, there is a plaque commemorating the actor.
Filmography
Biography portal
* Filmography of Stan Laurel (The films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
* Laurel and Hardy films (The filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)
References
1. ^ a b Midwinter, Eric (2006). "Laurel, Stan". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37659. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
2. ^ The Laurel & Hardy Forum :: View topic - Plea to save Stan Laurel's school
3. ^ http://rutherglenacademy.net/famous_ruglonians_1.html
4. ^ Bowers, Judith (2007). Stan Laurel and other stars of the Panopticon. Birlinn Ltd. pp. 143–147. ISBN 184158617X.
5. ^ Larry Harnisch (2009-06-21). "Stan Laurel's stormy marriage full of off-screen drama". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-then21-2009jun21,0,3596284.story?track=rss/. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
6. ^ Find A Grave
7. ^ "Stan Laurel Dies. Teamed With Oliver Hardy in 200 Slapstick Films-Played 'Simple' Foil.". New York Times. 24 February 1965. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70A1FF63F5812738DDDAD0A94DA405B858AF1D3. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
8. ^ BBC - BBC Four Cinema - Silent Cinema Season
9. ^ http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/3590723.Laurel_proves_Hardy_after_disaster_delays/ - Statue of Laurel arrives in Bishop Auckland
10. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/8006614.stm
* Marriot, AJ (1993). Laurel & Hardy : The British Tours. Hitchen: AJ Marriot.. ISBN 0-9521308-0-7.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh86/blindguidedog/119434-Stan_Laurel.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/23/10 at 2:34 pm
The word of the day...Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a vehicle with two wheels and an engine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkmbLoaORU
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/23/10 at 2:49 pm
Britiah Person of the Day: Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys was born on 23 February 1633 near Fleet Street in London, the son of a tailor. He was educated at St Paul's School in London and Cambridge University. After graduating, Pepys was employed as secretary to Edward Montagu, a distant relative who was a councillor of state during the Cromwellian protectorate and later served Charles II. In 1655, Pepys married 15-year-old Elizabeth Marchant de Saint-Michel, daughter of a Huguenot exile. In 1658, he underwent a dangerous operation for the removal of a bladder stone. Every year on the anniversary of the operation, he celebrated his recovery.
Pepys began his diary on 1 January 1660. It is written in a form of shorthand, with names in longhand. It ranges from private remarks, including revelations of infidelity - to detailed observations of events in 17th century England - such as the plague of 1665, the Great Fire of London and Charles II's coronation - and some of the key figures of the era, including Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Isaac Newton. Fear of losing his eyesight prompted Pepys to stop writing the diary in 1669. He never actually went blind.
In June 1660, Pepys was appointed clerk of the acts to the navy board, a key post in one of the most important of all government departments, the royal dockyards. In 1673, he became secretary to the Admiralty and in the same year a member of parliament for a Norfolk constituency, later representing Harwich. He was responsible for some important naval reforms which helped lay the foundations for a professional naval service. He was also a member of the Royal Society, serving as its president from 1684-1686.
In 1679, Pepys was forced to resign from the Admiralty and was imprisoned on a charge of selling naval secrets to the French, but the charge was subsequently dropped. In 1685, Charles II died and was succeeded by his brother who became James II, who Pepys served as loyally as he had Charles. After the overthrow of James in 1688, Pepys's career effectively came to an end. He was again arrested in 1690, under suspicion of Jacobite sympathies, but was released.
Pepys died in Clapham on the outskirts of London on 26 May 1703.
http://davidwmsims.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/samuelpepys.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/23/10 at 4:04 pm
The word of the day...Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a vehicle with two wheels and an engine.
http://i474.photobucket.com/albums/rr101/soveriegn73/motorcycle002.jpg
http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu171/jbeambabie/Motorcycle/VTX2.jpg
http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac160/brianj2656/d757df3e.jpg
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd217/epen12/xcs%20motorcycle/testimony.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/gidget922/Motorcycle/29.gif
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae142/nurivan2010/2000_0101AA.jpg
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f194/gidget922/Motorcycle/easyrider21ty.jpg
I remember The Undertaker had a similar gimmick called American Badass and he rode a motorcycle to the ring in 2002.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/24/10 at 7:23 am
The word of the day...Suit
A man's suit consists of a jacket, trousers, and sometimes a waistcoat, all made from the same fabric
A woman's suit consists of a jacket and skirt, or sometimes trousers, made from the same fabric.
A particular type of suit is a piece of clothing that you wear for a particular activity.
If something suits you, it is convenient for you or is the best thing for you in the circumstances
A suit is one of the four types of card in a set of playing cards. These are hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades.
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx142/gqchris1683/SUIT/Picture042.jpg
http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/xx109/Sparker2010/Rob.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t1/cacks_photos/BoysChristeningSuit2.jpg
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx142/gqchris1683/SUIT/Picture045.jpg
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv33/Glo222/DSC01786.jpg
http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab64/mrroberttower/EITS/IMG_0039.jpg
http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt317/iluvbrands/DSC_6.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj43/wartjr2373/SSBB%20Wallpapers/ZeroSuitSamus.png
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l201/Katieso99/playing_cards_by_bertyhell-1.jpg
http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac333/Jonathan2051/100_0089.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/second2none34/swim.jpg.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/24/10 at 7:26 am
The person born on this day...Edward James Olmos
Edward James "Eddie" Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is a Mexican American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are Commander/Admiral William Adama in the Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series, Lt. Martin Castillo in Miami Vice, teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, Detective Gaff in Blade Runner, and narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit.
Olmos was born Edward James Olmos in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised, the son of Eleanor (née Huizar) and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder. His father was a Mexican immigrant and his mother Mexican American. He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player and became the Golden State batting champion. In his teen years, he turned to rock and roll, and became the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so-called because it was to be "the biggest thing on the West Coast". He graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. While at Montebello High School, he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. For several years Pacific Ocean played various clubs in and around Los Angeles and released a record in 1968. At the same time, he attended classes at East Los Angeles College, including courses in acting.
Career
In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Olmos branched out from music into acting, appearing in many small productions, until his big break portraying the narrator, called "El Pachuco," in the play Zoot Suit, which dramatized the World War II-era rioting in California brought about by the tensions between Mexican-Americans and local police. (See Zoot Suit Riots.) The play moved to Broadway, and Olmos earned a Tony award nomination. He subsequently took the role to the filmed version in 1981, and appeared in many other films including Wolfen, Blade Runner and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.
From 1984 to 1989, Olmos starred in his biggest role up to that date as the authoritarian police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice opposite Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1985. He was contacted about playing the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was in pre-production in 1986, but he declined.
Returning to film, Olmos received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in Stand and Deliver for his portrayal of real-life math teacher, Jaime Escalante. He directed and starred in American Me in 1992, and also starred in My Family/Mi Familia, a multigenerational story of a Chicano family. In 1997 he starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the film Selena. Olmos played Dominican Republic dictator Rafael LeĂłnidas Trujillo in the 2001 movie In the Time of the Butterflies. He also had a recurring role as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberto Mendoza in the NBC drama The West Wing. From 2002 to 2004, he starred as a recently widowed father of a Latino L.A.-family in the PBS drama American Family: Journey of Dreams.
From 2003 to 2009, he starred as Admiral William Adama in the Sci Fi / SyFy Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and in the television series that followed. He directed four episodes of the show, Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down (1.9), Taking a Break from All Your Worries (3.13), Escape Velocity (4.4) and Islanded in a Stream of Stars (4.18). He also directed a television movie of the show, The Plan. Regarding his work on the show, he told CraveOnline, "I'm very grateful for the work that I've been able to do in my life but I can honestly tell you, this is the best usage of television I've ever been a part of to date."
In 2006, he co-produced, directed, and played the bit part of Julian Nava in the HBO movie about the 1968 Chicano Blowouts, Walkout . He also appeared in Snoop Dogg's music video "Vato", featuring B-Real from Cypress Hill. In the series finale of the ABC sitcom George Lopez, titled George Decides to Sta-Local Where It's Familia, he guest-starred as the plant's new multi-millionaire owner. More recently, he has been a spokesperson for Farmers Insurance Group, starring in their Spanish language commercials.
Social Activism
Olmos has often been involved in social activism, especially those affecting the Latino community. During the 1992 Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles, when many people left the city, Olmos went out with a broom and worked to get communities cleaned up and rebuilt. In 1997, Olmos co-founded the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival with Marlene Dermer, George Hernandez and Kirk Whisler. That same year, he co-founded with Kirk Whisler the non-profit organization Latino Literacy Now that has produced 44 Latino Book & Festivals around the USA, attended by over 700,000 people. In 1998, he founded Latino Public Broadcasting and currently serves as its Chairman. Latino Public Broadcasting funds public television programming that focuses on issues affecting Latinos and advocates for diverse perspectives in public television. That same year, he starred in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a comedy that sought to break Latino stereotypes and transcend the normal stigmas of most Latino-oriented movies. In 1999, Olmos was one of the driving forces that created Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.1, a book project featuring over 30 award winning photographers, later turned into a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, music CD and HBO special. He also makes frequent appearances at juvenile halls and detention centers to speak to at-risk teenagers. He has also been an international ambassador for UNICEF. In 2001, he was arrested and spent 20 days in prison for taking part in the Navy-Vieques protests against United States Navy target practice bombings of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
On January 5, 2007, he appeared on Puerto Rican Television to blame the Puerto Rican and United States Governments for not cleaning the Island of Vieques after the United States Navy stopped using the island for bombing practice. He also gave $2,300 to New Mexico governor Bill Richardson for his Presidential campaign (the maximum amount for the primaries).
Personal life
In 1971, Olmos married Katija Keel, the daughter of actor Howard Keel. They had two children, Bodie and Mico, before divorcing in 1992. Olmos also has three adopted children: Michael D., Brandon and Tamiko. He married actress Lorraine Bracco in 1994, but she filed for divorce in January 2002 after five years of separation. He is currently married to Puerto Rican actress Lymari Nadal, 30 years his junior.
In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from California State University, Fresno. In 2007, after a seven-year process, he obtained Mexican nationality.
Asteroid 5608 Olmos is named in his honor.
Filmography
Films
* Alambrista! (1977) - Drunk Yelling at Workers (Credit reads "Edward Olmos")
* Evening in Byzantium (1978) - Angelo
* Fukkatsu no hi (1979) - Capt. Lopez
* Three Hundred Miles for Stephanie (1981) - Art Vela
* Wolfen (1981) - Eddie Holt
* Zoot Suit (1981) - El Pachuco
* Blade Runner (1982) - Gaff
* The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1983) - Gregorio Cortez
* Saving Grace (1985) - Ciolino
* Stand and Deliver (1988) - Jaime Escalante
* The Fortunate Pilgrim (1989) - Frank Corbo
* Triumph of the Spirit (1989) - Gypsy
* Talent for the Game (1991) - Virgil Sweet
* American Me (1992) - Montoya Santana
* Roosters (1993) - Gallo Morales
* Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (1994) - Jose Menendez
* A Million to Juan (1994) - Angel
* The Burning Season (1994) - Wilson Pinheiro
* Mirage (1995) - Matteo Juarez
* My Family (1995) - Paco
* Dead Man's Walk (1996) - Capt. Salazar
* The Limbic Region (1996) - Jon Lucca
* Caught (1996) - Joe
* 12 Angry Men (1997) - Juror #11
* Selena (1997) - Abraham Quintanilla Jr.
* The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca (1997) - Roberto Lozano
* The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998) - Vamanos
* The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998) - Det. Anthony Piscotti
* Bonanno: A Godfather's Story (1999) - Salvatore Maranzano
* The Road to El Dorado (2000) (voice) - Chief
* Gossip (2000) - Detective Curtis
* The Judge (2001) - Judge Armando
* In the Time of the Butterflies (2001) Rafael Trujillo
* Jack and Marilyn (2002) - Pasquel
* Cerca, La (2005) - Nino
* Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (2005) - Voice of Mitto
* Splinter (2006) - Capt. Garcia
* Walkout (2006) - Julian Nava
* Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) (voice) - Diablo
* The Green Hornet (2010) - Michael Axford
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s307/tusabes1/EDWARD.jpg
http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss156/puzzled11/edward_james_olmos.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l52/Mystiqueband/Edspics028.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/24/10 at 7:31 am
The person who died on this day...Dennis Weaver
William Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) better known as Dennis Weaver was an American actor, best known for his work in television, including roles on Gunsmoke, as Marshal Sam McCloud on the NBC police drama McCloud, and the 1971 TV movie Duel.
Weaver was born William Dennis Weaver in Joplin, Missouri, the son of Lena Prather (1892–1970) and Walter Weaver (1890–1967), of Irish, Scottish, English, Cherokee and Osage ancestry. He wanted to be an actor from boyhood. He started college at Joplin Junior College, now Missouri Southern State University and later attended the University of Oklahoma at Norman, where he studied drama and also was a track star, setting records in several events. He served as a pilot in the United States Navy during the Second World War. In 1945, he married Gerry Stowell, with whom he had three children (Rick, Robbie and Rustin). In 1948, he tried out for the U.S. Olympic team in the decathlon. After he finished sixth in the Olympic Trials (only the top three made the team), his college friend Lonny Chapman convinced him to come to New York City to try acting.
Career
Weaver's first role on Broadway came as an understudy to Chapman as Turk Fisher in Come Back, Little Sheba. He eventually took over the role from Chapman in the national touring company. Solidifying his choice to become an actor, Weaver enrolled in The Actors Studio, where he met Shelley Winters. In the beginning of his acting career, he supported his family by doing a number of odd jobs, including selling vacuum cleaners, tricycles and women's hosiery.
In 1952, Winters aided him in getting a contract from Universal Studios. He made his film debut that same year in the movie The Redhead from Wyoming. Over the next three years, he played roles in a series of movies, but still had to work odd jobs to support his family. It was while delivering flowers that he heard he had landed his biggest break — the role of Chester Goode on the new television series Gunsmoke — which would go on to become the highest-rated and longest-running series in US television history (1955 to 1975). He received an Emmy Award in 1959 for Best Supporting Actor (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series.
Having become famous as Chester, he was cast in an offbeat supporting role in the 1958 Orson Welles film Touch of Evil, in which he nervously repeated, "I'm the night man." In 1961 he did an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Shadow Play" where he was trapped inside his own dream.
From 1964 to 1965, he portrayed a friendly veterinarian in NBC's comedy-drama Kentucky Jones. His next substantial role was as Tom Wedloe on the CBS series Gentle Ben, with co-star Clint Howard, between 1967 and 1969.
Weaver in Duel (1971)
He began appearing on the series McCloud in 1970, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations. In 1974, he was nominated for Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series and in 1975, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series. His frequent use of the affirming Southernism, "There you go," became a catchphrase for the show. During the series, in 1971, he appeared in Duel, a television movie directed by Steven Spielberg. From 1973 to 1975, he was president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Later series during the 1980s (both of which lasted only one season) were Stone in which Weaver played a Joseph Wambaugh-esque police sergeant turned crime novelist, and Buck James, in which he played a Texas-based surgeon and rancher (Buck James was loosely based on real-life Texas doctor Red Duke).
In 1978, Weaver played the trail boss R.J. Poteet in the television miniseries Centennial on the episode titled "The Longhorns." Weaver also appeared in many acclaimed television films. In 1980, he played Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was imprisoned for involvement in the Lincoln assassination, in The Ordeal Of Doctor Mudd. In 1983, he played a real estate agent addicted to cocaine in Cocaine: One Man's Seduction. Weaver received probably the best reviews of his career when he starred in the 1987 film Bluffing It, in which he played a man who is illiterate. In February 2002, he appeared on the animated series The Simpsons (episode DABF07, "The Lastest Gun in the West") as the voice of aging Hollywood cowboy legend Buck McCoy.
For his contribution to the television industry, Dennis Weaver was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6822 Hollywood Blvd, and on the Dodge City (KS) Trail of Fame. In 1981, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame with the Wrangler Award at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Weaver's most recent work was done on an ABC Family cable television show called Wildfire, where he played Henry, the father of Jean Ritter and the co-owner of Raintree Ranch. He was only on the show for season 1, and died of complications from cancer at the age of 81 on February 24, 2006. He was cremated and his ashes were given to his family.
Personal life
Weaver had been a vegetarian since 1958 and student of yoga and meditation since the 1960s. He was also renowned as an environmentalist, promoting eating lower on the food chain, alternate fuels such as hydrogen and wind power through an educational organization he founded, The Institute of Ecolonomics (a neologism formed by combining "ecology" and "economics"). He was also involved with John Denver's WindStar Foundation. He founded an organisation called Love is Feeding Everyone which provided food for 150,000 needy people a week in Los Angeles.
Weaver was active in liberal political causes. He used his celebrity status in instrumental roles as a fundraiser and organizer for George McGovern's campaign for president in 1972.
In 2004, he led a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles across America in order to raise awareness about America's dependence on oil.
The “Earth Ship,” the personal home he commissioned architect Michael Reynolds to design and build in Ridgway, Colorado during the late 1980s, incorporated recycled materials in its construction and featured advanced eco-technologies.
Weaver was consistently involved with the annual Genesis Awards, which were created by The Ark Trust to honor those in the media who bring attention to the plight and suffering of animals.
There will come a time … when civilized people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that preceded it: the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say “meat-eaters!” in disgust and regard us in the same way we regard cannibals and cannibalism – Dennis Weaver
Selected filmography
* The Lawless Breed (1953)
* War Arrow (1953)
* Dangerous Mission (1954)
* Dragnet (1954)
* Ten Wanted Men (1955)
* Seven Angry Men (1955)
* Chief Crazy Horse (1955)
* Navy Wife (1956)
* Touch of Evil (1958)
* The Gallant Hours (1960)
* Duel at Diablo (1966)
* Gentle Giant (1967)
* Mission Batangas (1968)
* McCloud:Who Killed Miss U.S.A? (1970) (TV)
* A Man Called Sledge (1970)
* Duel (1971)
* Cry For Justice (1977)
* Cocaine: One Man's Poison (1983)
* Two Bits & Pepper (1995)
* Escape from Wildcat Canyon (1998)
* Submerged (2000) with Coolio, Maxwell Caulfield, Brent Huff and Nicole Eggert
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/wildfirefan/dennis%20weaver/weaver3.jpg
http://i545.photobucket.com/albums/hh389/cowboy66_03/Pictures%202/DennisWeaver1.jpg
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/wildfirefan/dennis%20weaver/mcloud1.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/24/10 at 7:57 am
The person born on this day...Edward James Olmos
Edward James "Eddie" Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is a Mexican American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are Commander/Admiral William Adama in the Battlestar Galactica re-imagined series, Lt. Martin Castillo in Miami Vice, teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, Detective Gaff in Blade Runner, and narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit.
Olmos was born Edward James Olmos in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised, the son of Eleanor (née Huizar) and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder. His father was a Mexican immigrant and his mother Mexican American. He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player and became the Golden State batting champion. In his teen years, he turned to rock and roll, and became the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so-called because it was to be "the biggest thing on the West Coast". He graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. While at Montebello High School, he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. For several years Pacific Ocean played various clubs in and around Los Angeles and released a record in 1968. At the same time, he attended classes at East Los Angeles College, including courses in acting.
Career
In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Olmos branched out from music into acting, appearing in many small productions, until his big break portraying the narrator, called "El Pachuco," in the play Zoot Suit, which dramatized the World War II-era rioting in California brought about by the tensions between Mexican-Americans and local police. (See Zoot Suit Riots.) The play moved to Broadway, and Olmos earned a Tony award nomination. He subsequently took the role to the filmed version in 1981, and appeared in many other films including Wolfen, Blade Runner and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.
From 1984 to 1989, Olmos starred in his biggest role up to that date as the authoritarian police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice opposite Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1985. He was contacted about playing the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation when it was in pre-production in 1986, but he declined.
Returning to film, Olmos received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in Stand and Deliver for his portrayal of real-life math teacher, Jaime Escalante. He directed and starred in American Me in 1992, and also starred in My Family/Mi Familia, a multigenerational story of a Chicano family. In 1997 he starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the film Selena. Olmos played Dominican Republic dictator Rafael LeĂłnidas Trujillo in the 2001 movie In the Time of the Butterflies. He also had a recurring role as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberto Mendoza in the NBC drama The West Wing. From 2002 to 2004, he starred as a recently widowed father of a Latino L.A.-family in the PBS drama American Family: Journey of Dreams.
From 2003 to 2009, he starred as Admiral William Adama in the Sci Fi / SyFy Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and in the television series that followed. He directed four episodes of the show, Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down (1.9), Taking a Break from All Your Worries (3.13), Escape Velocity (4.4) and Islanded in a Stream of Stars (4.18). He also directed a television movie of the show, The Plan. Regarding his work on the show, he told CraveOnline, "I'm very grateful for the work that I've been able to do in my life but I can honestly tell you, this is the best usage of television I've ever been a part of to date."
In 2006, he co-produced, directed, and played the bit part of Julian Nava in the HBO movie about the 1968 Chicano Blowouts, Walkout . He also appeared in Snoop Dogg's music video "Vato", featuring B-Real from Cypress Hill. In the series finale of the ABC sitcom George Lopez, titled George Decides to Sta-Local Where It's Familia, he guest-starred as the plant's new multi-millionaire owner. More recently, he has been a spokesperson for Farmers Insurance Group, starring in their Spanish language commercials.
Social Activism
Olmos has often been involved in social activism, especially those affecting the Latino community. During the 1992 Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles, when many people left the city, Olmos went out with a broom and worked to get communities cleaned up and rebuilt. In 1997, Olmos co-founded the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival with Marlene Dermer, George Hernandez and Kirk Whisler. That same year, he co-founded with Kirk Whisler the non-profit organization Latino Literacy Now that has produced 44 Latino Book & Festivals around the USA, attended by over 700,000 people. In 1998, he founded Latino Public Broadcasting and currently serves as its Chairman. Latino Public Broadcasting funds public television programming that focuses on issues affecting Latinos and advocates for diverse perspectives in public television. That same year, he starred in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, a comedy that sought to break Latino stereotypes and transcend the normal stigmas of most Latino-oriented movies. In 1999, Olmos was one of the driving forces that created Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.1, a book project featuring over 30 award winning photographers, later turned into a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, music CD and HBO special. He also makes frequent appearances at juvenile halls and detention centers to speak to at-risk teenagers. He has also been an international ambassador for UNICEF. In 2001, he was arrested and spent 20 days in prison for taking part in the Navy-Vieques protests against United States Navy target practice bombings of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
On January 5, 2007, he appeared on Puerto Rican Television to blame the Puerto Rican and United States Governments for not cleaning the Island of Vieques after the United States Navy stopped using the island for bombing practice. He also gave $2,300 to New Mexico governor Bill Richardson for his Presidential campaign (the maximum amount for the primaries).
Personal life
In 1971, Olmos married Katija Keel, the daughter of actor Howard Keel. They had two children, Bodie and Mico, before divorcing in 1992. Olmos also has three adopted children: Michael D., Brandon and Tamiko. He married actress Lorraine Bracco in 1994, but she filed for divorce in January 2002 after five years of separation. He is currently married to Puerto Rican actress Lymari Nadal, 30 years his junior.
In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from California State University, Fresno. In 2007, after a seven-year process, he obtained Mexican nationality.
Asteroid 5608 Olmos is named in his honor.
Filmography
Films
* Alambrista! (1977) - Drunk Yelling at Workers (Credit reads "Edward Olmos")
* Evening in Byzantium (1978) - Angelo
* Fukkatsu no hi (1979) - Capt. Lopez
* Three Hundred Miles for Stephanie (1981) - Art Vela
* Wolfen (1981) - Eddie Holt
* Zoot Suit (1981) - El Pachuco
* Blade Runner (1982) - Gaff
* The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1983) - Gregorio Cortez
* Saving Grace (1985) - Ciolino
* Stand and Deliver (1988) - Jaime Escalante
* The Fortunate Pilgrim (1989) - Frank Corbo
* Triumph of the Spirit (1989) - Gypsy
* Talent for the Game (1991) - Virgil Sweet
* American Me (1992) - Montoya Santana
* Roosters (1993) - Gallo Morales
* Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (1994) - Jose Menendez
* A Million to Juan (1994) - Angel
* The Burning Season (1994) - Wilson Pinheiro
* Mirage (1995) - Matteo Juarez
* My Family (1995) - Paco
* Dead Man's Walk (1996) - Capt. Salazar
* The Limbic Region (1996) - Jon Lucca
* Caught (1996) - Joe
* 12 Angry Men (1997) - Juror #11
* Selena (1997) - Abraham Quintanilla Jr.
* The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca (1997) - Roberto Lozano
* The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998) - Vamanos
* The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998) - Det. Anthony Piscotti
* Bonanno: A Godfather's Story (1999) - Salvatore Maranzano
* The Road to El Dorado (2000) (voice) - Chief
* Gossip (2000) - Detective Curtis
* The Judge (2001) - Judge Armando
* In the Time of the Butterflies (2001) Rafael Trujillo
* Jack and Marilyn (2002) - Pasquel
* Cerca, La (2005) - Nino
* Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (2005) - Voice of Mitto
* Splinter (2006) - Capt. Garcia
* Walkout (2006) - Julian Nava
* Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) (voice) - Diablo
* The Green Hornet (2010) - Michael Axford
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s307/tusabes1/EDWARD.jpg
http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss156/puzzled11/edward_james_olmos.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l52/Mystiqueband/Edspics028.jpg
I think Stand And Deliver was his best work.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/24/10 at 8:33 am
I think Stand And Deliver was his best work.
Yes he was good in that.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/24/10 at 11:17 am
I liked Dennis Weaver in McCLoud, and in the mini-series, Centennial.
Thanks for posting.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/24/10 at 1:54 pm
I liked Dennis Weaver in McCLoud, and in the mini-series, Centennial.
Thanks for posting.
Your welcome :) I always liked McCloud.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/24/10 at 2:02 pm
British Person of the Day: James Quin
James Quin (24 February 1693 – 21 January 1766) was an English actor of Irish descent.
Quin was born in London. He was educated at Dublin, and probably spent a short time at Trinity College.
Soon after his father's death in 1710, he made his first appearance on the stage at Abel in Sir Robert Howard's The Committee at the Smock Alley Theatre. Quin's first London engagement was in small parts at Drury Lane, and he secured his first triumph at Bajazet in Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane, on 8 November 1715. The next year he appeared as Hotspur at Lincoln's Inn, where he remained for fourteen years.
On 10 July 1718 he was convicted of manslaughter for having killed Bowen, another actor, in a duel which the victim had himself provoked. Quin was not severely punished, the affair being regarded as more of an accident than a crime. The public took a similar view of another episode in which Quin, on being attacked by a young actor who had been angered by the sarcastic criticism of his superior, drew upon him and killed him.
But if he was eager in his own defence he was no less so in that of others. In 1721 a drunken nobleman reeled on to the stage of the theatre and assaulted the manager, Rich, whose life was saved by Quin's prompt armed interference. This resulted in a riot, and thereafter a guard was stationed in all theatres. In 1732 Quin appeared at Covent Garden, returning to Drury Lane from 1734 to 1741, and in 1742 was again at Covent Garden, where he remained until the close of his career. On 14 November 1746 Quin played Horatio and Garrick Lothario to the Calista of Mrs Cibber in Rose's Fair Penitent. The applause of the audience was so great as to disconcert if not actually to alarm the two actors.
Public interest was yet more keenly stimulated in comparing Garrick's and Quin's impersonations of Richard III, the popular verdict being loudly in favor of Garrick. But Quin's Falstaff in King Henry IV was emphatically preferred to the Hotspur of his rival. In consequence of an attempt made by Garrick in 1750-51 to draw him away from Covent Garden, Quin was enabled to extort from his manager a salary of ÂŁ1000 a year, the highest figure then reached in the profession. Quin's last regular appearance was on 15 May 1757, as Horatio in the Fair Penitent, though in the following year he twice played Falstaff for the benefit of friends. He had retired to Bath, where he lived a happy life, with late hours and much eating and drinking, until his death on 21 January 1766. He was buried in the abbey church at Bath.
Some coolness which had arisen between Quin and Garrick before the former's retirement was dissipated on their subsequent meeting at Chatsworth at the duke of Devonshire's, and Quin paid many a visit to Garrick's villa at Hampton in the latter part of his life. The epitaph in verse on his tomb was written by Garrick. Quin's will displayed a generous nature, and among numerous bequests was one of fifty pounds to "Mr Thomas Gainsborough, limner."
In the Garrick Club in London are two portraits of the actor ascribed to Hogarth, and a portrait by Gainsborough is in Buckingham Palace. His personality was not gracious. His jokes were coarse; his temper irascible; his love of food, his important airs, and his capacity for deep drinking do not command respect; on the other hand, a few of his jokes were excellent, and there was no rancour in him. On many occasions he showed his willingness to help persons in distress. His character is summarised by Smollett in Humphrey Clinker. As an actor his manner was charged with an excess of gravity and deliberation; his pauses were so portentous as in some situations to appear even ludicrous; but he was well fitted for the delivery of Milton's poetry, and for the portrayal of the graver roles in his repertory.
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4135444/2/istockphoto_4135444-james-quin.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 2:38 am
British Person of the Day: Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was a British pianist.
She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best-known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the gold medal. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. Her debut came in 1907 when she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. She went on to tour through Britain, the Netherlands and France. Upon her American debut (New York, 24 January 1922) she became a prime favourite in the United States, not only as a soloist, but also as a fine ensemble player.
She garnered greater fame during World War II when, with all concert halls closed, she organised a series of lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, playing in many herself. For this contribution to maintaining the morale of the populace of London, she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941; having previously been created a CBE in 1936. Hess makes a brief appearance performing at one of her lunchtime concerts in the classic 1942 wartime documentary Listen to Britain (directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister).
Hess was most renowned for her interpretations of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, but had a wide repertoire ranging from Domenico Scarlatti to contemporary works. She gave the premiere of Howard Ferguson's Piano Sonata and his Piano Concerto. She also played a good amount of chamber music, and performed in a piano duo with Irene Scharrer. She promoted public awareness of the piano duo and two-piano works of Schubert.
She made a well-known arrangement for piano of the chorale prelude "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" (known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring") from Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata No. 147 "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben". Her protégés included Clive Lythgoe and Richard and John Contiguglia.
She influenced the City Music Society to form from the lunchtime concerts she organised.
http://image.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/m/my/myra_hess.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 2:39 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6BPTCveWH8&feature=PlayList&p=8D527853ACFA647F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=46
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/25/10 at 7:14 am
British Person of the Day: James Quin
James Quin (24 February 1693 – 21 January 1766) was an English actor of Irish descent.
Quin was born in London. He was educated at Dublin, and probably spent a short time at Trinity College.
Soon after his father's death in 1710, he made his first appearance on the stage at Abel in Sir Robert Howard's The Committee at the Smock Alley Theatre. Quin's first London engagement was in small parts at Drury Lane, and he secured his first triumph at Bajazet in Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane, on 8 November 1715. The next year he appeared as Hotspur at Lincoln's Inn, where he remained for fourteen years.
On 10 July 1718 he was convicted of manslaughter for having killed Bowen, another actor, in a duel which the victim had himself provoked. Quin was not severely punished, the affair being regarded as more of an accident than a crime. The public took a similar view of another episode in which Quin, on being attacked by a young actor who had been angered by the sarcastic criticism of his superior, drew upon him and killed him.
But if he was eager in his own defence he was no less so in that of others. In 1721 a drunken nobleman reeled on to the stage of the theatre and assaulted the manager, Rich, whose life was saved by Quin's prompt armed interference. This resulted in a riot, and thereafter a guard was stationed in all theatres. In 1732 Quin appeared at Covent Garden, returning to Drury Lane from 1734 to 1741, and in 1742 was again at Covent Garden, where he remained until the close of his career. On 14 November 1746 Quin played Horatio and Garrick Lothario to the Calista of Mrs Cibber in Rose's Fair Penitent. The applause of the audience was so great as to disconcert if not actually to alarm the two actors.
Public interest was yet more keenly stimulated in comparing Garrick's and Quin's impersonations of Richard III, the popular verdict being loudly in favor of Garrick. But Quin's Falstaff in King Henry IV was emphatically preferred to the Hotspur of his rival. In consequence of an attempt made by Garrick in 1750-51 to draw him away from Covent Garden, Quin was enabled to extort from his manager a salary of ÂŁ1000 a year, the highest figure then reached in the profession. Quin's last regular appearance was on 15 May 1757, as Horatio in the Fair Penitent, though in the following year he twice played Falstaff for the benefit of friends. He had retired to Bath, where he lived a happy life, with late hours and much eating and drinking, until his death on 21 January 1766. He was buried in the abbey church at Bath.
Some coolness which had arisen between Quin and Garrick before the former's retirement was dissipated on their subsequent meeting at Chatsworth at the duke of Devonshire's, and Quin paid many a visit to Garrick's villa at Hampton in the latter part of his life. The epitaph in verse on his tomb was written by Garrick. Quin's will displayed a generous nature, and among numerous bequests was one of fifty pounds to "Mr Thomas Gainsborough, limner."
In the Garrick Club in London are two portraits of the actor ascribed to Hogarth, and a portrait by Gainsborough is in Buckingham Palace. His personality was not gracious. His jokes were coarse; his temper irascible; his love of food, his important airs, and his capacity for deep drinking do not command respect; on the other hand, a few of his jokes were excellent, and there was no rancour in him. On many occasions he showed his willingness to help persons in distress. His character is summarised by Smollett in Humphrey Clinker. As an actor his manner was charged with an excess of gravity and deliberation; his pauses were so portentous as in some situations to appear even ludicrous; but he was well fitted for the delivery of Milton's poetry, and for the portrayal of the graver roles in his repertory.
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4135444/2/istockphoto_4135444-james-quin.jpg
Interesting bio, Thanks Phil.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/25/10 at 7:16 am
British Person of the Day: Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965) was a British pianist.
She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best-known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the gold medal. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. Her debut came in 1907 when she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. She went on to tour through Britain, the Netherlands and France. Upon her American debut (New York, 24 January 1922) she became a prime favourite in the United States, not only as a soloist, but also as a fine ensemble player.
She garnered greater fame during World War II when, with all concert halls closed, she organised a series of lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery, playing in many herself. For this contribution to maintaining the morale of the populace of London, she was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941; having previously been created a CBE in 1936. Hess makes a brief appearance performing at one of her lunchtime concerts in the classic 1942 wartime documentary Listen to Britain (directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stuart McAllister).
Hess was most renowned for her interpretations of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, but had a wide repertoire ranging from Domenico Scarlatti to contemporary works. She gave the premiere of Howard Ferguson's Piano Sonata and his Piano Concerto. She also played a good amount of chamber music, and performed in a piano duo with Irene Scharrer. She promoted public awareness of the piano duo and two-piano works of Schubert.
She made a well-known arrangement for piano of the chorale prelude "Jesus bleibet meine Freude" (known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring") from Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata No. 147 "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben". Her protégés included Clive Lythgoe and Richard and John Contiguglia.
She influenced the City Music Society to form from the lunchtime concerts she organised.
http://image.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/m/my/myra_hess.jpg
I love your choices, because these are people I never knew about :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/25/10 at 7:33 am
The word of the day...Runner
A runner is a person who runs, especially for sport or pleasure
The runners in a horse race are the horses taking part.
A drug runner or gun runner is someone who illegally takes drugs or guns into a country.
Someone who is a runner for a particular person or company is employed to take messages, collect money, or do other small tasks for them.
Runners are thin strips of wood or metal underneath something which help it to move smoothly.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff121/blake_yount/Yatesintakerunners2.jpg
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz71/Empire1000/BladeRunner.jpg
http://i977.photobucket.com/albums/ae257/gti1999/100_4788.jpg
http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/ss125/Lucas_Adorn/WFRPG%20pics/Gutter-Runner-Front-Face.png
http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww36/Brian6809/Drawings/Marathonrunner.jpg
http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac250/zhandenrich/acuestick%20photo/19948_1127285922300_1831746317_2601.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/25/10 at 7:37 am
The person born on this day...Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay (pronounced "Courtney"; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre. Courtenay received a knighthood in February 2001 for forty years service to cinema and theatre. Tom Courtenay is the President of Hull City A.F.C.'s Official Supporters Club. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hull University.
ourtenay was born in Hull, the son of Anne Eliza (née Quest) and Thomas Henry Courtenay, a boat painter. He attended Kingston High School there. Courtenay studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
Career
Courtenay made his stage début in 1960 with the Old Vic theatre company at the Lyceum, Edinburgh, before taking over from Albert Finney in the title role of Billy Liar at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961. In 1963 he would play that same title role in the film version, directed by John Schlesinger. He said of Albert Finney, "We both have the same problem, overcoming the flat harsh speech of the North."
Courtenay's film debut was in 1962 with Private Potter, directed by Finnish-born director Casper Wrede, who had first spotted Courtenay while he was still at RADA. This was followed by The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, directed by Tony Richardson and Billy Liar, two highly acclaimed films and performances which helped usher in the British New Wave of the early-to-mid '60s. For these performance Courtenay was awarded the 1962 BAFTA Award for most promising newcomer and the 1963 BAFTA Award for best actor respectively. For his role as the dedicated revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in Doctor Zhivago (1965), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, being beaten out by Martin Balsam. Among his other well-known films is King & Country directed by Joseph Losey, where he played opposite Dirk Bogarde, and Night of the Generals directed by Anatole Litvak.
Despite being catapulted to fame by the aforementioned films, Courtenay has said that he has not particularly enjoyed film acting; and from the mid-1960s concentrated more on stage work. In 1966 Courtenay began a long association with the then newly formed Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, firstly under the direction of Casper Wrede. His first roles there were as Faulkland in Sheridan's The Rivals and the hero of von Kleist's The Prince of Homburg. Since then he has played a variety of roles, including in 1999 the leading role in the theatre's production of King Lear, and in 2001 Uncle Vanya.
Courtenay's working relationship with Wrede returned to film when he played the title role in the latter's 1970 production of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. His best known film role since then was in The Dresser, from Ronald Harwood's play of the same name (in which he also appeared) with Albert Finney. Both Courtenay and Finney received nominations for Best Actor in the 1984 Academy Awards for their roles, losing to Robert Duvall. He played the father of Derek Bentley (Christopher Eccleston) in the 1991 film Let Him Have It.
Courtenay's television and radio appearances have been relatively few, but have included She Stoops to Conquer in 1971 on BBC and several Ayckbourn plays. He appeared in I Heard the Owl Call My Name on US television in 1973. In 1994 he starred with Peter Ustinov in a Disney Channel 'made for television' version of The Old Curiosity Shop. Rather unexpecedly, he had a cameo role as the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski in the 1995 US TV movie Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. In 1998 he teamed with Albert Finney again for the acclaimed BBC drama A Rather English Marriage. He played the role of God, opposite Sebastian Graham-Jones, in Ben Steiner's radio play "A Brief Interruption", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004. Also for Radio 4, he played the title role in Nick Leather's The Domino Man of Lancashire and Maurice in Richard Lumsden's Man in the Moon, both broadcast in 2007. Courtenay also appeared in the 2008 Christmas special of the BBC show The Royle Family, playing the role of Dave's father, David Senior.
In 2002, based on an idea by Michael Godley, Courtenay compiled a one-man show Pretending To Be Me based on the letters and writings of poet Philip Larkin, which first played at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. It later transferred to the Comedy Theatre in the West End in London.
In 2007 Courtenay appeared in two films: Flood, a disaster epic in which London is overwhelmed by floods, and The Golden Compass, an adaptation of the Philip Pullman's novel, playing the part of Farder Coram. In 2008 he appeared in the BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, playing William Dorrit, and the Christmas edition of The Royle Family, playing David (Senior).
Personal life
Courtenay was married to actress Cheryl Kennedy from 1973 to 1982. In 1988 he married Isabel Crossley, a stage manager at the Royal Exchange Theatre. They have homes in Manchester and Putney in London.
In 2000 Courtenay's memoir Dear Tom: Letters From Home was published to critical acclaim. It comprises a selection of the letters exchanged between Courtenay and his mother, interspersed with his own recollections of life as a young student actor in London in the early 1960s.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1962 Private Potter Private Potter
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Colin Smith BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1963 Billy Liar Billy Fisher Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
1964 King & Country Private Hamp Volpi Cup
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
1965 Operation Crossbow Robert Henshaw
King Rat Lt. Robin Grey
Doctor Zhivago Pasha Antipov Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1967 The Night of the Generals Lance Cpl. Kurt Hartmann
The Day the Fish Came Out The Navigator
1968 A Dandy in Aspic Gatiss
Otley Gerald Arthur Otley
1970 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Ivan Denisovich
1971 To Catch a Spy Baxter Clarke
She Stoops to Conquer Marlow
1983 The Dresser Norman Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1987 Happy New Year Edward Saunders
Leonard Part 6 Frayn
1991 The Last Butterfly Antoine Moreau
Let Him Have it William Bentley
1996 Famous Fred Kenneth
The Boy from Mercury Uncle Tony Cronin
1999 Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? Harold Smith Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actor
2001 Last Orders Vic National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Nominated — European Film Award for Best Actor
2002 Nicholas Nickleby Newman Noggs National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
2007 Flood Leonard Morrison
The Golden Compass Farder Coram
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq85/cornershop15/JessieRobinsfarright.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/25/10 at 7:41 am
The person who died on this day...Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), born Thomas Lanier Williams, was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo received the Tony Award for best play. In 1980 he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.
Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, in the home of his maternal grandfather, the local Episcopal priest. He was of Welsh descent. His father, Cornelius Williams, a hard drinking traveling salesman, favored Tennessee's younger brother Dakin, perhaps because of Tennessee's weakness and effeminacy as a child. His mother, Edwina, was a borderline hysteric. Tennessee Williams would find inspiration in his problematic family for much of his writing.
In 1918, when Williams was seven, the family moved to the University City neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, where he first attended Soldan High School, used in his work The Glass Menagerie and later University City High School. In 1927, at age 16, Williams won third prize (five dollars) for an essay published in Smart Set entitled, "Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?" A year later, he published "The Vengeance of Nitocris" in Weird Tales.
In the early 1930s Williams attended the University of Missouri, where he joined Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. In the late 1930s, Williams transferred to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for a year, and finally earned a degree in 1938 from the University of Iowa, where he wrote "Spring Storm." By then, Williams had written Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!. This work was first produced in 1935 by a community theater in Memphis, Tennessee. He later studied at The New School in New York City.
Writer
Williams lived for a time in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved there in 1939 to write for the WPA. He first lived at 722 Toulouse Street, the setting of his 1977 play Vieux Carré. The building is part of The Historic New Orleans Collection. He began writing A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) while living at 632 St. Peter Street. He finished it later in Key West, Florida, where he moved in the 1940s. While in New Orleans, Williams met and fell in love with Frank Merlo, a second generation Sicilian American who had served in the U.S. Navy in World War II.
Tennessee was close to his sister Rose, a slim beauty who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age. As was common then, Rose was institutionalized and spent most of her adult life in mental hospitals. When therapies were unsuccessful, she showed more paranoid tendencies. In an effort to treat her, Rose's parents authorized a prefrontal lobotomy, a drastic treatment that was thought to help some mental patients who suffered extreme agitation. Performed in 1937 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the operation incapacitated Rose for the rest of her life. Her surgery may have contributed to his alcoholism and his dependence on various combinations of amphetamines and barbiturates often prescribed by Dr. Max (Feelgood) Jacobson.
Williams worked extremely briefly in the renowned Gotham Book Mart in Manhattan, lasting less than a day.
Williams' relationship with Frank Merlo lasted from 1947 until Merlo's death from cancer in 1963. With that stability, Williams created his most enduring works. Merlo provided balance to many of Williams' frequent bouts with depression and the fear that, like his sister Rose, he would go insane.
Death
Williams died on February 24, 1983.
Reports at the time indicated he choked on an eyedrop bottle cap in his room at the Hotel Elysee in New York. The reports said he would routinely place the cap in his mouth, lean back, and place his eyedrops in each eye. The police report, however, suggested his use of drugs and alcohol contributed to his death. Prescription drugs, including barbiturates, were found in the room, and Williams' gag response may have been diminished by the effects of drugs and alcohol.
However, on February 15, 2010, Williams' friend Larry Myers told the New York Post that the autopsy reported that he died of "Acute Seconal Intolerance." The article said that Williams' Key West companion Scott Kenan said that somebody in the coroner's office "created the bottle-cap scenario."
Williams' body was found by director John Uecker who was identified as his secretary and who travelled with Williams, and was staying in a separate room in Williams' suite.
Williams' body was taken to Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel and Williams' funeral took place on March 3, 1983 at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church in New York City. At his brother Dakin's insistence, Williams' body was interred in the Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri, a city he detested. Williams had long told his friends he wanted to be buried at sea at approximately the same place as Hart Crane, a poet he considered to be one of his most significant influences.
Williams left his literary rights to The University of the South in honor of his grandfather, Walter Dakin, an alumnus of the university, which is located in Sewanee, Tennessee. The funds support a creative writing program. When his sister Rose died in 1996 after many years in a mental institution, she bequeathed $7 million from her part of the Williams estate to The University of the South as well.
In 1989, the University City Loop (in a suburb of St. Louis) inducted Tennessee Williams into its St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Afterlife
In late 2009, Williams was inducted into the Poet's Corner at St. John the Divine Episcopalian Church ]. The ceremony seemed geared to elevate the poet and playwright into the pantheon of great English Language writers, including William Faulkner and William Shakespeare. The purpose of the ceremony seemed to be a prayer for the poets fire to continually burn on Earth, as it would in heaven, and included elements choral music, tributes, readings, personal anecdotes from friends, and overall a tone and deliberate selections of choral music and prayer that offered acceptance and forgiveness which seemed to address certain prejudices which may have arisen against the poet in his lifetime so that the man's work could, going forward, be more fully accepted and explored.
Williams at the time of his death had been working on a final play, In Masks Outrageous and Austere ], which attempted to reconcile certain forces and facts of his own life, a theme which ran throughout his work, as Elia Kazan had say. Please see the article in WikiPedia on In Masks Outrageous and Austere for further details.
Works
The "mad heroine" theme that appeared in many of his plays seemed clearly influenced by the life of Williams' sister Rose.
Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Characters in his plays are often seen as representations of his family members. Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was understood to be modeled on Rose. Some biographers believed that the character of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire is also based on her.
Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie was generally seen to represent Williams' mother, Edwina. Characters such as Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Sebastian in Suddenly, Last Summer were understood to represent Williams himself. In addition, he used a lobotomy operation as a motif in Suddenly, Last Summer.
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. These two plays were later filmed, with great success, by noted directors Elia Kazan (Streetcar) with whom Williams developed a very close artistic relationship, and Richard Brooks (Cat). Both plays included references to elements of Williams' life such as homosexuality, mental instability, and alcoholism. Although The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets was the preferred choice of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1955 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was at first considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., chairman of the Board, had seen Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and thought it worthy of the drama prize. The Board went along with him after considerable discussion.
Williams wrote The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer when he was 29 and worked on it through his life. It seemed an autobiographical depiction of an early romance in Provincetown, Massachusetts. This play was produced for the first time on October 1, 2006 in Provincetown by the Shakespeare on the Cape production company, as part of the First Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival.
The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer was among several works published by New Directions in the spring of 2008, edited and introduced by Williams scholar Annette J. Saddik. This collection of experimental plays was titled The Traveling Companion and Other Plays.usc
Williams' last play A House Not Meant to Stand is a gothic comedy published in 2008 by New Directions with a foreword by Gregory Mosher and an introduction by Thomas Keith. Williams called his last play a "Southern gothic spook sonata."
Other works by Williams include Camino Real and Sweet Bird of Youth.
His last play went through many drafts as he was trying to reconcile what would be the end of his life]. There are many versions of it, but it is referred to as In Masks Outrageous and Austere and a Wikipedia article may be found on the subject.
Plays
Apprentice plays
* Candles to the Sun (1936)
* Spring Storm (1937)
* Fugitive Kind (1937)
* Not About Nightingales (1938)
* I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix (1941)
* Orpheus Descending (1945)
* You Touched Me (1945)
* Stairs to the Roof (1947)
Major plays
* The Glass Menagerie (1944)
* A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
* Summer and Smoke (1948)
* The Rose Tattoo (1951)
* Camino Real (1953)
* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
* Baby Doll (1956)
* Orpheus Descending (1957)
* Suddenly, Last Summer (1958)
* Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
* Period of Adjustment (1960)
* The Night of the Iguana (1961)
* The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1962, rewriting of Summer and Smoke)
* The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963)
* The Mutilated (1965)
* The Seven Descents of Myrtle (1968, aka Kingdom of Earth)
* In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
* Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis? (1969)
* Small Craft Warnings (1972)
* The Two-Character Play (1973)
* Out Cry (1973, rewriting of The Two-Character Play)
* The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
* This Is (An Entertainment) (1976)
* Vieux Carré (1977)
* A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (1979)
* Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980)
* The Notebook of Trigorin (1980)
* Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1981)
* A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
* In Masks Outrageous and Austere (1983)
Novels
* The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1950, filmed 1961)
* Moise and the World of Reason (1975)
Screenplays
* The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (1957, filmed 2009)
Short stories
* The Vengeance of Nitocris (1928)
* The Field of Blue Children (1939)
* The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin (1951)
* Hard Candy: A Book of Stories (1954)
* Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories (1960)
* The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories (1966)
* One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
o One Arm
o The Malediction
o The Poet
o Chronicle of a Demise
o Desire and the Black Masseur
o Portrait of a Girl in Glass
o The Important Thing
o The Angel in the Alcove
o The Field of Blue Children
o The Night of the Iguana
o The Yellow Bird
* Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
* Tent Worms (1980)
* It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories (1981)
One-act collections
Tennessee Williams wrote over 70 one-act plays during his lifetime. The one-acts explored many of the same themes that dominated his longer works. Williams' major collections are published by New Directions in New York City.
* American Blues (1948)
* Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays
* Dragon Country: a book of one-act plays (1970)
* The Traveling Companion and Other Plays
* 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays (1946 and 1953)
o «Something wild...» (introduction) (1953)
o 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1946 and 1953)
o The Purification (1946 and 1953)
o The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (1946 and 1953)
o The Last of My Solid Gold Watches (1946 and 1953)
o Portrait of a Madonna (1946 and 1953)
o Auto-da-FĂ© (1946 and 1953)
o Lord Byron's Love Letter (1946 and 1953)
o The Strangest Kind of Romance (1946 and 1953)
o The Long Goodbye (1946 and 1953)
o At Liberty (1946)
o Moony's Kid Don't Cry (1946)
o Hello from Bertha (1946 and 1953)
o This Property Is Condemned (1946 and 1953)
o Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen... (1953)
o Something Unspoken (1953)
* The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume VI
* The Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Volume VII
Selected works
* Gussow, Mel and Holditch, Kenneth, eds. Tennessee Williams, Plays 1937-1955 (Library of America, 2000) ISBN 978-1-88301186-4.
o Spring Storm
o Not About Nightingales
o Battle of Angels
o I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix
o from 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1946)
+ 27 Wagons Full of Cotton
+ The Lady of Larkspur Lotion
+ The Last of My Solid Gold Watches
+ Portrait of a Madonna
+ Auto-da-FĂ©
+ Lord Byron's Love Letter
+ This Property Is Condemned
o The Glass Menagerie
o A Streetcar Named Desire
o Summer and Smoke
o The Rose Tattoo
o Camino Real
o from 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (1953)
+ "Something Wild"
+ Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen
+ Something Unspoken
o Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
* Gussow, Mel and Holditch, Kenneth, eds. Tennessee Williams, Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America, 2000) ISBN 978-1-88301187-1.
o Orpheus Descending
o Suddenly Last Summer
o Sweet Bird of Youth
o Period of Adjustment
o The Night of the Iguana
o The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
o The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
o The Mutilated
o Kingdom of Earth (The Seven Descents of Myrtle)
o Small Craft Warnings
o Out Cry
o Vieux Carré
o A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur
Related Works
A book is coming out soon by a former assistant, Scott. John Uecker is also has directed Williams' plays in addition to creating an edit of In Masks Outrageous and Austere.
See also
* Lanier family tree
* Virginia Spencer Carr, friend and biographer of Williams
* List of unusual deaths
http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss216/kantropus/Williams/tennessee.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n209/guwumpki/180px-Tennessee_Williams_NYWTS.jpg
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q192/wintersherald/williams.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/25/10 at 7:49 am
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/11/06/george_harrison_main.jpg
Happy Birthday George Harrison. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/25/10 at 9:49 am
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/11/06/george_harrison_main.jpg
Happy Birthday George Harrison. :)
He'd be 67 today :\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 1:24 pm
The person born on this day...Tom Courtenay
Sir Thomas Daniel "Tom" Courtenay (pronounced "Courtney"; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of films including The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). Since the mid-1960s he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre. Courtenay received a knighthood in February 2001 for forty years service to cinema and theatre. Tom Courtenay is the President of Hull City A.F.C.'s Official Supporters Club. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Hull University.
ourtenay was born in Hull, the son of Anne Eliza (née Quest) and Thomas Henry Courtenay, a boat painter. He attended Kingston High School there. Courtenay studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
Career
Courtenay made his stage début in 1960 with the Old Vic theatre company at the Lyceum, Edinburgh, before taking over from Albert Finney in the title role of Billy Liar at the Cambridge Theatre in 1961. In 1963 he would play that same title role in the film version, directed by John Schlesinger. He said of Albert Finney, "We both have the same problem, overcoming the flat harsh speech of the North."
Courtenay's film debut was in 1962 with Private Potter, directed by Finnish-born director Casper Wrede, who had first spotted Courtenay while he was still at RADA. This was followed by The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, directed by Tony Richardson and Billy Liar, two highly acclaimed films and performances which helped usher in the British New Wave of the early-to-mid '60s. For these performance Courtenay was awarded the 1962 BAFTA Award for most promising newcomer and the 1963 BAFTA Award for best actor respectively. For his role as the dedicated revolutionary leader Pasha Antipov in Doctor Zhivago (1965), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, being beaten out by Martin Balsam. Among his other well-known films is King & Country directed by Joseph Losey, where he played opposite Dirk Bogarde, and Night of the Generals directed by Anatole Litvak.
Despite being catapulted to fame by the aforementioned films, Courtenay has said that he has not particularly enjoyed film acting; and from the mid-1960s concentrated more on stage work. In 1966 Courtenay began a long association with the then newly formed Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, firstly under the direction of Casper Wrede. His first roles there were as Faulkland in Sheridan's The Rivals and the hero of von Kleist's The Prince of Homburg. Since then he has played a variety of roles, including in 1999 the leading role in the theatre's production of King Lear, and in 2001 Uncle Vanya.
Courtenay's working relationship with Wrede returned to film when he played the title role in the latter's 1970 production of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. His best known film role since then was in The Dresser, from Ronald Harwood's play of the same name (in which he also appeared) with Albert Finney. Both Courtenay and Finney received nominations for Best Actor in the 1984 Academy Awards for their roles, losing to Robert Duvall. He played the father of Derek Bentley (Christopher Eccleston) in the 1991 film Let Him Have It.
Courtenay's television and radio appearances have been relatively few, but have included She Stoops to Conquer in 1971 on BBC and several Ayckbourn plays. He appeared in I Heard the Owl Call My Name on US television in 1973. In 1994 he starred with Peter Ustinov in a Disney Channel 'made for television' version of The Old Curiosity Shop. Rather unexpecedly, he had a cameo role as the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski in the 1995 US TV movie Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye. In 1998 he teamed with Albert Finney again for the acclaimed BBC drama A Rather English Marriage. He played the role of God, opposite Sebastian Graham-Jones, in Ben Steiner's radio play "A Brief Interruption", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004. Also for Radio 4, he played the title role in Nick Leather's The Domino Man of Lancashire and Maurice in Richard Lumsden's Man in the Moon, both broadcast in 2007. Courtenay also appeared in the 2008 Christmas special of the BBC show The Royle Family, playing the role of Dave's father, David Senior.
In 2002, based on an idea by Michael Godley, Courtenay compiled a one-man show Pretending To Be Me based on the letters and writings of poet Philip Larkin, which first played at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. It later transferred to the Comedy Theatre in the West End in London.
In 2007 Courtenay appeared in two films: Flood, a disaster epic in which London is overwhelmed by floods, and The Golden Compass, an adaptation of the Philip Pullman's novel, playing the part of Farder Coram. In 2008 he appeared in the BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, playing William Dorrit, and the Christmas edition of The Royle Family, playing David (Senior).
Personal life
Courtenay was married to actress Cheryl Kennedy from 1973 to 1982. In 1988 he married Isabel Crossley, a stage manager at the Royal Exchange Theatre. They have homes in Manchester and Putney in London.
In 2000 Courtenay's memoir Dear Tom: Letters From Home was published to critical acclaim. It comprises a selection of the letters exchanged between Courtenay and his mother, interspersed with his own recollections of life as a young student actor in London in the early 1960s.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1962 Private Potter Private Potter
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Colin Smith BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1963 Billy Liar Billy Fisher Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
1964 King & Country Private Hamp Volpi Cup
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
1965 Operation Crossbow Robert Henshaw
King Rat Lt. Robin Grey
Doctor Zhivago Pasha Antipov Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1967 The Night of the Generals Lance Cpl. Kurt Hartmann
The Day the Fish Came Out The Navigator
1968 A Dandy in Aspic Gatiss
Otley Gerald Arthur Otley
1970 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Ivan Denisovich
1971 To Catch a Spy Baxter Clarke
She Stoops to Conquer Marlow
1983 The Dresser Norman Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1987 Happy New Year Edward Saunders
Leonard Part 6 Frayn
1991 The Last Butterfly Antoine Moreau
Let Him Have it William Bentley
1996 Famous Fred Kenneth
The Boy from Mercury Uncle Tony Cronin
1999 Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? Harold Smith Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actor
2001 Last Orders Vic National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Nominated — European Film Award for Best Actor
2002 Nicholas Nickleby Newman Noggs National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
2007 Flood Leonard Morrison
The Golden Compass Farder Coram
http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq85/cornershop15/JessieRobinsfarright.jpg
British and I missed him!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 1:26 pm
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/11/06/george_harrison_main.jpg
Happy Birthday George Harrison. :)
Believe or not, I read conflicting reports on his date of birth (either yesterday or today), so I do not have GH as the British Person of the Day.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/25/10 at 2:16 pm
We should have George Harrison as one of the people of the day-Honorable Mention or something.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/25/10 at 2:24 pm
We should have George Harrison as one of the people of the day-Honorable Mention or something.
Cat
I think so too.
Believe or not, I read conflicting reports on his date of birth (either yesterday or today), so I do not have GH as the British Person of the Day.
I read that too; from what I read, he believed for most of his life that his birthday was the 25th, but other sources give it as the 24th, saying that he was born just a couple minutes before midnight (or something to that effect).
Now I'm looking at his Wiki page and there's a footnote to a source that confirms the 25th as his actual birthday.
Footnote #10:
^ Reliable sources and his birth certificate show his birth date as 25 February, though some sources give 24 February.
So that means today would have been his 67th birthday. :\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/25/10 at 2:55 pm
Beatle George!
Brought us some lovely songs as "Here comes the sun". "Something", "Give me love, give me peace on earth" and more.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/25/10 at 2:58 pm
Beatle George!
Brought us some lovely songs as "Here comes the sun". "Something", "Give me love, give me peace on earth" and more.
Yeah those are good ones.
Some of his solo hits include "My Sweet Lord", "All Those Years Ago" and "(I've) Got My Mind Set On You", all of which I enjoy.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 2:58 pm
I think so too.
I read that too; from what I read, he believed for most of his life that his birthday was the 25th, but other sources give it as the 24th, saying that he was born just a couple minutes before midnight (or something to that effect).
Now I'm looking at his Wiki page and there's a footnote to a source that confirms the 25th as his actual birthday.
Footnote #10:So that means today would have been his 67th birthday. :\'(
:\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 3:00 pm
Yeah those are good ones.
Some of his solo hits include "My Sweet Lord", "All Those Years Ago" and "(I've) Got My Mind Set On You", all of which I enjoy.
All Those Years Ago is one of my favs.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/25/10 at 3:01 pm
:\'(
It's incredible how young George was when he joined the band & how young he was when the Beatles were in Hamburg.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 3:02 pm
It's incredible how young George was when he joined the band & how young he was when the Beatles were in Hamburg.
When The Beatles were offered work in Hamburg in 1960, the musical apprenticeship that Harrison received playing long hours at the Kaiserkeller with the rest of the group, including guitar lessons from Tony Sheridan, laid the foundations of The Beatles' sound, and of Harrison's quiet, professional role within the group; this role would contribute to his reputation as "the quiet Beatle". However, the first trip to Hamburg was shortened when Harrison was deported for being underage.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/25/10 at 3:02 pm
It's incredible how young George was when he joined the band & how young he was when the Beatles were in Hamburg.
That's right, he was the youngest member of the group. And when they appeared on Ed Sullivan, George was almost 21.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/25/10 at 3:04 pm
When The Beatles were offered work in Hamburg in 1960, the musical apprenticeship that Harrison received playing long hours at the Kaiserkeller with the rest of the group, including guitar lessons from Tony Sheridan, laid the foundations of The Beatles' sound, and of Harrison's quiet, professional role within the group; this role would contribute to his reputation as "the quiet Beatle". However, the first trip to Hamburg was shortened when Harrison was deported for being underage.
I remember hearing about that.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/25/10 at 3:56 pm
Beatle George!
Brought us some lovely songs as "Here comes the sun". "Something", "Give me love, give me peace on earth" and more.
My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/25/10 at 5:08 pm
My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Cat
That's another one.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/25/10 at 9:30 pm
Beatle George!
Brought us some lovely songs as "Here comes the sun". "Something", "Give me love, give me peace on earth" and more.
1987 Got My Mind Set On You.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 11:26 pm
1987 Got My Mind Set On You.
It had a good pop video.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 11:47 pm
I think so too.
I read that too; from what I read, he believed for most of his life that his birthday was the 25th, but other sources give it as the 24th, saying that he was born just a couple minutes before midnight (or something to that effect).
Now I'm looking at his Wiki page and there's a footnote to a source that confirms the 25th as his actual birthday.
Footnote #10:So that means today would have been his 67th birthday. :\'(
Another section of wiki has GH's birthday as 26th February.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/25/10 at 11:50 pm
Another section of wiki has GH's birthday as 26th February.
The footnote that I quoted from his Wiki page states that his birth certificate lists his birthday as the 25th, so I guess we'll go with that.
My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Cat
I know he wrote that one; I guess he sang on the recording too?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/25/10 at 11:56 pm
British Person of the Day: Margaret Leighton
Margaret Leighton (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was an English leading actress with an exquisite sense of grandeur and refinement. She created the role of Hannah Jelkes in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana.
Life and career
Born in Barnt Green, Worcestershire, Leighton made her stage debut was as Dorothy in Laugh With Me (1938), which was also performed that year for television on BBC. She went on to become a star of the Old Vic. HerBroadway debut was as the Queen in Henry IV (1946) starring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson during a visit to America of the Old Vic company, which performed a total of five plays from its repertoire before returning to London.
After appearing in two British films, including the starring role of Flora MacDonald opposite David Niven in Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), the tall willowy actress played second female lead in Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (1949) starring Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, and Michael Wilding. She starred with Walter Pidgeon in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer crime/mystery Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951).
Leighton had three husbands: publisher Max Reinhardt (married 1947-divorced 1955); actor Laurence Harvey (married 1957-divorced 1961); and actor Michael Wilding (married 1964-her death 1976). She had no children.
She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Separate Tables (1956); she won another Tony in that category for The Night of the Iguana (1962), playing the luminous Hannah Jelkes (a role played by Deborah Kerr on film) opposite Bette Davis's Maxine Faulk. Leighton was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Much Ado About Nothing (1959) opposite John Gielgud and for Tchin-Tchin (1962) opposite Anthony Quinn.
She also had a noteworthy list of TV appearances, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey and Burke's Law. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama for Hamlet (1970). And she was nominated for an Emmy in 1966 for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for four episodes of Dr. Kildare. Her last appearance on Broadway was as Birdie Hubbard in a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1967) starring Anne Bancroft as Regina Giddens.
For her film role as Mrs. Maudsley in The Go-Between (1970), Leighton won the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Actress for her role as Valerie Carrington in Carrington V.C. (1955). She received a Hollywood Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Go-Between.
Margaret Leighton died of multiple sclerosis, aged 53, in Chichester, West Sussex.
Film
* The Winslow Boy (1948) (British Lion Films) ... Catherine Winslow
* Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) (London Film Productions) ... Flora MacDonald
* Under Capricorn (1949) (Warner Bros.) ... Milly
* The Astonished Heart (1949) (General Film Distributors) ... Leonora Vail
* The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) (British Lion Films) ... Marguerite Blakeney
* Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) (MGM) ... Sgt. Helen Smith
* Home at Seven (1952) (British Lion Films) ... Janet Preston
* The Holly and the Ivy (1952) (London Film Productions) ... Margaret Gregory
* The Teckman Mystery (1954) (Associated Artists Productions) ... Helen Teckman
* The Good Die Young (1954) (United Artists) ... Eve Ravenscourt
* Carrington V.C. (1955) (Kingsley-International Pictures) ... Valerie Carrington
* The Constant Husband (1955) (British Lion Films) ... Miss Chesterman
* A Passionate Stranger (1955) (British Lion Films) ... Judith Wynter/Leonie
* The Sound and the Fury (1959) (20th Century Fox) ... Caddy Compson
* Waltz of the Toreadors (1962) (The Rank Organisation Film Productions) ... Emily Fitzjohn
* The Third Secret (1964) (20th Century Fox)
* The Best Man (1964) (United Artists) ... Alice Russell
* The Loved One (1965) (MGM) ... Mrs. Helen Kenton
* 7 Women (1966) (MGM) ... Agatha Andrews
* The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) (Warner Bros.) ... Constance, the Madwoman of Passy
* The Go-Between (1970) (EMI Distribution) ... Mrs. Maudsley
* Zee and Co. (1972) (Columbia) ... Gladys ... aka X, Y and Zee (USA)
* Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) (MGM-EMI) ... Lady Melbourne
* A Bequest to the Nation (1973) (Universal) ... Lady Frances Nelson
* From Beyond the Grave (1973) (Warner Bros.) ... Madame Orloff in segment The Elemental
* Galileo (1975) (The American Film Theatre) ... Elderly Court Lady
* Trial by Combat (1976) (Combat-Warner Bros.) ... Ma Gore
Television
* Laugh With Me (1938) (BBC) ... Dorothy
* As You Like It (1953) (BBC) ... Rosalind
* An Ideal Husband (1969) (BBC) ... Mrs. Cheveley
* Hamlet (1970) (NBC) ... Gertrude
* The Upper Crusts (1973) (series) (ITV) ... Lady Seacroft
* Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) (NBC) ... Francoise DuVal
* Great Expectations (1974) (NBC) ... Miss Havisham
* Space: 1999 (First Season, ep. "Collision Course") (1975) (ITC) ... Arra
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Images/Leighton,%20Margaret/Leighton,%20Margaret_01.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 02/26/10 at 1:28 am
The footnote that I quoted from his Wiki page states that his birth certificate lists his birthday as the 25th, so I guess we'll go with that.
I know he wrote that one; I guess he sang on the recording too?
Yes he did, and Eric Clapton also played guitar on that song, back in 1968.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/26/10 at 4:24 am
Yes he did, and Eric Clapton also played guitar on that song, back in 1968.
It has been reported that "Here Comes The Sun" was written/composed in Eric Clapton's garden.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/26/10 at 7:23 am
British Person of the Day: Margaret Leighton
Margaret Leighton (26 February 1922 – 13 January 1976) was an English leading actress with an exquisite sense of grandeur and refinement. She created the role of Hannah Jelkes in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana.
Life and career
Born in Barnt Green, Worcestershire, Leighton made her stage debut was as Dorothy in Laugh With Me (1938), which was also performed that year for television on BBC. She went on to become a star of the Old Vic. HerBroadway debut was as the Queen in Henry IV (1946) starring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson during a visit to America of the Old Vic company, which performed a total of five plays from its repertoire before returning to London.
After appearing in two British films, including the starring role of Flora MacDonald opposite David Niven in Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948), the tall willowy actress played second female lead in Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (1949) starring Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, and Michael Wilding. She starred with Walter Pidgeon in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer crime/mystery Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951).
Leighton had three husbands: publisher Max Reinhardt (married 1947-divorced 1955); actor Laurence Harvey (married 1957-divorced 1961); and actor Michael Wilding (married 1964-her death 1976). She had no children.
She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in Separate Tables (1956); she won another Tony in that category for The Night of the Iguana (1962), playing the luminous Hannah Jelkes (a role played by Deborah Kerr on film) opposite Bette Davis's Maxine Faulk. Leighton was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Much Ado About Nothing (1959) opposite John Gielgud and for Tchin-Tchin (1962) opposite Anthony Quinn.
She also had a noteworthy list of TV appearances, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey and Burke's Law. She won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama for Hamlet (1970). And she was nominated for an Emmy in 1966 for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama for four episodes of Dr. Kildare. Her last appearance on Broadway was as Birdie Hubbard in a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1967) starring Anne Bancroft as Regina Giddens.
For her film role as Mrs. Maudsley in The Go-Between (1970), Leighton won the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Actress for her role as Valerie Carrington in Carrington V.C. (1955). She received a Hollywood Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Go-Between.
Margaret Leighton died of multiple sclerosis, aged 53, in Chichester, West Sussex.
Film
* The Winslow Boy (1948) (British Lion Films) ... Catherine Winslow
* Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) (London Film Productions) ... Flora MacDonald
* Under Capricorn (1949) (Warner Bros.) ... Milly
* The Astonished Heart (1949) (General Film Distributors) ... Leonora Vail
* The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) (British Lion Films) ... Marguerite Blakeney
* Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) (MGM) ... Sgt. Helen Smith
* Home at Seven (1952) (British Lion Films) ... Janet Preston
* The Holly and the Ivy (1952) (London Film Productions) ... Margaret Gregory
* The Teckman Mystery (1954) (Associated Artists Productions) ... Helen Teckman
* The Good Die Young (1954) (United Artists) ... Eve Ravenscourt
* Carrington V.C. (1955) (Kingsley-International Pictures) ... Valerie Carrington
* The Constant Husband (1955) (British Lion Films) ... Miss Chesterman
* A Passionate Stranger (1955) (British Lion Films) ... Judith Wynter/Leonie
* The Sound and the Fury (1959) (20th Century Fox) ... Caddy Compson
* Waltz of the Toreadors (1962) (The Rank Organisation Film Productions) ... Emily Fitzjohn
* The Third Secret (1964) (20th Century Fox)
* The Best Man (1964) (United Artists) ... Alice Russell
* The Loved One (1965) (MGM) ... Mrs. Helen Kenton
* 7 Women (1966) (MGM) ... Agatha Andrews
* The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) (Warner Bros.) ... Constance, the Madwoman of Passy
* The Go-Between (1970) (EMI Distribution) ... Mrs. Maudsley
* Zee and Co. (1972) (Columbia) ... Gladys ... aka X, Y and Zee (USA)
* Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) (MGM-EMI) ... Lady Melbourne
* A Bequest to the Nation (1973) (Universal) ... Lady Frances Nelson
* From Beyond the Grave (1973) (Warner Bros.) ... Madame Orloff in segment The Elemental
* Galileo (1975) (The American Film Theatre) ... Elderly Court Lady
* Trial by Combat (1976) (Combat-Warner Bros.) ... Ma Gore
Television
* Laugh With Me (1938) (BBC) ... Dorothy
* As You Like It (1953) (BBC) ... Rosalind
* An Ideal Husband (1969) (BBC) ... Mrs. Cheveley
* Hamlet (1970) (NBC) ... Gertrude
* The Upper Crusts (1973) (series) (ITV) ... Lady Seacroft
* Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) (NBC) ... Francoise DuVal
* Great Expectations (1974) (NBC) ... Miss Havisham
* Space: 1999 (First Season, ep. "Collision Course") (1975) (ITC) ... Arra
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Images/Leighton,%20Margaret/Leighton,%20Margaret_01.jpg
Very fine actress :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/26/10 at 7:31 am
The word of the day...Valley
A valley is a low stretch of land between hills, especially one that has a river flowing through it.
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll161/bruce868/silicon_valley.jpg
http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n414/geomariner/Death%20Valley%202006/DeathValley060.jpg
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp120/Fire_Krakker/Photographymyass/d3d18909.jpg
http://i855.photobucket.com/albums/ab112/thedreamsky/BarunValleyNgheKharkaNepal.jpg
http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz353/denisevickie/Redlands_Valley.jpg
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx241/jkandn/Australia/nancy011.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc267/Nestonlady/more%20snow/Postcards/OgwenValley.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/26/10 at 7:35 am
The person born on this day...Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter.
Antoine was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Imperial Records era (1949–1962)
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1949 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a fat back beat. It sold over a million copies and is widely regarded as the first rock and roll record to do so.
Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, who was also Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino would eventually release 37 Top 40 singles, "Whole Lotta Loving" and "Blue Monday" among them.
Domino's first album, Carry on Rockin', was released under the Imperial imprint, #9009, in November 1955 and subsequently reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino in 1956. Combining a number of his hits along with some tracks which had not yet been released as singles, the album went on under its alternate title to reach #17 on the "Pop Albums" chart.
His 1956 up-tempo version of the 1940 Vincent Rose, Al Lewis & Larry Stock song, "Blueberry Hill" reached #2 in the Top 40, was #1 on the R&B charts for 11 weeks, and was his biggest hit. "Blueberry Hill" sold more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956-57. The song had earlier been recorded by Gene Autry, and Louis Armstrong among many others. He had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop #14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop #4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop #8), "It's You I Love" (Pop #6), "Whole Lotta Loving" (Pop #6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop #8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop #8).
Fats appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, Domino's hit "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
Domino continued to have a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walkin' to New Orleans" (1960) (Pop #6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop #14) from the same year. After Imperial Records was sold to outside interests in early 1963, Domino left the label: "I stuck with them until they sold out", he claimed in 1979. In all, Domino recorded over 60 singles for the label, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B charts, and scoring 11 top 10 singles on the pop charts. Twenty-two of Domino's Imperial singles were double-sided hits.
Post-Imperial recording career (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he would record in Nashville rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis); Domino's long-term collaboration with producer/arranger/frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end.
Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. Perhaps as a result of this tinkering with an established formula, Domino's chart career was drastically curtailed. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, but only had one top 40 entry with "Red Sails In The Sunset" (1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for a variety of other labels: Mercury, Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), and Reprise. He also continued as a popular live act for several decades.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In the 1980s, Domino decided he would no longer leave New Orleans, having a comfortable income from royalties and a dislike for touring, and claiming he could not get any food that he liked any place else. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an invitation to perform at the White House failed to persuade Domino to make an exception to this policy.
Fats Domino was persuaded to perform out of town periodically for Dianna Chenevert, agent, founder and president of New Orleans based Omni Attractions, during the 1980s and early 1990s. Most of these engagements were in and around New Orleans, but also included a concert in Texas at West End Market Place in downtown Dallas on October 24, 1986.
On October 12, 1983 USA Today reported that Domino was included in Chenevert's "Southern Stars" promotional poster for the agency (along with historically preserving childhood photographs of other famous living musicians from New Orleans and Louisiana on it). Fats provided a photograph of his first recording session, which was the only one he had left from his childhood. Domino autographed these posters, whose recipients included USA Today's Gannett president Al Newharth, and Peter Morton founder of the Hard Rock Cafe. Times-Picayune columnist Betty Guillaud noted on September 30, 1987 that Domino also provided Chenevert with an autographed pair of his shoes (and signed a black grand piano lid) for the Hard Rock location in New Orleans.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He makes yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and other local events. Domino was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him #25 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time."
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
Graffiti on Domino's home from the time he was rumored dead
Fats Domino's office, June 2007
When Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans in August 2005, Dianna Chenevert encouraged Fats to evacuate, but he chose to stay at home with his family, partly because of his wife's poor health. Unfortunately his house was in an area that was heavily flooded. Chenevert e-mailed writers at the Times Picayune newspaper and the Coast Guard with the Dominos' location.
Someone thought Fats was dead, and spray-painted a message on his home, "RIP Fats. You will be missed", which was shown in news photos. On September 1, Domino's agent, Al Embry, announced that he had not heard from the musician since before the hurricane had struck.
Later that day, CNN reported that Domino was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The Domino family was then taken to a Baton Rouge shelter, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and Fats' granddaughter's boyfriend. He let the Dominos stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything", Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun. For the meantime, the Domino family is residing in Harvey, Louisiana.
Chenevert replaced the Southern Stars poster Fats Domino lost in Katrina and President George W. Bush also made a personal visit and replaced the medal that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Fats.
Post-Katrina activity
President George W. Bush shakes the hand of Fats Domino, wearing a National Medal of Arts, after the President presented it on August 29, 2006, at the musician's home in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The medal was a replacement medal for the one—originally awarded by President Bill Clinton—that was lost in the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina.
Domino was the first artist to be announced as scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival. However, he was too ill to perform when scheduled and was only able to offer the audience an on-stage greeting. Domino also released an album Alive and Kickin' in early 2006 to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians. The title song was recorded after Katrina, but most of the cuts were from unreleased sessions in the 1990s.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards held at House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented Fats Domino with a signed declaration. OffBeat publisher Jan Ramsey and WWL-TV's Eric Paulsen presented Fats Domino with the Lifetime Achievement Award. An all-star musical tribute followed with an introduction by the legendary producer Cosimo Matassa. The Lil' Band O' Gold rhythm section, Warren Storm, Kenny Bill Stinson, David Egan and C.C. Adcock, not only anchored the band, but each contributed lead vocals, swamp pop legend Warren Storm leading off with "Let the Four Winds Blow" and "The Prisoner Song", which he proudly introduced by saying, "Fats Domino recorded this in 1958.. and so did I." The horn section included Lil' Band O' Gold's Dickie Landry, the Iguanas' Derek Huston, and long-time Domino horn men Roger Lewis, Elliot "Stackman" Callier and Herb Hardesty. They were joined by Jon Cleary (who also played guitar in the rhythm section), Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, Irma Thomas, George Porter, Jr. (who, naturally, came up with a funky arrangement for "You Keep On Knocking"), Art Neville, Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, who wrote and debuted a song in tribute of Domino for the occasion. Though Domino didn't perform, those near him recall him playing air piano and singing along to his own songs.
Fats Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. A foundation has been formed and a show is being planned for Domino and the restoration of his home, where he intends to return someday. "I like it down there" he said in a February, 2006 CBS News interview.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday. In December 2007, Fats Domino was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance for The Domino Effect, a namesake concert aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Influence
He was acknowledged as an important influence on the music of the 1960s and 1970s by some of the top artists of that era. Paul McCartney reportedly wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in an emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues", a record which Joe Meek had engineered. Domino did manage to return to the "Hot 100" charts one final time in 1968—with his own recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other Beatles songs, appeared on his Reprise LP Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and recorded by a band which included New Orleans piano player James Booker; Domino played piano only on one track, "I'm Ready". Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney later recorded Fats Domino songs. Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music. Ray Manzarek, keyboard player from The Doors has also stated a big influence from Fats Domino, on the "History of Rock and Roll" documentary series.
Singles discography
Nationally charted hits shown in bold.
A-Side B-Side Year Label + Cat. No. Chart positions
US Hot 100 US R&B UK
Detroit City Blues The Fat Man 1949 Imperial 5058 2
Boogie-Woogie Baby Little Bee 1950 Imperial 5065
Hide Away Blues She's My Baby 1950 Imperial 5077
Hey La Bas Boogie Brand New Baby 1950 Imperial 5085
Every Night about This Time Korea Blues 1950 Imperial 5099 5
Tired of Crying What's the Matter Baby 1951 Imperial 5114
Don't You Lie to Me Sometimes I Wonder 1951 Imperial 5123
Right From Wrong No, No Baby 1951 Imperial 5138
Rockin' Chair Careless Love 1951 Imperial 5145 9
I'll Be Gone You Know I Miss You 1952 Imperial 5167
Goin' Home Reeling and Rocking 1952 Imperial 5180 30 1
Poor Poor Me Trust in Me 1952 Imperial 5197 10
How Long Dreaming 1952 Imperial 5209 9
Nobody Loves Me Cheatin' 1953 Imperial 5220
Going to the River Mardi Gras in New Orleans 1953 Imperial 5231 24 2
Please Don't Leave Me The Girl I Love 1953 Imperial 5240 3
Rose Mary You Said You Loved Me 1953 Imperial 5251 10
Something's Wrong Don't Leave Me This Way 1953 Imperial 5262 6
You Done Me Wrong Little School Girl 1954 Imperial 5272 10
Where Did You Stay Baby Please 1954 Imperial 5283
You Can Pack Your Suitcase I Lived My Life 1954 Imperial 5301
Love Me Don't You Hear Me Calling You 1954 Imperial 5313
I Know Thinking of You 1954 Imperial 5323 14
Don't You Know Helping Hand 1955 Imperial 5340 7
Ain't That a Shame La La 1955 Imperial 5348 10 1 23
All By Myself Troubles of My Own 1955 Imperial 5357 1
Poor Me 1955 Imperial 5369 1
I Can't Go On 1955 Imperial 5369 6
Bo Weevil 1956 Imperial 5375 35 5
Don't Blame It on Me 1956 Imperial 5375 9
I'm in Love Again March 1956 Imperial 5386 3 1 12
My Blue Heaven 19 5
When My Dreamboat Comes Home July 1956 Imperial 5396 14 2
So Long 44 5
Blueberry Hill September 1956 Imperial 5407 2 1 6
Honey Chile 2 29
Blue Monday December 1956 Imperial 5417 5 1 23
What's the Reason I'm Not Pleasing You 50 12
I'm Walkin' I'm in the Mood for Love February 1957 Imperial 5428 4 1 19
The Rooster Song My Happiness//As Time Goes By//Hey La Bas (4 song EP) 1957 Imperial 147 13 8
Valley of Tears April 1957 Imperial 5442 8 2 25
It's You I Love 6 2
When I See You July 1957 Imperial 5454 29 14
What Will I Tell My Heart 64 12
Wait and See September 1957 Imperial 5467 23 7
I Still Love You 79
The Big Beat December 1957 Imperial 5477 26 15 20
I Want You to Know 32
Yes My Darling Don't You Know I Love You February 1958 Imperial 5492 55 10
Sick and Tired April 1958 Imperial 5515 22 14 26
No, No 55 14
Little Mary Prisoner's Song July 1958 Imperial 5526 48 4
Young School Girl It Must Be Love August 1958 Imperial 5537 92 15
Whole Lotta Loving October 1958 Imperial 5553 6 2 10
Coquette 92 26
Telling Lies January 1959 Imperial 5569 50 13
When the Saints Go Marching In 50
I'm Ready April 1959 Imperial 5585 16 7
Margie Imperial 5585 51 18
I Want to Walk You Home July 1959 Imperial 5606 8 1 14
I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday 17 22
Be My Guest October 1959 Imperial 5629 8 2 11
I've Been Around 33 19
Country Boy January 1960 Imperial 5645 25 19
If You Need Me 98
Tell Me That You Love Me April 1960 Imperial 5660 51
Before I Grow Too Old 84 17
Walking to New Orleans June 1960 Imperial 5675 6 2 19
Don't Come Knockin' 21 28
Three Nights a Week August 1960 Imperial 5687 15 8 45
Put Your Arms Around Me Honey 58
My Girl Josephine October 1960 Imperial 5704 14 7 32
Natural Born Lover 38 28
Ain't That Just Like a Woman January 1961 Imperial 5723 33 19
What a Price 22 7
Shu Rah March 1961 Imperial 5734 32
Fell in Love on Monday 32
It Keeps Rainin' I Just Cry May 1961 Imperial 5753 23 18 49
Let The Four Winds Blow Good Hearted Man July 1961 Imperial 5764 15 2
What A Party September 1961 Imperial 5779 22 43
Rockin' Bicycle 83
I Hear You Knocking November 1961 Imperial 5796 67
Jambalaya (On the Bayou) 30 41
You Win Again February 1962 Imperial 5816 22
Ida Jane 90
My Real Name My Heart Is Bleeding May 1962 Imperial 5833 59 22
Dance with Mr. Domino July 1962 Imperial 5863 98
Nothing New (Same Old Thing) 77
Did You Ever See a Dream Walking September 1962 Imperial 5875 79
Stop the Clock 103
Won't You Come on Back Hands Across the Table November 1962 Imperial 5895
Hum Diddy Doo Those Eyes January 1963 Imperial 5909 124
You Always Hurt the One You Love Trouble Blues March 1963 Imperial 5937 102
True Confession Isle of Capri May 1963 Imperial 5959
One Night I Can't Go on This Way 1963 Imperial 5980
There Goes (My Heart Again) May 1963 ABC 10444 59
Can't Go on Without You 123
When I'm Walking (Let Me Walk) July 1963 ABC 10475 114
I've Got a Right to Cry 128
Red Sails in the Sunset Song For Rosemary 1963 ABC 10484 35 24 34
I Can't Give You Anything But Love Goin' Home August 1963 Imperial 66005 114
Who Cares 1963 ABC 10512 63 27
Just a Lonely Man 1963 ABC 10512 108
Your Cheatin' Heart When I Was Young 1964 Imperial 66016 112
Lazy Lady 1964 ABC 10531 86 34
I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire 1964 ABC 10531 122
If You Don't Know What Love Is Something You Got Baby 1964 ABC 10545
Mary, Oh Mary Packin' Up 1964 ABC 10567 127
Sally Was a Good Old Girl For You 1964 ABC 10584 99
Kansas City Heartbreak Hill 1964 ABC 10596 99
Why Don't You Do Right Wigs 1965 ABC 10631
Let Me Call You Sweetheart Goodnight Sweetheart 1965 ABC 10644
I Done Got Over It I Left My Heart In San Francisco 1965 Mercury 72463
What's That You Got? It's Never Too Late 1965 Mercury 72485
The Lady in Black Working My Way Up Steady 1967 Broadmoor 104
Big Mouth Wait 'Til It Happens to You 1967 Broadmoor 105
One For The Highway Honest Papas Love Their Mamas Better 1968 Reprise 0696
Lady Madonna One for the Highway 1968 Reprise 0763 100
Lovely Rita Wait 'Till It Happens to You 1968 Reprise 0775
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey So Swell When You're Well 1969 Reprise 0843
Make Me Belong to You Have You Seen My Baby 1970 Reprise 0891
New Orleans Ain't the Same Sweet Patootie 1970 Reprise 0944
Sleeping on the Job After Hours 1978 Sonet 2168 -UK
Whiskey Heaven -- 1980 Warner Bros. 49610
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j37/billythekidcpr/FATS.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n263/jonahjt/thfats-domino.jpg
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z104/darko47darko/FatsDomino2.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/26/10 at 7:41 am
The person who died on this day...Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. (September 5, 1947 – February 26, 2008), known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.
George "Buddy" Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on September 5, 1947. He was known as a child prodigy, originally playing drums in his father, George Miles, Sr.'s, jazz band, The Bebops, beginning at age 12. Miles Sr. had played upright bass with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon.
In his teens Miles Jr. was often seen hanging out as well as recording at the Universal Promotions Corporation (U.P.C.) recording studios, which later became Rainbow Recording Studios
Miles was given the nickname "Buddy" by his aunt after the drummer Buddy Rich.
Early career
Miles played in a variety of rhythm and blues and soul acts as a teenager, including Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, the Delfonics and Wilson Pickett. By 1967 he moved to Chicago where he formed the Electric Flag with guitarist Mike Bloomfield. Nick Gravenitis was the vocalist on this and other Bloomfield LP's . Major songs from this LP include "Wine" and "Just Got In From Texas," later included on a blues collection. An LP was released in 1984 on cassette called Best of Electric Flag with hits like Sunny and Killing Floor and guitar work by Michael Bloomfield. The blues-soul-rock band made their live debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and released their debut album, A Long Time Comin', the next year. Miles sometimes sang lead vocals for the group in addition to playing drums. The group broke up after their second album and Miles formed the Buddy Miles Express, with Jim McCarty, later the guitarist for Cactus.
Jimi Hendrix
After Electric Flag, Miles would begin involvement with the rock legend Jimi Hendrix. Miles had met Jimi Hendrix in an earlier time when both were acting as sidemen for other artists in the early '60s. The meeting had occurred in Canada in 1964, at a show both were participating in.
Miles said of his first meeting with Hendrix: "He was playing in the Isley Brothers band and I was in Ruby and the Romantics ... had his hair in a pony-tail with long sideburns. Even though he was shy I could tell this guy was different. He looked rather strange, because everyone else was wearing uniforms and he was eating his guitar, doing flip-flops and wearing chains."
This prefaced a later friendship that would result in varied collaborations between the two artists. In 1967, Hendrix and Miles jammed at the Malibu home of Stephen Stills, and went on to play together again at various times, in both Los Angeles and New York in 1968. Hendrix occasionally joined Electric Flag on stage. Soon after, Jimi Hendrix started opening his recording style to include guest artists. And in this mode Hendrix was working in, Buddy Miles quite naturally was invited to participate. Miles took part in the session recordings for Electric Ladyland, playing on the songs "Rainy Day, Dream Away" and "Still Raining, Still Dreaming".
In 1969 an extremely busy Hendrix would somehow find time to produce the first two albums released by Buddy Miles' own band, Buddy Miles Express - Expressway To Your Skull and Electric Church. There was obvious public curiosity as to whether the name of the band "Buddy Miles Express" was influenced by Hendrix's act, "The Jimi Hendrix Experience".
Soon after the release of the groundbreaking Electric Ladyland album, Noel Redding (original Experience bass player) and Mitch Mitchell (the Experience drummer) had both parted company with Hendrix, not least because of constant wrangling between Hendrix's manager (Michael Jeffery) and his producer (Alan Douglas), both vying for control of his career. Everyone wanted a piece of Hendrix's success.
As Buddy Miles explained: "Jimi was not happy. He felt powerless. He couldn't do what he wanted to do.". Hendrix's solution to the problem was to found a short-lived band called Band of Gypsys, and Miles was brought in to join him. One of the notable features for his audience at the time was the fact that all of the players were black. This was a first for Hendrix as an international recording star – although he had, of course, played with the Isley Brothers in his early days – and this choice reflected a move toward reconnecting with his soul roots. It also had the effect of re-associating rock with its African American roots. Originally it was a solo lp , but in the last ten years or so additional cuts from the concerts were released on a three piece cassette box. The band was based in New York City where Hendrix was spending the majority of his time. Hendrix, who was tangled in legal litigation concerning contracts he had signed prior to his becoming internationally recognized, was required to release a record to the Capitol Records label as part of the agreement in court. This fact led to the live recording of his collaboration with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox.
However during a follow up performance a month later, Hendrix had a minor, drug-related meltdown on stage which has also been speculated to have been an act of sabotage on the part of a very frustrated manager Michael Jeffery, who was not a fan of the Band of Gypsys all-black line-up and strong R&B roots. Miles had this to say about the incident years later:
"Jeffery slipped two half-tabs of acid on stage as he went on ... just freaked out. I told Jeffery he was an out-and-out complete idiot and a fudgeing asshole to boot. One of the biggest reasons why Jimi is dead is because of that guy." Miles and Jeffery already had a strained relationship, as Jeffery was always uncomfortable with Hendrix and Miles' close friendship. After this performance at Madison Square Garden in January 1970, Jeffery fired Buddy Miles and the Band of Gypsys was no more.
Miles continued to work with Hendrix during early and mid 1970 after the Jimi Hendrix Experience had failed to re-form to record. Miles would share recording studio drumming duties on songs "Room Full of Mirrors", "Izabella", "Ezy Ryder" and the first version of "Stepping Stone" (for which Mitchell played a final drum track). These songs have been released in several posthumous Hendrix albums.Ironically, the album Band of Gypsys — released in May 1970 — made the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, and stayed in the US charts for over a year. Hendrix died in September 18, 1970, prompting the album to sell even better. There are now videos of Buddy and Randy Hansen covering several of Jimi's songs on a major website.
Post-Hendrix
Buddy Miles went on to produce other records under his own name. A song he had written and recorded with the Band of Gypsys, "Them Changes" was again recorded by Miles with his own band on a release soon after Hendrix's passing on Mercury Records. Miles' former Band Of Gypsys sideman, Billy Cox, performed bass guitar on this track. By this time Miles had dropped the "Buddy Miles Express" act name and shortened it to just his own name. That band included bassist David Hull (who would go on to work with Joe Perry of Aerosmith) and guitarist Charlie Karp. The same band would release a live album entitled Live which again included his by now signature song, "Them Changes". In late 1968, they appeared in the Monkees television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee which aired in April 1969.
In 1970, while recording the album We Got To Live Together Buddy Miles learned of the death of Hendrix, which he mentions on the inner cover of the album. Released in 1971, We Got To Live Together is produced by Buddy Miles and Robin McBride. It comprises 5 songs including the instrumental "Easy Greasy". High energy drumming with funky overtones and big horns make this album quintessential Buddy. The other cuts on the album are: "Runaway Child (Little Miss Nothin)", "Walking Down the Highway", "We Got To Live Together", "Take It Off Him and Put It On Me". All the songs were written by Buddy Miles with C.Karp except for "Take it Off...".
Buddy also contributed to a number of Cheech and Chong songs. One was "Lost Due To Incompetence (Theme For A Big Green Van) 1978" from the film Up In Smoke. Buddy did an album with Adrian Gurvitz (from the Gun group) in 1973 called Chapter VII (this album has photos of Buddy and his family along with some shots of Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone). Buddy had major success with Them Changes, a soul and pop hit in 70-71.
Miles would see the song released yet a fourth time on a collaborative live record he made with Carlos Santana. This particular version was particularly notable for its intense energy, horn lines and blazing guitar work supplied by a very young and energetic Santana. Miles would then go on to be signed by the '70s-'80s era record label, Casablanca Records, best known for their rock act KISS. Miles' work for the label included the excellent album released under his own name, Bicentennial Gathering Of The Tribes. It would include on its liner notes a quote from President John F Kennedy concerning the American Indians. That quote would include the line "When we neglect the heroic past of the American Indian, we thereby weaken our own heritage." This was interesting in relationship to his former friendship and collaborations with Jimi Hendrix who, in fact, had much American Indian blood in his family line. From 1994 - 1999 Buddy Miles formulated an excellent group in the N.Y.C./area featuring Charlie Torres on Bass Guitar and Vocals . Rod Kohn on Guitar and vocals . Kenn Moutenot on drums / vocals /management . Mark " Muggy Doo " Leach on Hammond B3 and Keyboards. They toured non stop in the United States and over seas with almost one thousand concerts and festivals to their credit. Buddy also composed and recorded many songs with this new version of " The Buddy Miles Express " that is yet to be released.It was Buddy's most enduring live band throughout his illustrious career. This popular touring line up lasted for six fruitful years together with the same members. Part of Miles' appeal as a rock musician was his physical appearance. He drew many stares and smiles as he held court from the drumset in the Electric Flag days, with his American flag or sequined shirts, his high-brushed Afro, and his massive frame and smile. Buddy was an eyeful for the hippies and concertgoers of the day. Once guitarist for the band SNAIL (Cream Records), JOHN ROCKER was guitarist for THE BUDDY MILES EXPRESS too for about 5 - 6 years as well touring throughout North America...
The Unknown Work of Buddy Miles - The Club Fed Sessions
Perhaps the best work Buddy ever did was in collaboration with a team of musician/writers from Marin County, California in late 1984, early 1985. Buddy was in a halfway house in Oakland and commuted every day to the Ice House Studio in San Rafael, CA to work with Pat Craig of the Tazmanian Devils, David Jenkins of Pablo Cruise, Dave Carlson of Tazmanian Devils and other Marin musicians and songwriters including Bill Craig, Tony Marty, and Tony Saunders. The result was an album's worth of material written by Pat Craig, Buddy, David Jenkins, Robbie Long, Bill Craig and Tony Marty. First recorded as a demo at the Ice House, the project was moved to The Record Plant in Sausalito and Jim Gaines of Huey Lewis fame came in to take over production chores. The group produced over 15 songs ranging from funky soul to beautiful ballads, and featuring some of the best singing that Miles ever did. One cut, "When The Train Leaves the Station," featured solos by both Carlos Santana and Neil Schoen. The title song of the proposed album, "Anna", was a beautiful soul stirrer that helped Buddy land his next gig with California Raisins. While the album was being recorded, the Record Plant was taken over by the Federal Government when the owner was busted for drug trafficking. The musicians and employees working there began calling the studio "Club Fed" and that's how "The Club Fed Sessions" came to be. Unfortunately Buddy's reputation of inconsistency and problems with the law closed many doors for him and the album was never released. The Masters remain in the can in the hands of Buddy's former manager, but Pat Craig did manage to digitize some of the better mixes and has offered them from time to time on Ebay as a collector's item under the title "Buddy and Me.". Songs on the demo included "Anna," "Forever in a Moment," "Tonight," "Next to You," and "This Could Be An Everlasting Love." A short-lived band featuring Pat Craig, David Jenkins, Rick Quintanal, Tony Saunders and other Marin musicians played one gig in LA at a concert honoring Vietnam Veterans.
California Raisins
In 1986 Miles performed vocals for the California Raisins claymation ad campaign, most notably singing "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and was also lead vocals on two California Raisins albums featuring 1960's R&B covers. In 1986 and 1987, after spending the late 1970s and early 1980s incarcerated for theft, he also rejoined Carlos Santana as a vocalist on Santana's album Freedom.
In 1996, he sat in with rock band Phish at Madison Square Garden.
Through the late 1990s, Miles' charitable side was seen in his band's playing pro bono at several annual tribute concerts for local friend and fan Linda Gillespie, who had been killed in a car accident in the Spring of 1994 in Winthrop Harbor, IL.
Buddy Miles was seen in the Hendrix-family-owned, official video release The Making of Electric Ladyland on Rhino Records. That video featured interviews with the majority of players who were involved in recording the legendary Hendrix album. Miles even went as far as to be video recorded playing his same drum tracks yet again in the studio to the original multi-track recordings of Hendrix. In 1999 Miles appeared on the late Bruce Cameron's album, Midnight Daydream that included other Hendrix alumni Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell along with Jack Bruce and others.
In 2004 Miles reunited yet again with Billy Cox of the Band of Gypsys to re-record songs from the original live album of 1970 with guitarists Eric Gales, Kenny Olsen, Sheldon Reynolds, Andy Aledort, and Gary Serkin. The album, titled The Band Of Gypsys Return, was released in 2006. Until his death, Buddy Miles continued to be active musically and performed many shows with proceeds going to help support victims of natural disasters and other noble causes.
Buddy Miles is credited on sessions with George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic.
In 2005 Buddy Miles began collaborating with Florida based Guitar Virtuoso Tony Smotherman in which the two toured the Southeast with a Blues-Rock Band performing various pieces from Miles' Collaborations with Jimi Hendrix. Miles and Smotherman last performed at the Austin Convention Center at the 2007 Summer NAMM Show with Vernon Reid of Living Colour.
Buddy Miles played his last live dates in 2007, on the West Coast of the United States with special assistance.Also in Texas with Lance Lopez & Collin freekin Keeton. He was forced to cancel the remaining dates because of heart problems.
Death
Buddy Miles died on February 26, 2008, at his home in Austin, Texas at the age of 60. According to his website he died of congestive heart disease, although his publicist Duane Lee told the New York Times that Miles had been suffering recently from congestive heart failure.
There was a history of congestive heart failure in his family. His sister and mother both died of the same illness. It is known that his heart had certainly been struggling, working at only 15%, and his health had been consistently deteriorating over the past few months. According to friends, "he had turned off his defibrillator and was ready for heaven."There was no funeral; Miles was cremated.
The day before Buddy died, he heard Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton playing 'Them Changes' at Madison Square Garden through his cell phone. 'Them Changes' is now part of Clapton's set on tour as a tribute to Buddy.The UK-based newspaper The Independent ran an almost full-page obituary for Buddy Miles in its Friday February 29, 2008 edition. The title for the piece was "Buddy Miles: Flamboyant Hendrix drummer", and can be found on page 47.
Asked how he would like to be remembered by the American music magazine Seconds in 1995, Miles simply said: "The baddest of the bad. People say I'm the baddest drummer. If that's true, thank you world."A memorial concert took place on March 30, 2008 at Threadgill’s on Riverside Drive, South Austin.
Discography
Solo
* Expressway to Your Skull - Mercury (1968)
* Electric Church - Mercury (1969)
* Them Changes - Mercury (1970)
* We Got to Live Together - Mercury (1970)
* A Message to the People - Mercury (1971)
* Buddy Miles Live - Mercury (1971)
* Booger Bear - Columbia (1973)
* Chapter VII - Columbia (1973)
* All the Faces of Buddy Miles - Epic (1974)
* More Miles Per Gallon - Casablanca (1975)
* Bicentennial Gathering of the Tribes - Casablanca (1976)
* Sneak Attack - Atlantic (1981)
* Hell and Back - Rykodisc (1994)
* Tribute to Jimi Hendrix - CAS (1997)
* Miles Away from Home - Hip-O (1997)
* Blues Berries - Ruf (2002)
* Changes - SPV (2005)
Collaborative
* Jimi Hendrix - Band of Gypsys - Capitol (1970)
* Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live! - Columbia (1972)
* With Carlos Santana - CBS (1972)
* Hardware - Third Eye Open (1994)
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j82/leprechaun007/miles.jpg
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http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p218/levijackson/buddy.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/26/10 at 8:28 am
The word of the day...Valley
A valley is a low stretch of land between hills, especially one that has a river flowing through it.
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll161/bruce868/silicon_valley.jpg
http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n414/geomariner/Death%20Valley%202006/DeathValley060.jpg
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp120/Fire_Krakker/Photographymyass/d3d18909.jpg
http://i855.photobucket.com/albums/ab112/thedreamsky/BarunValleyNgheKharkaNepal.jpg
http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/zz353/denisevickie/Redlands_Valley.jpg
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx241/jkandn/Australia/nancy011.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc267/Nestonlady/more%20snow/Postcards/OgwenValley.jpg
Man,these are so beautiful,as usual I will use one of them as computer wallpaper. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/26/10 at 9:54 am
The person born on this day...Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (born February 26, 1928) is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter.
Antoine was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Imperial Records era (1949–1962)
Domino first attracted national attention with "The Fat Man" in 1949 on Imperial Records. This song is an early rock and roll record, featuring a rolling piano and Domino doing "wah-wah" vocalizing over a fat back beat. It sold over a million copies and is widely regarded as the first rock and roll record to do so.
Fats Domino released a series of hit songs with producer and co-writer Dave Bartholomew, saxophonists Herbert Hardesty and Alvin "Red" Tyler and drummer Earl Palmer. Other notable and long-standing musicians in Domino's band were saxophonists Reggie Houston, Lee Allen, and Fred Kemp, who was also Domino's trusted bandleader. Domino finally crossed into the pop mainstream with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955), which hit the Top Ten, though Pat Boone characteristically hit #1 with a milder cover of the song that received wider radio airplay in a racially-segregated era. Domino would eventually release 37 Top 40 singles, "Whole Lotta Loving" and "Blue Monday" among them.
Domino's first album, Carry on Rockin', was released under the Imperial imprint, #9009, in November 1955 and subsequently reissued as Rock and Rollin' with Fats Domino in 1956. Combining a number of his hits along with some tracks which had not yet been released as singles, the album went on under its alternate title to reach #17 on the "Pop Albums" chart.
His 1956 up-tempo version of the 1940 Vincent Rose, Al Lewis & Larry Stock song, "Blueberry Hill" reached #2 in the Top 40, was #1 on the R&B charts for 11 weeks, and was his biggest hit. "Blueberry Hill" sold more than 5 million copies worldwide in 1956-57. The song had earlier been recorded by Gene Autry, and Louis Armstrong among many others. He had further hit singles between 1956 and 1959, including "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" (Pop #14), "I'm Walkin'" (Pop #4), "Valley of Tears" (Pop #8), "It's You I Love" (Pop #6), "Whole Lotta Loving" (Pop #6), "I Want to Walk You Home" (Pop #8), and "Be My Guest" (Pop #8).
Fats appeared in two films released in 1956: Shake, Rattle & Rock! and The Girl Can't Help It. On December 18, 1957, Domino's hit "The Big Beat" was featured on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
Domino continued to have a steady series of hits for Imperial through early 1962, including "Walkin' to New Orleans" (1960) (Pop #6), co-written by Bobby Charles, and "My Girl Josephine" (Pop #14) from the same year. After Imperial Records was sold to outside interests in early 1963, Domino left the label: "I stuck with them until they sold out", he claimed in 1979. In all, Domino recorded over 60 singles for the label, placing 40 songs in the top 10 on the R&B charts, and scoring 11 top 10 singles on the pop charts. Twenty-two of Domino's Imperial singles were double-sided hits.
Post-Imperial recording career (1963–1970s)
Domino moved to ABC-Paramount Records in 1963. The label dictated that he would record in Nashville rather than New Orleans. He was assigned a new producer (Felton Jarvis) and a new arranger (Bill Justis); Domino's long-term collaboration with producer/arranger/frequent co-writer Dave Bartholomew, who oversaw virtually all of his Imperial hits, was seemingly at an end.
Jarvis and Justis changed the Domino sound somewhat, notably by adding the backing of a countrypolitan-style vocal chorus to most of his new recordings. Perhaps as a result of this tinkering with an established formula, Domino's chart career was drastically curtailed. He released 11 singles for ABC-Paramount, but only had one top 40 entry with "Red Sails In The Sunset" (1963). By the end of 1964 the British Invasion had changed the tastes of the record-buying public, and Domino's chart run was over.
Despite the lack of chart success, Domino continued to record steadily until about 1970, leaving ABC-Paramount in mid-1965 and recording for a variety of other labels: Mercury, Dave Bartholomew's small Broadmoor label (reuniting with Bartholomew along the way), and Reprise. He also continued as a popular live act for several decades.
Later career (1980s–2005)
In the 1980s, Domino decided he would no longer leave New Orleans, having a comfortable income from royalties and a dislike for touring, and claiming he could not get any food that he liked any place else. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an invitation to perform at the White House failed to persuade Domino to make an exception to this policy.
Fats Domino was persuaded to perform out of town periodically for Dianna Chenevert, agent, founder and president of New Orleans based Omni Attractions, during the 1980s and early 1990s. Most of these engagements were in and around New Orleans, but also included a concert in Texas at West End Market Place in downtown Dallas on October 24, 1986.
On October 12, 1983 USA Today reported that Domino was included in Chenevert's "Southern Stars" promotional poster for the agency (along with historically preserving childhood photographs of other famous living musicians from New Orleans and Louisiana on it). Fats provided a photograph of his first recording session, which was the only one he had left from his childhood. Domino autographed these posters, whose recipients included USA Today's Gannett president Al Newharth, and Peter Morton founder of the Hard Rock Cafe. Times-Picayune columnist Betty Guillaud noted on September 30, 1987 that Domino also provided Chenevert with an autographed pair of his shoes (and signed a black grand piano lid) for the Hard Rock location in New Orleans.
Domino lived in a mansion in a predominantly working-class Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, where he was a familiar sight in his bright pink Cadillac automobile. He makes yearly appearances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and other local events. Domino was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him #25 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time."
Domino and Hurricane Katrina
Graffiti on Domino's home from the time he was rumored dead
Fats Domino's office, June 2007
When Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans in August 2005, Dianna Chenevert encouraged Fats to evacuate, but he chose to stay at home with his family, partly because of his wife's poor health. Unfortunately his house was in an area that was heavily flooded. Chenevert e-mailed writers at the Times Picayune newspaper and the Coast Guard with the Dominos' location.
Someone thought Fats was dead, and spray-painted a message on his home, "RIP Fats. You will be missed", which was shown in news photos. On September 1, Domino's agent, Al Embry, announced that he had not heard from the musician since before the hurricane had struck.
Later that day, CNN reported that Domino was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. Embry confirmed that Domino and his family had been rescued. The Domino family was then taken to a Baton Rouge shelter, after which they were picked up by JaMarcus Russell, the starting quarterback of the Louisiana State University football team, and Fats' granddaughter's boyfriend. He let the Dominos stay in his apartment. The Washington Post reported that on September 2, they had left Russell's apartment after sleeping three nights on the couch. "We've lost everything", Domino said, according to the Post.
By January 2006, work to gut and repair Domino's home and office had begun. For the meantime, the Domino family is residing in Harvey, Louisiana.
Chenevert replaced the Southern Stars poster Fats Domino lost in Katrina and President George W. Bush also made a personal visit and replaced the medal that President Bill Clinton had previously awarded Fats.
Post-Katrina activity
President George W. Bush shakes the hand of Fats Domino, wearing a National Medal of Arts, after the President presented it on August 29, 2006, at the musician's home in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The medal was a replacement medal for the one—originally awarded by President Bill Clinton—that was lost in the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina.
Domino was the first artist to be announced as scheduled to perform at the 2006 Jazz & Heritage Festival. However, he was too ill to perform when scheduled and was only able to offer the audience an on-stage greeting. Domino also released an album Alive and Kickin' in early 2006 to benefit the Tipitina's Foundation, which supports indigent local musicians. The title song was recorded after Katrina, but most of the cuts were from unreleased sessions in the 1990s.
On January 12, 2007, Domino was honored with OffBeat magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Best of the Beat Awards held at House of Blues in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared the day "Fats Domino Day in New Orleans" and presented Fats Domino with a signed declaration. OffBeat publisher Jan Ramsey and WWL-TV's Eric Paulsen presented Fats Domino with the Lifetime Achievement Award. An all-star musical tribute followed with an introduction by the legendary producer Cosimo Matassa. The Lil' Band O' Gold rhythm section, Warren Storm, Kenny Bill Stinson, David Egan and C.C. Adcock, not only anchored the band, but each contributed lead vocals, swamp pop legend Warren Storm leading off with "Let the Four Winds Blow" and "The Prisoner Song", which he proudly introduced by saying, "Fats Domino recorded this in 1958.. and so did I." The horn section included Lil' Band O' Gold's Dickie Landry, the Iguanas' Derek Huston, and long-time Domino horn men Roger Lewis, Elliot "Stackman" Callier and Herb Hardesty. They were joined by Jon Cleary (who also played guitar in the rhythm section), Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, Irma Thomas, George Porter, Jr. (who, naturally, came up with a funky arrangement for "You Keep On Knocking"), Art Neville, Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, who wrote and debuted a song in tribute of Domino for the occasion. Though Domino didn't perform, those near him recall him playing air piano and singing along to his own songs.
Fats Domino returned to stage on May 19, 2007, at Tipitina's at New Orleans, performing to a full house. A foundation has been formed and a show is being planned for Domino and the restoration of his home, where he intends to return someday. "I like it down there" he said in a February, 2006 CBS News interview.
In September 2007, Domino was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted into the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame in Ferriday. In December 2007, Fats Domino was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
In May 2009, Domino made an unexpected appearance for The Domino Effect, a namesake concert aimed at raising funds to help rebuild schools and playgrounds damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Influence
He was acknowledged as an important influence on the music of the 1960s and 1970s by some of the top artists of that era. Paul McCartney reportedly wrote the Beatles song "Lady Madonna" in an emulation of Domino's style, combining it with a nod to Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 hit "Bad Penny Blues", a record which Joe Meek had engineered. Domino did manage to return to the "Hot 100" charts one final time in 1968—with his own recording of "Lady Madonna". That recording, as well as covers of two other Beatles songs, appeared on his Reprise LP Fats Is Back, produced by Richard Perry and recorded by a band which included New Orleans piano player James Booker; Domino played piano only on one track, "I'm Ready". Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney later recorded Fats Domino songs. Domino's rhythm, accentuating the offbeat as in the song "Be My Guest", was an influence on ska music. Ray Manzarek, keyboard player from The Doors has also stated a big influence from Fats Domino, on the "History of Rock and Roll" documentary series.
Singles discography
Nationally charted hits shown in bold.
A-Side B-Side Year Label + Cat. No. Chart positions
US Hot 100 US R&B UK
Detroit City Blues The Fat Man 1949 Imperial 5058 2
Boogie-Woogie Baby Little Bee 1950 Imperial 5065
Hide Away Blues She's My Baby 1950 Imperial 5077
Hey La Bas Boogie Brand New Baby 1950 Imperial 5085
Every Night about This Time Korea Blues 1950 Imperial 5099 5
Tired of Crying What's the Matter Baby 1951 Imperial 5114
Don't You Lie to Me Sometimes I Wonder 1951 Imperial 5123
Right From Wrong No, No Baby 1951 Imperial 5138
Rockin' Chair Careless Love 1951 Imperial 5145 9
I'll Be Gone You Know I Miss You 1952 Imperial 5167
Goin' Home Reeling and Rocking 1952 Imperial 5180 30 1
Poor Poor Me Trust in Me 1952 Imperial 5197 10
How Long Dreaming 1952 Imperial 5209 9
Nobody Loves Me Cheatin' 1953 Imperial 5220
Going to the River Mardi Gras in New Orleans 1953 Imperial 5231 24 2
Please Don't Leave Me The Girl I Love 1953 Imperial 5240 3
Rose Mary You Said You Loved Me 1953 Imperial 5251 10
Something's Wrong Don't Leave Me This Way 1953 Imperial 5262 6
You Done Me Wrong Little School Girl 1954 Imperial 5272 10
Where Did You Stay Baby Please 1954 Imperial 5283
You Can Pack Your Suitcase I Lived My Life 1954 Imperial 5301
Love Me Don't You Hear Me Calling You 1954 Imperial 5313
I Know Thinking of You 1954 Imperial 5323 14
Don't You Know Helping Hand 1955 Imperial 5340 7
Ain't That a Shame La La 1955 Imperial 5348 10 1 23
All By Myself Troubles of My Own 1955 Imperial 5357 1
Poor Me 1955 Imperial 5369 1
I Can't Go On 1955 Imperial 5369 6
Bo Weevil 1956 Imperial 5375 35 5
Don't Blame It on Me 1956 Imperial 5375 9
I'm in Love Again March 1956 Imperial 5386 3 1 12
My Blue Heaven 19 5
When My Dreamboat Comes Home July 1956 Imperial 5396 14 2
So Long 44 5
Blueberry Hill September 1956 Imperial 5407 2 1 6
Honey Chile 2 29
Blue Monday December 1956 Imperial 5417 5 1 23
What's the Reason I'm Not Pleasing You 50 12
I'm Walkin' I'm in the Mood for Love February 1957 Imperial 5428 4 1 19
The Rooster Song My Happiness//As Time Goes By//Hey La Bas (4 song EP) 1957 Imperial 147 13 8
Valley of Tears April 1957 Imperial 5442 8 2 25
It's You I Love 6 2
When I See You July 1957 Imperial 5454 29 14
What Will I Tell My Heart 64 12
Wait and See September 1957 Imperial 5467 23 7
I Still Love You 79
The Big Beat December 1957 Imperial 5477 26 15 20
I Want You to Know 32
Yes My Darling Don't You Know I Love You February 1958 Imperial 5492 55 10
Sick and Tired April 1958 Imperial 5515 22 14 26
No, No 55 14
Little Mary Prisoner's Song July 1958 Imperial 5526 48 4
Young School Girl It Must Be Love August 1958 Imperial 5537 92 15
Whole Lotta Loving October 1958 Imperial 5553 6 2 10
Coquette 92 26
Telling Lies January 1959 Imperial 5569 50 13
When the Saints Go Marching In 50
I'm Ready April 1959 Imperial 5585 16 7
Margie Imperial 5585 51 18
I Want to Walk You Home July 1959 Imperial 5606 8 1 14
I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday 17 22
Be My Guest October 1959 Imperial 5629 8 2 11
I've Been Around 33 19
Country Boy January 1960 Imperial 5645 25 19
If You Need Me 98
Tell Me That You Love Me April 1960 Imperial 5660 51
Before I Grow Too Old 84 17
Walking to New Orleans June 1960 Imperial 5675 6 2 19
Don't Come Knockin' 21 28
Three Nights a Week August 1960 Imperial 5687 15 8 45
Put Your Arms Around Me Honey 58
My Girl Josephine October 1960 Imperial 5704 14 7 32
Natural Born Lover 38 28
Ain't That Just Like a Woman January 1961 Imperial 5723 33 19
What a Price 22 7
Shu Rah March 1961 Imperial 5734 32
Fell in Love on Monday 32
It Keeps Rainin' I Just Cry May 1961 Imperial 5753 23 18 49
Let The Four Winds Blow Good Hearted Man July 1961 Imperial 5764 15 2
What A Party September 1961 Imperial 5779 22 43
Rockin' Bicycle 83
I Hear You Knocking November 1961 Imperial 5796 67
Jambalaya (On the Bayou) 30 41
You Win Again February 1962 Imperial 5816 22
Ida Jane 90
My Real Name My Heart Is Bleeding May 1962 Imperial 5833 59 22
Dance with Mr. Domino July 1962 Imperial 5863 98
Nothing New (Same Old Thing) 77
Did You Ever See a Dream Walking September 1962 Imperial 5875 79
Stop the Clock 103
Won't You Come on Back Hands Across the Table November 1962 Imperial 5895
Hum Diddy Doo Those Eyes January 1963 Imperial 5909 124
You Always Hurt the One You Love Trouble Blues March 1963 Imperial 5937 102
True Confession Isle of Capri May 1963 Imperial 5959
One Night I Can't Go on This Way 1963 Imperial 5980
There Goes (My Heart Again) May 1963 ABC 10444 59
Can't Go on Without You 123
When I'm Walking (Let Me Walk) July 1963 ABC 10475 114
I've Got a Right to Cry 128
Red Sails in the Sunset Song For Rosemary 1963 ABC 10484 35 24 34
I Can't Give You Anything But Love Goin' Home August 1963 Imperial 66005 114
Who Cares 1963 ABC 10512 63 27
Just a Lonely Man 1963 ABC 10512 108
Your Cheatin' Heart When I Was Young 1964 Imperial 66016 112
Lazy Lady 1964 ABC 10531 86 34
I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire 1964 ABC 10531 122
If You Don't Know What Love Is Something You Got Baby 1964 ABC 10545
Mary, Oh Mary Packin' Up 1964 ABC 10567 127
Sally Was a Good Old Girl For You 1964 ABC 10584 99
Kansas City Heartbreak Hill 1964 ABC 10596 99
Why Don't You Do Right Wigs 1965 ABC 10631
Let Me Call You Sweetheart Goodnight Sweetheart 1965 ABC 10644
I Done Got Over It I Left My Heart In San Francisco 1965 Mercury 72463
What's That You Got? It's Never Too Late 1965 Mercury 72485
The Lady in Black Working My Way Up Steady 1967 Broadmoor 104
Big Mouth Wait 'Til It Happens to You 1967 Broadmoor 105
One For The Highway Honest Papas Love Their Mamas Better 1968 Reprise 0696
Lady Madonna One for the Highway 1968 Reprise 0763 100
Lovely Rita Wait 'Till It Happens to You 1968 Reprise 0775
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey So Swell When You're Well 1969 Reprise 0843
Make Me Belong to You Have You Seen My Baby 1970 Reprise 0891
New Orleans Ain't the Same Sweet Patootie 1970 Reprise 0944
Sleeping on the Job After Hours 1978 Sonet 2168 -UK
Whiskey Heaven -- 1980 Warner Bros. 49610
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j37/billythekidcpr/FATS.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n263/jonahjt/thfats-domino.jpg
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z104/darko47darko/FatsDomino2.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdjLINBYEPc
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/26/10 at 10:43 am
Yes he did, and Eric Clapton also played guitar on that song, back in 1968.
I was going to say that but you beat me to it. That song is one song that you just have to CRANK. The neighbors always know whenever we listen to that song. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/26/10 at 4:35 pm
http://www.wrestlingvalley.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ric_flair_02.jpg
happy birthday To Nature Boy Ric Flair. :) WHOO!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/26/10 at 8:23 pm
http://www.wrestlingvalley.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ric_flair_02.jpg
happy birthday To Nature Boy Ric Flair. :) WHOO!
One of a kind.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/26/10 at 10:54 pm
Nice valley pics Janine. I even recognized some Aussie landscape in there somewhere!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 1:44 am
One of a kind.
A wrestler?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/27/10 at 2:10 am
A wrestler?
Yes...from the old days of Harley Race and Bruno Sammartino ...right through until just recently (he kept making appearances). I never liked his character too much!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 2:23 am
Yes...from the old days of Harley Race and Bruno Sammartino ...right through until just recently (he kept making appearances). I never liked his character too much!
Many thanks.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 2:26 am
Anglo-American Person of the Day: Elizabeth Taylor
One of the great Hollywood stars of the 20th century, Elizabeth Taylor has had three fairly distinct career personas: as the winsome child star of movies like National Velvet (1944); as a fiery prima donna, the acknowledged "world's most beautiful woman" and star of movies like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Butterfield 8 (1960); and as an older Hollywood grande dame, tabloid favorite, and friend to pop stars like Elton John and Michael Jackson. Her tempestuous marriage to Welsh actor Richard Burton made them Hollywood's reigning couple in the 1960s: they starred together as lovers in Cleopatra (1963, with Taylor as Cleopatra and Burton as Marc Antony) and then played battling spouses in the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Taylor had seven husbands and eight marriages in all: hotelier Nicky Hilton (1950-51, divorced), actor Michael Wilding (1952-57, divorced), producer Mike Todd (1957 until his 1958 death in a plane crash), singer Eddie Fisher (1959-64, divorced), actor Richard Burton (1964-74, divorced), Burton again (1975-76, divorced again), politician John Warner (1976-82, divorced), and construction worker Larry Fortensky (1991-96, divorced). Taylor won best actress Oscars for Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Taylor was the first actress to earn a million dollars for one film, for 1963's Cleopatra.
http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/elizabeth%20taylor.jpg
http://gossips.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/tn2_elizabeth_taylor_4.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/27/10 at 6:40 am
Yes...from the old days of Harley Race and Bruno Sammartino ...right through until just recently (he kept making appearances). I never liked his character too much!
Well he's The Nature Boy. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/27/10 at 6:41 am
Anglo-American Person of the Day: Elizabeth Taylor
One of the great Hollywood stars of the 20th century, Elizabeth Taylor has had three fairly distinct career personas: as the winsome child star of movies like National Velvet (1944); as a fiery prima donna, the acknowledged "world's most beautiful woman" and star of movies like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Butterfield 8 (1960); and as an older Hollywood grande dame, tabloid favorite, and friend to pop stars like Elton John and Michael Jackson. Her tempestuous marriage to Welsh actor Richard Burton made them Hollywood's reigning couple in the 1960s: they starred together as lovers in Cleopatra (1963, with Taylor as Cleopatra and Burton as Marc Antony) and then played battling spouses in the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Taylor had seven husbands and eight marriages in all: hotelier Nicky Hilton (1950-51, divorced), actor Michael Wilding (1952-57, divorced), producer Mike Todd (1957 until his 1958 death in a plane crash), singer Eddie Fisher (1959-64, divorced), actor Richard Burton (1964-74, divorced), Burton again (1975-76, divorced again), politician John Warner (1976-82, divorced), and construction worker Larry Fortensky (1991-96, divorced). Taylor won best actress Oscars for Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Taylor was the first actress to earn a million dollars for one film, for 1963's Cleopatra.
http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/elizabeth%20taylor.jpg
http://gossips.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/tn2_elizabeth_taylor_4.jpg
Now she's confined to a wheelchair. :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 6:55 am
Now she's confined to a wheelchair. :(
I had not realsied that.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:00 am
Anglo-American Person of the Day: Elizabeth Taylor
One of the great Hollywood stars of the 20th century, Elizabeth Taylor has had three fairly distinct career personas: as the winsome child star of movies like National Velvet (1944); as a fiery prima donna, the acknowledged "world's most beautiful woman" and star of movies like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Butterfield 8 (1960); and as an older Hollywood grande dame, tabloid favorite, and friend to pop stars like Elton John and Michael Jackson. Her tempestuous marriage to Welsh actor Richard Burton made them Hollywood's reigning couple in the 1960s: they starred together as lovers in Cleopatra (1963, with Taylor as Cleopatra and Burton as Marc Antony) and then played battling spouses in the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Taylor had seven husbands and eight marriages in all: hotelier Nicky Hilton (1950-51, divorced), actor Michael Wilding (1952-57, divorced), producer Mike Todd (1957 until his 1958 death in a plane crash), singer Eddie Fisher (1959-64, divorced), actor Richard Burton (1964-74, divorced), Burton again (1975-76, divorced again), politician John Warner (1976-82, divorced), and construction worker Larry Fortensky (1991-96, divorced). Taylor won best actress Oscars for Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Taylor was the first actress to earn a million dollars for one film, for 1963's Cleopatra.
http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/elizabeth%20taylor.jpg
http://gossips.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/tn2_elizabeth_taylor_4.jpg
Good thing I checked this morning, i had a feeling you might pick her.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:00 am
Now she's confined to a wheelchair. :(
I had not realsied that.
Nor did I .
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:01 am
Good thing I checked this morning, i had a feeling you might pick her.
She was born in Hampstead in North London, and I have not located the exact house yet.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:02 am
Nor did I .
checking online...
"Taylor went to the Hollywood Bowl June 8, 2009, to hear Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli in concert, her first night out in months. Taylor, bound to a wheelchair by scoliosis, said her mind and soul "were transported by his beauty, his voice, his inner being." The actress posted online messages through the Twitter social network after the Italian tenor's concert Monday night. "I went to see Andrea Bocelli last night. The first time I've been out in months. The Hollywood Bowl allowed me to use my wheelchair," she said."
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:08 am
The word of the day...Mice
Mice is the plural of mouse.
A mouse is a small furry animal with a long tail.
http://i756.photobucket.com/albums/xx204/omega24614/Ball%20Python/Mice.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj138/primcindy/mice-1.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/maidog_photos/mice/IMG_5928.jpg
http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq315/dottiemadcat/bulk%20cat%20toys/pe---rockin-mice.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/maidog_photos/mice/IMG_5932.jpg
http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq315/dottiemadcat/bulk%20cat%20toys/DSC00247.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/bittyskitty94210/animals/animals%202/big_4686041.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o172/lilbbezoe/Picture173.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/Magik_Moonmyst/Nature/Animals/watch_harvest_mice.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x17/Kawgirl_2007/Small%20Pet%20books/GerbilsRatsandMice.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:11 am
The word of the day...Mice
Mice is the plural of mouse.
A mouse is a small furry animal with a long tail.
http://i756.photobucket.com/albums/xx204/omega24614/Ball%20Python/Mice.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj138/primcindy/mice-1.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/maidog_photos/mice/IMG_5928.jpg
http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq315/dottiemadcat/bulk%20cat%20toys/pe---rockin-mice.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/maidog_photos/mice/IMG_5932.jpg
http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq315/dottiemadcat/bulk%20cat%20toys/DSC00247.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/bittyskitty94210/animals/animals%202/big_4686041.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o172/lilbbezoe/Picture173.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/Magik_Moonmyst/Nature/Animals/watch_harvest_mice.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x17/Kawgirl_2007/Small%20Pet%20books/GerbilsRatsandMice.jpg
http://welcometothesalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mouse_trap_board_and_boxjpg.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:12 am
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm66/Phil_O-Sopher/MouseTrap.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:14 am
checking online...
"Taylor went to the Hollywood Bowl June 8, 2009, to hear Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli in concert, her first night out in months. Taylor, bound to a wheelchair by scoliosis, said her mind and soul "were transported by his beauty, his voice, his inner being." The actress posted online messages through the Twitter social network after the Italian tenor's concert Monday night. "I went to see Andrea Bocelli last night. The first time I've been out in months. The Hollywood Bowl allowed me to use my wheelchair," she said."
My daughter has a curved back and was checked all through school for scoliosis. At least Ms. Taylor is still able to get places.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:14 am
The word of the day...Mice
Mice is the plural of mouse.
A mouse is a small furry animal with a long tail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYiqDyC6qgo
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:17 am
The word of the day...Mice
Mice is the plural of mouse.
A mouse is a small furry animal with a long tail.
http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/computer_mouse_using_a_real_dead_mouse_4.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:18 am
The person born on this day...John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories. In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German and Irish descent. Johann Adolf GroĂźsteinbeck, Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck when he immigrated to the United States. The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Germany, is still today named "GroĂźsteinbeck".
His father, John Steinbeck Sr., served as Monterey County Treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion of reading and writing. Steinbeck lived in a small rural town that was essentially a frontier settlement, set amid some of the world's most fertile land. He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels ranch. He became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men. He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.
In 1919, Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University intermittently until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree. He traveled to New York City and held odd jobs while pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. When he failed to get his work published, he returned to California and worked for a time in 1928 as a tourguide and caretaker at the fish hatchery in Tahoe City, where he would meet tourist Carol Henning, his future first wife.. Steinbeck and Henning were married in January, 1930.
Steinbeck lived most of the years of the great depression and his marriage to Carol in a cottage in Pacific Grove, California on the Monterey Peninsula that was owned by his father. The elder Steinbeck supplied him with the lodging for free, with paper for his manuscripts, and critical loans beginning at the end of 1928 which allowed Steinbeck to give up a punishing warehouse job in San Francisco, and focus on his craft.
After the publication of his Monterey novel Tortilla Flat in 1935, his first clear novelistic success, the Steinbecks emerged from relative poverty and built a summer ranch-home in Los Gatos. In 1940, Steinbeck went on a voyage around the Gulf of California with his influential friend Ed Ricketts, to collect biological specimens. The Log from the Sea of Cortez describes his experiences. Although Carol accompanied Steinbeck on the trip, their marriage was beginning to suffer by this time, and would effectively end in 1941, even as Steinbeck worked on the manuscript for the book.
In 1943, Steinbeck filed for divorce against Carol and married Gwyndolyn "Gwyn" Conger, with whom he had two children - Thomas ("Thom") Myles Steinbeck in 1944 and John Steinbeck IV, who died in 1991. Steinbeck and his second wife divorced in 1948. In December 1950, Steinbeck married stage-manager Elaine Scott within a week of the finalizing of her divorce from actor Zachary Scott. This marriage lasted until Steinbeck's death in 1968.
In 1948, Steinbeck toured the Soviet Union with renowned photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Batumi and Stalingrad. His book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, was illustrated with Capa's photos. That year he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Steinbeck's gravestone at Salinas cemetery
In 1966, Steinbeck traveled to Tel Aviv to visit the site of Mount Hope, a farm community established in Israel by his grandfather, whose brother, Friedrich Grosssteinbeck, was murdered by Arab marauders on January 11, 1858.
John Steinbeck died in New York City on December 20, 1968 of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He was 66, and had been a life-long smoker. An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of the main coronary arteries.
In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated and an urn containing his ashes was interred at his family gravesite at Garden of Memories Memorial Park in Salinas. His ashes were placed with those of the Hamiltons (grandparents). His third wife, Elaine, was buried with him in 2004. He had earlier written to his doctor that he felt deeply "in his flesh" that he would not survive his physical death, and that the biological end of his life was the final end to it.
Literary career
Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, published in 1929, is based on the life and death of privateer Henry Morgan. It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of the city of Panama, sometimes referred to as the 'Cup of Gold', and on the woman, fairer than the sun, who was said to be found there.
After Cup of Gold, between 1931 and 1933 Steinbeck produced three shorter works. The Pastures of Heaven, published in 1932, comprised twelve interconnected stories about a valley near Monterey, that was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway American Indian slaves. In 1933 Steinbeck published The Red Pony, a 100-page, four-chapter story weaving in memories of Steinbeck's childhood. To a God Unknown follows the life of a homesteader and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works.
Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with the novel Tortilla Flat (1935), which won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal. The book portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after World War I, just before U.S. prohibition. The characters, who are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest, reject nearly all the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life centered around wine, lust, camaraderie and petty theft. The book was made into the 1942 film Tortilla Flat, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield, a friend of Steinbeck's.
Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression. These included In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Of Mice and Men, about the dreams of a pair of migrant laborers working the California soil, was critically acclaimed.
The stage adaptation of Of Mice and Men was a hit, starring Broderick Crawford as the mentally child-like but physically powerful itinerant farmhand "Lennie," and Wallace Ford as Lennie's companion, "George." However, Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling Kaufman that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect" and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Steinbeck would write two more stage plays (The Moon Is Down and Burning Bright).
Of Mice and Men was rapidly adapted into a 1939 Hollywood film, in which Lon Chaney, Jr. (who had portrayed the role in the Los Angeles production of the play) was cast as Lennie and Burgess Meredith as "George." Steinbeck followed this wave of success with The Grapes of Wrath (1939), based on newspaper articles he had written in San Francisco. The novel would be considered by many to be his finest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, even as it was made into a notable film directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the part.
The success of The Grapes of Wrath was not free of controversy, as Steinbeck's liberal political views, portrayal of the negative side of capitalism, and mythical reinterpretation of the historical events of the Dust Bowl migrations led to backlash against the author, especially close to home. In fact, claiming the book was both obscene and misrepresented conditions in the county, the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.
Of the controversy, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the Okies hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might of this damned thing. It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy."
The film versions of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men (by two different movie studios) were in production simultaneously, allowing Steinbeck to spend a full day on the set of The Grapes of Wrath and the next day on the set of Of Mice and Men.
Ed Ricketts
Ed Ricketts
In the 1930s and 1940s, Ed Ricketts strongly influenced Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast to collect biological specimens which Ricketts sold for a living and give Steinbeck time off from his writing. Their joint book about a collecting expedition to the Gulf of California in 1940, which was part travelogue and part natural history, published just as the U.S. entered World War II, never found an audience and did not sell well. However, in 1951, Steinbeck republished the narrative portion of the book as The Log from the Sea of Cortez, under his name only (though Ricketts had written some of it). This work remains in print today.
Ricketts was Steinbeck's model for the character of "Doc" in Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954), "Friend Ed" in Burning Bright, and characters in In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Ecological themes recur in Steinbeck's novels of the period.
Steinbeck's close relations with Ricketts ended in 1941 when Steinbeck moved away from Pacific Grove and split with his wife Carol. Ricketts' biographer Eric Enno Tamm notes that, except for East of Eden (1952), Steinbeck's writing declined after Ricketts' untimely death in 1948.
n 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” On the day of the announcement (Oct. 25) when he was asked by a reporter at a press conference given by his publisher, if he thought he deserved the Nobel, he said: "Frankly, no." In his acceptance speech later in the year in Stockholm, he said:
the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
—Steinbeck Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Although modest about his own talent as a writer, Steinbeck talked openly of his own admiration of certain writers: in 1953, he wrote in humor that he considered cartoonist Al Capp "possibly the best writer in the world today." . However, at his own first Nobel Prize press conference he was asked his favorite authors and works and replied: "Hemingway's short stories and nearly everything Faulkner wrote."
In September 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1967, at the behest of Newsday magazine, Steinbeck went to Vietnam to report on the war there. Thinking of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture, he was considered a hawk for his position on that war. His sons both served in Vietnam prior to his death, and Steinbeck visited one son in the battlefield (at one point being allowed to man a machine-gun watch position at night at a firebase, while his son and other members of his platoon slept).
After Steinbeck's death, his incomplete novel based on the King Arthur legends of Malory and others, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, was finally published in 1976.
On Feb. 27, 1979, on what would have been his 77th birthday, he was honored by being placed on a U.S. postage stamp.
Legacy
National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California
The day after Steinbeck's death in New York City, reviewer Charles Poore wrote in the New York Times: "John Steinbeck's first great book was his last great book. But Good Lord, what a book that was and is: The Grapes of Wrath." Poore noted a "preachiness" in Steinbeck's work, "as if half his literary inheritance came from the best of Mark Twain— and the other half from the worst of Cotton Mather." But he asserted that "Steinbeck didn't need the Nobel Prize— the Nobel judges needed him."
Many of Steinbeck's works are on required reading lists in American high schools. In the United Kingdom, Of Mice and Men is one of the key texts used by the examining body AQA for its English Literature GCSE. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in public high schools.
At the same time, The Grapes of Wrath has been banned by school boards: In August 1939, Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries. It was burned in Salinas on two different occasions. In 2003, a school board in Mississippi banned it on the grounds of profanity. According to the American Library Association Steinbeck was one of the ten most frequently banned authors from 1990 to 2004, with Of Mice and Men ranking sixth out of 100 such books in the United States.
His books are also commonly referenced in music. Once There Was A War, an alternative metal band from Sayreville, New Jersey, derived their name from one of his novels.
Literary influences
Steinbeck grew up in California's Salinas Valley, a culturally diverse place with a rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place. Salinas, Monterey and parts of the San Joaquin Valley were the setting for many of his stories. The area is now sometimes referred to as "Steinbeck Country". Most of his early work dealt with subjects familiar to him from his formative years. An exception was his first novel, Cup of Gold, which concerns the pirate Henry Morgan, whose adventures had captured Steinbeck's imagination as a child.
In his subsequent novels, Steinbeck found a more authentic voice by drawing upon direct memories of his life in California. His childhood friend, Max Wagner, a brother of Jack Wagner and who later became a film actor, served as inspiration for The Red Pony. Later he used real American historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter. Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.
His later work reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology. One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he took in 1960 to rediscover America.
Cannery Row in Monterey
Steinbeck's boyhood home, a turreted Victorian building in downtown Salinas, has been preserved and restored by the Valley Guild, a nonprofit organization. Fixed menu lunches are served Monday through Saturday, and the house is open for tours during the summer on Sunday afternoons.
The National Steinbeck Center, two blocks away at One Main Street is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to a single author. Dana Gioia (chair of the National Endowment for the Arts) told an audience at the Center, "This is really the best modern literary shrine in the country, and I've seen them all." Its Steinbeckiana includes Rocinante, the camper truck in which Steinbeck made the cross-country trip described in "Travels with Charley."
His father's cottage on Eleventh Street in Pacific Grove, where Steinbeck wrote some of his earliest books, also survives.
In Monterey, Ed Ricketts' laboratory survives (though it is not yet open to the public) and at the corner which Steinbeck describes in Cannery Row, also the store which once belonged to Lee Chong, and the adjacent vacant lot frequented by the hobos of Cannery Row. The sardine cannery next to Doc's lab closed down long ago and the site is now occupied by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The town has commemorated Steinbeck's work with an avenue of flags depicting characters from Cannery Row and historical plaques, and sculptured busts depicting Steinbeck and Ricketts.
Commemoration
On Feb 27, 1979, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Steinbeck, starting the Postal Service’s Literary Arts series honoring American writers.
John Steinbeck Official First Day Stamp Cover
On December 5, 2007 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Steinbeck into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. His son, author Thomas Steinbeck, accepted the award on his behalf.
Major works
Of Mice and Men
Main article: Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a tragedy that was written in the form of a play in 1937. The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm/ranch. It encompasses themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice against the mentally ill, and the struggle for personal independence. Along with Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Pearl, Of Mice and Men is one of Steinbeck's best known works. It was made into a movie three times, in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., and Betty Field, in 1982 starring Randy Quaid, Robert Blake and Ted Neeley, and in 1992 starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
The Grapes of Wrath
Main article: The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The book is set in the Great Depression and describes a family of sharecroppers, the Joads, who were driven from their land due to the dust storms of the Dust Bowl. The title is a reference to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The book was made into a film in 1940 starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.
East of Eden
Main article: East of Eden
Steinbeck deals with the nature of good and evil in this Salinas Valley saga. The story follows two families: the Hamiltons - based on Steinbeck's own maternal ancestry - and the Trasks, reprising stories about the Biblical Adam and his progeny. The book was published in 1952.
Travels With Charley
Main article: Travels With Charley: In Search of America
In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top — which was rare at the time — and drove across the United States with his faithful 'blue' poodle, Charley. Steinbeck nicknamed his truck Rocinante after Don Quixote's "noble steed". In this sometimes comical, sometimes melancholic book, Steinbeck describes what he sees from Maine to Montana to California, and from there to Texas and Louisiana and back to his home in Long Island. The restored camper truck is on exhibit in the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.
Bibliography
* Cup of Gold (1927)
* The Pastures of Heaven (1932)
* The Red Pony (1933)
* To a God Unknown (1933)
* Tortilla Flat (1935)
* In Dubious Battle (1936)
* The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath (1936)
* Of Mice and Men (1937)
* The Long Valley (1938)
* The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
* The Forgotten Village (1941)
* Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941)
* The Moon Is Down (1942)
* Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team (1942)
* Cannery Row (1945)
* The Wayward Bus (1947)
* The Pearl (1947)
* A Russian Journal (1948)
* Burning Bright (1950)
* The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
* East of Eden (1952)
* Sweet Thursday (1954)
* The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957)
* Once There Was A War (1958)
* The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
* Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
* America and Americans (1966)
* Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)
* Viva Zapata! (1975)
* The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)
* Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989)
Filmography
* 1939—Of Mice and Men—directed by Lewis Milestone, featuring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Betty Field
* 1940—The Grapes of Wrath—directed by John Ford, featuring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell and John Carradine
* 1941—The Forgotten Village—directed by Alexander Hammid and Herbert Kline, narrated by Burgess Meredith, music by Hanns Eisler
* 1942—Tortilla Flat—directed by Victor Fleming, featuring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield
* 1943—The Moon is Down—directed by Irving Pichel, featuring Lee J. Cobb and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
* 1944—Lifeboat—directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Tallulah Bankhead, Hume Cronyn, and John Hodiak
* 1944—A Medal for Benny—directed by Irving Pichel, featuring Dorothy Lamour and Arturo de Cordova
* 1947—La Perla (The Pearl, Mexico)—directed by Emilio Fernández, featuring Pedro Armendáriz and MarĂa Elena MarquĂ©s
* 1949—The Red Pony—directed by Lewis Milestone, featuring Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, and Louis Calhern
* 1952—Viva Zapata!—directed by Elia Kazan, featuring Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn and Jean Peters
* 1955—East of Eden—directed by Elia Kazan, featuring James Dean, Julie Harris, Jo Van Fleet, and Raymond Massey
* 1956—The Wayward Bus—directed by Victor Vicas, featuring Rick Jason, Jayne Mansfield, and Joan Collins
* 1961—Flight—featuring Efrain RamĂrez and Arnelia Cortez
* 1962—Ikimize bir dünya (Of Mice and Men, Turkey)
* 1972—Topoli (Of Mice and Men, Iran)
* 1982—Cannery Row—directed by David S. Ward, featuring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger
* 1992—Of Mice and Men—directed by Gary Sinise and starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:21 am
The person born on this day...John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories. In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German and Irish descent. Johann Adolf GroĂźsteinbeck, Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck when he immigrated to the United States. The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Germany, is still today named "GroĂźsteinbeck".
His father, John Steinbeck Sr., served as Monterey County Treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion of reading and writing. Steinbeck lived in a small rural town that was essentially a frontier settlement, set amid some of the world's most fertile land. He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels ranch. He became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men. He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.
In 1919, Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University intermittently until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree. He traveled to New York City and held odd jobs while pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. When he failed to get his work published, he returned to California and worked for a time in 1928 as a tourguide and caretaker at the fish hatchery in Tahoe City, where he would meet tourist Carol Henning, his future first wife.. Steinbeck and Henning were married in January, 1930.
Steinbeck lived most of the years of the great depression and his marriage to Carol in a cottage in Pacific Grove, California on the Monterey Peninsula that was owned by his father. The elder Steinbeck supplied him with the lodging for free, with paper for his manuscripts, and critical loans beginning at the end of 1928 which allowed Steinbeck to give up a punishing warehouse job in San Francisco, and focus on his craft.
After the publication of his Monterey novel Tortilla Flat in 1935, his first clear novelistic success, the Steinbecks emerged from relative poverty and built a summer ranch-home in Los Gatos. In 1940, Steinbeck went on a voyage around the Gulf of California with his influential friend Ed Ricketts, to collect biological specimens. The Log from the Sea of Cortez describes his experiences. Although Carol accompanied Steinbeck on the trip, their marriage was beginning to suffer by this time, and would effectively end in 1941, even as Steinbeck worked on the manuscript for the book.
In 1943, Steinbeck filed for divorce against Carol and married Gwyndolyn "Gwyn" Conger, with whom he had two children - Thomas ("Thom") Myles Steinbeck in 1944 and John Steinbeck IV, who died in 1991. Steinbeck and his second wife divorced in 1948. In December 1950, Steinbeck married stage-manager Elaine Scott within a week of the finalizing of her divorce from actor Zachary Scott. This marriage lasted until Steinbeck's death in 1968.
In 1948, Steinbeck toured the Soviet Union with renowned photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Batumi and Stalingrad. His book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, was illustrated with Capa's photos. That year he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Steinbeck's gravestone at Salinas cemetery
In 1966, Steinbeck traveled to Tel Aviv to visit the site of Mount Hope, a farm community established in Israel by his grandfather, whose brother, Friedrich Grosssteinbeck, was murdered by Arab marauders on January 11, 1858.
John Steinbeck died in New York City on December 20, 1968 of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He was 66, and had been a life-long smoker. An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of the main coronary arteries.
In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated and an urn containing his ashes was interred at his family gravesite at Garden of Memories Memorial Park in Salinas. His ashes were placed with those of the Hamiltons (grandparents). His third wife, Elaine, was buried with him in 2004. He had earlier written to his doctor that he felt deeply "in his flesh" that he would not survive his physical death, and that the biological end of his life was the final end to it.
Literary career
Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, published in 1929, is based on the life and death of privateer Henry Morgan. It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of the city of Panama, sometimes referred to as the 'Cup of Gold', and on the woman, fairer than the sun, who was said to be found there.
After Cup of Gold, between 1931 and 1933 Steinbeck produced three shorter works. The Pastures of Heaven, published in 1932, comprised twelve interconnected stories about a valley near Monterey, that was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway American Indian slaves. In 1933 Steinbeck published The Red Pony, a 100-page, four-chapter story weaving in memories of Steinbeck's childhood. To a God Unknown follows the life of a homesteader and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works.
Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with the novel Tortilla Flat (1935), which won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal. The book portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after World War I, just before U.S. prohibition. The characters, who are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest, reject nearly all the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life centered around wine, lust, camaraderie and petty theft. The book was made into the 1942 film Tortilla Flat, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield, a friend of Steinbeck's.
Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression. These included In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Of Mice and Men, about the dreams of a pair of migrant laborers working the California soil, was critically acclaimed.
The stage adaptation of Of Mice and Men was a hit, starring Broderick Crawford as the mentally child-like but physically powerful itinerant farmhand "Lennie," and Wallace Ford as Lennie's companion, "George." However, Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling Kaufman that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect" and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Steinbeck would write two more stage plays (The Moon Is Down and Burning Bright).
Of Mice and Men was rapidly adapted into a 1939 Hollywood film, in which Lon Chaney, Jr. (who had portrayed the role in the Los Angeles production of the play) was cast as Lennie and Burgess Meredith as "George." Steinbeck followed this wave of success with The Grapes of Wrath (1939), based on newspaper articles he had written in San Francisco. The novel would be considered by many to be his finest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, even as it was made into a notable film directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the part.
The success of The Grapes of Wrath was not free of controversy, as Steinbeck's liberal political views, portrayal of the negative side of capitalism, and mythical reinterpretation of the historical events of the Dust Bowl migrations led to backlash against the author, especially close to home. In fact, claiming the book was both obscene and misrepresented conditions in the county, the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.
Of the controversy, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the Okies hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might of this damned thing. It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy."
The film versions of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men (by two different movie studios) were in production simultaneously, allowing Steinbeck to spend a full day on the set of The Grapes of Wrath and the next day on the set of Of Mice and Men.
Ed Ricketts
Ed Ricketts
In the 1930s and 1940s, Ed Ricketts strongly influenced Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast to collect biological specimens which Ricketts sold for a living and give Steinbeck time off from his writing. Their joint book about a collecting expedition to the Gulf of California in 1940, which was part travelogue and part natural history, published just as the U.S. entered World War II, never found an audience and did not sell well. However, in 1951, Steinbeck republished the narrative portion of the book as The Log from the Sea of Cortez, under his name only (though Ricketts had written some of it). This work remains in print today.
Ricketts was Steinbeck's model for the character of "Doc" in Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954), "Friend Ed" in Burning Bright, and characters in In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Ecological themes recur in Steinbeck's novels of the period.
Steinbeck's close relations with Ricketts ended in 1941 when Steinbeck moved away from Pacific Grove and split with his wife Carol. Ricketts' biographer Eric Enno Tamm notes that, except for East of Eden (1952), Steinbeck's writing declined after Ricketts' untimely death in 1948.
n 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” On the day of the announcement (Oct. 25) when he was asked by a reporter at a press conference given by his publisher, if he thought he deserved the Nobel, he said: "Frankly, no." In his acceptance speech later in the year in Stockholm, he said:
the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
—Steinbeck Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Although modest about his own talent as a writer, Steinbeck talked openly of his own admiration of certain writers: in 1953, he wrote in humor that he considered cartoonist Al Capp "possibly the best writer in the world today." . However, at his own first Nobel Prize press conference he was asked his favorite authors and works and replied: "Hemingway's short stories and nearly everything Faulkner wrote."
In September 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1967, at the behest of Newsday magazine, Steinbeck went to Vietnam to report on the war there. Thinking of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture, he was considered a hawk for his position on that war. His sons both served in Vietnam prior to his death, and Steinbeck visited one son in the battlefield (at one point being allowed to man a machine-gun watch position at night at a firebase, while his son and other members of his platoon slept).
After Steinbeck's death, his incomplete novel based on the King Arthur legends of Malory and others, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, was finally published in 1976.
On Feb. 27, 1979, on what would have been his 77th birthday, he was honored by being placed on a U.S. postage stamp.
Legacy
National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California
The day after Steinbeck's death in New York City, reviewer Charles Poore wrote in the New York Times: "John Steinbeck's first great book was his last great book. But Good Lord, what a book that was and is: The Grapes of Wrath." Poore noted a "preachiness" in Steinbeck's work, "as if half his literary inheritance came from the best of Mark Twain— and the other half from the worst of Cotton Mather." But he asserted that "Steinbeck didn't need the Nobel Prize— the Nobel judges needed him."
Many of Steinbeck's works are on required reading lists in American high schools. In the United Kingdom, Of Mice and Men is one of the key texts used by the examining body AQA for its English Literature GCSE. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in public high schools.
At the same time, The Grapes of Wrath has been banned by school boards: In August 1939, Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries. It was burned in Salinas on two different occasions. In 2003, a school board in Mississippi banned it on the grounds of profanity. According to the American Library Association Steinbeck was one of the ten most frequently banned authors from 1990 to 2004, with Of Mice and Men ranking sixth out of 100 such books in the United States.
His books are also commonly referenced in music. Once There Was A War, an alternative metal band from Sayreville, New Jersey, derived their name from one of his novels.
Literary influences
Steinbeck grew up in California's Salinas Valley, a culturally diverse place with a rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place. Salinas, Monterey and parts of the San Joaquin Valley were the setting for many of his stories. The area is now sometimes referred to as "Steinbeck Country". Most of his early work dealt with subjects familiar to him from his formative years. An exception was his first novel, Cup of Gold, which concerns the pirate Henry Morgan, whose adventures had captured Steinbeck's imagination as a child.
In his subsequent novels, Steinbeck found a more authentic voice by drawing upon direct memories of his life in California. His childhood friend, Max Wagner, a brother of Jack Wagner and who later became a film actor, served as inspiration for The Red Pony. Later he used real American historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter. Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.
His later work reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology. One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he took in 1960 to rediscover America.
Cannery Row in Monterey
Steinbeck's boyhood home, a turreted Victorian building in downtown Salinas, has been preserved and restored by the Valley Guild, a nonprofit organization. Fixed menu lunches are served Monday through Saturday, and the house is open for tours during the summer on Sunday afternoons.
The National Steinbeck Center, two blocks away at One Main Street is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to a single author. Dana Gioia (chair of the National Endowment for the Arts) told an audience at the Center, "This is really the best modern literary shrine in the country, and I've seen them all." Its Steinbeckiana includes Rocinante, the camper truck in which Steinbeck made the cross-country trip described in "Travels with Charley."
His father's cottage on Eleventh Street in Pacific Grove, where Steinbeck wrote some of his earliest books, also survives.
In Monterey, Ed Ricketts' laboratory survives (though it is not yet open to the public) and at the corner which Steinbeck describes in Cannery Row, also the store which once belonged to Lee Chong, and the adjacent vacant lot frequented by the hobos of Cannery Row. The sardine cannery next to Doc's lab closed down long ago and the site is now occupied by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The town has commemorated Steinbeck's work with an avenue of flags depicting characters from Cannery Row and historical plaques, and sculptured busts depicting Steinbeck and Ricketts.
Commemoration
On Feb 27, 1979, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Steinbeck, starting the Postal Service’s Literary Arts series honoring American writers.
John Steinbeck Official First Day Stamp Cover
On December 5, 2007 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Steinbeck into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. His son, author Thomas Steinbeck, accepted the award on his behalf.
Major works
Of Mice and Men
Main article: Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a tragedy that was written in the form of a play in 1937. The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm/ranch. It encompasses themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice against the mentally ill, and the struggle for personal independence. Along with Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Pearl, Of Mice and Men is one of Steinbeck's best known works. It was made into a movie three times, in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., and Betty Field, in 1982 starring Randy Quaid, Robert Blake and Ted Neeley, and in 1992 starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
The Grapes of Wrath
Main article: The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The book is set in the Great Depression and describes a family of sharecroppers, the Joads, who were driven from their land due to the dust storms of the Dust Bowl. The title is a reference to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The book was made into a film in 1940 starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.
East of Eden
Main article: East of Eden
Steinbeck deals with the nature of good and evil in this Salinas Valley saga. The story follows two families: the Hamiltons - based on Steinbeck's own maternal ancestry - and the Trasks, reprising stories about the Biblical Adam and his progeny. The book was published in 1952.
Travels With Charley
Main article: Travels With Charley: In Search of America
In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top — which was rare at the time — and drove across the United States with his faithful 'blue' poodle, Charley. Steinbeck nicknamed his truck Rocinante after Don Quixote's "noble steed". In this sometimes comical, sometimes melancholic book, Steinbeck describes what he sees from Maine to Montana to California, and from there to Texas and Louisiana and back to his home in Long Island. The restored camper truck is on exhibit in the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.
Bibliography
* Cup of Gold (1927)
* The Pastures of Heaven (1932)
* The Red Pony (1933)
* To a God Unknown (1933)
* Tortilla Flat (1935)
* In Dubious Battle (1936)
* The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath (1936)
* Of Mice and Men (1937)
* The Long Valley (1938)
* The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
* The Forgotten Village (1941)
* Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941)
* The Moon Is Down (1942)
* Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team (1942)
* Cannery Row (1945)
* The Wayward Bus (1947)
* The Pearl (1947)
* A Russian Journal (1948)
* Burning Bright (1950)
* The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
* East of Eden (1952)
* Sweet Thursday (1954)
* The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957)
* Once There Was A War (1958)
* The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
* Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
* America and Americans (1966)
* Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)
* Viva Zapata! (1975)
* The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)
* Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989)
Filmography
* 1939—Of Mice and Men—directed by Lewis Milestone, featuring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Betty Field
* 1940—The Grapes of Wrath—directed by John Ford, featuring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell and John Carradine
* 1941—The Forgotten Village—directed by Alexander Hammid and Herbert Kline, narrated by Burgess Meredith, music by Hanns Eisler
* 1942—Tortilla Flat—directed by Victor Fleming, featuring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield
* 1943—The Moon is Down—directed by Irving Pichel, featuring Lee J. Cobb and Sir Cedric Hardwicke
* 1944—Lifeboat—directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Tallulah Bankhead, Hume Cronyn, and John Hodiak
* 1944—A Medal for Benny—directed by Irving Pichel, featuring Dorothy Lamour and Arturo de Cordova
* 1947—La Perla (The Pearl, Mexico)—directed by Emilio Fernández, featuring Pedro Armendáriz and MarĂa Elena MarquĂ©s
* 1949—The Red Pony—directed by Lewis Milestone, featuring Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, and Louis Calhern
* 1952—Viva Zapata!—directed by Elia Kazan, featuring Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn and Jean Peters
* 1955—East of Eden—directed by Elia Kazan, featuring James Dean, Julie Harris, Jo Van Fleet, and Raymond Massey
* 1956—The Wayward Bus—directed by Victor Vicas, featuring Rick Jason, Jayne Mansfield, and Joan Collins
* 1961—Flight—featuring Efrain RamĂrez and Arnelia Cortez
* 1962—Ikimize bir dünya (Of Mice and Men, Turkey)
* 1972—Topoli (Of Mice and Men, Iran)
* 1982—Cannery Row—directed by David S. Ward, featuring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger
* 1992—Of Mice and Men—directed by Gary Sinise and starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise
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Of Mice and Men is a great book!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:22 am
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http://www.halloween-party-idea.net/images/minnie.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:23 am
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I never had that game :(
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm66/Phil_O-Sopher/MouseTrap.jpg
Is that going to be enough protection? ;D
http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/computer_mouse_using_a_real_dead_mouse_4.jpg
Nice, I have to find one of those. ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:23 am
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2364/1790655244_defd620802.jpg
Oh dear!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:24 am
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Oh dear!
Poor kitty :( :-\\ ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:25 am
I never had that game :(
I only played it once when I was young.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:26 am
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:28 am
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:37 am
The person who died on this day...Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan KBE (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002), known as Spike Milligan, was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwright. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles.
Milligan wrote and/or edited many books, including Puckoon and his six-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse, much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After enormous success with the ground-breaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5; a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Milligan was born in Ahmednagar, India, on 16 April 1918, the son of an Irish-born father, Captain Leo Alphonso Milligan, MSM, RA (1890-1969), who was serving in the British Indian Army. His mother, Florence Mary Winifred Kettleband (1893-1990), was born in England. He spent his childhood in Poona (India) and later in Rangoon, capital of Burma (Myanmar). He was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Poona, and St Paul's Christian Brothers, de la Salle, Rangoon.
He lived most of his life in England and served in the British Army, in the Royal Artillery during World War II.
illigan returned to jazz in the late 1940s and made a precarious living with the Hall trio and other musical comedy acts. He was also trying to break into the world of radio, as either a performer or as a script writer. His first success in radio was as writer for comedian Derek Roy's show. After a delayed start, Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine joined forces in a relatively radical comedy project, The Goon Show. During its first season the BBC titled the show as Crazy People, or in full, "The Junior Crazy Gang featuring those Crazy People, the Goons!", an attempt to make the programme palatable to BBC officials by connecting it with the popular group of theatre comedians known as The Crazy Gang.
The first episode was broadcast on 28 May 1951 on the BBC Home Service. Although he did not perform as much in the early shows Milligan eventually became a lead performer in almost all of the Goon Show episodes, portraying a wide range of characters including Eccles, Minnie Bannister, Willium Mate, Jim Spriggs and the nefarious Count Moriarty. He was also the primary author of most of the scripts, although he co-wrote many scripts with various collaborators, most notably Larry Stephens and Eric Sykes. Most of the early shows were co-written with Stephens (and edited by Jimmy Grafton) but this partnership faltered after Series 3. Milligan wrote most of Series 4 himself, but from Series 5 (coinciding with the birth of the Milligans' second child Sean) and through most of Series 6, Milligan collaborated with Eric Sykes, a development that grew out of Milligan's contemporary business collaboration with Sykes in Associated London Scripts. Milligan and Stephens reunited during Series 6, but towards the end of Series 8 Stephens was sidelined by health problems, and Milligan worked briefly with John Antrobus. The Milligan-Stephens partnership was finally ended by Stephens' untimely death from a brain hemorrage in January 1959 and Milligan later downplayed and disparaged Stephens' contributions.
The Goon Show was recorded before a studio audience, and during the audience warm-up session, Milligan would play the trumpet, while Peter Sellers played on the orchestra's drums. For the first few years the shows were recorded live, direct to 16-inch transcription disc, which required the cast to adhere closely to the script, but by Series 4 the BBC had adopted the use of magnetic tape. Milligan eagerly exploited the possibilities the new technology offered -- the tapes could be edited, so the cast could now ad-lib freely, and tape also enabled the creation of groundbreaking sound effects. Over the first three series Milligan's demands for increasingly complex sound effects (or 'grams', as they were then known) pushed the available technology and the skills of the BBC engineers to their limits -- effects had to be created mechanically (foley) or played back from discs, sometimes requiring the use of four or five turntables running simultaneously. With magnetic tape, these effects could be produced in advance and the BBC engineers were able to create highly complex, tightly edited effects 'stings' that would have been very difficult (if not impossible) to perform using foley or disc. In the later years of the series many Goon Show 'grams' were produced for the series by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a notable example being the famous "Bloodnok's Stomach" effect, realised by Dick Mills.
Although The Goons elevated Milligan to international stardom, the demands of writing and performing the series took a heavy toll. During Series 3 he suffered the first of several serious mental breakdowns, which also marked the onset of a decades-long cycle of manic/depressive illness. In late 1952, possibly exacerbated by suppressed tensions between the Goons stars, Milligan apparently became irrationally convinced that he had to kill Peter Sellers, but when he attempted to gain entry to Sellers' neighbouring flat, armed with a potato knife, he accidentally walked straight through the plate-glass front door. He was hospitalised, heavily sedated for two weeks, and spent almost two months recuperating; fortunately, a backlog of scripts meant that his illness had little effect on the production of The Goon Show. Milligan later blamed the pressure of writing and performing The Goon Show for both his breakdown and the failure of his first marriage.
Television
Milligan made several forays into television as a writer-performer, in addition to his many guest appearances on interview, variety and sketch comedy series from the 1950s to the 2000s.
The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956) starring Peter Sellers was the first attempt to translate Goon humour to TV; it was followed by A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred, both made during 1956 and directed by Richard Lester, who went on to work with The Beatles. In 1961 Milligan co-wrote two episodes of the popular sitcom Sykes and A..., co-starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques.
The 15-minute series The Telegoons (1963) was the next attempt to transplant The Goons to television, this time using puppet versions of the familiar characters. The initial intention was to 'visualise' original recordings of 1950s Goon Show episodes, but this proved difficult to achieve in practice due to the rapid-fire dialogue and was ultimately frustrated by the BBC's refusal to allow the original audio to be used. 15-minute adaptations of the original scripts by Maurice Wiltshire were used instead, with Milligan, Sellers and Seacombe reuniting to provide the voices; according to a contemporary press report, they received the highest fees the BBC had ever paid for 15-minute shows. Two series were made in 1963 and 1964 and (presumably because it was shot on 35mm film rather than video) the entire series has reportedly been preserved in the BBC archives.
Milligan's next major TV venture was the sketch comedy series The World of Beachcomber (BBC, 1968); it is thought that all 19 episodes are now lost.
In 1968 the three Goons reunited for a televised re-staging of a vintage Goon Show for Thames Television, with John Cleese substituting for the late Wallace Greenslade, but the pilot was not successful and no further programs were made.
In early 1969 Milligan starred in the ill-fated situation comedy Curry & Chips, created and written by Johnny Speight and featuring Milligan's old friend and colleague Eric Sykes. Curry & Chips set out to satirize racist attitudes in Britain in a similar vein to Speight's earlier creation, the hugely successful Till Death Us Do Part, with Milligan 'blacking up' to play Kevin O'Grady, a half-Pakistani/half-Irish factory worker. The series generated numerous complaints because of its frequent use of racist epithets and 'bad language' - one viewer reportedly complained of counting 59 uses of the word "bloody" in one episode - and it was cancelled on the orders of the Independent Broadcasting Authority after only six episodes.
Later that year, Milligan was commissioned by the BBC to write and star in Q5, the first in the innovative "Q" TV series, acknowledged as an important precursor to Monty Python's Flying Circus, which premiered several months later. However there was a hiatus of several years before the BBC commissioned Q6 in 1975. Q7 appeared in 1977, Q8 in 1978, Q9 in 1980 and There's a Lot of It About in 1982. Milligan later complained of the BBC's cold attitude towards the series and stated that he would have made more programs had he been given the opportunity.
The Bed-Sitting Room
In 1961-62, during the long pauses between the matinee and the evening show of Treasure Island, Milligan began talking to Miles about the idea he and John Antrobus were exploring of a dramatized post-nuclear world. This became the one-act play The Bed-Sitting Room, which Milligan co-wrote with John Antrobus, and which premiered at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on 12 February 1962. It was adapted to a longer play, and staged by Miles at London's Mermaid Theatre, making its debut on 31 January 1963. It was a critical and commercial success, and was revived in 1967 with a provincial tour before opening at London's Saville Theatre on 3 May 1967. Finally it was made into a film in 1969.
illustrated in the description of his involvement in theatre, Milligan often ad-libbed. He also did this on radio and television. One of his last screen appearances was in the BBC dramatisation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, and he was (almost inevitably) noted as an ad-libber.
One of Milligan's most famous ad-lib incidents occurred during a visit to Australia in the late 1960s. He was interviewed live on air and remained in the studio for the news broadcast that followed (read by Rod McNeil), during which Milligan constantly interjected, adding his own name to news items. As a result, he was banned from making any further live appearances on the ABC.
Cartoons and art
Milligan contributed occasional cartoons to the satirical magazine Private Eye. Most were visualizations of one-line jokes. For example, a young boy sees the Concorde and asks his father "What's that?". The reply is "That's a flying groundnut scheme, son." Aside from his well-known comedy and poetry, Milligan was a keen painter.
Advertising
In 1967, applying a satirical angle to a fashion for the inclusion of “superman” inspired characters in UK television commercials, Milligan dressed up in a “Bat-Goons” outfit to head up a series of television commercials for British Petroleum. A contemporary reporter found the TV commercials “funny and effective”. From 1980 to 1982, Milligan advertised for the English Tourist Board, playing a Scotsman on a visit around the different regions of England.
He suffered from severe bipolar disorder for most of his life, having at least ten major mental breakdowns, several lasting over a year. He spoke candidly about his condition and its effect on his life:
I have got so low that I have asked to be hospitalised and for deep narcosis (sleep). I cannot stand being awake. The pain is too much... Something has happened to me, this vital spark has stopped burning - I go to a dinner table now and I don't say a word, just sit there like a dodo. Normally I am the centre of attention, keep the conversation going - so that is depressing in itself. It's like another person taking over, very strange. The most important thing I say is 'good evening' and then I go quiet.
Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales was a fan, and Milligan caused a stir by calling him a "little grovelling bastard" on live television in 1994. He later faxed the prince, saying "I suppose a knighthood is out of the question?" In reality he and the Prince were very close friends, and he was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) (honorary because of his Irish citizenship) in 2000. He had been made an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992.
Campaigning
He was a strident campaigner on environmental matters, particularly arguing against unnecessary noise, such as the use of muzak.
In 1971, Milligan caused controversy by attacking an art exhibition at the Hayward Gallery with a hammer. The exhibit consisted of catfish, oysters and shrimp that were to be electrocuted as part of the exhibition. He was a strong opponent of cruelty to animals and, during an appearance on Room 101, chose fox hunting as a pet hate, and succeeded in banishing it to the eponymous room.
In 1996, he successfully campaigned for the restoration of London's Elfin Oak.
He was also a public opponent of domestic violence, dedicating one of his books to Erin Pizzey.
The grave of Spike Milligan in the grounds of St Thomas, Winchelsea, East Sussex. The epitaph reads "Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", Irish for "I told you I was ill."
Family
Milligan had three children with his first wife June (Marchinie) Marlow: Laura, Seán and SĂle. They were married in 1952 and divorced in 1960. He had one daughter with his second wife, Patricia Ridgeway (known as Paddy): the actress Jane Milligan (b. 1966). Jane's first nanny was a New Zealander, Diana Griffiths who lived in the home with them at 127 Holden Road. Milligan and Patricia were married in June 1962 with George Martin as best man. The marriage ended in 1978 with her death. In 1975 Milligan fathered a son, James (born June 1976), in an affair with Margaret Maughan. Another child, a daughter Romany, is suspected to have been born at the same time by a Canadian journalist named Roberta Watt. His last wife was Shelagh Sinclair, to whom he was married from 1983 to his death on 27 February 2002. Four of his children have recently collaborated with documentary makers on a new multi-platform programme called I Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan (2005) and accompanying website.
In October 2008 an array of Milligan's personal effects were to be sold at auction by his third wife, Shelagh, who was moving into a smaller home. These included a grand piano salvaged from a demolition and apparently played every morning by Paul McCartney, a neighbour in Rye in East Sussex.
Death
Even late in life, Milligan's black humour had not deserted him. After the death of friend Harry Secombe from cancer, he said, "I'm glad he died before me, because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." A recording of Secombe singing was played at Milligan's memorial service. He also wrote his own obituary, in which he stated repeatedly that he "wrote the Goon show and died".
Milligan died from liver disease, at the age of 83, on 27 February 2002, at his home in Rye, East Sussex. On the day of his funeral, 8 March 2002, his coffin was carried to St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea, Sussex, and was draped in the flag of the Republic of Ireland. He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to bear the words "I told you I was ill." He was buried at St Thomas's Church cemetery in Winchelsea, East Sussex, but the Chichester Diocese refused to allow this epitaph. A compromise was reached with the Irish translation, "Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", and additionally in English, "Love, light, peace".
Legacy
The Holden Road plaque
From the 1960s onwards Milligan was a regular correspondent with Robert Graves. Milligan's letters to Graves usually addressed a question to do with classical studies. The letters form part of Graves' bequest to St. John's College, Oxford.
The film of Puckoon, starring Sean Hughes and including Milligan's daughter, the actress Jane Milligan, was released after his death.
Milligan lived for several years in Holden Road, Woodside Park and at The Crescent, Barnet, and was a strong supporter of the Finchley Society. His old house in Woodside Park is now demolished, but there is a blue plaque in his memory on the new house on the site. The Finchley Society is trying to get a statue of him erected in Finchley. There is also a campaign to erect a statue in the London Borough of Lewisham where he grew up (see Honor Oak). After coming to the UK from India in the 1930s he lived at 50 Riseldine Road, Brockley and attended Brownhill Boys' school (later to become Catford Boys' School which was demolished in 1994). Lynsey De Paul is a patron of the Spike Milligan Statue Memorial Fund. There is a plaque and bench located at the Wadestown Library, Wellington New Zealand in an area called Spike Milligan corner.
In a BBC poll in August 1999, Spike Milligan was voted the "funniest person of the last 1000 years". Also, in a 2005 poll to find The Comedians' Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
Milligan has been portrayed twice in films. In the adaptation of his novel Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, he was played by Jim Dale, while Milligan himself played his own father. He was also portrayed by Edward Tudor-Pole in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). In a 2008 stage play, Surviving Spike, Milligan was played by the entertainer Michael Barrymore.
On 9 June 2006 it was reported that Professor Richard Wiseman had identified Milligan as the writer of the world's funniest joke as decided by the Laughlab project. Professor Wiseman said the joke contained all three elements of what makes a good gag: anxiety, a feeling of superiority, and an element of surprise.
Eddie Izzard described Milligan as "The Godfather of Alternative Comedy". "From his unchained mind came forth ideas that just had no boundaries. And he influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'." Members of Monty Python greatly admired him. In one interview, which was widely quoted at the time, John Cleese stated "Milligan is the Great God to all of us". The Pythons gave Milligan a cameo role in their 1979 film, Monty Python's Life of Brian, when Milligan happened to be holidaying in Tunisia, near where it was being filmed. Graham Chapman gave him a minor part in Yellowbeard.
Apart from those cited above, a number of people have played tribute to Milligan's influence on them, with 49 such people contributing to Maxine Ventham's (2002) book "Spike Milligan: His Part in Our Lives".
Radio comedy shows
* The Goon Show (1951–1960)
* The Idiot Weekly (1958–1962)
* The Omar Khayyam Show (1963–1964)
* Milligna (or Your Favourite Spike) (1972) The title is based on Milligan's introduction in The Last Goon Show of All as "Spike Milligna, the well-known typing error".
* The Milligan Papers (1987)
Other radio shows
Milligan contributed his recollections of his childhood in India for the acclaimed 1970s BBC audio history series Plain Tales From The Raj. The series was published in book form in 1975 by Andre Deutsch, edited by Charles Allen.
TV comedy shows
* The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d
* A Show Called Fred
* Son of Fred
* The World of Beachcomber
* The Q series: Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9, and There's a Lot of It About
* Curry & Chips
Other notable TV involvement
* Six-Five Special, first aired on 31 August 1957. Spike Milligan plays an inventor, Mr. Pym, and acts as a butcher in a sketch.
* This is Your Life, 11 April 1973. With Sellers, Bentine, and many others. Secombe spoke via a TV recording, as did his great friend Robert Graves.
* In 1975 Milligan co-wrote (with Neil Shand) and co-starred in a BBC TV sitcom called The Melting Pot. Its cast of characters included two illegal Indian immigrants, an Irish landlord, a Chinese Cockney, a Scottish Arab and numerous other racial stereotypes. After screening the pilot, the series was deemed to be too offensive for transmission. Five episodes remain unseen. Some of the characters and situations were reused in Milligan's novel, The Looney.
* Tiswas - 1981 edition.
* Guest appearing along with Peter Cook in Kenny Everett's Christmas Show in 1985.
* Playing a moaning stranger in an episode from 1987 of In Sickness and in Health.
* Narrator of The Ratties (1987), a children's cartoon series written by Mike Wallis and Laura Milligan, Spike's daughter.
* The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town ran as a serial in The Two Ronnies in the 1970s.
* Special guest star of the 18 January 1979 edition of The Muppet Show
* Guest star in the 3rd episode of the award-winning BBC Scotland drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994)
* Narrated the 1995 TV show Wolves, Witches and Giants. A cartoon based on the book of the same name, it retold classic tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, but with a twist. The programme won the 1995 Royal Television Society award for Best Children's Entertainment, and was nominated for the same award again in 1997.
* Guest on Series 4, Episode 3 of Room 101 in 1999
Theatre
* Treasure Island (1961, 1973–1975)
* The Bed-Sitting Room (1963, 1967) written by Milligan and John Antrobus
* Oblomov opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1964. It was based on the Russian classic by Ivan Goncharov, and gave Milligan the opportunity to play most of the title role in bed. Unsure of his material, on the opening night he improvised a great deal, treating the audience as part of the plot almost, and he continued in this manner for the rest of the run, and on tour as 'Son Of Oblomov'. The show ran at The Comedy Theatre in London's West end in 1965.
Films
* Down Among the Z Men (1952), played Eccles in a black-and-white secret agent comedy with all the Goons, including early member Michael Bentine and original announcer Andrew Timothy.
* The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956), a Goon-like 2-reel comedy ("Mukkinese" = "mucky knees").
* The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1960), a silent comedy, Richard Lester's debut film.
* Country postman Harold Petts in Postman's Knock (1962).
* The Bed-Sitting Room (1969), post-apocalyptic comedy with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and also Arthur Lowe; written by John Antrobus based on the Milligan/Antrobus play. Milligan had a small role as a postman named "Mate", which was also the name of a Goon Show character.
* The traffic warden who eats the ticket in The Magic Christian (1969).
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) as Gryphon.
* Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall (1972), a film of the first volume of his autobiography. Spike played the part of his father. The role of the young Spike Milligan was played by Jim Dale.
* The decrepit manager of a seedy London hotel in Bruce Beresford's The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972).
* Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973) children's comedy.
* Monsieur Bonacieux, husband of Madame Bonacieux (Raquel Welch) in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973).
* The Great McGonagall (1974), untalented Scottish poet (based on William Topaz McGonagall) angles to become laureate, with Peter Sellers as Queen Victoria.
* The decrepit Geste family retainer Crumpet in The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), with Marty Feldman.
* A policeman who briefly talks to Dr. Watson and Stapleton when they first arrive on the moors in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
* The prophet abandoned by his flock in Life of Brian (1979).
* Monsieur Rimbaud in History of the World, Part I (1981).
* A royal herald flunkie who accidentally blows a spy's cover in Yellowbeard (1983).
One of Milligan's earlier books
Books
* Silly Verse for Kids (1959); the 1968 paperback edition omits one poem and adds some from the next two books
* A Dustbin of Milligan (1961, Dobson Books). Subsequent reprints by Tandem, London, 1965-1975. This book contains a good representation of Milligan's earlier writing style, including poems, cartoons, short stories, letters to Secombe, and his views on some issues.
* Goblins (1978) A collection of poems
* The Little Pot Boiler (1963)
* Puckoon (1963)
* A Book of Bits, or A Bit of a Book (1965)
* A Book of Milliganimals (1968)
* Badjelly the Witch (1973)
* The Goon Show Scripts (1973). London: Sphere. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* More Goon Show Scripts (1974, paperback). London: Sphere. ISBN 0-7221-6077-1. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* The Lost Goon Shows (1987). London: Robson. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* The Bedsitting Room. First published in Great Britain by Margaret & Jack Hobbs, 1970. Published by Universal-Tandem, 1972. Tandem, 1973. © 1970 Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.
* The Looney: An Irish Fantasy (1987)
* The Bedside Milligan
* "The War (and Peace) Memoirs"
o The seven memoirs were also recorded as talking books with Spike reciting them in his own inimitable style.
o Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971)
o "Rommel?" "Gunner Who?" (1974)
o Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976)
+ This and the previous two books were released and publicised as the first, second and third part respectively of a trilogy.
o Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall (1978)
+ This was announced as the fourth part of his "increasingly misnamed" trilogy.
o Where Have All the Bullets Gone? (1985)
o Goodbye Soldier (1986)
o Peace Work (1992)
* S(I_am_a_loser_who_has_no_respect_for_women)horpe Revisited, added articles and instant relatives. Michael Joseph, London. Published by Penguin. Copyright, Spike Milligan Productions, 1989. ISBN 07181.3356.0
* Small Dreams of a Scorpion (1972)
* Hidden Words: Collected Poems
* Open Heart University
* Startling Verse for All the Family
* Sir Nobonk and the Terrible Dreadful Awful Naughty Nasty Dragon
* A Mad Medley of Milligan
* Transports of Delight (Sidgwick & Jackson 1974)
* More Transports of Delight
* Depression and How to Survive It (with Professor Anthony Clare), medical biography.
* It Ends with Magic
* The Murphy (Virgin, 2001)
* Milligan's Ark
* The Spike Milligan Letters (edited by Norma Farnes)
* More Spike Milligan Letters (edited by Norma Farnes)
* The Unpublished Spike Milligan BOX 18 (edited by Norma Farnes), London, Fourth Estate, 2006. ISBN 978-0-00-721427-3.
* The "According to" Books
o The Bible—the Old Testament According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, October 1993)
o Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, 1996)
o D.H.Lawrence's John Thomas and Lady Jane: According to Spike Milligan—Part II of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (Michael Joseph, 1995)
o Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan (Virgin, 1997)
o The Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan
o Lady Chatterley's Lover According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, April 1994)
o Robin Hood According to Spike Milligan (Virgin, 1998)
o Treasure Island According to Spike Milligan
o Wuthering Heights According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, 1994)
* The Essential Spike Milligan (compiled by Alexander Games, 2002), ISBN 0-00-767358-2
* The Compulsive Spike Milligan (Edited by Norma Farnes, 2004), ISBN 0-00-771702-4
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 7:37 am
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/3592206278_3ccc7c2d2f_m.jpg
Now that's just wrong ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:39 am
The person who died on this day...Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan KBE (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002), known as Spike Milligan, was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwright. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles.
Milligan wrote and/or edited many books, including Puckoon and his six-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse, much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After enormous success with the ground-breaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5; a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Milligan was born in Ahmednagar, India, on 16 April 1918, the son of an Irish-born father, Captain Leo Alphonso Milligan, MSM, RA (1890-1969), who was serving in the British Indian Army. His mother, Florence Mary Winifred Kettleband (1893-1990), was born in England. He spent his childhood in Poona (India) and later in Rangoon, capital of Burma (Myanmar). He was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Poona, and St Paul's Christian Brothers, de la Salle, Rangoon.
He lived most of his life in England and served in the British Army, in the Royal Artillery during World War II.
illigan returned to jazz in the late 1940s and made a precarious living with the Hall trio and other musical comedy acts. He was also trying to break into the world of radio, as either a performer or as a script writer. His first success in radio was as writer for comedian Derek Roy's show. After a delayed start, Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine joined forces in a relatively radical comedy project, The Goon Show. During its first season the BBC titled the show as Crazy People, or in full, "The Junior Crazy Gang featuring those Crazy People, the Goons!", an attempt to make the programme palatable to BBC officials by connecting it with the popular group of theatre comedians known as The Crazy Gang.
The first episode was broadcast on 28 May 1951 on the BBC Home Service. Although he did not perform as much in the early shows Milligan eventually became a lead performer in almost all of the Goon Show episodes, portraying a wide range of characters including Eccles, Minnie Bannister, Willium Mate, Jim Spriggs and the nefarious Count Moriarty. He was also the primary author of most of the scripts, although he co-wrote many scripts with various collaborators, most notably Larry Stephens and Eric Sykes. Most of the early shows were co-written with Stephens (and edited by Jimmy Grafton) but this partnership faltered after Series 3. Milligan wrote most of Series 4 himself, but from Series 5 (coinciding with the birth of the Milligans' second child Sean) and through most of Series 6, Milligan collaborated with Eric Sykes, a development that grew out of Milligan's contemporary business collaboration with Sykes in Associated London Scripts. Milligan and Stephens reunited during Series 6, but towards the end of Series 8 Stephens was sidelined by health problems, and Milligan worked briefly with John Antrobus. The Milligan-Stephens partnership was finally ended by Stephens' untimely death from a brain hemorrage in January 1959 and Milligan later downplayed and disparaged Stephens' contributions.
The Goon Show was recorded before a studio audience, and during the audience warm-up session, Milligan would play the trumpet, while Peter Sellers played on the orchestra's drums. For the first few years the shows were recorded live, direct to 16-inch transcription disc, which required the cast to adhere closely to the script, but by Series 4 the BBC had adopted the use of magnetic tape. Milligan eagerly exploited the possibilities the new technology offered -- the tapes could be edited, so the cast could now ad-lib freely, and tape also enabled the creation of groundbreaking sound effects. Over the first three series Milligan's demands for increasingly complex sound effects (or 'grams', as they were then known) pushed the available technology and the skills of the BBC engineers to their limits -- effects had to be created mechanically (foley) or played back from discs, sometimes requiring the use of four or five turntables running simultaneously. With magnetic tape, these effects could be produced in advance and the BBC engineers were able to create highly complex, tightly edited effects 'stings' that would have been very difficult (if not impossible) to perform using foley or disc. In the later years of the series many Goon Show 'grams' were produced for the series by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a notable example being the famous "Bloodnok's Stomach" effect, realised by Dick Mills.
Although The Goons elevated Milligan to international stardom, the demands of writing and performing the series took a heavy toll. During Series 3 he suffered the first of several serious mental breakdowns, which also marked the onset of a decades-long cycle of manic/depressive illness. In late 1952, possibly exacerbated by suppressed tensions between the Goons stars, Milligan apparently became irrationally convinced that he had to kill Peter Sellers, but when he attempted to gain entry to Sellers' neighbouring flat, armed with a potato knife, he accidentally walked straight through the plate-glass front door. He was hospitalised, heavily sedated for two weeks, and spent almost two months recuperating; fortunately, a backlog of scripts meant that his illness had little effect on the production of The Goon Show. Milligan later blamed the pressure of writing and performing The Goon Show for both his breakdown and the failure of his first marriage.
Television
Milligan made several forays into television as a writer-performer, in addition to his many guest appearances on interview, variety and sketch comedy series from the 1950s to the 2000s.
The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956) starring Peter Sellers was the first attempt to translate Goon humour to TV; it was followed by A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred, both made during 1956 and directed by Richard Lester, who went on to work with The Beatles. In 1961 Milligan co-wrote two episodes of the popular sitcom Sykes and A..., co-starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques.
The 15-minute series The Telegoons (1963) was the next attempt to transplant The Goons to television, this time using puppet versions of the familiar characters. The initial intention was to 'visualise' original recordings of 1950s Goon Show episodes, but this proved difficult to achieve in practice due to the rapid-fire dialogue and was ultimately frustrated by the BBC's refusal to allow the original audio to be used. 15-minute adaptations of the original scripts by Maurice Wiltshire were used instead, with Milligan, Sellers and Seacombe reuniting to provide the voices; according to a contemporary press report, they received the highest fees the BBC had ever paid for 15-minute shows. Two series were made in 1963 and 1964 and (presumably because it was shot on 35mm film rather than video) the entire series has reportedly been preserved in the BBC archives.
Milligan's next major TV venture was the sketch comedy series The World of Beachcomber (BBC, 1968); it is thought that all 19 episodes are now lost.
In 1968 the three Goons reunited for a televised re-staging of a vintage Goon Show for Thames Television, with John Cleese substituting for the late Wallace Greenslade, but the pilot was not successful and no further programs were made.
In early 1969 Milligan starred in the ill-fated situation comedy Curry & Chips, created and written by Johnny Speight and featuring Milligan's old friend and colleague Eric Sykes. Curry & Chips set out to satirize racist attitudes in Britain in a similar vein to Speight's earlier creation, the hugely successful Till Death Us Do Part, with Milligan 'blacking up' to play Kevin O'Grady, a half-Pakistani/half-Irish factory worker. The series generated numerous complaints because of its frequent use of racist epithets and 'bad language' - one viewer reportedly complained of counting 59 uses of the word "bloody" in one episode - and it was cancelled on the orders of the Independent Broadcasting Authority after only six episodes.
Later that year, Milligan was commissioned by the BBC to write and star in Q5, the first in the innovative "Q" TV series, acknowledged as an important precursor to Monty Python's Flying Circus, which premiered several months later. However there was a hiatus of several years before the BBC commissioned Q6 in 1975. Q7 appeared in 1977, Q8 in 1978, Q9 in 1980 and There's a Lot of It About in 1982. Milligan later complained of the BBC's cold attitude towards the series and stated that he would have made more programs had he been given the opportunity.
The Bed-Sitting Room
In 1961-62, during the long pauses between the matinee and the evening show of Treasure Island, Milligan began talking to Miles about the idea he and John Antrobus were exploring of a dramatized post-nuclear world. This became the one-act play The Bed-Sitting Room, which Milligan co-wrote with John Antrobus, and which premiered at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on 12 February 1962. It was adapted to a longer play, and staged by Miles at London's Mermaid Theatre, making its debut on 31 January 1963. It was a critical and commercial success, and was revived in 1967 with a provincial tour before opening at London's Saville Theatre on 3 May 1967. Finally it was made into a film in 1969.
illustrated in the description of his involvement in theatre, Milligan often ad-libbed. He also did this on radio and television. One of his last screen appearances was in the BBC dramatisation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, and he was (almost inevitably) noted as an ad-libber.
One of Milligan's most famous ad-lib incidents occurred during a visit to Australia in the late 1960s. He was interviewed live on air and remained in the studio for the news broadcast that followed (read by Rod McNeil), during which Milligan constantly interjected, adding his own name to news items. As a result, he was banned from making any further live appearances on the ABC.
Cartoons and art
Milligan contributed occasional cartoons to the satirical magazine Private Eye. Most were visualizations of one-line jokes. For example, a young boy sees the Concorde and asks his father "What's that?". The reply is "That's a flying groundnut scheme, son." Aside from his well-known comedy and poetry, Milligan was a keen painter.
Advertising
In 1967, applying a satirical angle to a fashion for the inclusion of “superman” inspired characters in UK television commercials, Milligan dressed up in a “Bat-Goons” outfit to head up a series of television commercials for British Petroleum. A contemporary reporter found the TV commercials “funny and effective”. From 1980 to 1982, Milligan advertised for the English Tourist Board, playing a Scotsman on a visit around the different regions of England.
He suffered from severe bipolar disorder for most of his life, having at least ten major mental breakdowns, several lasting over a year. He spoke candidly about his condition and its effect on his life:
I have got so low that I have asked to be hospitalised and for deep narcosis (sleep). I cannot stand being awake. The pain is too much... Something has happened to me, this vital spark has stopped burning - I go to a dinner table now and I don't say a word, just sit there like a dodo. Normally I am the centre of attention, keep the conversation going - so that is depressing in itself. It's like another person taking over, very strange. The most important thing I say is 'good evening' and then I go quiet.
Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales was a fan, and Milligan caused a stir by calling him a "little grovelling bastard" on live television in 1994. He later faxed the prince, saying "I suppose a knighthood is out of the question?" In reality he and the Prince were very close friends, and he was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) (honorary because of his Irish citizenship) in 2000. He had been made an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992.
Campaigning
He was a strident campaigner on environmental matters, particularly arguing against unnecessary noise, such as the use of muzak.
In 1971, Milligan caused controversy by attacking an art exhibition at the Hayward Gallery with a hammer. The exhibit consisted of catfish, oysters and shrimp that were to be electrocuted as part of the exhibition. He was a strong opponent of cruelty to animals and, during an appearance on Room 101, chose fox hunting as a pet hate, and succeeded in banishing it to the eponymous room.
In 1996, he successfully campaigned for the restoration of London's Elfin Oak.
He was also a public opponent of domestic violence, dedicating one of his books to Erin Pizzey.
The grave of Spike Milligan in the grounds of St Thomas, Winchelsea, East Sussex. The epitaph reads "Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", Irish for "I told you I was ill."
Family
Milligan had three children with his first wife June (Marchinie) Marlow: Laura, Seán and SĂle. They were married in 1952 and divorced in 1960. He had one daughter with his second wife, Patricia Ridgeway (known as Paddy): the actress Jane Milligan (b. 1966). Jane's first nanny was a New Zealander, Diana Griffiths who lived in the home with them at 127 Holden Road. Milligan and Patricia were married in June 1962 with George Martin as best man. The marriage ended in 1978 with her death. In 1975 Milligan fathered a son, James (born June 1976), in an affair with Margaret Maughan. Another child, a daughter Romany, is suspected to have been born at the same time by a Canadian journalist named Roberta Watt. His last wife was Shelagh Sinclair, to whom he was married from 1983 to his death on 27 February 2002. Four of his children have recently collaborated with documentary makers on a new multi-platform programme called I Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan (2005) and accompanying website.
In October 2008 an array of Milligan's personal effects were to be sold at auction by his third wife, Shelagh, who was moving into a smaller home. These included a grand piano salvaged from a demolition and apparently played every morning by Paul McCartney, a neighbour in Rye in East Sussex.
Death
Even late in life, Milligan's black humour had not deserted him. After the death of friend Harry Secombe from cancer, he said, "I'm glad he died before me, because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." A recording of Secombe singing was played at Milligan's memorial service. He also wrote his own obituary, in which he stated repeatedly that he "wrote the Goon show and died".
Milligan died from liver disease, at the age of 83, on 27 February 2002, at his home in Rye, East Sussex. On the day of his funeral, 8 March 2002, his coffin was carried to St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea, Sussex, and was draped in the flag of the Republic of Ireland. He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to bear the words "I told you I was ill." He was buried at St Thomas's Church cemetery in Winchelsea, East Sussex, but the Chichester Diocese refused to allow this epitaph. A compromise was reached with the Irish translation, "Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", and additionally in English, "Love, light, peace".
Legacy
The Holden Road plaque
From the 1960s onwards Milligan was a regular correspondent with Robert Graves. Milligan's letters to Graves usually addressed a question to do with classical studies. The letters form part of Graves' bequest to St. John's College, Oxford.
The film of Puckoon, starring Sean Hughes and including Milligan's daughter, the actress Jane Milligan, was released after his death.
Milligan lived for several years in Holden Road, Woodside Park and at The Crescent, Barnet, and was a strong supporter of the Finchley Society. His old house in Woodside Park is now demolished, but there is a blue plaque in his memory on the new house on the site. The Finchley Society is trying to get a statue of him erected in Finchley. There is also a campaign to erect a statue in the London Borough of Lewisham where he grew up (see Honor Oak). After coming to the UK from India in the 1930s he lived at 50 Riseldine Road, Brockley and attended Brownhill Boys' school (later to become Catford Boys' School which was demolished in 1994). Lynsey De Paul is a patron of the Spike Milligan Statue Memorial Fund. There is a plaque and bench located at the Wadestown Library, Wellington New Zealand in an area called Spike Milligan corner.
In a BBC poll in August 1999, Spike Milligan was voted the "funniest person of the last 1000 years". Also, in a 2005 poll to find The Comedians' Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
Milligan has been portrayed twice in films. In the adaptation of his novel Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, he was played by Jim Dale, while Milligan himself played his own father. He was also portrayed by Edward Tudor-Pole in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). In a 2008 stage play, Surviving Spike, Milligan was played by the entertainer Michael Barrymore.
On 9 June 2006 it was reported that Professor Richard Wiseman had identified Milligan as the writer of the world's funniest joke as decided by the Laughlab project. Professor Wiseman said the joke contained all three elements of what makes a good gag: anxiety, a feeling of superiority, and an element of surprise.
Eddie Izzard described Milligan as "The Godfather of Alternative Comedy". "From his unchained mind came forth ideas that just had no boundaries. And he influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'." Members of Monty Python greatly admired him. In one interview, which was widely quoted at the time, John Cleese stated "Milligan is the Great God to all of us". The Pythons gave Milligan a cameo role in their 1979 film, Monty Python's Life of Brian, when Milligan happened to be holidaying in Tunisia, near where it was being filmed. Graham Chapman gave him a minor part in Yellowbeard.
Apart from those cited above, a number of people have played tribute to Milligan's influence on them, with 49 such people contributing to Maxine Ventham's (2002) book "Spike Milligan: His Part in Our Lives".
Radio comedy shows
* The Goon Show (1951–1960)
* The Idiot Weekly (1958–1962)
* The Omar Khayyam Show (1963–1964)
* Milligna (or Your Favourite Spike) (1972) The title is based on Milligan's introduction in The Last Goon Show of All as "Spike Milligna, the well-known typing error".
* The Milligan Papers (1987)
Other radio shows
Milligan contributed his recollections of his childhood in India for the acclaimed 1970s BBC audio history series Plain Tales From The Raj. The series was published in book form in 1975 by Andre Deutsch, edited by Charles Allen.
TV comedy shows
* The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d
* A Show Called Fred
* Son of Fred
* The World of Beachcomber
* The Q series: Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9, and There's a Lot of It About
* Curry & Chips
Other notable TV involvement
* Six-Five Special, first aired on 31 August 1957. Spike Milligan plays an inventor, Mr. Pym, and acts as a butcher in a sketch.
* This is Your Life, 11 April 1973. With Sellers, Bentine, and many others. Secombe spoke via a TV recording, as did his great friend Robert Graves.
* In 1975 Milligan co-wrote (with Neil Shand) and co-starred in a BBC TV sitcom called The Melting Pot. Its cast of characters included two illegal Indian immigrants, an Irish landlord, a Chinese Cockney, a Scottish Arab and numerous other racial stereotypes. After screening the pilot, the series was deemed to be too offensive for transmission. Five episodes remain unseen. Some of the characters and situations were reused in Milligan's novel, The Looney.
* Tiswas - 1981 edition.
* Guest appearing along with Peter Cook in Kenny Everett's Christmas Show in 1985.
* Playing a moaning stranger in an episode from 1987 of In Sickness and in Health.
* Narrator of The Ratties (1987), a children's cartoon series written by Mike Wallis and Laura Milligan, Spike's daughter.
* The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town ran as a serial in The Two Ronnies in the 1970s.
* Special guest star of the 18 January 1979 edition of The Muppet Show
* Guest star in the 3rd episode of the award-winning BBC Scotland drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994)
* Narrated the 1995 TV show Wolves, Witches and Giants. A cartoon based on the book of the same name, it retold classic tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, but with a twist. The programme won the 1995 Royal Television Society award for Best Children's Entertainment, and was nominated for the same award again in 1997.
* Guest on Series 4, Episode 3 of Room 101 in 1999
Theatre
* Treasure Island (1961, 1973–1975)
* The Bed-Sitting Room (1963, 1967) written by Milligan and John Antrobus
* Oblomov opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1964. It was based on the Russian classic by Ivan Goncharov, and gave Milligan the opportunity to play most of the title role in bed. Unsure of his material, on the opening night he improvised a great deal, treating the audience as part of the plot almost, and he continued in this manner for the rest of the run, and on tour as 'Son Of Oblomov'. The show ran at The Comedy Theatre in London's West end in 1965.
Films
* Down Among the Z Men (1952), played Eccles in a black-and-white secret agent comedy with all the Goons, including early member Michael Bentine and original announcer Andrew Timothy.
* The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956), a Goon-like 2-reel comedy ("Mukkinese" = "mucky knees").
* The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1960), a silent comedy, Richard Lester's debut film.
* Country postman Harold Petts in Postman's Knock (1962).
* The Bed-Sitting Room (1969), post-apocalyptic comedy with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and also Arthur Lowe; written by John Antrobus based on the Milligan/Antrobus play. Milligan had a small role as a postman named "Mate", which was also the name of a Goon Show character.
* The traffic warden who eats the ticket in The Magic Christian (1969).
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) as Gryphon.
* Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall (1972), a film of the first volume of his autobiography. Spike played the part of his father. The role of the young Spike Milligan was played by Jim Dale.
* The decrepit manager of a seedy London hotel in Bruce Beresford's The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972).
* Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973) children's comedy.
* Monsieur Bonacieux, husband of Madame Bonacieux (Raquel Welch) in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973).
* The Great McGonagall (1974), untalented Scottish poet (based on William Topaz McGonagall) angles to become laureate, with Peter Sellers as Queen Victoria.
* The decrepit Geste family retainer Crumpet in The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), with Marty Feldman.
* A policeman who briefly talks to Dr. Watson and Stapleton when they first arrive on the moors in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
* The prophet abandoned by his flock in Life of Brian (1979).
* Monsieur Rimbaud in History of the World, Part I (1981).
* A royal herald flunkie who accidentally blows a spy's cover in Yellowbeard (1983).
One of Milligan's earlier books
Books
* Silly Verse for Kids (1959); the 1968 paperback edition omits one poem and adds some from the next two books
* A Dustbin of Milligan (1961, Dobson Books). Subsequent reprints by Tandem, London, 1965-1975. This book contains a good representation of Milligan's earlier writing style, including poems, cartoons, short stories, letters to Secombe, and his views on some issues.
* Goblins (1978) A collection of poems
* The Little Pot Boiler (1963)
* Puckoon (1963)
* A Book of Bits, or A Bit of a Book (1965)
* A Book of Milliganimals (1968)
* Badjelly the Witch (1973)
* The Goon Show Scripts (1973). London: Sphere. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* More Goon Show Scripts (1974, paperback). London: Sphere. ISBN 0-7221-6077-1. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* The Lost Goon Shows (1987). London: Robson. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* The Bedsitting Room. First published in Great Britain by Margaret & Jack Hobbs, 1970. Published by Universal-Tandem, 1972. Tandem, 1973. © 1970 Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.
* The Looney: An Irish Fantasy (1987)
* The Bedside Milligan
* "The War (and Peace) Memoirs"
o The seven memoirs were also recorded as talking books with Spike reciting them in his own inimitable style.
o Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971)
o "Rommel?" "Gunner Who?" (1974)
o Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976)
+ This and the previous two books were released and publicised as the first, second and third part respectively of a trilogy.
o Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall (1978)
+ This was announced as the fourth part of his "increasingly misnamed" trilogy.
o Where Have All the Bullets Gone? (1985)
o Goodbye Soldier (1986)
o Peace Work (1992)
* S(I_am_a_loser_who_has_no_respect_for_women)horpe Revisited, added articles and instant relatives. Michael Joseph, London. Published by Penguin. Copyright, Spike Milligan Productions, 1989. ISBN 07181.3356.0
* Small Dreams of a Scorpion (1972)
* Hidden Words: Collected Poems
* Open Heart University
* Startling Verse for All the Family
* Sir Nobonk and the Terrible Dreadful Awful Naughty Nasty Dragon
* A Mad Medley of Milligan
* Transports of Delight (Sidgwick & Jackson 1974)
* More Transports of Delight
* Depression and How to Survive It (with Professor Anthony Clare), medical biography.
* It Ends with Magic
* The Murphy (Virgin, 2001)
* Milligan's Ark
* The Spike Milligan Letters (edited by Norma Farnes)
* More Spike Milligan Letters (edited by Norma Farnes)
* The Unpublished Spike Milligan BOX 18 (edited by Norma Farnes), London, Fourth Estate, 2006. ISBN 978-0-00-721427-3.
* The "According to" Books
o The Bible—the Old Testament According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, October 1993)
o Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, 1996)
o D.H.Lawrence's John Thomas and Lady Jane: According to Spike Milligan—Part II of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (Michael Joseph, 1995)
o Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan (Virgin, 1997)
o The Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan
o Lady Chatterley's Lover According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, April 1994)
o Robin Hood According to Spike Milligan (Virgin, 1998)
o Treasure Island According to Spike Milligan
o Wuthering Heights According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, 1994)
* The Essential Spike Milligan (compiled by Alexander Games, 2002), ISBN 0-00-767358-2
* The Compulsive Spike Milligan (Edited by Norma Farnes, 2004), ISBN 0-00-771702-4
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Of course, he died today...
Thanks!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:50 am
The person who died on this day...Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan KBE (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002), known as Spike Milligan, was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwright. Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles.
Milligan wrote and/or edited many books, including Puckoon and his six-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse, much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After enormous success with the ground-breaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5; a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Milligan was born in Ahmednagar, India, on 16 April 1918, the son of an Irish-born father, Captain Leo Alphonso Milligan, MSM, RA (1890-1969), who was serving in the British Indian Army. His mother, Florence Mary Winifred Kettleband (1893-1990), was born in England. He spent his childhood in Poona (India) and later in Rangoon, capital of Burma (Myanmar). He was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Poona, and St Paul's Christian Brothers, de la Salle, Rangoon.
He lived most of his life in England and served in the British Army, in the Royal Artillery during World War II.
illigan returned to jazz in the late 1940s and made a precarious living with the Hall trio and other musical comedy acts. He was also trying to break into the world of radio, as either a performer or as a script writer. His first success in radio was as writer for comedian Derek Roy's show. After a delayed start, Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine joined forces in a relatively radical comedy project, The Goon Show. During its first season the BBC titled the show as Crazy People, or in full, "The Junior Crazy Gang featuring those Crazy People, the Goons!", an attempt to make the programme palatable to BBC officials by connecting it with the popular group of theatre comedians known as The Crazy Gang.
The first episode was broadcast on 28 May 1951 on the BBC Home Service. Although he did not perform as much in the early shows Milligan eventually became a lead performer in almost all of the Goon Show episodes, portraying a wide range of characters including Eccles, Minnie Bannister, Willium Mate, Jim Spriggs and the nefarious Count Moriarty. He was also the primary author of most of the scripts, although he co-wrote many scripts with various collaborators, most notably Larry Stephens and Eric Sykes. Most of the early shows were co-written with Stephens (and edited by Jimmy Grafton) but this partnership faltered after Series 3. Milligan wrote most of Series 4 himself, but from Series 5 (coinciding with the birth of the Milligans' second child Sean) and through most of Series 6, Milligan collaborated with Eric Sykes, a development that grew out of Milligan's contemporary business collaboration with Sykes in Associated London Scripts. Milligan and Stephens reunited during Series 6, but towards the end of Series 8 Stephens was sidelined by health problems, and Milligan worked briefly with John Antrobus. The Milligan-Stephens partnership was finally ended by Stephens' untimely death from a brain hemorrage in January 1959 and Milligan later downplayed and disparaged Stephens' contributions.
The Goon Show was recorded before a studio audience, and during the audience warm-up session, Milligan would play the trumpet, while Peter Sellers played on the orchestra's drums. For the first few years the shows were recorded live, direct to 16-inch transcription disc, which required the cast to adhere closely to the script, but by Series 4 the BBC had adopted the use of magnetic tape. Milligan eagerly exploited the possibilities the new technology offered -- the tapes could be edited, so the cast could now ad-lib freely, and tape also enabled the creation of groundbreaking sound effects. Over the first three series Milligan's demands for increasingly complex sound effects (or 'grams', as they were then known) pushed the available technology and the skills of the BBC engineers to their limits -- effects had to be created mechanically (foley) or played back from discs, sometimes requiring the use of four or five turntables running simultaneously. With magnetic tape, these effects could be produced in advance and the BBC engineers were able to create highly complex, tightly edited effects 'stings' that would have been very difficult (if not impossible) to perform using foley or disc. In the later years of the series many Goon Show 'grams' were produced for the series by members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a notable example being the famous "Bloodnok's Stomach" effect, realised by Dick Mills.
Although The Goons elevated Milligan to international stardom, the demands of writing and performing the series took a heavy toll. During Series 3 he suffered the first of several serious mental breakdowns, which also marked the onset of a decades-long cycle of manic/depressive illness. In late 1952, possibly exacerbated by suppressed tensions between the Goons stars, Milligan apparently became irrationally convinced that he had to kill Peter Sellers, but when he attempted to gain entry to Sellers' neighbouring flat, armed with a potato knife, he accidentally walked straight through the plate-glass front door. He was hospitalised, heavily sedated for two weeks, and spent almost two months recuperating; fortunately, a backlog of scripts meant that his illness had little effect on the production of The Goon Show. Milligan later blamed the pressure of writing and performing The Goon Show for both his breakdown and the failure of his first marriage.
Television
Milligan made several forays into television as a writer-performer, in addition to his many guest appearances on interview, variety and sketch comedy series from the 1950s to the 2000s.
The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956) starring Peter Sellers was the first attempt to translate Goon humour to TV; it was followed by A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred, both made during 1956 and directed by Richard Lester, who went on to work with The Beatles. In 1961 Milligan co-wrote two episodes of the popular sitcom Sykes and A..., co-starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques.
The 15-minute series The Telegoons (1963) was the next attempt to transplant The Goons to television, this time using puppet versions of the familiar characters. The initial intention was to 'visualise' original recordings of 1950s Goon Show episodes, but this proved difficult to achieve in practice due to the rapid-fire dialogue and was ultimately frustrated by the BBC's refusal to allow the original audio to be used. 15-minute adaptations of the original scripts by Maurice Wiltshire were used instead, with Milligan, Sellers and Seacombe reuniting to provide the voices; according to a contemporary press report, they received the highest fees the BBC had ever paid for 15-minute shows. Two series were made in 1963 and 1964 and (presumably because it was shot on 35mm film rather than video) the entire series has reportedly been preserved in the BBC archives.
Milligan's next major TV venture was the sketch comedy series The World of Beachcomber (BBC, 1968); it is thought that all 19 episodes are now lost.
In 1968 the three Goons reunited for a televised re-staging of a vintage Goon Show for Thames Television, with John Cleese substituting for the late Wallace Greenslade, but the pilot was not successful and no further programs were made.
In early 1969 Milligan starred in the ill-fated situation comedy Curry & Chips, created and written by Johnny Speight and featuring Milligan's old friend and colleague Eric Sykes. Curry & Chips set out to satirize racist attitudes in Britain in a similar vein to Speight's earlier creation, the hugely successful Till Death Us Do Part, with Milligan 'blacking up' to play Kevin O'Grady, a half-Pakistani/half-Irish factory worker. The series generated numerous complaints because of its frequent use of racist epithets and 'bad language' - one viewer reportedly complained of counting 59 uses of the word "bloody" in one episode - and it was cancelled on the orders of the Independent Broadcasting Authority after only six episodes.
Later that year, Milligan was commissioned by the BBC to write and star in Q5, the first in the innovative "Q" TV series, acknowledged as an important precursor to Monty Python's Flying Circus, which premiered several months later. However there was a hiatus of several years before the BBC commissioned Q6 in 1975. Q7 appeared in 1977, Q8 in 1978, Q9 in 1980 and There's a Lot of It About in 1982. Milligan later complained of the BBC's cold attitude towards the series and stated that he would have made more programs had he been given the opportunity.
The Bed-Sitting Room
In 1961-62, during the long pauses between the matinee and the evening show of Treasure Island, Milligan began talking to Miles about the idea he and John Antrobus were exploring of a dramatized post-nuclear world. This became the one-act play The Bed-Sitting Room, which Milligan co-wrote with John Antrobus, and which premiered at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on 12 February 1962. It was adapted to a longer play, and staged by Miles at London's Mermaid Theatre, making its debut on 31 January 1963. It was a critical and commercial success, and was revived in 1967 with a provincial tour before opening at London's Saville Theatre on 3 May 1967. Finally it was made into a film in 1969.
illustrated in the description of his involvement in theatre, Milligan often ad-libbed. He also did this on radio and television. One of his last screen appearances was in the BBC dramatisation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, and he was (almost inevitably) noted as an ad-libber.
One of Milligan's most famous ad-lib incidents occurred during a visit to Australia in the late 1960s. He was interviewed live on air and remained in the studio for the news broadcast that followed (read by Rod McNeil), during which Milligan constantly interjected, adding his own name to news items. As a result, he was banned from making any further live appearances on the ABC.
Cartoons and art
Milligan contributed occasional cartoons to the satirical magazine Private Eye. Most were visualizations of one-line jokes. For example, a young boy sees the Concorde and asks his father "What's that?". The reply is "That's a flying groundnut scheme, son." Aside from his well-known comedy and poetry, Milligan was a keen painter.
Advertising
In 1967, applying a satirical angle to a fashion for the inclusion of “superman” inspired characters in UK television commercials, Milligan dressed up in a “Bat-Goons” outfit to head up a series of television commercials for British Petroleum. A contemporary reporter found the TV commercials “funny and effective”. From 1980 to 1982, Milligan advertised for the English Tourist Board, playing a Scotsman on a visit around the different regions of England.
He suffered from severe bipolar disorder for most of his life, having at least ten major mental breakdowns, several lasting over a year. He spoke candidly about his condition and its effect on his life:
I have got so low that I have asked to be hospitalised and for deep narcosis (sleep). I cannot stand being awake. The pain is too much... Something has happened to me, this vital spark has stopped burning - I go to a dinner table now and I don't say a word, just sit there like a dodo. Normally I am the centre of attention, keep the conversation going - so that is depressing in itself. It's like another person taking over, very strange. The most important thing I say is 'good evening' and then I go quiet.
Prince of Wales
The Prince of Wales was a fan, and Milligan caused a stir by calling him a "little grovelling bastard" on live television in 1994. He later faxed the prince, saying "I suppose a knighthood is out of the question?" In reality he and the Prince were very close friends, and he was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) (honorary because of his Irish citizenship) in 2000. He had been made an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992.
Campaigning
He was a strident campaigner on environmental matters, particularly arguing against unnecessary noise, such as the use of muzak.
In 1971, Milligan caused controversy by attacking an art exhibition at the Hayward Gallery with a hammer. The exhibit consisted of catfish, oysters and shrimp that were to be electrocuted as part of the exhibition. He was a strong opponent of cruelty to animals and, during an appearance on Room 101, chose fox hunting as a pet hate, and succeeded in banishing it to the eponymous room.
In 1996, he successfully campaigned for the restoration of London's Elfin Oak.
He was also a public opponent of domestic violence, dedicating one of his books to Erin Pizzey.
The grave of Spike Milligan in the grounds of St Thomas, Winchelsea, East Sussex. The epitaph reads "Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", Irish for "I told you I was ill."
Family
Milligan had three children with his first wife June (Marchinie) Marlow: Laura, Seán and SĂle. They were married in 1952 and divorced in 1960. He had one daughter with his second wife, Patricia Ridgeway (known as Paddy): the actress Jane Milligan (b. 1966). Jane's first nanny was a New Zealander, Diana Griffiths who lived in the home with them at 127 Holden Road. Milligan and Patricia were married in June 1962 with George Martin as best man. The marriage ended in 1978 with her death. In 1975 Milligan fathered a son, James (born June 1976), in an affair with Margaret Maughan. Another child, a daughter Romany, is suspected to have been born at the same time by a Canadian journalist named Roberta Watt. His last wife was Shelagh Sinclair, to whom he was married from 1983 to his death on 27 February 2002. Four of his children have recently collaborated with documentary makers on a new multi-platform programme called I Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan (2005) and accompanying website.
In October 2008 an array of Milligan's personal effects were to be sold at auction by his third wife, Shelagh, who was moving into a smaller home. These included a grand piano salvaged from a demolition and apparently played every morning by Paul McCartney, a neighbour in Rye in East Sussex.
Death
Even late in life, Milligan's black humour had not deserted him. After the death of friend Harry Secombe from cancer, he said, "I'm glad he died before me, because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." A recording of Secombe singing was played at Milligan's memorial service. He also wrote his own obituary, in which he stated repeatedly that he "wrote the Goon show and died".
Milligan died from liver disease, at the age of 83, on 27 February 2002, at his home in Rye, East Sussex. On the day of his funeral, 8 March 2002, his coffin was carried to St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea, Sussex, and was draped in the flag of the Republic of Ireland. He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to bear the words "I told you I was ill." He was buried at St Thomas's Church cemetery in Winchelsea, East Sussex, but the Chichester Diocese refused to allow this epitaph. A compromise was reached with the Irish translation, "Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", and additionally in English, "Love, light, peace".
Legacy
The Holden Road plaque
From the 1960s onwards Milligan was a regular correspondent with Robert Graves. Milligan's letters to Graves usually addressed a question to do with classical studies. The letters form part of Graves' bequest to St. John's College, Oxford.
The film of Puckoon, starring Sean Hughes and including Milligan's daughter, the actress Jane Milligan, was released after his death.
Milligan lived for several years in Holden Road, Woodside Park and at The Crescent, Barnet, and was a strong supporter of the Finchley Society. His old house in Woodside Park is now demolished, but there is a blue plaque in his memory on the new house on the site. The Finchley Society is trying to get a statue of him erected in Finchley. There is also a campaign to erect a statue in the London Borough of Lewisham where he grew up (see Honor Oak). After coming to the UK from India in the 1930s he lived at 50 Riseldine Road, Brockley and attended Brownhill Boys' school (later to become Catford Boys' School which was demolished in 1994). Lynsey De Paul is a patron of the Spike Milligan Statue Memorial Fund. There is a plaque and bench located at the Wadestown Library, Wellington New Zealand in an area called Spike Milligan corner.
In a BBC poll in August 1999, Spike Milligan was voted the "funniest person of the last 1000 years". Also, in a 2005 poll to find The Comedians' Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
Milligan has been portrayed twice in films. In the adaptation of his novel Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, he was played by Jim Dale, while Milligan himself played his own father. He was also portrayed by Edward Tudor-Pole in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). In a 2008 stage play, Surviving Spike, Milligan was played by the entertainer Michael Barrymore.
On 9 June 2006 it was reported that Professor Richard Wiseman had identified Milligan as the writer of the world's funniest joke as decided by the Laughlab project. Professor Wiseman said the joke contained all three elements of what makes a good gag: anxiety, a feeling of superiority, and an element of surprise.
Eddie Izzard described Milligan as "The Godfather of Alternative Comedy". "From his unchained mind came forth ideas that just had no boundaries. And he influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'." Members of Monty Python greatly admired him. In one interview, which was widely quoted at the time, John Cleese stated "Milligan is the Great God to all of us". The Pythons gave Milligan a cameo role in their 1979 film, Monty Python's Life of Brian, when Milligan happened to be holidaying in Tunisia, near where it was being filmed. Graham Chapman gave him a minor part in Yellowbeard.
Apart from those cited above, a number of people have played tribute to Milligan's influence on them, with 49 such people contributing to Maxine Ventham's (2002) book "Spike Milligan: His Part in Our Lives".
Radio comedy shows
* The Goon Show (1951–1960)
* The Idiot Weekly (1958–1962)
* The Omar Khayyam Show (1963–1964)
* Milligna (or Your Favourite Spike) (1972) The title is based on Milligan's introduction in The Last Goon Show of All as "Spike Milligna, the well-known typing error".
* The Milligan Papers (1987)
Other radio shows
Milligan contributed his recollections of his childhood in India for the acclaimed 1970s BBC audio history series Plain Tales From The Raj. The series was published in book form in 1975 by Andre Deutsch, edited by Charles Allen.
TV comedy shows
* The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d
* A Show Called Fred
* Son of Fred
* The World of Beachcomber
* The Q series: Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9, and There's a Lot of It About
* Curry & Chips
Other notable TV involvement
* Six-Five Special, first aired on 31 August 1957. Spike Milligan plays an inventor, Mr. Pym, and acts as a butcher in a sketch.
* This is Your Life, 11 April 1973. With Sellers, Bentine, and many others. Secombe spoke via a TV recording, as did his great friend Robert Graves.
* In 1975 Milligan co-wrote (with Neil Shand) and co-starred in a BBC TV sitcom called The Melting Pot. Its cast of characters included two illegal Indian immigrants, an Irish landlord, a Chinese Cockney, a Scottish Arab and numerous other racial stereotypes. After screening the pilot, the series was deemed to be too offensive for transmission. Five episodes remain unseen. Some of the characters and situations were reused in Milligan's novel, The Looney.
* Tiswas - 1981 edition.
* Guest appearing along with Peter Cook in Kenny Everett's Christmas Show in 1985.
* Playing a moaning stranger in an episode from 1987 of In Sickness and in Health.
* Narrator of The Ratties (1987), a children's cartoon series written by Mike Wallis and Laura Milligan, Spike's daughter.
* The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town ran as a serial in The Two Ronnies in the 1970s.
* Special guest star of the 18 January 1979 edition of The Muppet Show
* Guest star in the 3rd episode of the award-winning BBC Scotland drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994)
* Narrated the 1995 TV show Wolves, Witches and Giants. A cartoon based on the book of the same name, it retold classic tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, but with a twist. The programme won the 1995 Royal Television Society award for Best Children's Entertainment, and was nominated for the same award again in 1997.
* Guest on Series 4, Episode 3 of Room 101 in 1999
Theatre
* Treasure Island (1961, 1973–1975)
* The Bed-Sitting Room (1963, 1967) written by Milligan and John Antrobus
* Oblomov opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1964. It was based on the Russian classic by Ivan Goncharov, and gave Milligan the opportunity to play most of the title role in bed. Unsure of his material, on the opening night he improvised a great deal, treating the audience as part of the plot almost, and he continued in this manner for the rest of the run, and on tour as 'Son Of Oblomov'. The show ran at The Comedy Theatre in London's West end in 1965.
Films
* Down Among the Z Men (1952), played Eccles in a black-and-white secret agent comedy with all the Goons, including early member Michael Bentine and original announcer Andrew Timothy.
* The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn (1956), a Goon-like 2-reel comedy ("Mukkinese" = "mucky knees").
* The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film (1960), a silent comedy, Richard Lester's debut film.
* Country postman Harold Petts in Postman's Knock (1962).
* The Bed-Sitting Room (1969), post-apocalyptic comedy with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and also Arthur Lowe; written by John Antrobus based on the Milligan/Antrobus play. Milligan had a small role as a postman named "Mate", which was also the name of a Goon Show character.
* The traffic warden who eats the ticket in The Magic Christian (1969).
* Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972) as Gryphon.
* Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall (1972), a film of the first volume of his autobiography. Spike played the part of his father. The role of the young Spike Milligan was played by Jim Dale.
* The decrepit manager of a seedy London hotel in Bruce Beresford's The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972).
* Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973) children's comedy.
* Monsieur Bonacieux, husband of Madame Bonacieux (Raquel Welch) in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973).
* The Great McGonagall (1974), untalented Scottish poet (based on William Topaz McGonagall) angles to become laureate, with Peter Sellers as Queen Victoria.
* The decrepit Geste family retainer Crumpet in The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), with Marty Feldman.
* A policeman who briefly talks to Dr. Watson and Stapleton when they first arrive on the moors in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
* The prophet abandoned by his flock in Life of Brian (1979).
* Monsieur Rimbaud in History of the World, Part I (1981).
* A royal herald flunkie who accidentally blows a spy's cover in Yellowbeard (1983).
One of Milligan's earlier books
Books
* Silly Verse for Kids (1959); the 1968 paperback edition omits one poem and adds some from the next two books
* A Dustbin of Milligan (1961, Dobson Books). Subsequent reprints by Tandem, London, 1965-1975. This book contains a good representation of Milligan's earlier writing style, including poems, cartoons, short stories, letters to Secombe, and his views on some issues.
* Goblins (1978) A collection of poems
* The Little Pot Boiler (1963)
* Puckoon (1963)
* A Book of Bits, or A Bit of a Book (1965)
* A Book of Milliganimals (1968)
* Badjelly the Witch (1973)
* The Goon Show Scripts (1973). London: Sphere. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* More Goon Show Scripts (1974, paperback). London: Sphere. ISBN 0-7221-6077-1. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* The Lost Goon Shows (1987). London: Robson. Milligan's selection of scripts.
* The Bedsitting Room. First published in Great Britain by Margaret & Jack Hobbs, 1970. Published by Universal-Tandem, 1972. Tandem, 1973. © 1970 Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.
* The Looney: An Irish Fantasy (1987)
* The Bedside Milligan
* "The War (and Peace) Memoirs"
o The seven memoirs were also recorded as talking books with Spike reciting them in his own inimitable style.
o Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971)
o "Rommel?" "Gunner Who?" (1974)
o Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976)
+ This and the previous two books were released and publicised as the first, second and third part respectively of a trilogy.
o Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall (1978)
+ This was announced as the fourth part of his "increasingly misnamed" trilogy.
o Where Have All the Bullets Gone? (1985)
o Goodbye Soldier (1986)
o Peace Work (1992)
* S(I_am_a_loser_who_has_no_respect_for_women)horpe Revisited, added articles and instant relatives. Michael Joseph, London. Published by Penguin. Copyright, Spike Milligan Productions, 1989. ISBN 07181.3356.0
* Small Dreams of a Scorpion (1972)
* Hidden Words: Collected Poems
* Open Heart University
* Startling Verse for All the Family
* Sir Nobonk and the Terrible Dreadful Awful Naughty Nasty Dragon
* A Mad Medley of Milligan
* Transports of Delight (Sidgwick & Jackson 1974)
* More Transports of Delight
* Depression and How to Survive It (with Professor Anthony Clare), medical biography.
* It Ends with Magic
* The Murphy (Virgin, 2001)
* Milligan's Ark
* The Spike Milligan Letters (edited by Norma Farnes)
* More Spike Milligan Letters (edited by Norma Farnes)
* The Unpublished Spike Milligan BOX 18 (edited by Norma Farnes), London, Fourth Estate, 2006. ISBN 978-0-00-721427-3.
* The "According to" Books
o The Bible—the Old Testament According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, October 1993)
o Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, 1996)
o D.H.Lawrence's John Thomas and Lady Jane: According to Spike Milligan—Part II of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (Michael Joseph, 1995)
o Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan (Virgin, 1997)
o The Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan
o Lady Chatterley's Lover According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, April 1994)
o Robin Hood According to Spike Milligan (Virgin, 1998)
o Treasure Island According to Spike Milligan
o Wuthering Heights According to Spike Milligan (Michael Joseph, 1994)
* The Essential Spike Milligan (compiled by Alexander Games, 2002), ISBN 0-00-767358-2
* The Compulsive Spike Milligan (Edited by Norma Farnes, 2004), ISBN 0-00-771702-4
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j210/Coyne53/spike_milligan-s.jpg
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x169/unclekalbo/TheGoons-1.jpg
http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x55/derekclive35/anappleaday_1.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkOAUht3G5o
A classic moment from Spike Milligan at the British Comedy Awards in 1994 called Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales a "little grovelling bastard".
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:56 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffkYD2_uTzg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 7:58 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qClVtN1ELgA
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 8:29 am
Of course, he died today...
Thanks!
I thought you would like if I did him :)
I had to leave some things out because there was too many words.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 8:31 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkOAUht3G5o
A classic moment from Spike Milligan at the British Comedy Awards in 1994 called Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales a "little grovelling bastard".
I tried to watch it, but it said it was blocked in my country. :(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 8:33 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffkYD2_uTzg
;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/27/10 at 8:34 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qClVtN1ELgA
My brains not working, what's the name of the song? I know it but can't think of the title.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/27/10 at 11:13 am
http://welcometothesalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mouse_trap_board_and_boxjpg.jpg
We had that game. I don't recall ever playing it-I just remembered that it took so long to put it together that I got bored before we actually played. :D ;D ;D
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2464/3592206278_3ccc7c2d2f_m.jpg
My niece has that job-SERIOUSLY!!! She recently got a job working at Disneyland in California where she is either Mikey, Minnie, Milo, Stitch, Chip, or Dale.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/27/10 at 11:19 am
My brains not working, what's the name of the song? I know it but can't think of the title.
Rhapsody in Blue-by George Gershwin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 11:19 am
My brains not working, what's the name of the song? I know it but can't think of the title.
Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 11:20 am
Rhapsody in Blue-by George Gershwin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc
Cat
Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin
You beat me to it!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/27/10 at 11:23 am
You beat me to it!
My brother (who plays the piano by ear) was going to learn how to play that-using music. He would look at the music, look down at the piano, play a chord, look up at the music, look down at the piano, play a chord, etc. etc. etc. He finally got it where you know what he was trying to play but he stumbled through it. My dad (who could have been a concert pianist in his heyday), came in, sat down at the piano, opened the music and played it as if he played it everyday of his life. The look on my brother's face was...well, let's just say if looks could kill. ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/27/10 at 12:32 pm
My brother (who plays the piano by ear) was going to learn how to play that-using music. He would look at the music, look down at the piano, play a chord, look up at the music, look down at the piano, play a chord, etc. etc. etc. He finally got it where you know what he was trying to play but he stumbled through it. My dad (who could have been a concert pianist in his heyday), came in, sat down at the piano, opened the music and played it as if he played it everyday of his life. The look on my brother's face was...well, let's just say if looks could kill. ;D ;D ;D
Cat
He-He!!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/27/10 at 1:50 pm
My brother (who plays the piano by ear) was going to learn how to play that-using music. He would look at the music, look down at the piano, play a chord, look up at the music, look down at the piano, play a chord, etc. etc. etc. He finally got it where you know what he was trying to play but he stumbled through it. My dad (who could have been a concert pianist in his heyday), came in, sat down at the piano, opened the music and played it as if he played it everyday of his life. The look on my brother's face was...well, let's just say if looks could kill. ;D ;D ;D
Cat
I often used to do that when I first began taking private piano lessons in the early 1990s.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/27/10 at 1:53 pm
http://welcometothesalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mouse_trap_board_and_boxjpg.jpg
We had that game. I don't recall ever playing it-I just remembered that it took so long to put it together that I got bored before we actually played. :D ;D ;D
I never owned a copy of it, but a friend of mine did, and we played it together at their home. You're right, it did take a very long time to set it all up. Of course, the mouse trap itself is a Rube Goldberg device! :D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/27/10 at 3:56 pm
Nor did I .
She has scoliosis.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/27/10 at 3:57 pm
The word of the day...Mice
Mice is the plural of mouse.
A mouse is a small furry animal with a long tail.
http://i756.photobucket.com/albums/xx204/omega24614/Ball%20Python/Mice.jpg
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj138/primcindy/mice-1.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/maidog_photos/mice/IMG_5928.jpg
http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq315/dottiemadcat/bulk%20cat%20toys/pe---rockin-mice.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w65/maidog_photos/mice/IMG_5932.jpg
http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq315/dottiemadcat/bulk%20cat%20toys/DSC00247.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/bittyskitty94210/animals/animals%202/big_4686041.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o172/lilbbezoe/Picture173.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/Magik_Moonmyst/Nature/Animals/watch_harvest_mice.jpg
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x17/Kawgirl_2007/Small%20Pet%20books/GerbilsRatsandMice.jpg
I used to own gerbils 22 years ago. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 02/27/10 at 4:27 pm
I used to own gerbils 22 years ago. :)
I had gerbils, too-way, WAY back in the dark ages. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 1:49 am
I thought you would like if I did him :)
I had to leave some things out because there was too many words.
Thanks.
So many words for a varied life.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 1:50 am
I tried to watch it, but it said it was blocked in my country. :(
Blast!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/28/10 at 5:11 am
Quote from: ninny on February 27, 2010, 11:31:24 PM
I tried to watch it, but it said it was blocked in my country. Sad
Blast!
Same here..... :( ....and Spike Milligan was probably the funniest guy that ever lived! Maybe only the Pythons could match him... :-\\
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 5:36 am
Quote from: ninny on February 27, 2010, 11:31:24 PM
I tried to watch it, but it said it was blocked in my country. Sad
Same here..... :( ....and Spike Milligan was probably the funniest guy that ever lived! Maybe only the Pythons could match him... :-\\
The Pythons owe a lot to him, the Goons inspired them.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 6:10 am
Quote from: ninny on February 27, 2010, 11:31:24 PM
I tried to watch it, but it said it was blocked in my country. Sad
Same here..... :( ....and Spike Milligan was probably the funniest guy that ever lived! Maybe only the Pythons could match him... :-\\
The Pythons owe a lot to him, the Goons inspired them.
Lets raise a toast to him
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e105/CommentCrazyGirl/Smileys%20Action/Food%20Drink/gettingdrunksmiley.gif
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 6:14 am
Lets raise a toast to him
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e105/CommentCrazyGirl/Smileys%20Action/Food%20Drink/gettingdrunksmiley.gif
To a very clever and inpsroed man!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 6:14 am
To a very clever and inpsroed man!
...and a raving lunatic!
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 6:31 am
The word of the day...Rink
A rink is a large area covered with ice where people go to ice-skate, or a large area of concrete where people go to roller-skate.
http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad260/jaynelehman/DSC03924.jpg
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss318/pnguine/Olympics/IMG_2734.jpg
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx132/aladent/Kazakhstan/photos199.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v203/speedracer93lx/CO%2005/CO%2008/HPIM0089.jpg
http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt320/mepsu2003/NYC/NYC031.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e307/Mog604/Cloudy%20Religion/IMG_8057.jpg
http://i619.photobucket.com/albums/tt279/morephotosandmail/rink.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r283/kittykaturule/rink.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 02/28/10 at 6:31 am
The Pythons owe a lot to him, the Goons inspired them.
I'd bet the Goodies also were inspired by Milligan and co...
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 6:34 am
The person who was born on this day...Eric Lindros
Eric Bryan Lindros (pronounced /ËlÉŞndrÉ’s/; born February 28, 1973 in London, Ontario) is a former Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was the first overall pick in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He retired in November 2007, after playing the 2006–07 season with the Dallas Stars.
As a teenage power forward playing minor hockey, Lindros became nationally famous both for his scoring feats and his ability to physically dominate players older than himself. He attended Monarch Park and later St. Michael's College School in Toronto with his brother and fellow hockey player, Brett Lindros. Both brothers at one time or another (Eric in 1988–89) played for the school's Metro Junior "B" St. Michael's Buzzers before moving up to the OHL. Lindros' play made him the most highly valued amateur player in North America and he was often nicknamed "The Next One", a reference to Wayne Gretzky's moniker "The Great One."
Throughout his career, Lindros has been tagged with various other nicknames, including "The Big E", which was originally the nickname of the USS Enterprise, the famous World War II aircraft carrier. The hype around Lindros during his early career led to an exclusive deal with sports card manufacturer SCORE. Attempting to leverage this arrangement as much as possible, he was even featured on a baseball card showing him as a third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, although the closest he came to a professional baseball career was taking batting practice one day with the Blue Jays.
A controversy arose when Lindros refused to go to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds after they drafted him from St. Michael's. Lindros had already stated his intention not to join the Greyhounds, but Greyhounds owner Phil Esposito drafted him anyway, enabling Esposito to sell his share in the team at a higher price. Lindros was traded to the Oshawa Generals instead, and when they played the Greyhounds, some Greyhound players wore black armbands in protest of Lindros' antics.
He played parts of three seasons for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) from 1990 to 1992. During that time, he scored 97 goals and had 119 assists in 95 games played. Lindros helped lead the Generals to the 1990 J. Ross Robertson Cup, and a 1990 Memorial Cup victory. During the 1990–91 OHL season, Lindros won the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as top scorer, the Red Tilson Trophy as MVP, the CHL Player of the Year award, and the CHL Top Draft Prospect Award.
On March 6, 2008, the Oshawa Generals retired his #88, just the second number to be retired by the franchise, and it was declared Eric Lindros Day in Oshawa.
1991 NHL Entry Draft
Lindros' entry to the National Hockey League proceeded in much the same manner. Lindros was selected first overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. Lindros had signaled in advance that he would never play for the Nordiques, citing distance, lack of marketing potential, and having to speak French. He went as far as to refuse to wear the team's jersey on draft day; the team selected him anyway. The Nordiques president publicly announced that they would make Lindros the centrepiece of their franchise turnaround, and refused to trade Lindros, saying that he would not have a career in the NHL as long as he held out. Because of Lindros' popularity and hype, it is alleged that the NHL President intervened to get the Nordiques to trade him, as it would otherwise damage the image of the league. While he awaited a trade, Lindros spent the time playing with the Oshawa Generals and also participated in the 1992 Winter Olympics, winning a Silver Medal.
In 1992, the Nordiques worked out trades for him with both the New York Rangers, and Philadelphia Flyers. Eventually an arbitrator, Larry Bertuzzi (granduncle of Todd Bertuzzi), ruled in favour of the Flyers, for whom Lindros played from 1992 to 2000, most of the time as the team's captain.
Many consider this trade a key reason that the Colorado Avalanche (the new name of the Nordiques after they relocated before the 1995 season), went on to be an NHL powerhouse. They received in the trade eventual Hart Trophy winner Peter Forsberg, as well as Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Steve Duchesne, a 1st round selection (Jocelyn Thibault) in 1993, a 1st round selection (later traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, later traded to the Washington Capitals - Nolan Baumgartner) in 1994, and $15,000,000 cash. Since the trade, the Avalanche have won eight division titles and two Stanley Cup championships, due in part to the play of Forsberg, and the later addition of Patrick Roy, whom the Avalanche received in a later package deal that included Thibault.
The trade between the Nordiques and the Rangers that was ruled invalid by the arbitrator had Lindros being traded for Doug Weight, Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev, John Vanbiesbrouck, three first round draft picks (1993, 1994 & 1995) and $12 million.
Philadelphia Flyers
With his imposing physical strength and playmaking ability, Lindros established himself as the top player on a Flyers team that had perennially been in contention but always fell short. His time in Philadelphia would see him score points at a phenomenal rate (for much of his first 5 seasons in the NHL, Lindros hovered around 4th all-time in points per game) and become one of the most feared players in the NHL, eventually leading the Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals in 1997 (which they lost to the Detroit Red Wings); he would also suffer frequent injuries and feud with general manager Bobby Clarke.
Along with John LeClair and Mikael Renberg, he played on the "Legion of Doom" line. He scored over 40 goals in each of his first two seasons and won the Hart Trophy as MVP in the lockout-shortened season of 1995 by scoring 29 goals and 41 assists in 46 games. He led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals in 1997, handily defeating their three opponents along the way. The Flyers were overmatched against the Detroit Red Wings, however, and were swept in the series, with Lindros managing to score his only goal in the dying minutes of Game 4 to cut the score to 2-1. In 1998, Lindros, only 25 years old, was ranked number 54 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players of all time. The only player of comparable age was No. 37-ranked Jaromir Jagr, who was 26 at the time.
Lindros' relationship with Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke soon deteriorated. He and Clarke feuded in the media, with Clarke questioning his toughness; Lindros spent many games on the injured reserve and suffered a series of concussions, the first in 1998 from a hit delivered by Pittsburgh's Darius Kasparaitis that sidelined him for 18 games. During an April 1, 1999, game against the Nashville Predators, Lindros suffered what was diagnosed as a rib injury. Later that night, the teammate he was sharing a hotel room with, Keith Jones, discovered Lindros lying in a tub, pale and cold. In a call to the Flyers, the trainer was told to put Lindros on a plane that was returning to Philadelphia with injured team mate Mark Recchi. But Jones insisted that Lindros be taken to a nearby hospital and it was discovered Lindros had a collapsed lung caused by internal bleeding of his chest wall. Lindros's father wrote the Flyers a letter in which he stated that if the trainer had followed team orders, Eric would be dead, a statement supported by the doctors who treated him in Nashville.
The following season, he was stripped of his captaincy after criticizing team doctors. Once again plagued by concussions, Lindros returned in the Eastern Conference Finals, in which he played the final two games of the series, the latter of which Lindros suffered yet another concussion after a hit by New Jersey Devils defenseman Scott Stevens. The Flyers lost the final game and the series, and Lindros became a restricted free agent during the off-season. He refused to accept a 2-way qualifying offer with a minor league provision from the Flyers, who still owned his rights. After Lindros was cleared to play in December, the Flyers refused to deal his rights to the Toronto Maple Leafs, as he preferred, and Lindros sat out the rest of 2000–01 NHL season.
New York Rangers
Flyers GM Bobby Clarke eventually traded Lindros to the New York Rangers on August 20, 2001 for Jan Hlaváč, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl, and a 2003 3rd-round draft choice (Štefan Ružička).
He played for the Rangers for the next three seasons. Though his second season with them was the first injury-free one of his career (albeit his first season averaging under one point a game), in 2004 he sustained his eighth concussion. He was given permission by a doctor to resume training; however, two doctors who had never examined or treated him suggested Lindros retire. He again became an unrestricted free agent.
Toronto Maple Leafs
On August 11, 2005, after the NHL labour dispute had wiped out the 2004–05 season, Lindros signed a one-year, $1.55 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2005–06 NHL season. After a steady start to his tenure with Toronto in which he recorded 22 points in 32 games, Lindros suffered a tear of a ligament in his left wrist against the Dallas Stars on December 10, 2005. After a 27 game absence, Lindros returned to the Toronto lineup on February 28, 2006, against the Washington Capitals. His return was short-lived however, as he re-injured his wrist while taking a slapshot in a game against the Ottawa Senators on March 5, 2006, effectively ending his season. He had surgery on the wrist at the Hand and Upper Limb Centre in London, Ontario two days after the game.
Dallas Stars and Retirement
Lindros signed a one-year contract for the 2006–07 NHL season with the Dallas Stars on July 17, 2006.
Lindros officially announced his retirement on November 8, 2007, in London, Ontario.
Post-playing career
On November 11, 2007, three days after his retirement, the NHL Players Association appointed Lindros to the newly created position of NHLPA ombudsman. Lindros had been involved with the organization throughout his career. Lindros cut ties with the NHL Players' Association on February 3, 2009, resigning as ombudsman after 15 months on the job.
Transactions
* June 22, 1991 - Quebec Nordiques draft Lindros with the 1st overall pick in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft.
* June 30, 1992 - Traded by the Quebec Nordiques to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Peter Forsberg, Steve Duchesne, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon, Philadelphia's 1993 1st round draft choice, Philadelphia's 1994 1st round draft choice and $15,000,000.
* August 20, 2001 - Traded by the Philadelphia Flyers to the New York Rangers in exchange for Jan Hlaváč, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl and the Rangers' 2003 3rd round draft choice (Štefan Ružička).
* August 11, 2005 - Signed as a free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
* July 17, 2006 - Signed as a free agent with the Dallas Stars.
* November 8, 2007 - Officially announced his retirement from the NHL.
Awards
* Named to NHL All-Rookie Team - 1993
* Hart Memorial Trophy - 1995
* Lester B. Pearson Award - 1995
* Bobby Clarke Trophy - 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999
* Played in 6 All-Star Games - 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
* Won Olympic Silver Medal with Team Canada in 1992 Winter Olympic Games
* Won Olympic Gold Medal with Team Canada in 2002 Winter Olympic Games
* #88 retired by his junior team, the Oshawa Generals
Career statistics
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1989–90 Oshawa Generals OHL 25 17 19 36 61 17 18 18 36 76
1990–91 Oshawa Generals OHL 57 71 78 149 189 16 18 20 38 93
1991–92 Oshawa Generals OHL 13 9 22 31 54 — — — — —
1992–93 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 61 41 34 75 147 — — — — —
1993–94 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 65 44 53 97 103 — — — — —
1994–95 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 46 29 41 70 60 12 4 11 15 18
1995–96 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 73 47 68 115 163 12 6 6 12 43
1996–97 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 52 32 47 79 136 19 12 14 26 40
1997–98 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 63 30 41 71 134 5 1 2 3 17
1998–99 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 71 40 53 93 120 — — — — —
1999–00 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 55 27 32 59 83 2 1 0 1 0
2001–02 New York Rangers NHL 72 37 36 73 138 — — — — —
2002–03 New York Rangers NHL 81 19 34 53 141 — — — — —
2003–04 New York Rangers NHL 39 10 22 32 60 — — — — —
2005–06 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 33 11 11 22 43 — — — — —
2006–07 Dallas Stars NHL 49 5 21 26 70 3 0 0 0 4
NHL totals 760 372 493 865 1398 53 24 33 57 122
International play
Olympic medal record
Men's ice hockey
Gold 2002 Salt Lake City Ice hockey
Silver 1992 Albertville Ice hockey
Played for Canada in:
* 1990 World Junior Championships (gold medal)
* 1991 World Junior Championships (gold medal)
* 1991 Canada Cup (championship)
* 1992 World Junior Championships
* 1992 Winter Olympics (silver medal)
* 1993 World Championships
* 1996 World Cup of Hockey
* 1998 Winter Olympics
* 2002 Winter Olympics (gold medal)
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l10/ciazio/Lindros.jpg
http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac314/masig/NFT/Local/Hockey/Lindros_RC.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee192/FuzzieMonkie28/f701.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 6:40 am
I'd bet the Goodies also were inspired by Milligan and co...
Originally Tim Brooke-Taylor was to be a part of Monty Python, but he felt that he did not have the comedy writing qualitiies.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 6:49 am
The person who died on this day.. Henry James
enry James, O.M. (April 15, 1843(1843-04-15) – February 28, 1916) was an American writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
James spent the last 40 years of his life in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death. He is primarily known for the series of novels in which he portrays the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allows him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.
James contributed significantly to the criticism of fiction, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest possible freedom in presenting their view of the world. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and possibly unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to narrative fiction. An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays, some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. His theatrical work is thought to have profoundly influenced his later novels and tales.
James was born in New York City into a wealthy family. His father, Henry James Sr. was one of the best-known intellectuals in mid-nineteenth-century America. In his youth James traveled back and forth between Europe and America. He studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn. At the age of 19 he briefly attended Harvard Law School, but preferred reading literature to studying law. James published his first short story, A Tragedy of Errors, two years later, and devoted himself to literature. In 1866–69 and 1871–72 he was a contributor to The Nation and Atlantic Monthly.
From an early age James had read the classics of English, American, French and German literature and Russian classics in translation. His first novel, Watch and Ward (1871), was written while he was traveling through Venice and Paris. After living in Paris, where he was contributor to the New York Tribune, James moved to England in 1876, living first in London and then in Rye, Sussex. During his first years in Europe James wrote novels that portrayed Americans living abroad. In 1905 James visited America for the first time in twenty-five years, and wrote "Jolly Corner".
Among James's masterpieces are Daisy Miller (1879); in which the eponymous protagonist, the young and innocent American Daisy Miller, finds her values in conflict with European sophistication; and The Portrait of a Lady (1881), in which once again a young American woman becomes a victim of her provincialism during her travels in Europe. The Bostonians (1886) is set in the era of the rising feminist movement. What Maisie Knew (1897) depicts a preadolescent girl, who must choose between her parents and a motherly old governess. In The Wings of the Dove (1902) an inheritance destroys the love of a young couple. James considered The Ambassadors (1903) his most "perfect" work of art. James's most famous short story is The Turn of the Screw, a ghost story in which the question of childhood corruption obsesses a governess. Although James is best known for his novels, his essays are now attracting a more general audience.
Grave marking Henry James in Cambridge Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Between 1906 and 1910 James revised many of his tales and novels for the New York edition of his complete works. His autobiography, A Small Boy And Others, appeared in 1913 and was continued in Notes Of A Son And Brother (1914). The third volume, The Middle Years, appeared posthumously in 1917. The outbreak of World War I was a shock for James, and on July 26, 1915 he became a British citizen as a declaration of loyalty to his adopted country and in protest against the America's refusal to enter the war. James suffered a stroke on December 2, 1915, and died in London on February 28, 1916. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes are interred at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Style and themes
Portrait of Henry James, charcoal drawing by John Singer Sargent (1912).
James is one of the major figures of trans-Atlantic literature. His works frequently juxtapose characters from the Old World (Europe), embodying a feudal civilization that is beautiful, often corrupt, and alluring, and from the New World (United States), where people are often brash, open, and assertive and embody the virtues — freedom and a more highly evolved moral character — of the new American society. James explores this clash of personalities and cultures, in stories of personal relationships in which power is exercised well or badly. His protagonists were often young American women facing oppression or abuse, and as his secretary Theodora Bosanquet remarked in her monograph Henry James at Work:
When he walked out of the refuge of his study and into the world and looked around him, he saw a place of torment, where creatures of prey perpetually thrust their claws into the quivering flesh of doomed, defenseless children of light… His novels are a repeated exposure of this wickedness, a reiterated and passionate plea for the fullest freedom of development, unimperiled by reckless and barbarous stupidity.
Critics have jokingly described three phases in the development of James's prose: "James the First, James the Second, and The Old Pretender" and observers do often group his works of fiction into three periods. In his apprentice years, culminating with the masterwork The Portrait of a Lady, his style was simple and direct (by the standards of Victorian magazine writing) and he experimented widely with forms and methods, generally narrating from a conventionally omniscient point of view. Plots generally concern romance, except for the three big novels of social commentary that conclude this period. In the second period, as noted above, he abandoned the serialized novel and from 1890 to about 1897, he wrote short stories and plays. Finally, in his third and last period he returned to the long, serialized novel. Beginning in the second period, but most noticeably in the third, he increasingly abandoned direct statement in favor of frequent double negatives, and complex descriptive imagery. Single paragraphs began to run for page after page, in which an initial noun would be succeeded by pronouns surrounded by clouds of adjectives and prepositional clauses, far from their original referents, and verbs would be deferred and then preceded by a series of adverbs. The overall effect could be a vivid evocation of a scene as perceived by a sensitive observer. In its intense focus on the consciousness of his major characters, James's later work foreshadows extensive developments in 20th century fiction. Then and later many readers find the late style difficult and unnecessary; his friend Edith Wharton, who admired him greatly, said that there were passages in his work that were all but incomprehensible. H.G. Wells harshly portrayed James as a hippopotamus laboriously attempting to pick up a pea that has got into a corner of its cage. Some critics have claimed that the more elaborate manner was a result of James taking up the practice of dictating to a secretary. He was afflicted with a stutter and compensated by speaking slowly and deliberately. The late style does become more difficult in the years when he dictates, but James also was able to revise typewritten drafts more extensively, and his few surviving drafts show that the later works are more heavily revised and redrafted. In some cases this leads critics to prefer the earlier, unrevised versions of some works because the older style is thought to be closer to the original conception and spirit of the work, Daisy Miller being a case in point: most of the current reprints of this novel contain the unrevised text. On the other hand, the late revision of the early novel The Portrait of a Lady is generally much preferred to the first edition, even by those who dislike the late style, because of the power of the imagery and the depth of characterization, while his shorter late fiction, such as The Turn of the Screw, is considered highly accessible and remains popular with readers.
More important for his work overall may have been his position as an expatriate, and in other ways an outsider, living in Europe. While he came from middle-class and provincial belongings (seen from the perspective of European polite society) he worked very hard to gain access to all levels of society, and the settings of his fiction range from working class to aristocratic, and often describe the efforts of middle-class Americans to make their way in European capitals. He confessed he got some of his best story ideas from gossip at the dinner table or at country house weekends. He worked for a living, however, and lacked the experiences of select schools, university, and army service, the common bonds of masculine society. He was furthermore a man whose tastes and interests were, according to the prevailing standards of Victorian era Anglo-American culture, rather feminine, and who was shadowed by the cloud of prejudice that then and later accompanied suspicions of his homosexuality. Edmund Wilson famously compared James's objectivity to Shakespeare's:
One would be in a position to appreciate James better if one compared him with the dramatists of the seventeenth century—Racine and Molière, whom he resembles in form as well as in point of view, and even Shakespeare, when allowances are made for the most extreme differences in subject and form. These poets are not, like Dickens and Hardy, writers of melodrama — either humorous or pessimistic, nor secretaries of society like Balzac, nor prophets like Tolstoy: they are occupied simply with the presentation of conflicts of moral character, which they do not concern themselves about softening or averting. They do not indict society for these situations: they regard them as universal and inevitable. They do not even blame God for allowing them: they accept them as the conditions of life.
It is also possible to see many of James's stories as psychological thought-experiments. The Portrait of a Lady may be an experiment to see what happens when an idealistic young woman suddenly becomes very rich. In many of his tales, characters seem to exemplify alternate futures and possibilities, as most markedly in "The Jolly Corner", in which the protagonist and a ghost-doppelganger live alternate American and European lives; and in others, like The Ambassadors, an older James seems fondly to regard his own younger self facing a crucial moment.
Major novels
"Portrait of Henry James", oil painting by John Singer Sargent (1913)
Although any selection of James's novels as "major" must inevitably depend to some extent on personal preference, the following books have achieved prominence among his works in the views of many critics.
The first period of James's fiction, usually considered to have culminated in The Portrait of a Lady, concentrated on the contrast between Europe and America. The style of these novels is generally straightforward and, though personally characteristic, well within the norms of 19th century fiction. Roderick Hudson (1875) is a Künstlerroman that traces the development of the title character, an extremely talented sculptor. Although the book shows some signs of immaturity—this was James's first serious attempt at a full-length novel — it has attracted favorable comment due to the vivid realization of the three major characters: Roderick Hudson, superbly gifted but unstable and unreliable; Rowland Mallet, Roderick's limited but much more mature friend and patron; and Christina Light, one of James's most enchanting and maddening femmes fatale. The pair of Hudson and Mallet has been seen as representing the two sides of James's own nature: the wildly imaginative artist and the brooding conscientious mentor.
Although Roderick Hudson featured mostly American characters in a European setting, James made the Europe–America contrast even more explicit in his next novel. In fact, the contrast could be considered the leading theme of The American (1877). This book is a combination of social comedy and melodrama concerning the adventures and misadventures of Christopher Newman, an essentially good-hearted but rather gauche American businessman on his first tour of Europe. Newman is looking for a world different from the simple, harsh realities of 19th century American business. He encounters both the beauty and the ugliness of Europe, and learns not to take either for granted.
James wrote Washington Square (1880), a deceptively simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The book is often compared to Jane Austen's work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. James was not particularly enthusiastic about Jane Austen, so he might not have regarded the comparison as flattering. In fact, James was not enthusiastic about Washington Square itself. He tried to read it over for inclusion in the New York Edition of his fiction (1907–09) but found that he could not. So he excluded the novel from the edition. But other readers have enjoyed the book enough to make it one of the more popular works in the entire Jamesian canon.
In The Portrait of a Lady (1881) James concluded the first phase of his career with a novel that remains his most popular long fiction. The story is of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who "affronts her destiny" and finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. The narrative is set mainly in Europe, especially in England and Italy. Generally regarded as the masterpiece of his early phase, The Portrait of a Lady is described as a psychological novel, exploring the minds of his characters, and almost a work of social science, exploring the differences between Europeans and Americans, the old and the new worlds.
In the 1880s James wrote The Bostonians (1886), a bittersweet tragicomedy that centers on: Basil Ransom, an unbending political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin and a zealous Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty protégée of Olive's in the feminist movement. The story line concerns the contest between Ransom and Olive for Verena's allegiance and affection, though the novel also includes a wide panorama of political activists, newspaper people, and quirky eccentrics.
James followed with The Princess Casamassima (1886), the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in far left politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The book is something of a lone sport in the Jamesian canon for dealing with such a violent political subject. But it is often paired with The Bostonians, which is concerned with political issues.
Just as James was beginning his ultimately disastrous attempt to conquer the stage, he wrote The Tragic Muse (1890). This novel offers a wide, cheerful panorama of English life and follows the fortunes of two would-be artists: Nick Dormer, who vacillates between a political career and his efforts to become a painter, and Miriam Rooth, an actress striving for artistic and commercial success. A huge cast of supporting characters help and hinder their pursuits. The book reflects James's consuming interest in the theater and is often considered to mark the close of the second or middle phase of his career.
After the failure of his "dramatic experiment" James returned to his fiction and began to probe his characters' consciousness. His style started to grow in complexity to reflect the greater depth of his analysis. The Spoils of Poynton (1897) is a half-length novel that describes the struggle between Mrs. Gereth, a widow of impeccable taste and iron will, and her son Owen over a houseful of precious antique furniture. The story is largely told from the viewpoint of Fleda Vetch, a young woman in love with Owen but sympathetic to Mrs Gereth's anguish over losing the antiques she patiently collected.
James continued the more involved, psychological approach to his fiction with What Maisie Knew (1897), the story of the sensitive daughter of divorced and irresponsible parents. The novel has great contemporary relevance as an unflinching account of a wildly dysfunctional family.
The third period of James's career reached its most significant achievement in three novels published just after the turn of the century. Critic F. O. Matthiessen called this "trilogy" James's major phase, and these novels have certainly received intense critical study. It was the second-written of the books, The Wings of the Dove (1902) that was the first published. This novel tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with a serious disease, and her impact on the people around her. Some of these people befriend Milly with honorable motives, while others are more self-interested. James stated in his autobiographical books that Milly was based on Minny Temple, his beloved cousin who died at an early age of tuberculosis. He said that he attempted in the novel to wrap her memory in the "beauty and dignity of art".
The next published of the three novels, The Ambassadors (1903), is a dark comedy that follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of his widowed fiancée's supposedly wayward son. Strether is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third-person narrative is told exclusively from Strether's point of view. In his preface to the New York Edition text of the novel, James placed this book at the top of his achievements, which has occasioned some critical disagreement. The Golden Bowl (1904) is a complex, intense study of marriage and adultery that completes the "major phase" and, essentially, James's career in the novel. The book explores the tangle of interrelationships between a father and daughter and their respective spouses. The novel focuses deeply and almost exclusively on the consciousness of the central characters, with sometimes obsessive detail and powerful insight.
Shorter narratives
Lamb House in Rye, East Sussex, where James lived from 1897
James was particularly interested in what he called the "beautiful and blest nouvelle", or the longer form of short narrative. Still, he produced a number of very short stories in which he achieved notable compression of sometimes complex subjects. The following narratives are representative of James's achievement in the shorter forms of fiction.
Just as the contrast between Europe and America was a predominant theme in James's early novels, many of his first tales also explored the clash between the Old World and the New. In "A Passionate Pilgrim" (1871), the earliest fiction that James included in the New York Edition, the difference between America and Europe erupts into open conflict, which leads to a sadly ironic ending. The story's technique still seems somewhat inexpert, with passages of local color description occasionally interrupting the flow of the narrative. But James manages to craft an interesting and believable example of what he would call the "Americano-European legend".
James published many stories before what would prove to be his greatest success with the readers of his time, "Daisy Miller" (1878). This story portrays the confused courtship of the title character, a free-spirited American girl, by Winterbourne, a compatriot of hers with much more sophistication. His pursuit of Daisy is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates they meet in Switzerland and Italy. Her lack of understanding of the social mores of the society she so desperately wishes to enter ultimately leads to tragedy.
As James moved on from studies of the Europe-America clash and the American girl in his novels, his shorter works also explored new subjects in the 1880s. "The Aspern Papers" (1888) is one of James's best-known and most acclaimed longer tales. The storyline is based on an anecdote that James heard about a Shelley devotee who tried to obtain some valuable letters written by the poet. Set in a brilliantly described Venice, the story demonstrates James's ability to generate almost unbearable suspense while never neglecting the development of his characters. Another fine example of the middle phase of James's career in short narrative is "The Pupil" (1891), the story of a precocious young boy growing up in a mendacious and dishonorable family. He befriends his tutor, who is the only adult in his life that he can trust. James presents their relationship with sympathy and insight, and the story reaches what some have considered the status of classical tragedy.
"The Altar of the Dead", first published in James's collection Terminations in 1895 after the story failed of magazine publication, is a fable of literally life and death significance. The story explores how the protagonist tries to keep the remembrance of his dead friends, to save them from being forgotten entirely in the rush of everyday events. He meets a woman who shares his ideals, only to find that the past places what seems to be an impassable barrier between them. Although James was not religious in any conventional sense, the story shows a deep spirituality in its treatment of mortality and the transcendent power of unselfish love.
The final phase of James's short narratives shows the same characteristics as the final phase of his novels: a more involved style, a deeper psychological approach, and a sharper focus on his central characters. Probably his most popular short narrative among today's readers, "The Turn of the Screw" (1898) is a ghost story that has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation. With its possibly ambiguous content and powerful narrative technique, the story challenges the reader to determine if the protagonist, an unnamed governess, is correctly reporting events or is instead an unreliable neurotic with an overheated imagination. To further muddy the waters, her written account of the experience—a frame tale—is being read many years later at a Christmas house party by someone who claims to have known her.
"The Beast in the Jungle" (1903) is almost universally considered to be one of James's finest short narratives, and has often been compared with The Ambassadors in its meditation on experience or the lack of it. The story also treats other universal themes: loneliness, fate, love and death. The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar destiny speaks to anyone who has speculated on the worth and meaning of human life. Among his last efforts in short narrative, "The Jolly Corner" (1908) is usually held to be one of James's best ghost stories. The tale describes the adventures of Spencer Brydon as he prowls the now-empty New York house where he grew up. Brydon encounters a "sensation more complex than had ever before found itself consistent with sanity".
Nonfiction
Photograph of Henry James (1897)
Beyond his fiction, James was one of the more important literary critics in the history of the novel. In his classic essay The Art of Fiction (1884), he argued against rigid proscriptions on the novelist's choice of subject and method of treatment. He maintained that the widest possible freedom in content and approach would help ensure narrative fiction's continued vitality. James wrote many valuable critical articles on other novelists; typical is his insightful book-length study of his American predecessor Nathaniel Hawthorne. When he assembled the New York Edition of his fiction in his final years, James wrote a series of prefaces that subjected his own work to the same searching, occasionally harsh criticism.
For most of his life James harbored ambitions for success as a playwright. He converted his novel The American into a play that enjoyed modest returns in the early 1890s. In all he wrote about a dozen plays, most of which went unproduced. His costume drama Guy Domville failed disastrously on its opening night in 1895. James then largely abandoned his efforts to conquer the stage and returned to his fiction. In his Notebooks he maintained that his theatrical experiment benefited his novels and tales by helping him dramatize his characters' thoughts and emotions. James produced a small but valuable amount of theatrical criticism, including perceptive appreciations of Henrik Ibsen.
With his wide-ranging artistic interests, James occasionally wrote on the visual arts. Perhaps his most valuable contribution was his favorable assessment of fellow expatriate John Singer Sargent, a painter whose critical status has improved markedly in recent decades. James also wrote sometimes charming, sometimes brooding articles about various places he visited and lived in. His most famous books of travel writing include Italian Hours (an example of the charming approach) and The American Scene (most definitely on the brooding side).
James was one of the great letter-writers of any era. More than ten thousand of his personal letters are extant, and over three thousand have been published in a large number of collections. A complete edition of James's letters began publication in 2006 with two volumes covering the 1855–1872 period, edited by Pierre Walker and Greg Zacharias. James's correspondents included celebrated contemporaries like Robert Louis Stevenson, Edith Wharton and Joseph Conrad, along with many others in his wide circle of friends and acquaintances. The letters range from the "mere twaddle of graciousness" to serious discussions of artistic, social and personal issues. Very late in life James began a series of autobiographical works: A Small Boy and Others, Notes of a Son and Brother, and the unfinished The Middle Years. These books portray the development of a classic observer who was passionately interested in artistic creation but was somewhat reticent about participating fully in the life around him.
Henry James was only twenty-two when he wrote The Noble School of Fiction for The Nation's first issue in 1865. He wrote, in all, over two hundred essays and book, art and theater reviews for the magazine.
Works
Novels
* Watch and Ward (1871)
* Roderick Hudson (1875)
* The American (1877)
* The Europeans (1878)
* Confidence (1879)
* Washington Square (1880)
* The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
* The Bostonians (1886)
* The Princess Casamassima (1886)
* The Reverberator (1888)
* The Tragic Muse (1890)
* The Other House (1896)
* The Spoils of Poynton (1897)
* What Maisie Knew (1897)
* The Awkward Age (1899)
* The Sacred Fount (1901)
* The Wings of the Dove (1902)
* The Ambassadors (1903)
* The Golden Bowl (1904)
* The Whole Family (collaborative novel with eleven other authors, 1908)
* The Outcry (1911)
* The Ivory Tower (unfinished, published posthumously 1917)
* The Sense of the Past (unfinished, published posthumously 1917)
Selected novellas and tales
* A Passionate Pilgrim (1871)
* Madame de Mauves (1874)
* Daisy Miller (1878)
* Four Meetings (1879)
* A Bundle of Letters (1879)
* The Author of Beltraffio (1884)
* The Romance of Certain Old Clothes (1885)
* A London Life (1888)
* The Aspern Papers (1888)
* The Pupil (1891)
* The Lesson of the Master (1892)
* The Real Thing (1892)
* The Middle Years (1893)
* The Death of the Lion (1894)
* The Coxon Fund (1894)
* The Next Time (1895)
* The Altar of the Dead (1895)
* The Figure in the Carpet (1896)
* The Turn of the Screw (1898)
* In the Cage (1898)
* Europe (1899)
* Paste (1899)
* The Great Good Place (1900)
* Mrs. Medwin (1900)
* The Birthplace (1903)
* The Beast in the Jungle (1903)
* The Jolly Corner (1908)
Other
* French Poets and Novelists (1878)
* Hawthorne (1879)
* A Little Tour in France (1884)
* Partial Portraits (1888)
* Essays in London and Elsewhere (1893)
* Picture and Text (1893)
* Theatricals (1894)
* Theatricals: Second Series (1895)
* Guy Domville (1895)
* William Wetmore Story and His Friends (1903)
* English Hours (1905)
* The American Scene (1907)
* New York Edition (1907–1909), selected "definitive" edition of James's fiction
* Italian Hours (1909)
* A Small Boy and Others (1913)
* Notes on Novelists (1914)
* Notes of a Son and Brother (1914)
* Notebooks (various, published posthumously)
* The Middle Years (unfinished, published posthumously 1917)
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/28/10 at 7:45 am
I had gerbils, too-way, WAY back in the dark ages. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
http://www.pethealthinfo.org.uk/resources/ist2_4688088_black_and_brown_gerbils.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/28/10 at 7:48 am
The word of the day...Rink
A rink is a large area covered with ice where people go to ice-skate, or a large area of concrete where people go to roller-skate.
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I remember roller skating rinks.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 8:16 am
I remember roller skating rinks.
I was never good at any kind of skating :-[
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 02/28/10 at 11:10 am
I was never good at any kind of skating :-[
I have not roller skated for ages.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 12:57 pm
Rhapsody in Blue-by George Gershwin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc
Cat
Thanks, I should of known that. :-[
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 12:59 pm
Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin
I'm enjoying it now :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 02/28/10 at 1:01 pm
I used to own gerbils 22 years ago. :)
I'm not into in type of rodent.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 02/28/10 at 8:20 pm
I have not roller skated for ages.
For me it's been over 20 years.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: nally on 02/28/10 at 9:52 pm
I have not roller skated for ages.
For me it's been over 20 years.
For me it's been a little over 13 years. It was on the day after Christmas in 1996.
I'm not into in type of rodent.
Neither am I.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/01/10 at 1:50 am
I had gerbils, too-way, WAY back in the dark ages. :D ;D ;D ;D
Cat
Did they keep gerbils as pets in the dark ages? ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/01/10 at 6:53 am
The word of the day...Tables
A table is a piece of furniture with a flat top that you put things on or sit at.
If you ask for a table in a restaurant, you want to have a meal there.
If someone tables a proposal, they say formally that they want it to be discussed at a meeting.
A table is a written set of facts and figures arranged in columns and rows.
A table is a list of the multiplications of numbers between one and twelve. Children often have to learn tables at school.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/01/10 at 6:58 am
The person born on this day....David Niven
James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983), known as David Niven, was a English actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Litton, a.k.a. "the Phantom," in The Pink Panther. He was awarded the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor in Separate Tables.
When Niven presented himself at the doors of Central Casting, he found out that he had to have a work permit, to allow him to reside and work in the U.S.
This meant that Niven had to leave U.S. soil, and he left for Mexico, where he worked as a "gun-man", cleaning and polishing the rifles of visiting American hunters. He received his Resident Alien Visa from the American Consulate when his birth certificate arrived from England. He then returned to the U.S. and was accepted by Central Casting as "Anglo-Saxon Type No. 2008."
His first work as an extra was as a Mexican in a Western. This inauspicious start notwithstanding, he then found himself an agent: Bill Hawks. He had several bit parts in 1933, 1934, and 1935, including a non-speaking part in MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), which led to some fortuitous publicity.
Niven thus came to the attention of independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn, who signed him to a contract and established his career. Niven appeared in 19 movies in the next four years. He had supporting roles in several major films: Rose-Marie (1936), Dodsworth (1936), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937); and leading roles in The Dawn Patrol (1938), Three Blind Mice (1938), and Wuthering Heights (1939), playing opposite such famous stars as Errol Flynn, Loretta Young, and Laurence Olivier. In 1939 he co-starred with Ginger Rogers in the RKO comedy Bachelor Mother, and starred as the eponymous gentleman thief in Raffles.
Niven joined what became known as the Hollywood Raj, a group of British actors in Hollywood. Other members of the group included Boris Karloff, Stan Laurel, Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, and C. Aubrey Smith. He and Errol Flynn shared a house, which they dubbed "Cirrhosis-by-the-Sea".
After the United Kingdom declared war in 1939, Niven returned to Britain and rejoined the Army. He was re-commissioned as a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade on 25 February 1940, and was assigned to a motor training battalion. But he wanted something more exciting, and transferred into the Commandos. He was assigned to a training base at Inverailort House in the Western Highlands. Niven later claimed credit for bringing future Major General Sir Robert Laycock to the Commandos.
Niven also worked with the Army Film Unit. He acted in two films during the war, The First of the Few (1942) and The Way Ahead (1944). Both films were made to win support for the British war effort, especially in the U.S. His Film Unit work included a small part in the deception operation that used minor actor M. E. Clifton James to impersonate Field Marshal Montgomery.
During his work with the Film Unit, Peter Ustinov, though one of the script-writers, had to pose as Niven's batman. (Ustinov also acted in The Way Ahead). Niven in his autobiography explained that there was no military way that he, as a Lieutenant-Colonel, and Ustinov, who had risen only to the rank of Private, could associate, save as an officer and his servant, hence their strange 'act'. Ustinov later appeared with Niven in Death on the Nile (1978).
Niven took part in the Invasion of Normandy, arriving several days after D-Day. He served in the "Phantom Signals Unit", which located and reported enemy positions, and kept rear commanders up to date on changing battle lines. Niven was posted at one time to Chilham in Kent.
Niven remained close-mouthed about the war, despite public interest in celebrities in combat and a reputation for storytelling. He said once: "I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war." Niven also had special scorn for the newspaper columnists covering the war who typed out self-glorifying and excessively florid prose about their meagre wartime experiences. Niven stated, "Anyone who says a bullet sings past, hums past, flies, pings, or whines past, has never heard one â’ they go crack!"
He gave a few details of his war experience in his autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon: his private conversations with Winston Churchill, the bombing of London, and what it was like entering Germany with the occupation forces. Niven first met Churchill at a dinner party in February 1940. Churchill singled him out from the crowd and stated, "Young man, you did a fine thing to give up your film career to fight for your country. Mark you, had you not done so â’ it would have been despicable."
A few stories have surfaced. About to lead his men into action, Niven eased their nervousness by telling them, "Look, you chaps only have to do this once. But I'll have to do it all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!" Asked by suspicious American sentries during the Battle of the Bulge who had won the World Series in 1943, he answered "Haven't the foggiest idea . . . But I did co-star with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother!"
Niven ended the war as a Lieutenant-Colonel. On his return to Hollywood after the war, he received the Legion of Merit, the highest American order that can be earned by a foreigner. Presented by Eisenhower himself, it honored Niven's work in setting up the BBC Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme, a radio news and entertainment station for the Allied forces.
Post-war acting career
In spite of a six-year absence from the screen, Niven came second in the 1945 Popularity Poll of British film stars.
He resumed his career in 1946, now only in starring roles. A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), and Enchantment (1948) are all highly regarded. In 1950 he starred in The Elusive Pimpernel, which was made in Britain and was to be distributed by Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn pulled out, and the film did not appear in the U.S. for three years.
Niven had a long and complex relationship with Goldwyn, who gave him his first start. But the dispute over The Elusive Pimpernel and Niven's demands for more money led to a long estrangement in the 1950s.
During this period Niven was largely barred from the Hollywood studios. In 1951 to 1956, he made 11 movies, of which two were MGM productions, and the rest were low-budget British or independent productions. However, Niven won a Golden Globe Award for his work in The Moon Is Blue (1953), produced and directed by Otto Preminger.
In 1955 renowned British photographer Cornel Lucas photographed David Niven whilst filming at the Rank Film Studio in Denham. These images can be seen at The Cornel Lucas Collection and are now for most of us the iconic representation of the way in which we remember Niven. A limited edition of British postage stamps was produced using one of Cornel Lucas' images taken during this portrait sitting.
Niven also worked in television. Niven appeared several times on various short-drama shows, and was one of the "four stars" of the dramatic anthology series Four Star Playhouse, appearing in 33 episodes. The show was produced by Four Star Television, which was co-owned by Niven, Robert Montgomery, and Charles Boyer. The show ended in 1955, but Four Star TV became a highly successful TV production company.
from the trailer for The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
Niven's film career took off in 1956, when he starred as Phileas Fogg in Michael Todd's immensely successful production of Around the World in 80 Days.
He appeared in 13 more TV episodes. He won the 1958 Academy Award for Best Actor in Separate Tables; ironically, he was also a co-host of the 1959 "Oscar" show.
After Niven won the Academy Award, Goldwyn called with an invitation to his home. In Goldwyn's drawing room, Niven noticed a picture of himself in uniform that he had sent to Goldwyn from England during World War II. In happier times with Goldwyn, he had observed this same picture sitting on Goldwyn's piano. Now years later, the picture was still in the exact same spot. As he was looking at the picture, Goldwyn's wife Frances said "Sam never took it down."
With an Academy Award to his credit, Niven's career continued to improve. In 1959, he became the host of his own TV drama series, The David Niven Show, which ran for 13 episodes that summer.
Over the rest of his career, Niven appeared in over thirty additional movies. These included The Guns Of Navarone (1961), and The Pink Panther (1963), Murder By Death (1976), Death on the Nile (1978), and The Sea Wolves (1980), but also a lot of unmemorable films.
In 1964, he was cast (along with Boyer) in the Four Star series The Rogues. Niven played "Alexander 'Alec' Fleming", one of a family of retired con artists who now fleece villains in the interests of justice. This was his only recurring role on television. The Rogues ran for only one season, but won a Golden Globe award.
In 1967, he appeared as one of seven incarnations of "007" in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale. In fact, Niven had been Bond creator Ian Fleming's first choice to play Bond in Dr. No. Casino Royale co-producer Charles K. Feldman said later that Fleming had written the book with Niven in mind, and therefore had sent a copy to Niven.
Niven was the only James Bond actor mentioned by name in the text of Fleming's novels. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond visits an exclusive ski resort in Switzerland where he is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor and in You Only Live Twice, David Niven is referred to as the only real gentleman in Hollywood.
While co-hosting the 46th Annual Oscars ceremony, A naked man appeared behind him, "streaking" across the stage. Niven responded "Isn't it fascinating to think, that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life, is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings?"
In 1974, he hosted David Niven's World for London Weekend Television. This was a series of profiles of contemporary adventurers such as hang gliders, motorcyclists, and mountain climbers. It ran for 21 episodes.
In 1975, he narrated The Remarkable Rocket, a short animation based on a story by Oscar Wilde.
In 1979, he appeared in Escape to Athena, which was produced by his son David jr.
Also in 1979, Niven starred in the television miniseries A Man Called INTREPID, based on the supposed memoir of Sir William Stephenson, a Canadian master spy for British intelligence. (In fact the book was mostly invented by co-author William Stevenson (no relation), Sir William then being very old.)
In July 1982, Blake Edwards brought Niven back for cameo appearances in two final "Pink Panther" movies (Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther), reprising his role as Sir Charles Litton. By this time, Niven was having serious health problems. When the raw footage was reviewed, his voice was inaudible, and his lines had to be dubbed by Rich Little. Niven was not told of this - he learned it from a newspaper report. This was his last film appearance.
In 1980, Niven began experiencing fatigue, muscle weakness, and a warble in his voice. A 1981 interview on Michael Parkinson's talk show alarmed family and friends; viewers wondered if Niven had either been drinking or suffered a stroke. (Another 1981 interview, posted on YouTube, shows Niven on The Merv Griffin Show while publicizing his novel Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly. He blames his slightly slurred voice on the shooting schedule on the film he'd been making; Better Late Than Never.) He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) later that year. He hosted the 1981 American Film Institute tribute to Fred Astaire, which was his final appearance in Hollywood.
In February 1983, using a false name to avoid publicity, Niven was hospitalised for ten days for treatment, ostensibly for a digestive problem. Afterwards, he returned to his chalet at Chateau d'Oex in Switzerland, where his condition continued to decline. He refused to return to the hospital, and his family supported his decision. Niven died of ALS on 29 July 1983, at age 73.
Bitter, estranged, and plagued by depression, Hjördis showed up drunk at the funeral, having been persuaded to attend by family friend Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Kristina and Fiona told Graham Lord that Hjördis added insult to injury by forbidding them to bury her alongside her husband in the place left for her in his double grave in Switzerland.
Lord wrote that "the biggest wreath, worthy of a Mafia Godfather's funeral, was delivered from the porters at London's Heathrow Airport, along with a card that read: 'To the finest gentleman who ever walked through these halls. He made a porter feel like a king.'"
Niven died on the same day as Raymond Massey, his co-star in The Prisoner of Zenda and A Matter of Life and Death.
Quotations
By Niven:
* "It really is amazing. Can you imagine being wonderfully overpaid for dressing up and playing games? It's like being Peter Pan."
* "I've been lucky enough to win an Oscar, write a best-seller — my other dream would be to have a painting in the Louvre. The only way that's going to happen is if I paint a dirty one on the wall of the gentlemen's lavatory."
* When asked why he seemed so incredibly cheerful all the time: "Well, old bean, life is really so bloody awful that I feel it’s my absolute duty to be chirpy and try and make everybody else happy too."
About Niven:
* "I don't think his acting ever quite achieved the brilliance or the polish of his dinner-party conversations." — John Mortimer
* "David's life was Wodehouse with tears." John Mortimer speaking at Niven's memorial service, quoted by Niven biographer Graham Lord.
* "Niv was the twinkling star, the meteor who lit up every room he entered; I am just the dreary drudge whose job it is to try to tell the truth." — Niven biographer Graham Lord, in the preface to his book Niv.
Filmography
* There Goes the Bride (1932)
* Eyes of Fate (1933)
* Cleopatra (1934)
* Without Regret (1935)
* Barbary Coast (1935)
* A Feather in Her Hat (1935)
* Splendor (1935)
* "Mutiny On the Bounty" (1935) extra-uncredited
* Rose-Marie (1936)
* Palm Springs (1936)
* Dodsworth (1936)
* Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 4 (1936)
* Thank You, Jeeves! (1936)
* The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
* Beloved Enemy (1936)
* We Have Our Moments (1937)
* The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
* Dinner at the Ritz (1937)
* Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
* Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
* Three Blind Mice (1938)
* The Dawn Patrol (1938)
* Wuthering Heights (1939)
* Bachelor Mother (1939)
* The Real Glory (1939)
* Eternally Yours (1939)
* Raffles (1939)
* The First of the Few (1942)
* The Way Ahead (1944)
* A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
* Magnificent Doll (1946)
* The Perfect Marriage (1947)
* The Other Love (1947)
* The Bishop's Wife (1947)
* Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)
* Enchantment (1948)
* A Kiss in the Dark (1949)
* A Kiss for Corliss (1949)
* The Elusive Pimpernel (1950)
* The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
* Happy Go Lovely (1951)
* Soldiers Three (1951)
* Appointment with Venus (1951)
* The Lady Says No (1952)
* The Moon Is Blue (1953)
* The Love Lottery (1954)
* Happy Ever After (1954)
* Carrington V.C. (1955)
* The King's Thief (1955)
* The Birds and the Bees (1956)
* The Silken Affair (1956)
* Around the World in 80 Days
* Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957)
* The Little Hut (1957)
* My Man Godfrey (1957)
* Screen Snapshots: Glamorous Hollywood (1958)
* Bonjour Tristesse (1958)
* Separate Tables (1958)
* Ask Any Girl (1959)
* Happy Anniversary (1959)
* Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)
* The Guns of Navarone (1961)
* The Shortest Day (1962)
* Conquered City (1962)
* The Best of Enemies (1962)
* The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
* Guns of Darkness (1962)
* 55 Days at Peking (1963)
* The Pink Panther (1963)
* Bedtime Story (1964)
* Where the Spies Are (1965)
* Lady L (1965)
* Eye of the Devil (1966)
* All Eyes on Sharon Tate (1967)
* Casino Royale (1967)
* Prudence and the Pill (1968)
* The Impossible Years (1968)
* The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
* The Brain (1969)
* Before Winter Comes (1969)
* The Statue (1971)
* King, Queen, Knave (1972)
* Vampira (1974)
* Paper Tiger (1975)
* No Deposit, No Return (1976)
* The Remarkable Rocket (1975)
* Murder by Death (1976)
* Candleshoe (1977)
* Speed Fever (1978)
* Death on the Nile (1978)
* A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979)
* Escape to Athena (1979)
* Rough Cut (1980)
* The Sea Wolves (1980)
* Better Late Than Never (1982)
* Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)
* Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
Bibliography
* Niven, David (1951). Round the Rugged Rocks. London: The Cresset Press.
* Niven, David (1971). The Moon's a Balloon. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-340-15817-4.
* Niven, David (1975). Bring on the Empty Horses. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-89273-2.
* Niven, David (1981). Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-10690-7.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/01/10 at 7:05 am
The person who died on this day...Jackie Coogan
John Leslie "Jackie" Coogan, Jr. (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers.
ackie Coogan was born in Los Angeles, California, to John Henry Coogan, Jr. (also known as "Big Jack" or "Jack, Sr.") (1886–1935), the son of John Henry Coogan, Sr. (1853–1932), and Lilian Rita Dolliver Coogan (1892–1977, birth also has been listed at 1895). He began his acting career as an infant in both vaudeville and film, with an uncredited role in the 1917 film Skinner's Baby. Charlie Chaplin discovered him in a Los Angeles vaudeville house, doing the shimmy, a popular dance at the time, on the stage. His father, Jack Coogan, Sr. was also an actor. The boy was a natural mimic, and delighted Chaplin with his abilities in this area. As a child actor, he is best remembered for his role as Charlie Chaplin's irascible sidekick in the film classic The Kid (1921) and for the title role in Oliver Twist, directed by Frank Lloyd, the following year. He was also one of the first stars to get heavily merchandised, with peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, and figurines just being a sample of the Coogan merchandise. He also travelled internationally to huge crowds. Many of his early films are lost or unavailable, but Turner Classic Movies recently presented The Rag Man with a new score. Coogan was famous for his pageboy haircut and his The Kid outfit of oversized overalls and cap, which was widely imitated, including by the young Scotty Beckett in the Our Gang films.
He was tutored until the age of ten, after which he attended Urban Military Academy and other prep schools, and then several colleges, including the University of Southern California. In 1932 he left Santa Clara University because of poor grades.
On May 4, 1935, Coogan's father was killed in a car crash in San Diego County that also claimed the life of Coogan's best friend Junior Durkin, a child actor best known as Huckleberry Finn in two films of the early 1930s. The accident took place just short of Coogan's twenty-first birthday; he was the sole survivor of the accident.
Jackie Coogan has his hand and foot prints in concrete out front of Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater), Ceremony #19, on December 12, 1931 (his former wife Betty Grable, Ceremony #68, on February 15, 1943 also). He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of 1654 Vine Street, just south of Hollywood Blvd.
In November 1933 Brooke Hart, a close friend of Coogan's, from Santa Clara University was kidnapped in San Francisco. After several demands for a $40,000 ransom, police arrested Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes in San Jose. Thurmond admitted that Hart had been murdered on the night he was kidnapped. Both men were then transferred to a prison in San Jose, California. Later a mob broke into the building; Thurmond and Holmes were then hanged in an adjacent park. Coogan is reported to have been one of the mob that prepared and held the lynching rope.
Coogan Bill
Main article: California Child Actor's Bill
As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to 4 million, but the money was taken by his mother, Lilian, and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, for extravagances such as fur coats, diamonds, and cars. He sued them in 1938 (at age 23), but after legal expenses, he only received $126,000 of the approx. $250,000 left. When Coogan fell on hard times, Charlie Chaplin gave him some financial support.
The legal battle did, however, bring attention to child actors and resulted in the state of California enacting the California Child Actor's Bill, sometimes known as the Coogan Bill or the Coogan Act. This requires that the child's employer set aside 15% of the child's earnings in a trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off. Jackie's mother and stepfather attempted to soften the situation by pointing out that the child was having fun and thought he was playing. However, virtually every child star from Baby Peggy on has stated that they were keenly aware that what they were doing was work.
Later years
World War II
Coogan enlisted in the US Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to US Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school, he was made a Flight Officer and he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on 5 March 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines in the Burma campaign.
Television
After the war, Coogan returned to acting, taking mostly character roles and appearing on television. He guest starred as Corbett in two episodes of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane, which aired from 1960-1962. In the 1960-1961 season, he guest starred in the episode "The Damaged Dolls" of the syndicated crime drama The Brothers Brannagan.
Coogan had a regular role in a 1962-1963 NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel. He finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABC's The Addams Family (1964–1966). He appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy in 1965. He had a role in the 1969 movie Marlowe.
In addition to The Addams Family, he appeared a number of times on the Perry Mason series, and once on Emergency! as a junkyard owner who tries to bribe the paramedics, who have come to inspect his property for fire safety. He also was featured in an episode of The Brady Bunch ("Fender Bender"), Here's Lucy and The Brian Keith Show, and he continued to guest star on television (including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family, The Wild Wild West and Hawaii Five-O) until his retirement in the middle 1970s.
Marriages and children
1. Betty Grable, married on November 20, 1937, divorced on October 11, 1939. Interment Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood California.
2. Flower Parry, married on August 10, 1941, divorced on June 29, 1943
1. One son, John Anthony Coogan (writer/producer 3D digital & film), born March 4, 1942 in Los Angeles, California.
3. Ann McCormack, married on December 26, 1946, divorced on September 20, 1951
1. One daughter, Joann Dolliver Coogan born April 2, 1948 in Los Angeles, California.
4. Dorothea Odetta Hanson, aka. Dorothea Lamphere, best known as Dodie, married on April 1952, they were together until his death
1. One daughter, Leslie Diane Coogan, born November 24, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. Her son is the actor Keith Coogan, who was born January 13, 1970. He began acting in 1975. Two years after his grandfather's death in 1986 he changed his name to Keith Coogan from Keith Eric Mitchell. He played the oldest son in Adventures in Babysitting.
2. One son, Christopher Fenton Coogan, born July 9, 1967 in Riverside County, California. He died in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs, California, on June 29, 1990.
Death
On March 1, 1984, Coogan died of cardiac arrest at the age of 69 at Santa Monica Medical Center in Santa Monica, California. He was buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.
Selected filmography
* Skinner's Baby (Uncredited, 1917)
* A Day's Pleasure (1919)
* The Kid (1921)
* Peck's Bad Boy (1921)
* My Boy (1921)
* Nice and Friendly (1922)
* Trouble (1922)
* Oliver Twist (1922)
* Daddy (1923)
* Circus Days (1923)
* Long Live the King (1923)
* A Boy of Flanders (1924)
* Little Robinson Crusoe (1924)
* Hello, 'Frisco (1924)
* The Rag Man (1925)
* Old Clothes (1925)
* Johnny Get Your Hair Cut (1927)
* The Bugle Call (1927)
* Buttons (1927)
* Tom Sawyer (1930)
* Huckleberry Finn (1931)
* Girl Happy (1965)
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http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o151/Japanime-Lover/Movies%20%20Books%20%20Other%20Shows/Actors/Jackie%20Coogan/jackie-coogan.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 03/01/10 at 7:35 am
The person who died on this day...Jackie Coogan
John Leslie "Jackie" Coogan, Jr. (October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984) was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family. In the interim, he sued his mother and stepfather over his squandered film earnings and provoked California to enact the first known legal protection for the earnings of child performers.
ackie Coogan was born in Los Angeles, California, to John Henry Coogan, Jr. (also known as "Big Jack" or "Jack, Sr.") (1886–1935), the son of John Henry Coogan, Sr. (1853–1932), and Lilian Rita Dolliver Coogan (1892–1977, birth also has been listed at 1895). He began his acting career as an infant in both vaudeville and film, with an uncredited role in the 1917 film Skinner's Baby. Charlie Chaplin discovered him in a Los Angeles vaudeville house, doing the shimmy, a popular dance at the time, on the stage. His father, Jack Coogan, Sr. was also an actor. The boy was a natural mimic, and delighted Chaplin with his abilities in this area. As a child actor, he is best remembered for his role as Charlie Chaplin's irascible sidekick in the film classic The Kid (1921) and for the title role in Oliver Twist, directed by Frank Lloyd, the following year. He was also one of the first stars to get heavily merchandised, with peanut butter, stationery, whistles, dolls, records, and figurines just being a sample of the Coogan merchandise. He also travelled internationally to huge crowds. Many of his early films are lost or unavailable, but Turner Classic Movies recently presented The Rag Man with a new score. Coogan was famous for his pageboy haircut and his The Kid outfit of oversized overalls and cap, which was widely imitated, including by the young Scotty Beckett in the Our Gang films.
He was tutored until the age of ten, after which he attended Urban Military Academy and other prep schools, and then several colleges, including the University of Southern California. In 1932 he left Santa Clara University because of poor grades.
On May 4, 1935, Coogan's father was killed in a car crash in San Diego County that also claimed the life of Coogan's best friend Junior Durkin, a child actor best known as Huckleberry Finn in two films of the early 1930s. The accident took place just short of Coogan's twenty-first birthday; he was the sole survivor of the accident.
Jackie Coogan has his hand and foot prints in concrete out front of Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater), Ceremony #19, on December 12, 1931 (his former wife Betty Grable, Ceremony #68, on February 15, 1943 also). He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of 1654 Vine Street, just south of Hollywood Blvd.
In November 1933 Brooke Hart, a close friend of Coogan's, from Santa Clara University was kidnapped in San Francisco. After several demands for a $40,000 ransom, police arrested Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes in San Jose. Thurmond admitted that Hart had been murdered on the night he was kidnapped. Both men were then transferred to a prison in San Jose, California. Later a mob broke into the building; Thurmond and Holmes were then hanged in an adjacent park. Coogan is reported to have been one of the mob that prepared and held the lynching rope.
Coogan Bill
Main article: California Child Actor's Bill
As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to 4 million, but the money was taken by his mother, Lilian, and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, for extravagances such as fur coats, diamonds, and cars. He sued them in 1938 (at age 23), but after legal expenses, he only received $126,000 of the approx. $250,000 left. When Coogan fell on hard times, Charlie Chaplin gave him some financial support.
The legal battle did, however, bring attention to child actors and resulted in the state of California enacting the California Child Actor's Bill, sometimes known as the Coogan Bill or the Coogan Act. This requires that the child's employer set aside 15% of the child's earnings in a trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off. Jackie's mother and stepfather attempted to soften the situation by pointing out that the child was having fun and thought he was playing. However, virtually every child star from Baby Peggy on has stated that they were keenly aware that what they were doing was work.
Later years
World War II
Coogan enlisted in the US Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to US Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school, he was made a Flight Officer and he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on 5 March 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines in the Burma campaign.
Television
After the war, Coogan returned to acting, taking mostly character roles and appearing on television. He guest starred as Corbett in two episodes of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane, which aired from 1960-1962. In the 1960-1961 season, he guest starred in the episode "The Damaged Dolls" of the syndicated crime drama The Brothers Brannagan.
Coogan had a regular role in a 1962-1963 NBC series, McKeever and the Colonel. He finally found his most famous television role as Uncle Fester in ABC's The Addams Family (1964–1966). He appeared as a police officer in the Elvis Presley comedy Girl Happy in 1965. He had a role in the 1969 movie Marlowe.
In addition to The Addams Family, he appeared a number of times on the Perry Mason series, and once on Emergency! as a junkyard owner who tries to bribe the paramedics, who have come to inspect his property for fire safety. He also was featured in an episode of The Brady Bunch ("Fender Bender"), Here's Lucy and The Brian Keith Show, and he continued to guest star on television (including multiple appearances on The Partridge Family, The Wild Wild West and Hawaii Five-O) until his retirement in the middle 1970s.
Marriages and children
1. Betty Grable, married on November 20, 1937, divorced on October 11, 1939. Interment Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood California.
2. Flower Parry, married on August 10, 1941, divorced on June 29, 1943
1. One son, John Anthony Coogan (writer/producer 3D digital & film), born March 4, 1942 in Los Angeles, California.
3. Ann McCormack, married on December 26, 1946, divorced on September 20, 1951
1. One daughter, Joann Dolliver Coogan born April 2, 1948 in Los Angeles, California.
4. Dorothea Odetta Hanson, aka. Dorothea Lamphere, best known as Dodie, married on April 1952, they were together until his death
1. One daughter, Leslie Diane Coogan, born November 24, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. Her son is the actor Keith Coogan, who was born January 13, 1970. He began acting in 1975. Two years after his grandfather's death in 1986 he changed his name to Keith Coogan from Keith Eric Mitchell. He played the oldest son in Adventures in Babysitting.
2. One son, Christopher Fenton Coogan, born July 9, 1967 in Riverside County, California. He died in a motorcycle accident in Palm Springs, California, on June 29, 1990.
Death
On March 1, 1984, Coogan died of cardiac arrest at the age of 69 at Santa Monica Medical Center in Santa Monica, California. He was buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.
Selected filmography
* Skinner's Baby (Uncredited, 1917)
* A Day's Pleasure (1919)
* The Kid (1921)
* Peck's Bad Boy (1921)
* My Boy (1921)
* Nice and Friendly (1922)
* Trouble (1922)
* Oliver Twist (1922)
* Daddy (1923)
* Circus Days (1923)
* Long Live the King (1923)
* A Boy of Flanders (1924)
* Little Robinson Crusoe (1924)
* Hello, 'Frisco (1924)
* The Rag Man (1925)
* Old Clothes (1925)
* Johnny Get Your Hair Cut (1927)
* The Bugle Call (1927)
* Buttons (1927)
* Tom Sawyer (1930)
* Huckleberry Finn (1931)
* Girl Happy (1965)
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o151/Japanime-Lover/Movies%20%20Books%20%20Other%20Shows/Actors/Jackie%20Coogan/Jackie-Coogan-1.jpg
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Jackie Coogan in later years.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/01/10 at 7:48 am
The word of the day...Tables
A table is a piece of furniture with a flat top that you put things on or sit at.
If you ask for a table in a restaurant, you want to have a meal there.
If someone tables a proposal, they say formally that they want it to be discussed at a meeting.
A table is a written set of facts and figures arranged in columns and rows.
A table is a list of the multiplications of numbers between one and twelve. Children often have to learn tables at school.
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/01/10 at 8:08 am
http://www.nndb.com/people/341/000044209/coogan1-sized.jpg
Jackie Coogan in later years.
Thanks Howie :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 03/01/10 at 8:10 am
Thanks Howie :)
You're Welcome.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 03/01/10 at 5:46 pm
Canadian person of the day
Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffery; March 1, 1947) is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.
http://tvcrazy.net/images/growing_pains.jpg
Thicke has been married three times. His first marriage to Days of our Lives actress Gloria Loring, from 1970 to 1983, bore him two sons, Brennan and Robin. His second marriage was to the Miss World 1990 pageant winner, Gina Tolleson, from 1992 to 1999, and produced a third son, Carter William. He has been married to Tanya Callau since 2005.
http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/alan-thicke21.jpg
His son Robin is a platinum album-selling musician, and his son Brennan was a voice actor for cartoons when he was younger.
Thicke was also the host of his own popular talk show in Canada during the early 1980s, called the The Alan Thicke Show. The show at one point spawned a prime time spin-off titled Prime Cuts, which consisted of edited highlights from the talk show.
Based on the success of his talk show, Thicke was signed to do an American late night talk show Thicke of the Night.
Thicke had a successful career as a TV theme song composer. He often collaborated with his wife Gloria Loring on these projects, which included the themes to the popular sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. He also wrote a number of TV game show themes, including The Wizard of Odds (for which he also sang the vocal introduction), The Joker's Wild, Celebrity Sweepstakes, The Diamond Head Game, Blank Check, Stumpers!, Whew! and the original theme to Wheel of Fortune.
http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/lc/nhl_awards_arrivals_4_190609/alan_thicke_5313763.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 2:47 am
British Person of the Day: Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, MBE (born 2 March 1977) is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is captain of England.
A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss has the ability to accumulate runs without playing big shots, in which respect he has been likened to Graham Thorpe. Also, his technique and more specifically his footwork has been compared to that of the Australian opening batsman Justin Langer, who captained Strauss at Middlesex. Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots. Strauss is also known for his fielding strength at slip or in the covers.
He made his First-class debut in 1998, and made his One Day International (ODI) debut in Sri Lanka in 2003. He quickly rose to fame on his Test match debut replacing the injured Michael Vaughan at Lords against New Zealand in 2004. With scores of 112 and 83 (run out) in an England victory, and the man of the match award, he became only the fourth batsman to score a century at Lord's on his debut and was close to becoming the first Englishman to score centuries in both innings of his debut. Strauss again nearly scored two centuries (126 and 94 not out) and was named man of the match in his first overseas Test match, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in December 2004. Strauss suffered a drop in form during 2007, and as a result he was left out of the Test squad for England's tour of Sri Lanka, and announced that he was taking a break from cricket. After a poor tour for England, Andrew was recalled into the squad for the 2008 tour of New Zealand, and subsequently reestablished himself in the side with a career-best 177 in the third and final Test of that series, and a further three centuries in 2008.
Having deputised for Michael Vaughan as England captain in 2006, Strauss was appointed on a permanent basis for the 2009 tour of the West Indies following Kevin Pietersen's resignation. He enjoyed success with three centuries, and retained the captaincy into 2009. Strauss captained the England team to a 2–1 victory in the 2009 Ashes, scoring a series total of 474 runs, more than any other player on either side, including 161 in England's first victory in an Ashes Test at Lord's in 75 years.
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/09/ANDREW_STRAUSS_gallery__452x400.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 03/02/10 at 6:41 am
Canadian person of the day
Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffery; March 1, 1947) is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.
http://tvcrazy.net/images/growing_pains.jpg
Thicke has been married three times. His first marriage to Days of our Lives actress Gloria Loring, from 1970 to 1983, bore him two sons, Brennan and Robin. His second marriage was to the Miss World 1990 pageant winner, Gina Tolleson, from 1992 to 1999, and produced a third son, Carter William. He has been married to Tanya Callau since 2005.
http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/alan-thicke21.jpg
His son Robin is a platinum album-selling musician, and his son Brennan was a voice actor for cartoons when he was younger.
Thicke was also the host of his own popular talk show in Canada during the early 1980s, called the The Alan Thicke Show. The show at one point spawned a prime time spin-off titled Prime Cuts, which consisted of edited highlights from the talk show.
Based on the success of his talk show, Thicke was signed to do an American late night talk show Thicke of the Night.
Thicke had a successful career as a TV theme song composer. He often collaborated with his wife Gloria Loring on these projects, which included the themes to the popular sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. He also wrote a number of TV game show themes, including The Wizard of Odds (for which he also sang the vocal introduction), The Joker's Wild, Celebrity Sweepstakes, The Diamond Head Game, Blank Check, Stumpers!, Whew! and the original theme to Wheel of Fortune.
http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/lc/nhl_awards_arrivals_4_190609/alan_thicke_5313763.jpg
Man,I miss Growing Pains. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 7:01 am
Man,I miss Growing Pains. :)
Me too.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 7:03 am
British Person of the Day: Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, MBE (born 2 March 1977) is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is captain of England.
A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss has the ability to accumulate runs without playing big shots, in which respect he has been likened to Graham Thorpe. Also, his technique and more specifically his footwork has been compared to that of the Australian opening batsman Justin Langer, who captained Strauss at Middlesex. Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots. Strauss is also known for his fielding strength at slip or in the covers.
He made his First-class debut in 1998, and made his One Day International (ODI) debut in Sri Lanka in 2003. He quickly rose to fame on his Test match debut replacing the injured Michael Vaughan at Lords against New Zealand in 2004. With scores of 112 and 83 (run out) in an England victory, and the man of the match award, he became only the fourth batsman to score a century at Lord's on his debut and was close to becoming the first Englishman to score centuries in both innings of his debut. Strauss again nearly scored two centuries (126 and 94 not out) and was named man of the match in his first overseas Test match, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in December 2004. Strauss suffered a drop in form during 2007, and as a result he was left out of the Test squad for England's tour of Sri Lanka, and announced that he was taking a break from cricket. After a poor tour for England, Andrew was recalled into the squad for the 2008 tour of New Zealand, and subsequently reestablished himself in the side with a career-best 177 in the third and final Test of that series, and a further three centuries in 2008.
Having deputised for Michael Vaughan as England captain in 2006, Strauss was appointed on a permanent basis for the 2009 tour of the West Indies following Kevin Pietersen's resignation. He enjoyed success with three centuries, and retained the captaincy into 2009. Strauss captained the England team to a 2–1 victory in the 2009 Ashes, scoring a series total of 474 runs, more than any other player on either side, including 161 in England's first victory in an Ashes Test at Lord's in 75 years.
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/09/ANDREW_STRAUSS_gallery__452x400.jpg
Cricket is a sport I know nothing about.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 7:04 am
Thanks Frank and Phil :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 7:08 am
The word of the day...Slippery
Something that is slippery is smooth, wet, or oily and is therefore difficult to walk on or to hold.
You can describe someone as slippery if you think that they are dishonest in a clever way and cannot be trusted.
If someone is on a slippery slope, they are involved in a course of action that is difficult to stop and that will eventually lead to failure or trouble
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 7:16 am
The person born on this day...Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. March 2, 1962) is an American musician, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead singer and founder of band Bon Jovi. He was also the owner of the Philadelphia Soul of the now suspended Arena Football League. Throughout his career, he has released two solo albums and eleven studio albums with his band which have sold over 120 million albums worldwide.
As a solo artist, he has numerous awards for his work, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for his solo hit: Blaze of Glory. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Monmouth University in 2001. He campaigned for Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election, John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election, and Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election.
In October 1984, Bon Jovi supported the group Kiss at the Queens Hall in Leeds.
With the help of their new manager Doc McGhee, the band's debut album, Bon Jovi, was released on January 21, 1984. The album went gold in the US (sales of over 500,000). In 1985, Bon Jovi's second album 7800°Fahrenheit was released, but the response was poor. The turning point came when they brought in songwriter Desmond Child for their third album, Slippery When Wet. With Child co-writing many of their hits on this and future albums the band shot to super-stardom around the world with songs such as "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' On A Prayer", and "Wanted Dead or Alive". The album has sold in excess of 28 million copies worldwide since its release in late 1986.
During their 1986-1987 tour, Jon's attempt to give it his all during live shows (plus the tour's exhausting schedule) greatly strained his vocal cords. In the band's Behind The Music special, he notes that his vocal cords were given steroids to help him sing. With the help of a vocal coach, he was able to continue doing the tour. Contrary to popular belief, Bon Jovi did not have voice damage during the New Jersey Syndicate Tour. As recordings from that tour show, his voice was in perfect condition throughout.
The next album from Bon Jovi was New Jersey released in 1988. The album was recorded very shortly after the tour for Slippery, because the band wanted to prove that they were not just a one hit wonder. The resulting album is a fan favorite and a mammoth commercial success, with hit songs such as "Bad Medicine", "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "I'll Be There for You", which are still nightly stalwarts in their live repertoire.
Despite the band achieving massive success, New Jersey almost led to the end of the band as they went straight back out on the road so soon after the heavy touring for their previous album. This constant living on the road almost destroyed the strong bond between the band members. Sambora is noted on the albums as co-writer for many songs, yet he resented the lack of attention that was heaped on Jon alone. As mentioned in VH1's Behind the Music, the band members note that at the end of the tour, each band member went their separate way, even departing in separate jets after the tour ended in Guadalajara, Mexico in early 1990.
Between 1990 and 1992, members of Bon Jovi went their separate ways after the very rigorous two year New Jersey Tour, which exceeded 200 shows on 5 continents. This time off also helped them determine where Bon Jovi would fit within the rapidly changing music scene upon their return.
In 1992, the band returned with the album Keep the Faith. The album was released in November 1992. Produced by Bob Rock, the album signified an ending to their early metal roots in previous albums and introduced a more "rock n roll"-driven groove to the album. Much more complex, lyrically and musically, the album proved that Bon Jovi could still be a viable band in 90's, despite the industry's and audience's growing affinity for Grunge.
In 1994, Bon Jovi released a "greatest hits" album titled Cross Road, which also contained two new tracks: the hit singles "Always" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night". Always, spent six months on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Bon Jovi's all-time biggest hits. The song peaked at #4 on the U.S. charts and at #1 in countries across Europe, Asia and in Australia. The single sold very well, going platinum in the U.S. That same year, bassist Alec John Such left the band, the first and only lineup change since Bon Jovi began. Hugh McDonald, who was the bassist on "Runaway", unofficially replaced Such as bassist.
Their sixth studio album These Days was released in June 1995 to the most critical acclaim that the band had ever received. With the album These Days, Bon Jovi took the mature rock sound they had developed on Keep the Faith further. The record as a whole was darker and more downbeat than the usual Bon Jovi flare. By 1996, Bon Jovi had established themselves as a "force" in the music industry, proving much more durable than most of their 80's glam peers.
After another lengthy hiatus of nearly three years, during which several band members worked on independent projects, Bon Jovi regrouped in 1999 to begin work on their next studio album. Their 2000 release, Crush, enjoyed overwhelming success all around the world, thanks in part to the smash-hit single "It's My Life", co-written by famous Swedish producer Max Martin. Crush, which also produced such hits as "Say it isn't so", and helped introduce Bon Jovi to a new, younger fan base.
In late 2002, Bounce, the band's follow-up to Crush, hit stores. Though Bounce did not enjoy the level of success of its predecessor, the album did produce hit singles such as "Everyday" and the title track.
Jon Bon Jovi in the Netherlands on May 26, 2006
Bon Jovi's ninth studio album, Have a Nice Day, was released in September 2005. "Have A Nice Day" was the first single off the new album and the second single from the album "Who Says You Can't Go Home", was released in the U.S. in the spring of 2006. In the U.S. a duet version of "Who Says You Can't Go Home" with country singer Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland was released, and in May 2006, Bon Jovi made history by becoming the first Rock & Roll Band to have a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot Country Chart. On February 11, 2007, Bon Jovi also won a Grammy Award, for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" for "Who Says You Can't Go Home".
In June 2007, Bon Jovi released their studio album, Lost Highway. The album debuted at number #1 on the Billboard charts, the first time that Bon Jovi have had a number one album on the US charts since the release of New Jersey in 1988. Thanks to the band's new country music fanbase, the album sold 292,000 copies in its first week on sale in the U.S., and became Bon Jovi's third US number one album.
On April 6, 2009, it was announced that the Tribeca Film Festival will screen a Bon Jovi documentary called When We Were Beautiful. The film follows the band on the Lost Highway Tour during 2008. The film is directed by Phil Griffin and will be the centerpiece of the festival and is considered a work-in-progress.
In November 2009, Bon Jovi released their latest studio album The Circle.
Solo career
Jon Bon Jovi in January 2009
Jon Bon Jovi recorded a solo album, a soundtrack to the movie "Young Guns II" (in which he also appeared for less than a second), more commonly known as Blaze of Glory. Released in 1990, the album featured high profile guests such as: Elton John, Aldo Nova, Little Richard, and Jeff Beck, among others. The album fared well commercially and received very positive reviews and quickly achieved double platinum status. The title track, "Blaze of Glory", hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Jon an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, but he did not win the award. That same year, however, "Blaze of Glory" was awarded a Golden Globe.
Jon wrote what would become his second solo album, 1997's Destination Anywhere. The album received very positive reviews and was a success across Europe. It was rumored that the record company was pursuing Jon to name the record "These Days, Part 2", since the album was somewhat of a moody progression from These Days. A short movie of the same name was recorded right around the record's release, based entirely on the songs from the record and starring Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Whoopi Goldberg. Dave Stewart of Eurythmics played guitar on the record, as well as producing some of the tracks. That year Jon Bon Jovi earned a BRIT Award for Best International Male and also won a MTV Europe Music Award for Best Male.
Personal life
During a stop in Los Angeles on the New Jersey tour in 1989, Bon Jovi secretly took a trip to Las Vegas, where he married his high school sweetheart, Dorothea Hurley (born September 29, 1962) on April 29, 1989 at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Together they have four children: Stephanie Rose, Jesse James, Jake and Romeo. Bon Jovi maintains a strong family foundation to this day.
In 2004, he became founder and primary owner of the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League with fellow band member Richie Sambora. He appeared in several television commercials for the league, typically with John Elway, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Bon Jovi has been a New York Giants fan his entire life, and also has a long-standing friendship with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, demonstrated by Belichick often playing Bon Jovi music at Patriots practices.
Bon Jovi was raised a Roman Catholic and states "I'm what you call a recovering Catholic. I have many major issues with the church."
Charitable work
Bon Jovi has worked on behalf of the Special Olympics, the American Red Cross, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Project Home, The Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation and other groups.
He has been named the first Founding Ambassador of the Habitat for Humanity Ambassador program as part of the international-nonprofit organization’s new advocacy outreach initiative. Bon Jovi has been raising awareness with Habitat for Humanity since 2005 when he provided the funds to build six homes in Philadelphia and built the homes alongside the homeowner families, as well as with members of his Philadelphia Soul Arena Football Team. The construction site also served as the video shoot location for his band’s single, "Who Says You Can’t Go Home". In 2006, Bon Jovi made a $1 million donation to build 28 Habitat homes in Louisiana in partnership with low-income families on the hurricane-stricken coast. In July, 2007, Bon Jovi announced a project that will rehabilitate a block of 15 homes in north Philadelphia. During an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, the band donated $1 million to the Angel Network foundation.
He is one of 21 artists singing on "Everybody Hurts", a charity single organised by Simon Cowell in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Acting work
Bon Jovi is a credited actor in the movies Moonlight and Valentino, The Leading Man, Destination Anywhere, Homegrown, Little City, No Looking Back, Row Your Boat, Vampires Los Muertos, U-571, Cry Wolf, National Lampoon's Pucked. He also had a supporting role in the movie Pay It Forward, where he played Helen Hunt's abusive ex-husband. His TV series appearances include Sex and the City and an extended stint on Ally McBeal as a plumber who was Ally's boyfriend for a short period of time, as well as a guest appearance on 30 Rock, Las Vegas, and The West Wing.
Presenting
He was guest star on American Idol in May 2007, during the show's "Rock Week" in which the contestants all performed his or his band's songs. On October 13, 2007 Jon hosted the third episode of the 33rd season of Saturday Night Live.
Political activism
As a Democrat, Bon Jovi toured extensively on behalf of Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, appearing at and playing acoustic sets (with Sambora) at rallies for the Kerry-Edwards ticket throughout the United States. Bon Jovi also played as a part of the Live Earth concert at the Meadowlands in 2007, and was introduced by former Vice President Al Gore. In 2008, Jon Bon Jovi supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and after she dropped out, he supported Barack Obama, even holding an exclusive fundraiser at his home for him; he will play a 2009 Manhattan fundraiser for now Secretary of State Clinton to lessen some of her $6.3 million dollar campaign debt. On Sunday, January 18, 2009 Bon Jovi performed a duet at the Obama Inauguration Concert of the Sam Cooke classic "A Change is Gonna Come" with Bettye LaVette. On June 4, 2009 Bon Jovi performed an acoustic benefit show for democratic Gov. Jon Corzine at the NJPAC in Newark, New Jersey.
On June 24, 2009, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Andy Madadian recorded a musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran. The handwritten Persian sign in the video translates to "we are one".
Filmography
Year Film Role
1995 Moonlight and Valentino The Painter
1996 The Leading Man Robin Grange
1997 Destination Anywhere -
Little City Kevin
1998 Homegrown Danny
No Looking Back Michael
Row Your Boat Jamey Meadows
2000 U-571 Lieutenant Pete Emmett, Chief Engineer, S-33
Pay It Forward Ricky McKinney
2001-2002 Ally McBeal Victor Morrison (10 Episodes)
2002 Vampires: Los Muertos Derek Bliss
2005 Cry Wolf Rich Walker
2006 National Lampoon's Pucked Frank Hopper
The West Wing Himself
2010 30 Rock Himself
Awards
* 1985: Kerrang: Sex Object Of The Year
* 1987: Metal Edge Reader's Choice Awards: Best Male Performer.
* 1989: American Music Award: Best Pop/Rock Band, Duo or Group; award shared with his band.
* 1990: Golden Globe: Best Song, Blaze of Glory (from Young Guns II soundtrack).
* 1990: Academy Awards: Nominated, Original Song, "Blaze of Glory" (from Young Guns II soundtrack).
* 1991: ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards: Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures for YOUNG GUNS II - Blaze of Glory.
* 1991: MTV Michael Jackson: Video Vanguard Award; shared with his band.
* 1996: Sky Sport: Special Olympics Awards.
* 1997: Kerrang Awards: Classic Songwriter.
* 1997: MTV Europe Music Awards: Best Male.
* 1998: Brit awards: Best International Male.
* 1998: ECHO: Best International Male Artist.
* 2000: People: Sexiest Rock Star.
* 2001: Humanitarian of the Year by The Food Bank of Monmouth & Ocean Counties for his charitable work on behalf of the people of New Jersey.
* 2001: Honorary doctorate in Humanities degree from Monmouth University in New Jersey, for his success as an entertainer and his humanitarian work.
* 2002: People: Sexiest Rock Star.
* 2002: My VH1 Music Awards: From The Tour to The Tube - Best TV for ,,Ally McBeal".
* 2003: People: Sexiest Rock Star.
* 2004: American Music Awards: Received the Award of Merit for their long career.
* 2005: World Music Awards:KUMAD Received the Diamond Award for sales of 100+ million albums.
* 2006: Help USA: Tribute Dinner Honnores.
* 2006: Inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame
* 2006: VH1 Livin' on a Prayer-Greatest Song of the '80's
* 2007: Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" (with Jennifer Nettles).
* 2008: VH1 The Greatest: 100 Sexiest Artists (20 - 1): 14th Sexiest Artist
* 2008: MTV1 The Best: Best Selling Song Of The Decade 1980. Most popular rock song since 1980-s to Present.
* 2009: Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Discography
Studio albums
Year Album details Peak chart positions Certifications
(sales threshold)
US CAN UK AUS NZ JAP SPA GER AUT SWI SWE
1990 Blaze of Glory - Young Guns II
* Released: July 26, 1990
* Label: Mercury Records
3 — 2 2 3 4 — 4 1 4 1
* US: 2Ă— Multi-Platinum
* CAN: 2Ă— Platinum
1997 Destination Anywhere
* Released: June 17, 1997
* Label: Mercury Records
31 6 2 4 34 2 1 1 1 1 7
* CAN: Platinum
* ITA: Platinum
"—" denotes releases that did not chart
Compilation albums
Year Album
2001 The Power Station Years: The Unreleased Recordings
* Released: September 18, 2001
* Label: Mercury Records
Solo singles
Year Single Peak chart positions Album
US US Rock CAN AUS NZ UK IRE GER SWI AUT NL SWE
1990 "Blaze of Glory" 1 1 1 1 1 13 3 16 5 2 16 3 Blaze of Glory
"Miracle" 12 20 6 8 6 29 20 47 20 — 65 15
1991 "Never Say Die" — — — 60 — — — — — — — —
"Dyin' Ain't Much of a Livin'" — — — — — — — — — — — —
1992 "Levon" 37* 27 — — — — — — — — — — Two Rooms
1994 "Please Come Home for Christmas" — — — — — 7 + 6 + — — — — — A Very Special Christmas 2
1997 "Midnight in Chelsea" 27* — 3 17 — 4 13 9 5 8 16 49 Destination Anywhere
"Queen of New Orleans" — — 40 40 — 10 27 66 50 — 40 41
"Janie, Don't Take Your Love to Town" 48* — 18 — — 13 — 38 — 40 61 —
"Ugly" — — — — — — — 75 41 39 — —
2010 "Everybody Hurts" (as part of "Helping Haiti") 121 — 69 28 17 1 1 16 16 — — 25 Charity single
* Airplay/Radio & Records Chart, "—" denotes the single failed to chart or not released
* + "Please Come Home for Christmas" was originally credited as a solo recording by Jon Bon Jovi when included on the Christmas compilation A Very Special Christmas 2 in 1992, but when released as a single in UK, Ireland and Europe in 1994 it was released as a Bon Jovi single under the band name. The cover artwork of the single was a still from the musicvideo of Jon Bon Jovi and Cindy Crawford and the same Bon Jovi logo as was used on the albums Keep the Faith and Cross Road and the singles taken from them.
Guest singles
Year Single Artist US Country Album
1998 "Bang a Drum" Chris LeDoux 68 One Road Man
Other album appearances
Year Song Artist Album
2009 "Keep the Faith" Jon Bon Jovi & Washington DC Youth Choir Oh Happy Day
With Bon Jovi
Main article: Bon Jovi discography
Studio albums
* Bon Jovi (1984)
* 7800° Fahrenheit (1985)
* Slippery When Wet (1986)
* New Jersey (1988)
* Keep the Faith (1992)
* These Days (1995)
* Crush (2000)
* Bounce (2002)
* Have a Nice Day (2005)
* Lost Highway (2007)
* The Circle (2009)
Compilation albums
* Cross Road (1994)
* Tokyo Road: Best of Bon Jovi (2001)
* This Left Feels Right (2003)
Live albums
* One Wild Night Live 1985-2001 (2001)
Box Sets
* 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong (2004)
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss188/KowboiCash/Jon%20Bon%20Jovi/JBJ161.jpg
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Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 7:30 am
The person who died on this day...Jack Wild
Jack Wild (30 September 1952 – 1 March 2006) was a British actor who achieved fame for his roles in both stage and screen productions of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! with Ron Moody, Shani Wallis and Oliver Reed. For the latter performance (playing the Artful Dodger), he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 16. Jack Wild appeared with actor Mark Lester in two films: Oliver! (1968) and Melody (1971)
Wild was born into a working class family in Royton, near Oldham, Lancashire, to a labourer father and a mother who worked as a butcher. Wild moved to Hounslow, West London, with his parents during his childhood. He was discovered whilst playing football, by June, mother of Genesis member Phil Collins. He was asked if he wanted a job, and told her he already had one, that he worked for the milkman. He was educated at the independent Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton, London, and had to supplement his parents' modest incomes by working on a stage production of Oliver!, in order to pay his school fees.
It was at the premiere of the 1968 film version of Oliver! that he met brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, who thought Wild would make a good lead for a show they were developing called H.R. Pufnstuf. Wild starred in this American family TV series that launched in 1969, and he was paid $1,000,000 to play 'Jimmy', a boy washed up on 'Living Island' (a magic island) with his best friend Freddy, a talking flute. He was also in the movie Pufnstuf. As well as embarking on a recording career, cutting one album for Capitol Records and two for Buddah Records in the early 1970s, the three albums were called The Jack Wild Album, Everything's Coming Up Roses, and Beautiful World. On top of this he became a favourite for teen magazines of the times and was often featured in interviews, articles and pull-out-posters.
Wild had an older brother named Arthur, who was also an actor and appeared in the London stage version of Oliver!. Arthur Wild died in September 2000.
Problems
Like many child stars, Wild struggled to make the transition to adult stardom, and by 1976 his film career was over. He had begun drinking and smoking regularly at the age of twelve. His alcoholism ruined both his career and his marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Gaynor Jones who left him in 1985 due to his excessive drinking. For a few years Wild, having blown his fortune, was forced to live with his retired father. His alcoholism caused three near-fatal cardiac arrests and resulted in several spells in hospital until he finally stopped drinking in 1989.
Career restarts
Wild went into rehab in 1988 and gave up drinking on 6 March 1989 after joining Alcoholics Victorious. He returned to the big screen in a few minor roles, such as in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He was also reported to be developing a TV situation comedy with Suzi Quatro around the same time, but those plans never materialized into an actual series. For the most part, Wild spent the remainder of his career working in theatre.His last major appearance was as the male lead, `Mouse' in Tayla Goodman's rock musical `Virus'. The show ran for two weeks at the Theatre Royal Nottingham. Jack received rave reviews and left the audience laughing. Director Peter Everett said that Jack was a true Actor of the old school and a perfect gentleman.
Death
Wild died on 1 March 2006, aged 53, after a long battle with oral cancer, which he believed was caused by his alcoholism and smoking. Diagnosed with the disease in 2000, he initially underwent chemotherapy, but later had part of his tongue and both vocal cords removed in July 2004. Because of this surgery, he had lost his speech and had to communicate through his wife, Claire Harding, whom he met when they were appearing in Jack and the Beanstalk in Worthing. He is buried in Toddington Parish Cemetery.
Filmography
* Danny the Dragon (1967)
* Oliver! (1968)
* H.R. Pufnstuf 1969-1971
* Pufnstuf aka Pufnstuf Zaps the World (1970)
* Melody (1971)
* Flight of the Doves (1971)
* Caterpiller Taxis (1972)
* The Pied Piper (1972)
* The Wild Little Bunch (1972)
* The Fourteen (UK) aka Existence (1973 film) (USA) and The Wild Little Bunch (USA) (1973)
* Keep It Up Downstairs (1976)
* Alice (1981)
* Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
* Basil (1998)
* Moussaka & Chips (2005)
See also
* List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o66/jackwildscans/jackwild1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Dont_Blink17/pufnstuf_1.jpg
http://i689.photobucket.com/albums/vv255/entomologynichic/Artical19.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 9:02 am
Cricket is a sport I know nothing about.
The same applies for me for baseball and American Football (Gridiron).
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 9:04 am
The word of the day...Slippery
Something that is slippery is smooth, wet, or oily and is therefore difficult to walk on or to hold.
You can describe someone as slippery if you think that they are dishonest in a clever way and cannot be trusted.
If someone is on a slippery slope, they are involved in a course of action that is difficult to stop and that will eventually lead to failure or trouble
http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/zz144/family_photos_10/Snow%20Day/100_0977.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii248/keasbeyknights/DSCF1144.jpg
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff181/Dcko97/Cody%202-13-14-10/IMG_2581.jpg
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii16/Juniorsauer/Slippery.jpg
http://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt318/lowellbrown/slippery.png
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r53/tlawrence1/6221.jpg
http://hygo.co.uk/store/images/wet-floor-sign-floor.jpg
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 9:04 am
Thanks Frank and Phil :)
No problem.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 9:07 am
The person who died on this day...Jack Wild
Jack Wild (30 September 1952 – 1 March 2006) was a British actor who achieved fame for his roles in both stage and screen productions of the Lionel Bart musical Oliver! with Ron Moody, Shani Wallis and Oliver Reed. For the latter performance (playing the Artful Dodger), he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the age of 16. Jack Wild appeared with actor Mark Lester in two films: Oliver! (1968) and Melody (1971)
Wild was born into a working class family in Royton, near Oldham, Lancashire, to a labourer father and a mother who worked as a butcher. Wild moved to Hounslow, West London, with his parents during his childhood. He was discovered whilst playing football, by June, mother of Genesis member Phil Collins. He was asked if he wanted a job, and told her he already had one, that he worked for the milkman. He was educated at the independent Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton, London, and had to supplement his parents' modest incomes by working on a stage production of Oliver!, in order to pay his school fees.
It was at the premiere of the 1968 film version of Oliver! that he met brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, who thought Wild would make a good lead for a show they were developing called H.R. Pufnstuf. Wild starred in this American family TV series that launched in 1969, and he was paid $1,000,000 to play 'Jimmy', a boy washed up on 'Living Island' (a magic island) with his best friend Freddy, a talking flute. He was also in the movie Pufnstuf. As well as embarking on a recording career, cutting one album for Capitol Records and two for Buddah Records in the early 1970s, the three albums were called The Jack Wild Album, Everything's Coming Up Roses, and Beautiful World. On top of this he became a favourite for teen magazines of the times and was often featured in interviews, articles and pull-out-posters.
Wild had an older brother named Arthur, who was also an actor and appeared in the London stage version of Oliver!. Arthur Wild died in September 2000.
Problems
Like many child stars, Wild struggled to make the transition to adult stardom, and by 1976 his film career was over. He had begun drinking and smoking regularly at the age of twelve. His alcoholism ruined both his career and his marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Gaynor Jones who left him in 1985 due to his excessive drinking. For a few years Wild, having blown his fortune, was forced to live with his retired father. His alcoholism caused three near-fatal cardiac arrests and resulted in several spells in hospital until he finally stopped drinking in 1989.
Career restarts
Wild went into rehab in 1988 and gave up drinking on 6 March 1989 after joining Alcoholics Victorious. He returned to the big screen in a few minor roles, such as in the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He was also reported to be developing a TV situation comedy with Suzi Quatro around the same time, but those plans never materialized into an actual series. For the most part, Wild spent the remainder of his career working in theatre.His last major appearance was as the male lead, `Mouse' in Tayla Goodman's rock musical `Virus'. The show ran for two weeks at the Theatre Royal Nottingham. Jack received rave reviews and left the audience laughing. Director Peter Everett said that Jack was a true Actor of the old school and a perfect gentleman.
Death
Wild died on 1 March 2006, aged 53, after a long battle with oral cancer, which he believed was caused by his alcoholism and smoking. Diagnosed with the disease in 2000, he initially underwent chemotherapy, but later had part of his tongue and both vocal cords removed in July 2004. Because of this surgery, he had lost his speech and had to communicate through his wife, Claire Harding, whom he met when they were appearing in Jack and the Beanstalk in Worthing. He is buried in Toddington Parish Cemetery.
Filmography
* Danny the Dragon (1967)
* Oliver! (1968)
* H.R. Pufnstuf 1969-1971
* Pufnstuf aka Pufnstuf Zaps the World (1970)
* Melody (1971)
* Flight of the Doves (1971)
* Caterpiller Taxis (1972)
* The Pied Piper (1972)
* The Wild Little Bunch (1972)
* The Fourteen (UK) aka Existence (1973 film) (USA) and The Wild Little Bunch (USA) (1973)
* Keep It Up Downstairs (1976)
* Alice (1981)
* Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
* Basil (1998)
* Moussaka & Chips (2005)
See also
* List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o66/jackwildscans/jackwild1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v163/Dont_Blink17/pufnstuf_1.jpg
http://i689.photobucket.com/albums/vv255/entomologynichic/Artical19.jpg
:\'(
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 10:17 am
:\'(
It's to bad he started drinking & smoking at such a young age.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 10:34 am
It's to bad he started drinking & smoking at such a young age.
I can only assume badly advised on money matters.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 03/02/10 at 12:08 pm
I used to watch H.R. Pufnstuf every week, Saturday mornings. Great stuff. I just adored his accent.
Anyone remember Jack singing (in H.R. Pufnstuf) "I'm a mechanical boy...."?
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Philip Eno on 03/02/10 at 12:31 pm
I used to watch H.R. Pufnstuf every week, Saturday mornings. Great stuff. I just adored his accent.
Anyone remember Jack singing (in H.R. Pufnstuf) "I'm a mechanical boy...."?
I do not recall seeing that, probably I was watching something else at that time.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 12:36 pm
I used to watch H.R. Pufnstuf every week, Saturday mornings. Great stuff. I just adored his accent.
Anyone remember Jack singing (in H.R. Pufnstuf) "I'm a mechanical boy...."?
I use to watch it all the time, I had a crush on Jack and Mark Lester
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qSy3IJJpHY&feature=related#
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: CatwomanofV on 03/02/10 at 3:57 pm
I use to watch it all the time, I had a crush on Jack and Mark Lester
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qSy3IJJpHY&feature=related#
My sister had a major crush on Mark Lester.
I swear that the writers of H.R. Puffinstuff was puffin' on stuff.
Cat
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 3:59 pm
My sister had a major crush on Mark Lester.
I swear that the writers of H.R. Puffinstuff was puffin' on stuff.
Cat
Most be true, how else could you come up with that show. ;D
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Howard on 03/02/10 at 4:00 pm
The person born on this day...Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr. March 2, 1962) is an American musician, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead singer and founder of band Bon Jovi. He was also the owner of the Philadelphia Soul of the now suspended Arena Football League. Throughout his career, he has released two solo albums and eleven studio albums with his band which have sold over 120 million albums worldwide.
As a solo artist, he has numerous awards for his work, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for his solo hit: Blaze of Glory. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Monmouth University in 2001. He campaigned for Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election, John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election, and Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election.
In October 1984, Bon Jovi supported the group Kiss at the Queens Hall in Leeds.
With the help of their new manager Doc McGhee, the band's debut album, Bon Jovi, was released on January 21, 1984. The album went gold in the US (sales of over 500,000). In 1985, Bon Jovi's second album 7800°Fahrenheit was released, but the response was poor. The turning point came when they brought in songwriter Desmond Child for their third album, Slippery When Wet. With Child co-writing many of their hits on this and future albums the band shot to super-stardom around the world with songs such as "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' On A Prayer", and "Wanted Dead or Alive". The album has sold in excess of 28 million copies worldwide since its release in late 1986.
During their 1986-1987 tour, Jon's attempt to give it his all during live shows (plus the tour's exhausting schedule) greatly strained his vocal cords. In the band's Behind The Music special, he notes that his vocal cords were given steroids to help him sing. With the help of a vocal coach, he was able to continue doing the tour. Contrary to popular belief, Bon Jovi did not have voice damage during the New Jersey Syndicate Tour. As recordings from that tour show, his voice was in perfect condition throughout.
The next album from Bon Jovi was New Jersey released in 1988. The album was recorded very shortly after the tour for Slippery, because the band wanted to prove that they were not just a one hit wonder. The resulting album is a fan favorite and a mammoth commercial success, with hit songs such as "Bad Medicine", "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "I'll Be There for You", which are still nightly stalwarts in their live repertoire.
Despite the band achieving massive success, New Jersey almost led to the end of the band as they went straight back out on the road so soon after the heavy touring for their previous album. This constant living on the road almost destroyed the strong bond between the band members. Sambora is noted on the albums as co-writer for many songs, yet he resented the lack of attention that was heaped on Jon alone. As mentioned in VH1's Behind the Music, the band members note that at the end of the tour, each band member went their separate way, even departing in separate jets after the tour ended in Guadalajara, Mexico in early 1990.
Between 1990 and 1992, members of Bon Jovi went their separate ways after the very rigorous two year New Jersey Tour, which exceeded 200 shows on 5 continents. This time off also helped them determine where Bon Jovi would fit within the rapidly changing music scene upon their return.
In 1992, the band returned with the album Keep the Faith. The album was released in November 1992. Produced by Bob Rock, the album signified an ending to their early metal roots in previous albums and introduced a more "rock n roll"-driven groove to the album. Much more complex, lyrically and musically, the album proved that Bon Jovi could still be a viable band in 90's, despite the industry's and audience's growing affinity for Grunge.
In 1994, Bon Jovi released a "greatest hits" album titled Cross Road, which also contained two new tracks: the hit singles "Always" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night". Always, spent six months on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of Bon Jovi's all-time biggest hits. The song peaked at #4 on the U.S. charts and at #1 in countries across Europe, Asia and in Australia. The single sold very well, going platinum in the U.S. That same year, bassist Alec John Such left the band, the first and only lineup change since Bon Jovi began. Hugh McDonald, who was the bassist on "Runaway", unofficially replaced Such as bassist.
Their sixth studio album These Days was released in June 1995 to the most critical acclaim that the band had ever received. With the album These Days, Bon Jovi took the mature rock sound they had developed on Keep the Faith further. The record as a whole was darker and more downbeat than the usual Bon Jovi flare. By 1996, Bon Jovi had established themselves as a "force" in the music industry, proving much more durable than most of their 80's glam peers.
After another lengthy hiatus of nearly three years, during which several band members worked on independent projects, Bon Jovi regrouped in 1999 to begin work on their next studio album. Their 2000 release, Crush, enjoyed overwhelming success all around the world, thanks in part to the smash-hit single "It's My Life", co-written by famous Swedish producer Max Martin. Crush, which also produced such hits as "Say it isn't so", and helped introduce Bon Jovi to a new, younger fan base.
In late 2002, Bounce, the band's follow-up to Crush, hit stores. Though Bounce did not enjoy the level of success of its predecessor, the album did produce hit singles such as "Everyday" and the title track.
Jon Bon Jovi in the Netherlands on May 26, 2006
Bon Jovi's ninth studio album, Have a Nice Day, was released in September 2005. "Have A Nice Day" was the first single off the new album and the second single from the album "Who Says You Can't Go Home", was released in the U.S. in the spring of 2006. In the U.S. a duet version of "Who Says You Can't Go Home" with country singer Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland was released, and in May 2006, Bon Jovi made history by becoming the first Rock & Roll Band to have a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot Country Chart. On February 11, 2007, Bon Jovi also won a Grammy Award, for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals" for "Who Says You Can't Go Home".
In June 2007, Bon Jovi released their studio album, Lost Highway. The album debuted at number #1 on the Billboard charts, the first time that Bon Jovi have had a number one album on the US charts since the release of New Jersey in 1988. Thanks to the band's new country music fanbase, the album sold 292,000 copies in its first week on sale in the U.S., and became Bon Jovi's third US number one album.
On April 6, 2009, it was announced that the Tribeca Film Festival will screen a Bon Jovi documentary called When We Were Beautiful. The film follows the band on the Lost Highway Tour during 2008. The film is directed by Phil Griffin and will be the centerpiece of the festival and is considered a work-in-progress.
In November 2009, Bon Jovi released their latest studio album The Circle.
Solo career
Jon Bon Jovi in January 2009
Jon Bon Jovi recorded a solo album, a soundtrack to the movie "Young Guns II" (in which he also appeared for less than a second), more commonly known as Blaze of Glory. Released in 1990, the album featured high profile guests such as: Elton John, Aldo Nova, Little Richard, and Jeff Beck, among others. The album fared well commercially and received very positive reviews and quickly achieved double platinum status. The title track, "Blaze of Glory", hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Jon an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, but he did not win the award. That same year, however, "Blaze of Glory" was awarded a Golden Globe.
Jon wrote what would become his second solo album, 1997's Destination Anywhere. The album received very positive reviews and was a success across Europe. It was rumored that the record company was pursuing Jon to name the record "These Days, Part 2", since the album was somewhat of a moody progression from These Days. A short movie of the same name was recorded right around the record's release, based entirely on the songs from the record and starring Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Whoopi Goldberg. Dave Stewart of Eurythmics played guitar on the record, as well as producing some of the tracks. That year Jon Bon Jovi earned a BRIT Award for Best International Male and also won a MTV Europe Music Award for Best Male.
Personal life
During a stop in Los Angeles on the New Jersey tour in 1989, Bon Jovi secretly took a trip to Las Vegas, where he married his high school sweetheart, Dorothea Hurley (born September 29, 1962) on April 29, 1989 at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Together they have four children: Stephanie Rose, Jesse James, Jake and Romeo. Bon Jovi maintains a strong family foundation to this day.
In 2004, he became founder and primary owner of the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League with fellow band member Richie Sambora. He appeared in several television commercials for the league, typically with John Elway, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Bon Jovi has been a New York Giants fan his entire life, and also has a long-standing friendship with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, demonstrated by Belichick often playing Bon Jovi music at Patriots practices.
Bon Jovi was raised a Roman Catholic and states "I'm what you call a recovering Catholic. I have many major issues with the church."
Charitable work
Bon Jovi has worked on behalf of the Special Olympics, the American Red Cross, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Project Home, The Philadelphia Soul Charitable Foundation and other groups.
He has been named the first Founding Ambassador of the Habitat for Humanity Ambassador program as part of the international-nonprofit organization’s new advocacy outreach initiative. Bon Jovi has been raising awareness with Habitat for Humanity since 2005 when he provided the funds to build six homes in Philadelphia and built the homes alongside the homeowner families, as well as with members of his Philadelphia Soul Arena Football Team. The construction site also served as the video shoot location for his band’s single, "Who Says You Can’t Go Home". In 2006, Bon Jovi made a $1 million donation to build 28 Habitat homes in Louisiana in partnership with low-income families on the hurricane-stricken coast. In July, 2007, Bon Jovi announced a project that will rehabilitate a block of 15 homes in north Philadelphia. During an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, the band donated $1 million to the Angel Network foundation.
He is one of 21 artists singing on "Everybody Hurts", a charity single organised by Simon Cowell in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Acting work
Bon Jovi is a credited actor in the movies Moonlight and Valentino, The Leading Man, Destination Anywhere, Homegrown, Little City, No Looking Back, Row Your Boat, Vampires Los Muertos, U-571, Cry Wolf, National Lampoon's Pucked. He also had a supporting role in the movie Pay It Forward, where he played Helen Hunt's abusive ex-husband. His TV series appearances include Sex and the City and an extended stint on Ally McBeal as a plumber who was Ally's boyfriend for a short period of time, as well as a guest appearance on 30 Rock, Las Vegas, and The West Wing.
Presenting
He was guest star on American Idol in May 2007, during the show's "Rock Week" in which the contestants all performed his or his band's songs. On October 13, 2007 Jon hosted the third episode of the 33rd season of Saturday Night Live.
Political activism
As a Democrat, Bon Jovi toured extensively on behalf of Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, appearing at and playing acoustic sets (with Sambora) at rallies for the Kerry-Edwards ticket throughout the United States. Bon Jovi also played as a part of the Live Earth concert at the Meadowlands in 2007, and was introduced by former Vice President Al Gore. In 2008, Jon Bon Jovi supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and after she dropped out, he supported Barack Obama, even holding an exclusive fundraiser at his home for him; he will play a 2009 Manhattan fundraiser for now Secretary of State Clinton to lessen some of her $6.3 million dollar campaign debt. On Sunday, January 18, 2009 Bon Jovi performed a duet at the Obama Inauguration Concert of the Sam Cooke classic "A Change is Gonna Come" with Bettye LaVette. On June 4, 2009 Bon Jovi performed an acoustic benefit show for democratic Gov. Jon Corzine at the NJPAC in Newark, New Jersey.
On June 24, 2009, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Andy Madadian recorded a musical message of worldwide solidarity with the people of Iran. The handwritten Persian sign in the video translates to "we are one".
Filmography
Year Film Role
1995 Moonlight and Valentino The Painter
1996 The Leading Man Robin Grange
1997 Destination Anywhere -
Little City Kevin
1998 Homegrown Danny
No Looking Back Michael
Row Your Boat Jamey Meadows
2000 U-571 Lieutenant Pete Emmett, Chief Engineer, S-33
Pay It Forward Ricky McKinney
2001-2002 Ally McBeal Victor Morrison (10 Episodes)
2002 Vampires: Los Muertos Derek Bliss
2005 Cry Wolf Rich Walker
2006 National Lampoon's Pucked Frank Hopper
The West Wing Himself
2010 30 Rock Himself
Awards
* 1985: Kerrang: Sex Object Of The Year
* 1987: Metal Edge Reader's Choice Awards: Best Male Performer.
* 1989: American Music Award: Best Pop/Rock Band, Duo or Group; award shared with his band.
* 1990: Golden Globe: Best Song, Blaze of Glory (from Young Guns II soundtrack).
* 1990: Academy Awards: Nominated, Original Song, "Blaze of Glory" (from Young Guns II soundtrack).
* 1991: ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards: Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures for YOUNG GUNS II - Blaze of Glory.
* 1991: MTV Michael Jackson: Video Vanguard Award; shared with his band.
* 1996: Sky Sport: Special Olympics Awards.
* 1997: Kerrang Awards: Classic Songwriter.
* 1997: MTV Europe Music Awards: Best Male.
* 1998: Brit awards: Best International Male.
* 1998: ECHO: Best International Male Artist.
* 2000: People: Sexiest Rock Star.
* 2001: Humanitarian of the Year by The Food Bank of Monmouth & Ocean Counties for his charitable work on behalf of the people of New Jersey.
* 2001: Honorary doctorate in Humanities degree from Monmouth University in New Jersey, for his success as an entertainer and his humanitarian work.
* 2002: People: Sexiest Rock Star.
* 2002: My VH1 Music Awards: From The Tour to The Tube - Best TV for ,,Ally McBeal".
* 2003: People: Sexiest Rock Star.
* 2004: American Music Awards: Received the Award of Merit for their long career.
* 2005: World Music Awards:KUMAD Received the Diamond Award for sales of 100+ million albums.
* 2006: Help USA: Tribute Dinner Honnores.
* 2006: Inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame
* 2006: VH1 Livin' on a Prayer-Greatest Song of the '80's
* 2007: Grammy for Best Country Vocal Collaboration, "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" (with Jennifer Nettles).
* 2008: VH1 The Greatest: 100 Sexiest Artists (20 - 1): 14th Sexiest Artist
* 2008: MTV1 The Best: Best Selling Song Of The Decade 1980. Most popular rock song since 1980-s to Present.
* 2009: Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Discography
Studio albums
Year Album details Peak chart positions Certifications
(sales threshold)
US CAN UK AUS NZ JAP SPA GER AUT SWI SWE
1990 Blaze of Glory - Young Guns II
* Released: July 26, 1990
* Label: Mercury Records
3 — 2 2 3 4 — 4 1 4 1
* US: 2Ă— Multi-Platinum
* CAN: 2Ă— Platinum
1997 Destination Anywhere
* Released: June 17, 1997
* Label: Mercury Records
31 6 2 4 34 2 1 1 1 1 7
* CAN: Platinum
* ITA: Platinum
"—" denotes releases that did not chart
Compilation albums
Year Album
2001 The Power Station Years: The Unreleased Recordings
* Released: September 18, 2001
* Label: Mercury Records
Solo singles
Year Single Peak chart positions Album
US US Rock CAN AUS NZ UK IRE GER SWI AUT NL SWE
1990 "Blaze of Glory" 1 1 1 1 1 13 3 16 5 2 16 3 Blaze of Glory
"Miracle" 12 20 6 8 6 29 20 47 20 — 65 15
1991 "Never Say Die" — — — 60 — — — — — — — —
"Dyin' Ain't Much of a Livin'" — — — — — — — — — — — —
1992 "Levon" 37* 27 — — — — — — — — — — Two Rooms
1994 "Please Come Home for Christmas" — — — — — 7 + 6 + — — — — — A Very Special Christmas 2
1997 "Midnight in Chelsea" 27* — 3 17 — 4 13 9 5 8 16 49 Destination Anywhere
"Queen of New Orleans" — — 40 40 — 10 27 66 50 — 40 41
"Janie, Don't Take Your Love to Town" 48* — 18 — — 13 — 38 — 40 61 —
"Ugly" — — — — — — — 75 41 39 — —
2010 "Everybody Hurts" (as part of "Helping Haiti") 121 — 69 28 17 1 1 16 16 — — 25 Charity single
* Airplay/Radio & Records Chart, "—" denotes the single failed to chart or not released
* + "Please Come Home for Christmas" was originally credited as a solo recording by Jon Bon Jovi when included on the Christmas compilation A Very Special Christmas 2 in 1992, but when released as a single in UK, Ireland and Europe in 1994 it was released as a Bon Jovi single under the band name. The cover artwork of the single was a still from the musicvideo of Jon Bon Jovi and Cindy Crawford and the same Bon Jovi logo as was used on the albums Keep the Faith and Cross Road and the singles taken from them.
Guest singles
Year Single Artist US Country Album
1998 "Bang a Drum" Chris LeDoux 68 One Road Man
Other album appearances
Year Song Artist Album
2009 "Keep the Faith" Jon Bon Jovi & Washington DC Youth Choir Oh Happy Day
With Bon Jovi
Main article: Bon Jovi discography
Studio albums
* Bon Jovi (1984)
* 7800° Fahrenheit (1985)
* Slippery When Wet (1986)
* New Jersey (1988)
* Keep the Faith (1992)
* These Days (1995)
* Crush (2000)
* Bounce (2002)
* Have a Nice Day (2005)
* Lost Highway (2007)
* The Circle (2009)
Compilation albums
* Cross Road (1994)
* Tokyo Road: Best of Bon Jovi (2001)
* This Left Feels Right (2003)
Live albums
* One Wild Night Live 1985-2001 (2001)
Box Sets
* 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong (2004)
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss188/KowboiCash/Jon%20Bon%20Jovi/JBJ161.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll19/locohicana65/STUFF/42af48da.jpg
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss188/KowboiCash/Jon%20Bon%20Jovi/JBJ157.jpg
I used to love Bonjovi videos. :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: gibbo on 03/02/10 at 4:09 pm
I think Bon Jovi was underrated. Jon and Richie are great singing together and playing acoustically.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: Frank on 03/02/10 at 4:39 pm
Most be true, how else could you come up with that show. ;D
I have watched it recently. Weird stuff. I know lots of girls who had a crush on jack in that show.
I used to be afraid of witchie-poo a little.
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 4:59 pm
I used to love Bonjovi videos. :)
I think Bon Jovi was underrated. Jon and Richie are great singing together and playing acoustically.
I love Bon Jovi :)
Subject: Re: ninny's New Person & Word of the Day
Written By: ninny on 03/02/10 at 5:00 pm
I have watched it recently. Weird stuff. I know lots of girls who had a crush on jack in that show.
I used to be afraid of witchie-poo a little.
I never was afraid of her, but was afraid of the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz.