Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Srivastava; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician, who works in Hindi cinema. In a film career spanning over five decades, he has starred in more than 200 films. Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. He is referred to as the Shahenshah of Bollywood, Sadi Ke Mahanayak (Hindi for, "Greatest actor of the century"), Star of the Millennium, or Big B. His dominance in the Indian movie scenario during the 1970s80s made the French director François Truffaut call it a "one-man industry".

Bachchan was born in 1942 in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) to the Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and his wife, the social activist Teji Bachchan. He was educated at Sherwood College, Nainital, and Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi. His film career started in 1969 as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's film Bhuvan Shome. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s for films such as Anand, Zanjeer, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, Deewaar and Sholay, and achieved greater stardom in later years, dubbed India's "angry young man" for several of his on-screen roles in Hindi films. He consistently starred in top grossing Indian films with critical acclaim since mid 1970s to 80s, such as Amar Akbar Anthony, Don, Trishul, Muqaddar Ka Sikander, Suhaag, Dostana, Naseeb, Laawaris, Kaalia, Namak Halaal, Coolie, Sharaabi and Mard, as well as some of his most acclaimed performances include Namak Haraam, Abhimaan, Majboor, Mili, Chupke Chupke, Kabhi Kabhie, Kaala Patthar, Shaan, Silsila, Shakti, Shahenshah and Agneepath. After taking break from acting in 1990s, his resurgence marked in 2000 with Mohabbatein. Since then he starred in several successful and acclaimed films such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Aankhen, Baghban, Black, Bunty Aur Babli, Sarkar, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Cheeni Kum, Paa, Piku, Pink and Badla. For Piku, he won his fourth National Film Award for Best Actor, making him the only actor to do so. Bachchan also made an appearance in a Hollywood film, The Great Gatsby (2013), in which he played a non-Indian Jewish character.

He has won numerous accolades in his career, including record four National Film Awards in Best Actor category and many awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies. He has won sixteen Filmfare Awards and is the most nominated performer in any major acting category at Filmfare with 34 nominations in Best Actor and 42 nominations overall. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2015 and India's highest award in the field of cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2018 for his contributions to the arts. The Government of France honoured him with its highest civilian honour, Knight of the Legion of honour, in 2007 for his exceptional career in the world of cinema and beyond.

In addition to acting, Bachchan has worked as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter. He has hosted several seasons of the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati, India's version of the game show franchise, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. He also entered politics for a time in the 1980s. Bachchan has also been involved in several humanitarian works and he is a leading brand endorser in India. Beyond the Indian subcontinent, he acquired a large overseas following of the South Asian diaspora, as well as others, in markets including Africa (South Africa, Eastern Africa and Mauritius), the Middle East (especially UAE and Egypt), the United Kingdom, Russia, Central Asia, the Caribbean (Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago), Oceania (Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand), Canada and the United States. Bachchan was voted the "greatest star of stage or screen" by BBC Your Millennium online poll in 1999. In October 2003, TIME magazine dubbed Bachchan the "Star of the Millennium".

Early life and family

Bachchan was born on 11 October 1942 in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) to the Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and social activist Teji Bachchan. Harivansh Rai Bachchan was an Awadhi Hindu Kayastha, who was fluent in Awadhi, Hindi and Urdu. Harivansh's ancestors came from a village called Babupatti, in the Raniganj tehsil, in the Pratapgarh district, in the present-day state of Uttar Pradesh, in India. Teji Bachchan was a Punjabi Sikh Khatri from Lyallpur, Punjab, British India (present-day Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan). Bachchan has a younger brother, Ajitabh who is 5 years younger than him.

Bachchan's parents were initially going to name him Inquilaab (Hindustani for "Revolution"), inspired by the phrase Inquilab Zindabad (which translates into English as "Long live the revolution") popularly used during the Indian independence struggle; the name Amitabh was suggested to his father by poet Sumitranandan Pant. Although his surname was Shrivastava, Amitabh's father, who opposed the caste system, had adopted the pen name Bachchan ("child-like" in colloquial Hindi), under which he published all of his works. When his father was looking to get him admitted to a school, he and Bachchan's mother decided the family's name should be Bachchan instead of Shrivastava. It is with this last name that Amitabh debuted in films and used for all other practical purposes, Bachchan has become the surname for all of his immediate family. Bachchan's father died in 2003, and his mother in 2007.

Bachchan's secondary education was at Boys' High School & College in Allahabad and Sherwood College in Nainital. He attended Kirori Mal College at the University of Delhi in Delhi. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Kirori Mal College in 1962. When Bachchan finished his studies his father approached Prithviraj Kapoor, the founder of Prithvi Theatre and patriarch of the Kapoor acting family, to see if there was an opening for him, but Kapoor offered no encouragement. Bachchan was a friend of Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi, before he became an actor. He used to spend time with them when he was a resident in New Delhi. Bachchan's family were very close to the Nehru-Gandhi family of politicians. When Sonia Gandhi first came to India from Italy before her marriage, Bachchan had received her at the Palam International Airport on 13 January 1968. She spent 48 days at Bachchan's house with his parents before her marriage to Rajiv.

Bachchan applied for a role as a newsreader for All India Radio, Delhi but "failed the audition". He became a business executive for Bird & Company in Kolkata (Calcutta), and worked in the theatre before starting his film career. It is thought that his mother might have had some influence in Amitabh Bachchan's choice of career because she always insisted that he should "take centre stage".

Acting career

Early career (1969–1972)
Bachchan made his film debut in 1969, as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen's National Award-winning film Bhuvan Shome. His first acting role was as one of the seven protagonists in the film Saat Hindustani, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and featuring Utpal Dutt, Anwar Ali (brother of comedian Mehmood), Madhu and Jalal Agha.

Anand (1971) followed, in which Bachchan starred alongside Rajesh Khanna. His role as a doctor with a cynical view of life garnered Bachchan his first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. He then played his first antagonist role as an infatuated lover-turned-murderer in Parwana (1971). Following Parwana were several films including Reshma Aur Shera (1971). During this time, he made a guest appearance in the film Guddi which starred his future wife Jaya Bhaduri. He narrated part of the film Bawarchi. In 1972, he made an appearance in the road action comedy Bombay to Goa directed by S. Ramanathan which was moderately successful. Many of Bachchan's films during this early period did not do well. His only film with Mala Sinha, Sanjog (1972) was also a box office failure.

Rise to stardom (1973–1974)

Bachchan was struggling, seen as a "failed newcomer" who, by the age of 30, had twelve flops and only two hits (as a lead in Bombay to Goa and supporting role in Anand). He was offered with a dual role movie by the director O.P Goyle, and writer O.P Ralhan for the film Bandhe Hath in 1973. This was Bachchan's first movie where he had played double role. Bachchan was soon discovered by screenwriter duo Salim–Javed, consisting of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. Salim Khan wrote the story, screenplay and script of Zanjeer (1973), and conceived the "angry young man" persona of the lead role. Javed Akhtar came on board as co-writer, and Prakash Mehra, who saw the script as potentially groundbreaking, as the film's director. However, they were struggling to find an actor for the lead "angry young man" role; it was turned down by a number of actors, owing to it going against the "romantic hero" image dominant in the industry at the time. Salim-Javed soon discovered Bachchan and "saw his talent, which most makers didn't. He was exceptional, a genius actor who was in films that weren't good." According to Salim Khan, they "strongly felt that Amitabh was the ideal casting for Zanjeer". Salim Khan introduced Bachchan to Prakash Mehra, and Salim-Javed insisted that Bachchan be cast for the role.

Zanjeer was a crime film with violent action, in sharp contrast to the romantically themed films that had generally preceded it, and it established Amitabh in a new persona—the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema. He earned his first Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actor, with Filmfare later considering this one of the most iconic performances of Bollywood history. The film was a huge success and one of the highest-grossing films of that year, breaking Bachchan's dry spell at the box office and making him a star. It was the first of many collaborations between Salim-Javed and Amitabh Bachchan; Salim-Javed wrote many of their subsequent scripts with Bachchan in mind for the lead role, and insisted on him being cast for their later films, including blockbusters such as Deewaar (1975) and Sholay (1975). Salim Khan also introduced Bachchan to director Manmohan Desai with whom he formed a long and successful association, alongside Prakash Mehra and Yash Chopra.

Eventually, Bachchan became one of the most successful leading men of the film industry. Bachchan's portrayal of the wronged hero fighting a crooked system and circumstances of deprivation in films like Zanjeer, Deewaar, Trishul, Kaala Patthar and Shakti resonated with the masses of the time, especially the youth who harboured a simmering discontent owing to social ills such as poverty, hunger, unemployment, corruption, social inequality and the brutal excesses of The Emergency. This led to Bachchan being dubbed as the "angry young man", a journalistic catchphrase which became a metaphor for the dormant rage, frustration, restlessness, sense of rebellion and anti-establishment disposition of an entire generation, prevalent in 1970s India.

The year 1973 was also when he married Jaya, and around this time they appeared in several films together: not only Zanjeer but also subsequent films such as Abhimaan, which was released only a month after their marriage and was also successful at the box office. Later, Bachchan played the role of Vikram, once again along with Rajesh Khanna, in the film Namak Haraam, a social drama directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and scripted by Biresh Chatterjee addressing themes of friendship. His supporting role won him his second Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1974, Bachchan made several guest appearances in films such as Kunwara Baap and Dost, before playing a supporting role in Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. The film, directed and written by Manoj Kumar, addressed themes of honesty in the face of oppression and financial and emotional hardship and was the top-earning film of 1974. Bachchan then played the leading role in the film Majboor. The film was a success at the box office.

Superstardom (1975–1988)
In 1975, he starred in a variety of film genres, from the comedy Chupke Chupke and the crime drama Faraar to the romantic drama Mili. This was also the year in which Bachchan starred in two films regarded as important in Hindi cinema history, both written by Salim-Javed, who again insisted on casting Bachchan. The first was Deewaar, directed by Yash Chopra, where he worked with Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy, Parveen Babi, and Neetu Singh, and earned another Filmfare nomination for Best Actor. The film became a major hit at the box office in 1975, ranking in at number four. Indiatimes Movies ranks Deewaar amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films. The other, released on 15 August 1975, was Sholay, which became the highest-grossing film ever in India at the time, in which Bachchan played the role of Jaidev. Deewaar and Sholay are often credited with exalting Bachchan to the heights of superstardom, two years after he became a star with Zanjeer, and consolidating his domination of the industry throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, BBC India declared Sholay the "Film of the Millennium" and, like Deewaar, it has been cited by Indiatimes Movies as amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films. In that same year, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare Awards awarded it with the special distinction award called the Filmfare Best Film of 50 Years.

In 1976, he was cast by Yash Chopra in the romantic family drama Kabhie Kabhie. Bachchan starred as a young poet, Amit Malhotra, who falls deeply in love with a beautiful young girl named Pooja (Rakhee Gulzar) who ends up marrying someone else (Shashi Kapoor). The film was notable for portraying Bachchan as a romantic hero, a far cry from his "angry young man" roles like Zanjeer and Deewaar. The film evoked a favourable response from critics and audiences alike. Bachchan was again nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for his role in the film. That same year he played a double role in the hit Adalat as father and son. In 1977, he won his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Amar Akbar Anthony, in which he played the third lead opposite Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor as Anthony Gonsalves. The film was the highest-grossing film of that year. His other successes that year include Parvarish and Khoon Pasina.

He once again resumed double roles in films such as Kasme Vaade (1978) as Amit and Shankar and Don (1978) playing the characters of Don, a leader of an underworld gang and his look-alike Vijay. His performance won him his second Filmfare Best Actor Award. He also gave towering performances in Yash Chopra's  Trishul and Prakash Mehra's Muqaddar Ka Sikandar both of which earned him further Filmfare Best Actor nominations. 1978 is arguably considered his most successful year at the box office since all of his six releases the same year, namely Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Trishul, Don, Kasme Vaade, Ganga Ki Saugandh and Besharam were massive successes, the former three being the consecutive highest-grossing films of the year, a rare feat in Indian cinema.

In 1979, Bachchan starred in Suhaag which was the highest earning film of that year. In the same year he also enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success with films like Mr. Natwarlal, Kaala Patthar, The Great Gambler and Manzil. Amitabh was required to use his singing voice for the first time in a song from the film Mr. Natwarlal in which he starred with Rekha. Bachchan's performance in the film saw him nominated for both the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer. He also received Best Actor nomination for Kaala Patthar and then went on to be nominated again in 1980 for the Raj Khosla directed film Dostana, in which he starred opposite Shatrughan Sinha and Zeenat Aman. Dostana proved to be the top-grossing film of 1980. In 1981, he starred in Yash Chopra's melodrama film Silsila, where he starred alongside his wife Jaya and also Rekha. Other successful films of this period include Shaan (1980), Ram Balram (1980), Naseeb (1981), Lawaaris (1981), Kaalia (1981), Yaarana (1981), Barsaat Ki Ek Raat (1981) and Shakti (1982), also starring Dilip Kumar.

In 1982, he played double roles in the musical Satte Pe Satta and action drama Desh Premee which succeeded at the box office along with mega hits like action comedy Namak Halaal, action drama Khud-Daar and the critically acclaimed drama Bemisal. In 1983, he played a triple role in Mahaan which was not as successful as his previous films. Other releases during that year included Nastik and Pukar which were hits and Andha Kanoon (in which he had an extended guest appearance) was a blockbuster. During a stint in politics from 1984 to 1987, his completed films Mard (1985) and Geraftaar (1985) were released and were major hits. Bachchan had played a role in a special appearance for the film Kaun Jeeta Kaun Haara in the year 1987 and he sang a playback song with Kishore Kumar in this movie.

Coolie incident

On 26 July 1982, while filming a fight scene with co-actor Puneet Issar for Coolie, Bachchan had near-fatal intestinal injury. Bachchan was performing his own stunts in the film and one scene required him to fall onto a table and then on the ground. However, as he jumped towards the table, the corner of the table struck his abdomen, resulting in a splenic rupture from which he lost a significant amount of blood. He required an emergency splenectomy and remained critically ill in hospital for many months, at times close to death. There were long queues of well-wishing fans outside the hospital where he was recuperating; the public response included prayers in places of worship and offers to sacrifice limbs to save him. Nevertheless, he resumed filming later that year after a long period of recuperation. The director, Manmohan Desai, altered the ending of Coolie: Bachchan's character was originally intended to have been killed off; but, after the change of script, the character lived in the end. Desai felt it would have been inappropriate for the man who had just fended off death in real life to be killed on screen. The footage of the fight scene is frozen at the critical moment, and a caption appears onscreen marking it as the instant of the actor's injury. The film was released in 1983, and partly due to the huge publicity of Bachchan's accident, the film was a box office success and the top-grossing film of that year.

Health issues

Later, he was diagnosed with Myasthenia gravis. His illness made him feel weak both mentally and physically and he decided to quit films and venture into politics. At this time he became pessimistic, expressing concern with how a new film would be received, and stating before every release, "Yeh film to flop hogi!" ("This film will flop").

Career fluctuations and sabbatical (1988–1992)
After a three-year stint in politics from 1984 to 1987, Bachchan returned to films in 1988, playing the title role in Shahenshah, which was a box office success. After the success of his comeback film however, his star power began to wane as all of his subsequent films like Jaadugar, Toofan and Main Azaad Hoon (all released in 1989) failed at the box office. He gained success during this period with the crime drama Aaj Ka Arjun (1990) and action crime drama Hum (1991), for which he won his third Filmfare Best Actor Award, but this momentum was short-lived and his string of box office failures continued. Notably, despite the lack of hits, it was during this era that Bachchan won his first National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance as a Mafia don in the 1990 cult film Agneepath. These years would see his last on-screen appearances for some time. After the release of the critically acclaimed epic Khuda Gawah in 1992, Bachchan went into semi-retirement for five years. With the exception of the delayed release of Insaniyat (1994), which was also a box office failure, Bachchan did not appear in any new releases for five years.

Business ventures and acting comeback (1996–1999)
Bachchan turned producer during his temporary retirement period, setting up Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (ABCL) in 1996. ABCL's strategy was to introduce products and services covering an entire cross-section of India's entertainment industry. ABCL's operations were mainstream commercial film production and distribution, audio cassettes and video discs, production and marketing of television software, and celebrity and event management. Soon after the company was launched in 1996, the first film it produced was Tere Mere Sapne, which was a box office hit and launched the careers of actors like Arshad Warsi and southern film star Simran.

In 1997, Bachchan attempted to make his acting comeback with the film Mrityudata, produced by ABCL. Though Mrityudaata attempted to reprise Bachchan's earlier success as an action hero, the film was a failure both financially and critically. ABCL was the main sponsor of the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant, Bangalore, but lost millions. The fiasco and the consequent legal battles surrounding ABCL and various entities after the event, coupled with the fact that ABCL was reported to have overpaid most of its top-level managers, eventually led to its financial and operational collapse in 1997. The company went into administration and was later declared a failed company by the Indian Industries board. The Bombay high court, in April 1999, restrained Bachchan from selling off his Bombay bungalow 'Prateeksha' and two flats until the pending loan recovery cases of Canara Bank were disposed of. Bachchan had, however, pleaded that he had mortgaged his bungalow to raise funds for his company.

Bachchan attempted to revive his acting career, and eventually had commercial success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998) and Major Saab (1998), and received positive reviews for Sooryavansham (1999), but other films such as Lal Baadshah (1999) and Kohram (1999) were box office failures.

Return to prominence (2000–present)
In 2000, Bachchan appeared in Yash Chopra's box-office hit, Mohabbatein, directed by Aditya Chopra. He played a stern, elder figure who rivalled the character of Shahrukh Khan. His role won him his third Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other hits followed, with Bachchan appearing as an older family patriarch in Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love (2001), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) and Baghban (2003). As an actor, he continued to perform in a range of characters, receiving critical praise for his performances in Aks (2001), Aankhen (2002), Kaante (2002), Khakee (2004), Dev (2004) and Veer-Zaara (2004). His performance in Aks won him his first Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.

One project that did particularly well for Bachchan was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black (2005). The film starred Bachchan as an ageing teacher of a deaf-blind girl and followed their relationship. His performance was unanimously praised by critics and audiences and won him his second National Film Award for Best Actor, his fourth Filmfare Best Actor Award and his second Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. Taking advantage of this resurgence, Amitabh began endorsing a variety of products and services, appearing in many television and billboard advertisements. In 2005 and 2006, he starred with his son Abhishek in the films Bunty Aur Babli (2005), the Godfather tribute Sarkar (2005), and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006). All of them were successful at the box office. His later releases in 2006 and early 2007 were Baabul (2006), Ekalavya (2007) and Nishabd (2007), which failed to do well at the box office but his performances in each of them were praised by critics.

In May 2007, two of his films: the romantic comedy Cheeni Kum and the multi-starrer action drama Shootout at Lokhandwala were released. Shootout at Lokhandwala did well at the box office and was declared a hit in India, while Cheeni Kum picked up after a slow start and was a success. A remake of his biggest hit, Sholay (1975), entitled Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, released in August of that same year and proved to be a major commercial failure in addition to its poor critical reception. The year also marked Bachchan's first appearance in an English-language film, Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear, co-starring Arjun Rampal and Preity Zinta. The film premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2007. He received positive reviews from critics who hailed his performance as his best ever since Black. Bachchan was slated to play a supporting role in his first international film, Shantaram, directed by Mira Nair and starring Hollywood actor Johnny Depp in the lead. The film was due to begin filming in February 2008 but due to the writer's strike, was pushed to September 2008. The film is currently "shelved" indefinitely.

Vivek Sharma's Bhoothnath, in which he plays the title role as a ghost, was released on 9 May 2008. Sarkar Raj, the sequel of the 2005 film Sarkar, released in June 2008 and received a positive response at the box office. Paa, which released at the end of 2009 was a highly anticipated project as it saw him playing his own son Abhishek's Progeria-affected 13-year-old son, and it opened to favourable reviews, particularly towards Bachchan's performance and was one of the top-grossing films of 2009. It won him his third National Film Award for Best Actor and fifth Filmfare Best Actor Award. In 2010, he debuted in Malayalam film through Kandahar, directed by Major Ravi and co-starring Mohanlal. The film was based on the hijacking incident of the Indian Airlines Flight 814. Bachchan declined any remuneration for this film. In 2011 he played an aged retired former gangster in Bbuddah... Hoga Terra Baap who protects his son Sonu Sood who is an honest daring police officer from a notorious gangster Prakash Raj who unknowingly hired the latter to perform a contract killing not knowing that the police officer is the gangster's son. Directed By Puri Jagannadh the film won positive reviews and was a commercial success.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut in The Great Gatsby making a special appearance opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. In 2014, he played the role of the friendly ghost in the sequel Bhoothnath Returns. The next year, he played the role of a grumpy father experiencing chronic constipation in the critically acclaimed Piku which was also one of the biggest hits of 2015. A review in Daily News and Analysis (DNA) summarised Bachchan's performance as "The heart and soul of Piku clearly belong to Amitabh Bachchan who is in his elements. His performance in Piku, without doubt, finds a place among the top 10 in his illustrious career." Rachel Saltz wrote for The New York Times, "Piku", an offbeat Hindi comedy, would have you contemplate the intestines and mortality of one Bhashkor Banerji and the actor who plays him, Amitabh Bachchan. Bhashkor's life and conversation may revolve around his constipation and fussy hypochondria, but there's no mistaking the scene-stealing energy that Mr. Bachchan, India's erstwhile Angry Young Man, musters for his new role of Cranky Old Man." Well known Indian critic Rajeev Masand wrote on his website, "Bachchan is pretty terrific as Bhashkor, who reminds you of that oddball uncle that you nevertheless have a soft spot for. He bickers with the maids, harrows his hapless helper, and expects that Piku stay unmarried so she can attend to him. At one point, to ward off a possible suitor, he casually mentions that his daughter isn't a virgin; that she's financially independent and sexually independent too. Bachchan embraces the character's many idiosyncrasies, never once slipping into caricature while all along delivering big laughs thanks to his spot-on comic timing." The Guardian summed up, "Bachchan seizes upon his cranky character part, making Bashkor as garrulously funny in his theories on caste and marriage as his system is backed-up." The performance won Bachchan his fourth National Film Award for Best Actor and his third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.

In 2016, he appeared in the women-centric courtroom drama film Pink which was highly praised by critics and with an increasingly good word of mouth, was a resounding success at the domestic and overseas box office. Bachchan's performance in the film received acclaim. According to Raja Sen of Rediff.com, "Amitabh Bachchan, a retired lawyer with bipolar disorder, takes up cudgels on behalf of the girls, delivering courtroom blows with pugilistic grace. Like we know from Prakash Mehra movies, into each life some Bachchan must fall. The girls hang on to him with incredulous desperation, and he bats for them with all he has. At one point Meenal hangs by Bachchan's elbow, words entirely unnecessary. Bachchan towers through Pink – the way he bellows "et cetera" is alone worth having the heavy-hitter at play—but there are softer moments like one where he appears to have dozed off in court, or where he lays his head by his convalescent wife's bedside and needs his hair ruffled and his conviction validated." Writing for Hindustan Times, noted film critic and author Anupama Chopra said of Bachchan's performance, "A special salute to Amitabh Bachchan, who imbues his character with a tragic majesty. Bachchan towers in every sense, but without a hint of showboating. Meena Iyer of The Times of India wrote, "The performances are pitch-perfect with Bachchan leading the way. Writing for NDTV, Troy Ribeiro of Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) stated, 'Amitabh Bachchan as Deepak Sehgall, the aged defence lawyer, shines as always, in a restrained, but powerful performance. His histrionics come primarily in the form of his well-modulated baritone, conveying his emotions and of course, from the well-written lines.' Mike McCahill of The Guardian remarked, "Among an electric ensemble, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang give unwavering voice to the girls' struggles; Amitabh Bachchan brings his moral authority to bear as their sole legal ally.

In 2017, he appeared in the third instalment of the Sarkar film series: Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar 3. That year, he started filming for the swashbuckling action adventure film Thugs of Hindostan with Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh which released in November 2018. He co-starred with Rishi Kapoor in 102 Not Out, a comedy drama film directed by Umesh Shukla based on a Gujarati play of the same name written by Saumya Joshi. This film released in May 2018 and reunited him with Kapoor onscreen after a gap of 27 years.

In 2019, he played the role of Badal Gupta in Sujoy Ghosh's Badla. Later that year, he made his Telugu debut in Surender Reddy's Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy as Gosayi Venkanna. He did Gulabo Sitabo in 2020 for which he received Filmfare Critics Award For Best Actor. In 2021, he appeared in Rumy Jaffery's mystery thriller Chehre along with Emraan Hashmi. In 2022, he did 5 films: Jhund, Runway 34, Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, Goodbye and Uunchai.

He is all set to appear in Nag Ashwin's Kalki 2898 AD.

Other work

Television appearances
In 2000, Bachchan hosted the first season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), the Indian adaptation of the British television game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The show was well received. A second season followed in 2005 but its run was cut short by Star Plus when Bachchan fell ill in 2006. He then returned to host the fourth season, and has hosted the show since.

In 2009, Bachchan hosted the third season of the reality show Bigg Boss.

In 2010, Bachchan hosted the fourth season of KBC. The fifth season started on 15 August 2011 and ended on 17 November 2011. The show became a massive hit with audiences and broke many TRP Records. CNN IBN awarded Indian of the Year- Entertainment to Team KBC and Bachchan. The Show also grabbed all the major Awards for its category.

The sixth season was also hosted by Bachchan, commencing on 7 September 2012, broadcast on Sony TV and received the highest number of viewers thus far.

In 2014, he debuted in the fictional Sony Entertainment Television TV series titled Yudh playing the lead role of a businessman battling both his personal and professional life.

Voice-acting
Bachchan is known for his deep, baritone voice. He has been a narrator, a playback singer, and presenter for numerous programmes. Some prominent films featuring his narration are Satyajit Ray's 1977 film Shatranj Ke Khiladi. and Ashutosh Gowarikar's 2001 film Lagaan.

He also has done voice-over work for the following movies:

 Bhuvan Shome (1969)
 Bawarchi (1972)
 Balika Badhu (1975)
 Tere Mere Sapne (1996)
 Hello Brother (1999)
 Lagaan (2001)
 Fun2shh... Dudes in the 10th Century (2003)
 Parineeta (2005)
 March of the Penguins (2005), Indian version
 Jodhaa Akbar (2008)
 Swami (2007)
 Zor Lagaa Ke...Haiya! (2009)
 Ra.One (2011)
 Kahaani (2012)
 Krrish 3 (2013)
 Mahabharat (2013)
 Kochadaiiyaan (Hindi Version) (2014)
 CBI documentary (2014) – sanctioned by Central Bureau of Investigation
 The Ghazi Attack (2017)
 Firangi (2017)

Business investments
Around 1994, Bachchan started Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL), an event management, production and distribution company. But the company led into debt with fiasco and gone into bankruptcy, subsequently Bachchan became nearly bankrupt. Reasons of this debacle was flop films such as Mrityudata, Major Saab (produced by this organisation), Miss World 1996 which was organised-managed by ABCL. Due to this he began work for TV, asked for work to Yash Chopra. Once he told that, 'it was darkest time for him'.

He has invested in many upcoming business ventures. In 2013, he bought a 10% stake in Just Dial from which he made a gain of 4600 per cent. He holds a 3.4% equity in Stampede Capital, a financial technology firm specialising in cloud computing for financial markets. The Bachchan family also bought shares worth $252,000 in Meridian Tech, a consulting company in U.S. Recently they made their first overseas investment in Ziddu.com, a cloud based content distribution platform.
Bachchan was named in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, leaked confidential documents relating to offshore investment.

Political career
In 1984, Bachchan took a break from acting and briefly entered politics in support of a long-time family friend, Rajiv Gandhi. He contested the Allahabad's (presently Prayagraj Lok Sabha constituency) seat for the 8th Lok Sabha against H. N. Bahuguna, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. With 68.2% of the votes in his favour, he won by one of the highest victory margins ever in Indian elections. In 1987, Indian Express said his brother Ajitabh Bachchan owned an apartment in Switzerland, giving rise to speculations about his involvement in the "Bofors scandal", revealed in the year before. Bachchan resigned from his seat in July 1987. Ajitabh Bachchan sued Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter for linking him to Bofors payments in 1990 and won damages in the United Kingdom. Sten Lindstrom, the Swedish police chief who had investigated the case, said in 2012 that "Indian investigators planted the Bachchan angle on" Dagens Nyheter.

Bachchan's old friend, Amar Singh, helped him during the financial crisis caused by the failure of his company, ABCL. Thereafter Bachchan started supporting the Samajwadi Party, the political party to which Amar Singh belonged. Jaya Bachchan joined the Samajwadi Party and represented the party as an MP in the Rajya Sabha. Bachchan appeared in advertisements and political campaigns for the party. His claim that he too was a farmer in the advertisements were questioned in courts.

Bachchan has claimed to have been banned by film press during the emergency years for his family's friendship with Indira Gandhi.

Bachchan has been accused of using the slogan "blood for blood" in the context of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Bachchan has denied the allegation. In October 2014, Bachchan was summoned by a court in Los Angeles for "allegedly instigating violence against the Sikh community". Bachchan in an interview with journalist Arnab Goswami offered to fight the case in court and asked the accusers to file the same as also present proof. He was also one of the trustees of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

Humanitarian and social causes
Bachchan has been involved with many social causes. For example, he donated  to clear the debts of nearly 40 beleaguered farmers in Andhra Pradesh and  to clear the debts of some 100 Vidarbha farmers. In 2010, he donated  to Resul Pookutty's foundation for a medical centre at Kochi, and he has given  () to the family of Delhi policeman Subhash Chand Tomar who died after succumbing to injuries during a protest against gang-rape after the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. He founded the Harivansh Rai Bachchan Memorial Trust, named after his father, in 2013. This trust, in association with Urja Foundation, will be powering 3,000 homes in India with electricity through solar energy. In June 2019 he cleared debts of 2100 farmers from Bihar.Bachchan was made a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for the polio Eradication Campaign in India in 2002. In 2013, he and his family donated  () to a charitable trust, Plan India, that works for the betterment of young girls in India. He also donated  () to the Maharashtra Police Welfare Fund in 2013.

Bachchan was the face of the 'Save Our Tigers' campaign that promoted the importance of tiger conservation in India. He supported the campaign by PETA in India to free Sunder, a 14-year-old elephant who was chained and tortured in a temple in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

In 2014, it was announced that he had recorded his voice and lent his image to the Hindi and English language versions of the TeachAids software, an international HIV/AIDS prevention education tool developed at Stanford University. He has been a vocal "brand ambassador" of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and featured in a few advertisements to promote the campaign.

In 2020, Bachchan was helping the Government of India promote its public health message concerning COVID-19 before he and some members of his family themselves became infected. He was hospitalised with reported mild symptoms of the disease on 11 July. He was discharged from hospital on 2 August. During the pandemic he lent his support by donating Oxygen concentrators and 25 cr rupees in various forms.

Personal life

Bachchan has been married to veteran actress and politician Jaya Bhaduri since 3 June 1973, when he was 30 years old, and together they have two children; Abhishek, an actor, and Shweta, an author, journalist and former model. Abhishek married actress Aishwarya Rai, and they have a daughter named Aaradhya. Shweta is married to businessman Nikhil Nanda who is a part of the Kapoor family of actors. They have a daughter, Navya Naveli, and a son, Agastya. Amitabh's family lives in Mumbai in Maharashtra. His younger brother Ajitabh Bachchan is a businessman. He did business and lived in London for brief period of time. Presently he is living in India. He and his family choose to stay away from limelight. His wife Ramola is a fashion designer and was active in business. Ajitabh has one son, Bhim, and three daughters Naina, Namrata and Nilima. Naina Bachchan is married to actor Kunal Kapoor.

Bachchan was famously rumoured to have had an extramarital affair with actress Rekha in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s after they first acted together in Do Anjaane, and later in many successful films like Khoon Pasina, Ganga Ki Saugandh, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Mr. Natwarlal, Suhaag, Ram Balram and ending in Silsila, though they have both denied it.

Filmography

Legacy

Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. He earned respect among critics for his memorable performances and charismatic screen presence, is also considered one of the most respected public figures of India.  Referred to as the "Shahenshah of Bollywood", "Star of the Millennium" or "Big B", He inspired many great and successful Indian cinema actors for many generations including Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Kamal Hassan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpayee, Ajay Devgn, Mohanlal, Ranveer Singh, Allu Arjun and Yash. Referred to as the "Shahenshah of Bollywood", "Star of the Millennium" or "Big B", French director François Truffaut called him a "one-man industry."

In 1999, Bachchan was voted the "greatest star of stage or screen" in a BBC Your Millennium online poll. The organisation noted that "Many people in the western world will not have heard of [him] ... [but it] is a reflection of the huge popularity of Indian films." In October 2003, TIME magazine dubbed Bachchan as "the Undisputed Godfather of Bollywood". In April 2005, The Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center in New York honored Bachchan with a special tribute, retrospective—titled "Amitabh Bachchan: The Biggest Film Star in the World".

In the early 80s, Bachchan authorised the use of his likeness for the comic book character Supremo in a series titled The Adventures of Amitabh Bachchan. In May 2014, La Trobe University in Australia named a Scholarship after Bachchan. In June 2000, he became the first living Asian to have been modelled in wax at London's Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Another statue was installed in New York in 2009, Hong Kong in 2011, Bangkok in 2011, Washington, DC in 2012 and Delhi in 2017.

In March 2010, Bachchan has been named the list of CNN's "top 25 Asian actors of all time". He was named "Hottest Vegetarian male" by PETA India in 2012. He also won the title of "Asia's Sexiest Vegetarian male" in a contest poll run by PETA Asia in 2008.

In Allahabad, the Amitabh Bachchan Sports Complex and Amitabh Bachchan Road are named after him. A government senior secondary school in Saifai, Etawah is called Amitabh Bachchan Government Inter College. There is a waterfall in Sikkim known as Amitabh Bachchan Falls.

In 2022, on the occasion of Bachchan's 80th birthday, not-for-profit organisation Film Heritage Foundation announced a film festival as a part of his 11 films collection had screened in 17 cities across the country shown in limited movies theatres.

Biographies

Several books have been written about Bachchan. The following is the listing of books focused on his life career:

Amitabh Bachchan: the Legend was published in 1999,
To be or not to be: Amitabh Bachchan in 2004,
AB: The Legend (A Photographer's Tribute) in 2006,
Amitabh Bachchan: Ek Jeevit Kimvadanti in 2006,
Amitabh: The Making of a Superstar in 2006,
Looking for the Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me in 2007 and
Bachchanalia in 2009.

Awards and honours

Apart from industry awards won for his performances throughout the years, Bachchan has received several honours for his achievements in the Indian film industry. In 1991, he became the first artist to receive the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, which was established in the name of Raj Kapoor. Bachchan was crowned as Superstar of the Millennium in 2000 at the Filmfare Awards.

In 2001, he was honoured with the Actor of the Century award at the Alexandria International Film Festival in Egypt in recognition of his contribution to the world of cinema. Many other honours for his achievements were conferred upon him at several International Film Festivals, including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Asian Film Awards.

In 2003, he was conferred with the Honorary Citizenship of the French town of Deauville. The Government of India awarded him with the Padma Shri in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 2001, the Padma Vibhushan in 2015 and Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2019. The then-President of Afghanistan awarded him the Order of Afghanistan in 1991 following the shooting of Khuda Gawah there. The Government of Madhya Pradesh honoured him with Rashtriya Kishore Kumar Samman for 2002–2003.

France's highest civilian honour, the Knight of the Legion of honour, was conferred upon him by the French Government in 2007 for his "exceptional career in the world of cinema and beyond". On 27 July 2012, at the age of 69, Bachchan carried the Olympic torch during the last leg of its relay in London's Southwark.

Bibliography
 Soul Curry for You and Me – An Empowering Philosophy That Can Enrich Your Life. (2002)

See also
 List of Bollywood actors
 Lists of Indian actors

References

Further reading

External links

1942 births
Officers of the Legion of Honour
Male actors in Hindi cinema
Male actors from Mumbai
Indian actor-politicians
Indian amateur radio operators
Indian male film actors
Hindi film producers
Indian male singers
Bollywood playback singers
Indian television presenters
Indian male voice actors
Living people
Best Actor National Film Award winners
Male actors from Prayagraj
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
India MPs 1984–1989
Lok Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh
Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in arts
Indian male playback singers
People named in the Panama Papers
Film producers from Mumbai
20th-century Indian male actors
21st-century Indian male actors
Male actors in Hindi television
Indian male television actors
Politicians from Prayagraj
Film producers from Uttar Pradesh
People from New Alipore
Filmfare Awards winners
Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Screen Awards winners
International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Zee Cine Awards winners
Indian Hindus
Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients
People named in the Paradise Papers

Amitabh Bachchan


Strathaven Castle is located in the centre of the small town of Strathaven, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The ruin is closed to the public and has been for 5 years. A Friends of Strathaven Castle Group was set up in February 2023 to promote the repair and renewed access to the towns major landmark.

The castle can be found at grid reference . Also known as Avondale Castle, the ruin and mound is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

History
The origins of the castle are obscure, but it is believed to have been built around 1350 by the Bairds, on a bend of the Powmillon Burn. Later the castle passed to the Sinclairs and then to the Earls of Douglas. After the suppression of the Earls of Douglas by James II in 1455, the castle was sacked and slighted. Little or nothing of the early castle remains.

In 1457 Strathaven was granted to Sir Andrew Stewart, an illegitimate grandson of Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany. Stewart, who later became Lord Avondale, either rebuilt the earlier castle, or built a new castle on the same site. In 1534 it passed to Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who expanded the buildings. A letter of 1559 mentions that it was here, at 'Straverin', that Master Patrick Buchanan, brother of George Buchanan, taught the children of Regent Arran.

It changed hands one last time in 1611, when the castle was sold to James, Marquis of Hamilton. The last occupant was Anne, Duchess of Hamilton (1632–1716), whose main residence was Hamilton Palace. The castle was abandoned in 1717.

The castle

Strathaven Castle is built on a rocky, partly artificial mound, and was defended to the east, south and west by the steep banks of the Powmillon Burn. A barmkin surrounded the top of the mound, traces of which remain to the west of the castle.

The castle comprised a three-storey rectangular block, around 11.2m by 21.2m, with a four-storey round tower at the north-west corner, and a small projecting wing at the south-east. Of this, the north wall and the tower remain almost complete, with fragments of the other walls. Internally, the remains of a collapsed basement vault can be seen.

Modern concrete infill has obscured much of the original detail, although a remnant of 15th-century-style corbelling remains visible. The round tower has several wide gunloops, and was probably added in the 16th century, and incorporates an improbably low entrance. Salter (1993) concludes that, although the door must originally have been larger, it "does not appear to have had a lower threshold, as a plinth continues below".

When part of the castle walls collapsed, or were demolished, a human skeleton was supposedly found. An information board outside the castle expands on the story:

"According to tradition, the wife of a past lord so greatly displeased her husband that she was walled up alive in part of the Castle wall. Nothing is recorded of her crime, yet it is said that she was led into a small purpose-built niche, blessed by a priest, given some food and water, and then walled up forever. When a portion of the walls fell down in the middle of the 19th Century human bones were discovered, giving some credence to this story.".

The information board records the local tradition that several ley tunnels run from the castle to the Sweetie's Brae, the Mill brae, and to the tower. When the road was built below the castle no sign of these tunnels was found.

Notes

References
Coventry, Martin The Castles of Scotland (3rd Edition), Goblinshead, 2001
Mason, Gordon The Castles of Glasgow and the Clyde, Goblinshead, 2000
Salter, Mike The Castles of South West Scotland, Folly Publications, 1993
National Monuments Record of Scotland Site Reference NS74SW 9

External links
Strathaven Castle Website

Castles in South Lanarkshire
Listed castles in Scotland
Scheduled Ancient Monuments in South Lanarkshire
Strathaven

Strathaven Castle


Sir William Christopher Macdonald (10 February 1831 – 9 June 1917) was a Canadian tobacco manufacturer and major education philanthropist in Canada. Though born in Prince Edward island, he is considered a Scots-Quebecer.

Early life and career
Born William Christopher McDonald in 1831 at Tracadie, in what was then the British Colony of Prince Edward Island, he was sixth of seven children of The Hon. Donald Macdonald (1795-1854) and Anna Matilda (1797-1877), daughter of The Hon. Ralph Brecken. In 1772, as a consequence of the Jacobite Rebellion, Macdonald's paternal grandfather, John MacDonald of Glenaladale, the 8th laird of Glenaladale (of the MacDonalds of Clan Ranald), purchased more than  of land in Prince Edward Island for settlement by more than 200 members of his Roman Catholic clan. Known today as the Glenaladale Settlers, in Canada the family name had been recorded as McDonald, which he maintained until 1898, when he began using the historical Scottish spelling but without capitalizing the "d".

As a youth, Macdonald rebelled against the authoritarian rule of his father and his Roman Catholic upbringing. Although his mother was Protestant, Macdonald and his siblings were raised in the Roman Catholic faith. At the age of sixteen he renounced the church, choosing to become a non-practising Christian. At eighteen he left his Island home, making his way to the United States, where he found clerical work in Boston. Although he had limited education, Macdonald quickly showed an entrepreneurial spirit and, joined by his brother Augustine, he organized himself as a broker to handle the shipping of American-made goods to merchants in his native Prince Edward Island. However, after a ship carrying some of his merchandise sank in an ocean storm, the venture had severe problems and Macdonald closed the business and left Boston.

Tobacco enterprise and the American Civil War

The Macdonald brothers moved to the then Province of Canada where they settled in Montreal, a city that was then undergoing an economic boom. There, they made a living as brokers, earning commissions from the resale of a variety of products until 1858 when they opened McDonald Brothers and Co., a company that made tobacco products. The business procured tobacco leaf from suppliers in the southern United States that was converted to pipe and chewing tobacco at their small Montreal facility.

While the use of tobacco products was growing in popularity, the American Civil War afforded the fledgling company an opportunity that brought enormous financial success, leading to Macdonald Brothers becoming the preeminent company in the field in Canada. Virtually all of the tobacco growers were located in states that were part of the Confederacy and with the onset of the war, the northern states faced a huge shortage of tobacco leaf. Because Macdonald's company was in Canada, he was able to buy the leaf from the South and have it brought by ocean cargo vessels to Montreal. There, it was processed then the finished product was shipped to the tobacco-starved market in the northern United States.

Despite the fortune that Macdonalds' tobacco made, Macdonald himself often said that he was ashamed of his business, seeing smoking as a "filthy and disgusting habit and even forbade its consumption in his presence", and referring to his shame as a source of his philanthropy. That was also perhaps why his company's slogan was "Tobacco with a heart".

Postbellum career and philanthropic activities

At the end of the Civil War, the company continued to prosper and by the early 1870s, it had more than five hundred employees. During this period, Macdonald bought out his brother's stock position and soon began using the great wealth he had earned to undertake philanthropic endeavors.

Macdonald's philanthropic efforts at McGill University began because of his close relationship with John William Dawson, the principal of the university at the time. Macdonald, never having had a family of his own, soon became extremely fond of the whole Dawson family. In fact, he would later build the Macdonald-Harrington building (currently houses the Department of Architecture) in honor of Dawson's daughter Anna marrying the university geologist and future head of the chemistry department, Bernard J. Harrington.

In 1870, he provided the funding for ten scholarships to McGill University, a program that continues to this day. However, this marked only a small beginning of the massive funding he would bestow on the university where he would serve on the Board of Governors for more than thirty years. His generosity paid for the cost to construct buildings at McGill University to house new chemistry and physics departments, and, jointly with fellow Montrealer Thomas Workman, the engineering building. In each of these cases, for a time, Macdonald even bore the faculty costs for the new departments as government funding was limited. When the university's engineering building burned down, Macdonald paid the costs to rebuild it. That building was named in his honor. As a result of these expanded facilities, the university began to establish an international reputation that would attract the likes of Ernest Rutherford to teach and where he did the work which earned him the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

When real estate developers purchased the property at the southwest corner of the University campus to build a hotel, Macdonald stepped in and bought the property at a premium then gave it to the university. However, to ensure McGill was not subjected to other unwanted commercial development that would limit the university's future growth, he purchased and donated 25 acres (100,000 m2) north of the main campus which became the site for Molson Stadium, the gymnasium, and Douglas Hall.

Macdonald's love of nature and rural life led to his establishing a new type of specialized school in cooperation with Dr. James W. Robertson, the then Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairying for the Government of Canada. Built in Quebec, the Maritime Provinces and Ontario, and aimed at those wanting to make their living in rural agriculture environments, these school's curriculum included manual training programmes, domestic sciences, and horticulture. Concurrently, Macdonald established a training fund for agricultural teachers but this first interest in agricultural studies soon led to the creation of his most important legacy. From fellow Montreal businessman Robert Reford, in 1904 Macdonald purchased three farm properties in an area on the western end of Montreal Island known as Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. On the 300 acres (1.2 km2), he planned and built Macdonald College, an agriculture training institute. Constructed in 1905-06 and opened in the fall of 1907, the large multi-building facility's entire construction and furnishing costs were funded entirely by Macdonald who also provided a $2 million operating endowment. In his will, he left the college a further $1 million for the operating fund. It is now part of McGill University and houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.

Macdonald was one of the major stockholders in the Bank of Montreal and served on its boards of directors. Beyond his philanthropic gifts for education purposes, he also donated substantial funds to the Montreal General Hospital. Just as rural life was important to him, so was the city and he served as a volunteer director of the Montreal Parks and Playgrounds Association. Named President and Chancellor of McGill University in early 1914, Macdonald also provided funding to create McGill University College of British Columbia which ultimately became the University of British Columbia.

Legacy

Macdonald died in 1917 and was interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. A proponent of bilingualism, his will established travelling fellowships for the McGill University Faculty of Law that paid the costs for English-speaking Quebec lawyers to study the French language and the history of the French Civil Code in France. The money Macdonald donated to philanthropic causes was unparalleled in the history of Canada yet despite his wealth and good works, he remained a humble man who avoided publicity. He was deeply proud of his Scottish heritage, and the image of a Scottish lass has adorned the packaging of Macdonald tobacco products for nearly a century. However, Macdonald personally disliked tobacco and admitted to feeling ashamed that he made a living from such a business. Five years after his death, his company expanded its facilities to the mass production of cigarettes.

A lifelong bachelor, Macdonald bequeathed his tobacco company to Walter and Howard Stewart, the two sons of company manager David Stewart. The company remained in the Stewart family until 1973 when David M. Stewart (1920–1984) sold it to the American tobacco giant R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and used the proceeds to establish the Macdonald Stewart Foundation for charitable causes. Macdonald and/or the Macdonald Stewart Foundation funded the following facilities at McGill University:

 Macdonald Campus – until 1971 known as Macdonald College.
 Macdonald Engineering Building
 Macdonald-Harrington Building
 Macdonald-Stewart Library Building (formerly Macdonald Physics Building)
 Stewart Biological Sciences Building
 Macdonald Park (the land on which several buildings including the Molson Stadium, McConnell Arena, Currie Gymnasium and upper campus residences are located)
 Two Sir William C. Macdonald Chairs in the Law Faculty

Macdonald also founded and funded the Macdonald Institute (c. 1903) at the University of Guelph, as well as the Macdonald Hall women's residence, now the main building for the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.

References

Other references
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
W.C. Macdonald Museum website
Virtual McGill: Macdonald Park
Fong, William, Sir William C. Macdonald: A Biography, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007, 306 pgs.

1831 births
1917 deaths
Canadian Knights Bachelor
Canadian philanthropists
Chancellors of McGill University
Scottish knights
Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople
People from Queens County, Prince Edward Island
Businesspeople from Prince Edward Island
Canadian people of Scottish descent
Colony of Prince Edward Island people
American Civil War industrialists
Anglophone Quebec people
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Japan Tobacco
Burials at Mount Royal Cemetery

William Christopher Macdonald


Chengkau is a mukim in Rembau District, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.

In its early years, Chengkau town was built near the old railway station (the station building still exists) but later was moved near the access road (the Seremban to Tampin road). In the 1980s, half of the town was burned down, and this was later rebuilt with more modern structures.

In 2010, the decision was taken to build a new flyover to cater for the rapid growth of Chengkau. Chengkau also connecting with Pulau Mampat and Astana Raja.

References

Mukims of Negeri Sembilan
Rembau District

Chengkau


Bennett's long-tailed monitor (Varanus bennetti) is a species of monitor lizard in the family Varanidae. It is found in Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Etymology
The specific epithet, bennetti, is in honor of the late biologist Dr. Daniel Bennett and his life-long commitment to the study and conservation of monitor lizards.

Taxonomy
Together with the related Mariana monitor (V. tsukamotoi), the species was formerly considered conspecific with the mangrove monitor (V. indicus).

Distribution
It is found in Koror, Ngeaur and Ngcheangel islands in Palau and Yap and Losiap islands in the Federated States of Micronesia. A disjunct population is also known from Sarigan in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Due to the remoteness of its habitats, it was formerly suggested that populations of V. bennetti were actually populations of V. indicus introduced by either the native Micronesians or the German or Japanese colonial empires. However, fossils, linguistic evidence and literary records indicate that the monitor lizards were present on the islands for much longer than expected, and thus likely represented an endemic species to the region, which DNA sequencing has also affirmed. However, the Ulithi population may originate from a recent introduction.

The population on Sarigan is extremely isolated from the other populations of V. bennetti, and the monitors of all neighboring islands are V. tsukamatoi rather than bennetti. This has raised the question of whether humans transported V. bennetti to Sarigan. However, it is very unlikely that humans would have transported the species all that way and there are notable genetic differences in the Sarigan population, indicating that the species naturally reached that area.

Ecology
Monitors on Palau are generally more terrestrial in nature and take refuge in terrestrial habitats, and on Ngeaur they are most abundant in the island's rocky limestone interior. This is in contrast to most other species in the V. indicus group, which take refuge in trees and are most common in coastal habitats. Their diet consists primarily of the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans), insects, and smaller lizards.

Relationship with humans
Due to the species formerly being considered an introduced population of V. indicus, there have been many attempts to control or cull populations, which may be harmful to the species' survival. Cane toads were introduced to Kayangel in Palau to reduce lizard predation on livestock, and the demise of the mangrove monitors led to an increase in numbers of beetles known to be harmful to coconuts. Bounty programs in the early 2010s are known to have culled hundreds of monitors in Angaur, Palau. There have also been plans to eradicate the species from Losiap. It has been recommended that V. bennetti be treated as an indigenous species worthy of conservation.

References

Varanus
Reptiles described in 2020
Reptiles of Palau
Fauna of the Northern Mariana Islands
Fauna of the Federated States of Micronesia

Bennett's long-tailed monitor


Unstoppable is a 2010 American disaster action thriller film directed and produced by Tony Scott, written by Mark Bomback, and starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. It is based on the real-life CSX 8888 incident, telling the story of a runaway freight train and the two men who attempt to stop it. It was the last film Scott directed before his death in 2012.

The film was released in the United States on November 12, 2010, by 20th Century Fox. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $167 million against a production budget between $85–100 million. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound Editing at the 83rd Academy Awards, but lost to Inception.

Plot

While two yard hostlers are moving a mixed-freight Allegheny and West Virginia Railroad (AWVR) train at Fuller Yard in northern Pennsylvania, Dewey, the engineer, realizes that a trailing-point switch ahead is not correctly aligned and leaves the cab of lead locomotive 777 to change it, setting the throttle to idle. However, it pops into full power before he can get back on, leaving the train unattended going south at full speed down the mainline.

Believing the train is coasting, Dewey calls yardmaster Connie Hooper, who orders lead welder Ned Oldham to get ahead of the train in his pickup truck and switch it off the main track, but when he arrives to find that the train has already passed, they realize it is running on full power. Connie alerts Oscar Galvin, VP of Train Operations, and contacts local, county, and state police, asking them to block all level crossings, while Ned continues to chase 777 in his truck. Federal Railroad Administration inspector Scott Werner, while visiting Fuller Yard to meet with students on a Railroad Safety Campaign excursion train, warns that eight of 777's 39 freight cars contain highly toxic and flammable molten phenol, which would cause a major disaster if the train should derail in a populated area.

Connie suggests they purposely derail the train while it passes through unpopulated farmland. Galvin dismisses her opinion, believing he can save the railroad money by lashing the train behind two locomotives helmed by veteran engineer Judd Stewart, slowing it down enough for AWVR employee and U.S. Marine veteran Ryan Scott to descend from a helicopter to the control cab; but Ryan is knocked unconscious during the attempt when 777 suddenly lunges forward as he touches down. Stewart attempts to divert 777 to a siding but fails; he is killed when his locomotives derail at a switch and the diesel fuel ignites, destroying the lash-up locomotives. Galvin realizes that 777 will derail on the elevated track of the Stanton Curve, near the heavily populated southern Pennsylvania town of Stanton, and decides to derail it purposely just north of the smaller town of Arklow.

Meanwhile, veteran AWVR railroad engineer Frank Barnes and conductor Will Colson, a new hire preoccupied with a restraining order from his wife Darcy, are pulling 25 cars with locomotive 1206 on the same line going north. Ordered onto a siding off the mainline, they narrowly pull into a RIP track before 777 races by, smashing through their last boxcar. Frank observes that 777's last car has an open coupler and proposes that they travel in reverse and attempt to couple their engine to the runaway, using 1206's brakes to slow down 777 before it reaches the Stanton Curve. Will uncouples their own cars while Frank reports his plan to Connie and Galvin, warning that Galvin's idea of using portable derailers will fail given 777's momentum. Galvin threatens to fire Frank, who informs Galvin that he is already being forced into early retirement. Galvin threatens to fire Will, as well as Connie when she speaks up for them, but they ignore him and continue their pursuit.

As Frank predicted, the train barrels through the portable derailers unhindered, to Galvin's horror. Knowing that Frank's plan is their only chance at preventing disaster, Connie and Werner take control of the situation from Galvin. Meanwhile, Darcy learns from her sister about Will's involvement in the chase, while Frank's daughters learn of their father's involvement from TV news coverage at the Hooters where they both work.

Frank and Will catch up to 777's trailing hopper car and attempt to engage the coupler. When the locking pin will not engage, Will kicks it into place, but his foot gets crushed in the process. Will hobbles back to 1206's cab, and Frank tries to slow 777 with the independent brakes, but makes little headway with 777 still under power. Will stays in the cab to work the dynamic brakes and throttle while Frank makes his way along the top of 777's cars in a risky attempt to engage the handbrakes on each car. Eventually, 1206's dynamic brakes burn out and the train starts gaining speed again. Using the independent air brake, Will coordinates brake timing with Frank by radio and they manage to reduce speed enough to clear the Stanton Curve. As 777 picks up speed, Frank finds the path to 777's cab blocked. Ned arrives in his truck on a road parallel to the tracks, and Will jumps onto the bed of Ned's truck. Ned races to the front of 777 where Will leaps onto the locomotive, reduces the throttle to idle, and applies the brakes, finally bringing the runaway train to a safe stop. Darcy arrives with her and Will's son and reunites with him, and Connie comes to congratulate the men, who are hailed as heroes.

Before the closing credits, it's revealed that Frank is promoted and later retires with full benefits. Will is reconciled with Darcy, who is expecting their second child, recovers from his injuries and continues working with AWVR. Connie is promoted to Galvin's VP position, while it's implied that Galvin was fired for his poor handling of the incident. Ryan makes a full recovery, and Dewey, who is held liable for causing the incident, is fired from his job and goes on to work in the fast food industry.

Cast
 Denzel Washington as Frank Barnes, a veteran railroad engineer.
 Chris Pine as Will Colson, a young train conductor.
 Rosario Dawson as Connie Hooper, the yardmaster of Fuller Yard.
 Ethan Suplee as Dewey, a hostler who accidentally instigates the disaster.
 Kevin Dunn as Oscar Galvin, vice-president of AWVR train operations.
 Kevin Corrigan as Inspector Scott Werner, an FRA inspector who helps Frank, Will, and Connie.
 Kevin Chapman as Bunny, a railroad operations dispatcher for Fuller Yard.
 Lew Temple as Ned Oldham, a railroad lead welder.
 T. J. Miller as Gilleece, Dewey's conductor, also a hostler.
 Jessy Schram as Darcy Colson, Will's estranged wife.
 David Warshofsky as Judd Stewart, a veteran engineer and Frank's friend, who dies in an attempt to slow the runaway train.
 Andy Umberger as Janeway, the president of AWVR.
 Elizabeth Mathis as Nicole Barnes, Frank's daughter who works as a waitress at Hooters.
 Meagan Tandy as Maya Barnes, Frank's daughter who works as a waitress at Hooters.
 Aisha Hinds as a Railroad Safety Campaign coordinator in an excursion train to Fuller Yard for a field trip designed to teach schoolchildren about railroad safety.
 Scott A Martin as Brewster Dispatcher, a railway dispatcher guiding Frank and Will on the tracks to safety.
 Ryan Ahern as Ryan Scott, a railway employee and US Marine veteran of the war in Afghanistan who is injured in an attempt to stop the runaway.
 Jeff Wincott as Jesse Colson, Will's brother whom Will is living with at the start of the film.

Production
Unstoppable suffered various production challenges before filming could commence, including casting, schedule, location, and budgetary concerns.

In August 2004, Mark Bomback was hired by 20th Century Fox to write the screenplay Runaway Train. Robert Schwentke signed on to direct Runaway Train in August 2005, with plans to begin shooting in early 2006. In June 2007, Martin Campbell was in negotiations to replace Schwentke as director of the film, now titled Unstoppable. Campbell was attached until March 2009, when Tony Scott came on board as director. In April, both Denzel Washington and Chris Pine were attached to the project.

The original budget had been trimmed from $107 million to $100 million, but Fox wanted to reduce it to the low $90 million range, asking Scott to cut his salary from $9 million to $6 million and wanting Washington to shave $4 million off his $20 million fee. Washington declined and, although attached since April, formally withdrew from the project in July, citing lost patience with the film's lack of a start date. Fox made a modified offer as enticement, and he returned to the project two weeks later.

Production was headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the fictional "Allegheny and West Virginia Railroad" depicted in the movie is headquartered. Filming took place in a broad area around there including the Ohio cities of Martins Ferry, Bellaire, Mingo Junction, Steubenville, and Brewster, and in the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh, Emporium, Milesburg, Tyrone, Julian, Unionville, Port Matilda, Bradford, Monaca, Eldred, Mill Hall, Turtlepoint, Port Allegany, and Carnegie, and also in Portville, New York and Olean, New York. The film is the most expensive ever to be shot in Western Pennsylvania.

The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad's Buffalo Line was used for two months during daylight, while the railroad ran its regular freight service at night. The real-life bridge and elevated curve in the climactic scene is the B & O Railroad Viaduct between Bellaire, Ohio and Benwood, West Virginia.

A two-day filming session took place at the Hooters restaurant in Wilkins Township, a Pittsburgh suburb, featuring 10 Hooters Girls from across the United States. Other interior scenes were shot at 31st Street Studios (then the Mogul Media Studios) on 31st Street in Pittsburgh. Principal photography began on August 31, 2009, for a release on November 12, 2010.

Filming was delayed for one day when part of the train accidentally derailed on November 21, 2009.

Locomotives
The locomotives used in the movie were borrowed from three railroads: the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway (W&LE), and the Southwest Pennsylvania Railroad (SWP).

Four GE AC4400CWs leased from CP were used to depict the locomotives used on the runaway train, 777 and trailing unit 767. CP 9777 and 9758 played 777 and 767 in early scenes, and CP 9782 and 9751 were given a damaged look for later scenes. These four locomotives were repainted to standard colors in early 2010 by Canadian Pacific following the filming, but the black and yellow warning stripes from the AWVR livery painted on the plows of each locomotive were left untouched (except for 9777's plow) and remained visible on the locomotives.

Most of the other AWVR locomotives seen in the film, including chase locomotive 1206, and the locomotive consist used in an attempt to stop the train, 7375 and 7346, were played by EMD SD40-2s leased from W&LE. 1206 was depicted by three different SD40-2s: W&LE 6353 and 6354, and a third unit that was bought from scrap and modified for cab shots. 6353 and 6354 were returned to the W&LE and painted black to resume service, but 6354's windshield remains jutted forward from the AWVR livery. Judd Stewart's locomotive consist 7375 and 7346 were played by W&LE 6352 and 6351, which also played two locomotive "extras" (5624 and 5580), wearing the same grey livery with different running numbers. The Railroad Safety Campaign excursion train locomotive (RSC 2002) was played by a SWP EMD GP11 rebuilt from an EMD GP9. The two passenger coaches carrying schoolchildren were provided by the Orrville Railroad Heritage Society in Orrville, Ohio.

Inspiration

Unstoppable was inspired by the 2001 CSX 8888 incident, in which a runaway train ultimately traveled  through northwest Ohio. Led by CSX Transportation SD40-2 #8888, the train left Stanley Yard in Walbridge, Ohio with no one at the controls, after the driver got out of the slow-moving train to correct a misaligned switch, mistakenly believing he had properly set the train's dynamic braking system, much as his counterpart (Dewey) in the film mistakenly believed he had properly set the locomotive's throttle (in the CSX incident, the locomotive had an older-style throttle stand where the same lever controlled both the throttle and the dynamic brakes; in fact, putting on "full throttle" and "full brakes" both involved advancing the same lever to the highest position after switching to a different operating mode. Thus if the engineer failed to properly switch modes, it was easy to accidentally apply full throttle instead of full brake, or vice-versa.)

Two of the train's tank cars contained thousands of gallons of molten phenol, a toxic ingredient used in glues, paints, and dyes. The chemical is very dangerous; it is highly corrosive to the skin, eyes, lungs, and nasal tract. Attempts to derail it using a portable derailer failed, and police had tried to engage the red fuel cutoff button by shooting at it; after having three shots mistakenly hit the red fuel cap, this ultimately had no effect because the button must be pressed for several seconds before the engine would be starved of fuel and shut down. For two hours, the train traveled at speeds up to  until the crew of a second locomotive, CSX #8392, coupled onto the runaway and slowly applied its brakes. Once the runaway was slowed down to , CSX trainmaster Jon Hosfeld ran alongside the train, and climbed aboard, shutting down the locomotive. The train was stopped at the Ohio State Route 31 crossing, just south-southeast of Kenton, Ohio. No one was seriously injured in the incident.

RSC 2002 was inspired by a CSX Operation Lifesaver passenger train, which was turning around at Stanley Yard and was preparing to head back south after having traveled north from Columbus to Walbridge using the same track CSX 8888 was now on. CSX ended up having to bus the safety train's 120 passengers back to the cities at which they had boarded, including Bowling Green, Findlay, and Kenton.

When the film was released, the Toledo Blade compared the events of the film to the real-life incident. "It's predictably exaggerated and dramatized to make it more entertaining," wrote David Patch, "but close enough to the real thing to support the 'Inspired by True Events' announcement that flashes across the screen at its start." He notes that the dead man switch would probably have worked in real life despite the unconnected brake hoses, unless the locomotive, or independent brakes, were already applied. As explained in the movie, the dead man's switch failed because the only available brakes were the independent brakes, which were quickly worn through, similar to CSX 8888. The film exaggerates the possible damage the phenol could have caused in a fire, and he found it incredible that the fictional AWVR freely disseminated information such as employees' names and images and the cause of the runaway to the media. In the real instance, he writes, the cause of the runaway was not disclosed until months later when the National Transportation Safety Board released its report, and CSX never made public the name of the engineer whose error caused the runaway, nor what disciplinary action was taken.

Soundtrack

The film score was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and the soundtrack album was released on December 7, 2010.

Release
Unstoppable premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, on October 26, 2010. It was released in theaters in the United States on November 12, 2010.

Marketing
A trailer was released online on August 6, 2010. The film went on general release on November 12, 2010.

Home media
Unstoppable was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 15, 2011.

Reception

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 87% certified fresh based on 193 reviews, with an average rating of 6.92/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As fast, loud, and relentless as the train at the center of the story, Unstoppable is perfect popcorn entertainment—and director Tony Scott's best movie in years." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Film critic Roger Ebert rated the film three and a half stars out of four, remarking in his review, "In terms of sheer craftsmanship, this is a superb film." In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis praised the film's visual style, saying that Scott "creates an unexpectedly rich world of chugging, rushing trains slicing across equally beautiful industrial and natural landscapes."

The Globe and Mail in Toronto was more measured. While the film's action scenes "have the greasy punch of a three-minute heavy-metal guitar solo", its critic felt the characters were weak. It called the film "an opportunistic political allegory about an economy that's out of control and industries that are weakened by layoffs, under-staffing, and corporate callousness."

Director Quentin Tarantino highlighted the film in a January 2020 episode of the Rewatchables podcast, and included it in his list of the ten best of the decade. In June 2021, he named it one of his favorite "Director's Final Films". Christopher Nolan also praised the film (particularly its use of suspense), citing it as an influence for his film Dunkirk.

Box office
Unstoppable was expected to take in about the same amount of money as the previous year's The Taking of Pelham 123, another Tony Scott film involving an out-of-control train starring Denzel Washington. Pelham took in $23.4 million during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada. Unstoppable had a strong opening night on Friday November 12, 2010, coming in ahead of Megamind with a gross of $8.1 million. However, Megamind won the weekend, earning $30 million to Unstoppables $23.9 million. Unstoppable performed slightly better than The Taking of Pelham 123 did in its opening weekend. As of April 2011, the film had earned $167,805,466 worldwide.

Awards
The film was nominated in the Best Sound Editing (Mark Stoeckinger) category at the 83rd Academy Awards and nominated for Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie – Action.

See also
 Atomic Train
 Narrow Margin
 Runaway Train
 The Bullet Train (1975) Japanese disaster film
 The Burning Train (1980) Indian film
 Silver Streak

References

External links

 Unstoppable at Metacritic

2010 films
2010 action thriller films
2010s American films
2010s disaster films
2010s English-language films
2010s survival films
20th Century Fox films
Action films based on actual events
American films based on actual events
American action thriller films
American disaster films
American survival films
CSX Transportation
Disaster films based on actual events
Dune Entertainment films
Films about railway accidents and incidents
Films about the United States Marine Corps
Films directed by Tony Scott
Films scored by Harry Gregson-Williams
Films set in 2010
Films set in Pennsylvania
Films set in Pittsburgh
Films set on trains
Films shot in New York (state)
Films shot in Ohio
Films shot in Pittsburgh
Films shot in West Virginia
Films with screenplays by Mark Bomback
Scott Free Productions films
Techno-thriller films
Thriller films based on actual events

Unstoppable (2010 film)


Georg Klein (born 1 March 1964) is a German sound, video and media artist and composer. Based in Berlin, he also lived in Rome, Los Angeles and Istanbul.

Art work

With a background in composition, Georg Klein has developed a multi-faceted artistic practice, in which he works with sound, video, text, and photography. In his installations and interventions – in particular those in public spaces – he intensifies the visual, acoustic, situational and political aspects into an area of tension, in which visitors become involved, either on an interactive or participatory basis.
The point of departure of his work is the investigation of sites and situations. He focuses on their inherent contradictions, which he transforms aesthetically so as to become a topic of discussion and deliberation. The theme of borders and their transgression, in psychological inner space and in political public space, plays an important role in his work, both in terms of content as well as form.
With his site-specific installations, as well as his concert works and radio play-like sound walks, he challenges, in an irritating manner, his public's perception of the border between art and reality. He plays with trans-border, audio-visual communication spaces using techniques such as the artistic fake, which lead the recipient into an uncertain terrain, to question identities, and, in a provocative fashion, forces the visitor to engage in critical reflection.
In recent years, the artistic debate on societal power relations in politics and the economy has been the focus of his artistic as well as curatorial work. His interventions in both physical space and the public media have at times provoked strong reactions from the public and press, as his work has often made use of a subversive-affirmative strategy and has thereby abandoned the safe and secure framework of art.

"Georg Klein's work is an anomaly in both sound and new media art. In sound art there is no other artistic position that deals so intensively and rigorously with social reality and public urban space. While these themes are more widespread in new media art, one finds no other artists in that field who have given the musical and the auditory the same precedence, nor is there the same kind of connection to place that Klein has developed. These two aspects constitute the unique quality of this artist's aesthetic thinking: The precision and sensitivity with which he chooses sounds, noises, images, poems and text compositions for a given project are as unusual as the site-specificity that forms the core of his aesthetic."  (Prof. Sabine Sanio, UdK Berlin).

Education and career

Georg Klein was born in 1964 in Germany. He began his studies in sound engineering and communication studies first at the Technical University of Munich, and later at the Technical University of Berlin. He then studied the philosophy of religion, psychoanalysis, and music ethnology at the Freie Universität Berlin. He worked for three years as a research assistant for a project on the visualization of sound for deaf people and was also a lecturer at the FU Berlin. In 1996, he first emerged as a composer (Berlin International Film Festival) and worked in the following years in the Electronic Studio of the TU Berlin on live electronic and computer music. In 2001, he turned to installation as his artistic form and public space as his performance site  (transition 2001, Ortsklang Marl Mitte German Sound Art Award 2002). From 2001 to 2005, he was chairman of the Berlin Society of New Music (bgnm). He later began to incorporate the medium of video in his work.

In 2003, he founded KlangQuadrat (Sound Square), an office for sound and media art, with Julia Gerlach. Their projects received support from the Capital Cultural Fund in Berlin, the Goethe-Institute, the German Foreign Office, the German-Polish Foundation, and the Schering Foundation. With his project TRASA (2004/2006) he received international attention: he extended public space by connecting two cities for two months ("Bi-medial Space of Contact" in six cities of Europe). Therefore, he developed a concept of interactive media art at certain urban places (subway entrance halls). With the Swiss performance artist Steffi Weismann he created dialogical, interactive installations (pickup 2005, takeaway 2006, venture doll 2008, UNorJUSTNESS A+B 2013). In his installation turmlaute.2: watch tower (2007 / 2014) he worked with a fake by founding a new political organisation which provoked strong reactions in public (http://www.europeanborderwatch.org).

In 2009 two of his most delicate works were realized: Sprich mit mir in the Red-Light-District of Braunschweig and RamallahTours in Israel, this work dealing again with a fake in public space and the internet (http://www.ramallahtours.info). In 2010 he showed a dual audio-visual installation on oriental and occidental assassins: gunmen and martyrs ("Cuts and Creeds") in Berlin and Istanbul, using the self-manifestations of young, male assassins. Borders and their violation – politically and mentally – are the central topic in his exhibition "borderlines" (European Media Art Festival EMAF 2011) including his ongoing work tracing Godwin with an illegal immigrant from Nigeria appearing in the streets of different European cities. With his work GNADE / MERCY (Mannheim, 2012), installed in front of banks and job centers, the work UNzuRECHT / UNorJUSTICE (Switzerland, 2013) and toposonie::spree (Berlin, 2013, see http://www.toposonie.info) he takes up current social themes in order to expand on them in a confusing and ambivalent manner, challenging the viewer/listener to confrontational examination.

In 2015 he got the Dialogue Award of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Germany, for his project European Border Watch Organisation at the European Media Art Festival EMAF in Osnabrueck. The jury (Abina Manning, Olaf Stüber, Peter Zorn) said: "Passing by an official looking office on a local side street, it may happen that a middle-aged person seduces us to engage in a Mephisto like debate. "The European Border Watch" encourages us to police the borders ourselves from the comfort of our own homes. This convincing creepy fake project finally forces us to strengthen our own arguments and be continually vigilant against the slippery slide of fanatical ideas." 'Borders and Migration' are the main topic also in following works like Deep Difference Unit (Daegu, South Korea 2016), Grün Hören / Listening Green (Berlin, 2017) and The Sound before Silence  - Souvenirs from North Korea (Berlin, 2018). In 2020, he received the Audio Walk Award for his soundwalk toposonie::engelbecken, which connects historical radio testimonies with the present in a place steeped in history. He dealt with the recent past in his immersive audiovisual installation Dark Matter(2021), which traces the development of hate speech in radical right-wing music and propaganda and ends with the attack in Halle (Saale) in 2019 Halle_synagogue_shooting.

Georg Klein organized and curated various events and exhibitions, as well in his role as chair of the bgnm (staatsbank berlin, 2001-2005), as co-founder of the Errant Bodies group berlin (since 2013, now: Errant Sound), as curator at the MuseumsQuartier Vienna ("Post Colonial Flagship Store" PCFS, 2014) and at the DYSTOPIE - sound art festival, 2018, funded by Senate of Berlin, and 2020, funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Since 1998, he has held many lectures in Germany and abroad, published numerous essays dealing with sound and media art, as well as art in public space, and he has given workshops, including at the Berlin University of Arts (UdK / Sound Studies) and the Istanbul Bilgi University and in 2015 at the Hochschule für Gestaltung HfG Karlsruhe too. Since 2013, he has been a lecturer in General Studies at the UdK Berlin and currently he is professor for sound art and director of the masters program Sound Studies and Sonic Arts.

Awards and grants
 Stipend by German Academy of Arts, Berlin (2021)
 Audio Walk Award, Germany (2020)
 Residency Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, US (2019)
 Working Stipend by Senat of Berlin in Sound Art / Composition, Berlin (2018)
 Project Space Prize for Errant Sound by Senat of Berlin, Berlin (2016)
 1st prize IGA sound art competition 2017, Berlin (2016)
 EMAF Dialogue Award of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Media Art Festival, Germany (2015)
 Curator in Residence, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Austria (2014)
 Artist in Residence, Taranto, Italy (2013)
 Artist in Residence, Schlossmediale Werdenberg, Switzerland (2013)
 Artist in Residence, quartier21/Tonspur, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Austria (2012)
 Grant by Senat of Berlin at BM Contemporary Art Center Istanbul, Turkey (2010)
 Media-Space-Preis 2006, Skulpturenmuseum Marl / NRW, Germany (2006)
 Scholarship by Deutsche Akademie Rom, Italy (Villa Massimo / Casa Baldi), Italy (2006)
 Scholarship Stiftung Kulturfonds, Germany (2003)
 Scholarship Schloß Wiepersdorf, Germany  (2002)
 Sound Art Scholarship by Senat of Berlin, Germany  (2000)
 Gustav-Mahler Composition Prize Austria (1999)

Works (selection)
 3 new nurses, 3-part sound installation in Schwesternpark Witten (Wittener Tage für zeitgen. Musik, Witten 2022)
 passage, Interactive  sound installation under a traffic bridge (intraregionale, Burgdorf/Hannover 2021)
 Dark Matter, Immersive Sound-Video-Installation (Errant Sound, Berlin 2021)
 The Sound before Silence, sound and video installation with objects (Berlin 2018)
 Fog Zone, audiovisual installation in a fog space, DYSTOPIE - sound art festival (Berlin 2018)
 Grün Hören / Listening Green, permanent sound installation at IGA / Gardens of the World (Berlin 2017)
 Deep Difference Unit, sound sculpture, Art Biennale Daegu (South Korea 2016)
 ungrounded, walk-in space bubble with interactive installation (Hannover 2016)
 European Border Watch Organisation, European Media Art Festival EMAF (Osnabrueck, 2015)
 The Interactive Piano, installation, Festival Klangwerkstatt, Sophiensaele (Berlin, 2014)
 PCFS - Post Colonial Flagship Store, in coop. with Sven Kalden, Exhibition at MuseumsQuartier (Wien, 2014)
 toposonie::spree, sound Walk with smartphone app (Berlin 2013)
 UNzuRECHT A + B, in coop. with Steffi Weismann, installation and performance, Schlossmediale Werdenberg (Switzerland, 2013)
 GNADE / MERCY, intervention in public space and media altar of mercy (Nationaltheater Mannheim, 2012)
 tracing Godwin, participative poster action, Europe, since 2011
 mirror songs, installation at a prison facade (Türkei, Sinopale III, 2010)
 Cuts and Creeds – Young, male assassins in an oriental-occidental perspective, (Berlin/Istanbul, 2010)
 RamallahTours, installation with a travel agency (Umm El Fahem / Tel Aviv, Exhibition "29km" 2009)
 Sprich mit mir, interactive sound installation(Konsumverein, Braunschweig 2009)
 venture doll, in coop. with Steffi Weismann, (Los Angeles 2008)
 sonic parole, Media Facades Festival (Berlin 2008)
 meta.stasen, tram installation (Europ. Zentrum der Künste Hellerau, Dresden 2007)
 turmlaute.2: Wachturm, border project Festival MaerzMusik (Berlin 2007)
 turmlaute.1: Hungerturm, sound and video installation (Rome, German Academy Villa Massimo/Casa Baldi, 2006)
 takeaway, in Koop. mit Steffi Weismann, installationsonambiente Intern. Klangkunstfestival (Berlin 2006)
 sixis, für Sextett mit Spiegelsextett (Berlin 2006)
 DADAyama, in coop. with Tetsuo Furodate (Berlin 2006)
 pickup – Intervention at a Kiosk, in Koop. mit Steffi Weismann (Bern 2005)
 TRASA warszawa-berlin, Ein bimedialer Kontaktraum, (Warschau-Berlin 2004)
 PeerGynt – stage music/conductor, (Berliner Ensemble, director: Peter Zadek, 2004-2008)
 Imperial News, (Rotes Rathaus Berlin 2003, Stiftung Kulturfonds)
 wel-come, sound installation (Schloss Wiepersdorf)
 Ortsklang Marl Mitte – blaues blach – VielKunst.WenigArbeit, (Deutscher Klangkunstpreis 2002)
 transition – berlin junction, interactive sound installation (Philharmonie Berlin, 2001/2002)
 Li.. und die Erde I+II, (Intern. Gustav-Mahler-Kompositionspreis 1999)
 amor fati, (film music, Intern. Filmfestspiele Berlin 1997)

Catalogs or reviews

 borderlines - Auf der Grenze, Thematic catalog of works of Georg Klein, Ed. S.Sanio, German/English, Kehrer 2014,
 Drehung im Kopf, Georg Klein. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Heft 5-2014, Ed. Rolf W. Stoll, Schott Music 2014, ISSN 0945-6945
 BLICK-Interview  by Barbara Kepa with Georg Klein, English, Berliner Pool, 2013
 Gratwanderung zwischen Kunst und Politik 2012, Stefan Fricke / Georg Klein, In: MusikTexte, Issue 135, ISSN 0178-8884
 Stadtkunst als Bild, Text, Klang 2011, Georg Klein Sprich mit mir, In: KUNSTFORUM International, Issue 212: res publica 2.0, Hg. Paolo Bianchi.
 Don't call it art! – On strategies of media art in public space, ISEA 2010 Ruhr Conference Proceedings, Ed. J.Funke, A.Broeckmann et.al., Revolver Berlin 2010,
 29 km Katalog Kunstgalerie Umm El Fahem, Ed. Shlomit Baumann, dt.-arab.-hebr., Jerusalem 2009
 klangstaetten|stadtklaenge Katalog+DVD, Ed.  Allg. Konsumverein e.V., dt.-engl., Braunschweig 2009
 Site-Sounds – On strategies of sound art in public space, In: Organised Sound 14/1, 2009 (Cambridge University Press), ISSN 1355-7718
 Deutsche Video-Kunst / Medien-Raum-Wettbewerb 2006-2008, Katalog,
 sonambiente Klangkunstfestival Katalog, 2006,
 The Making of Alex Katalog Urban Art Stories, 2005,
 transition – berlin junction, eine klangsituation Katalog, 2001,
 Deutscher Klangkunstpreis Katalog, 2002,
 TRASA warszawa-berlin Katalog, 2004,
 Electronic in New Music 2006,
 Unter freiem Himmel – Klangkunst im öffentlichen Raum In: musik|politik, BGNM-Jahrbuch 2002,
 From the sound installation to the sound situation In: Organised Sound 8/2, 2003 (Cambridge University Press), ISSN 1355-7718
 Kazuo Uehara Sound Art in re-unioned City of Berlin. Osaka Univers. Journal of Arts No.18, 2002
 Christa Brüstle: TRASA – Kontaktraum zwischen Warschau und Berlin. In: Positionen 62 (Mühlenbeck b. Berlin, 2005)
 Barbara Barthelmes: Georg Klein oder der Künstler als Orts-Seher. In: Katalog TRASA warszawa-berlin. Kehrer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 2004,
 Doris Kolesch: Gehör-Gänge – Zu Georg Kleins Klangsituation "transition" in Richard Serras Skulptur "Berlin Junction". Art lecture 2002. SFB Kulturen des Performativen, Freie Universität Berlin.
 Sabine Sanio: im vorübergehen? kunst und eingedenken In: textbuch transition, Pfau-Verlag (Saarbrücken, 2001),

References

External links
 Website of the artist (German/English)
 KlangQuadrat/SoundSquare - office for sound and media art Berlin
 English Interview by B.Kepa / Berliner Pool
 Berlin Society of New Music
 sonambiente Sound Art Festival, Interactive takeaway wagon
 DeutschlandRadio Arts Birthday with DADAyama
 Berliner Festspiele: Tower Music
 Sound Art Festival klangstaetten|stadtklaenge

1964 births
Living people
German installation artists
Experimental composers
German sound artists
Technical University of Munich alumni
German video artists
Male classical composers
20th-century male musicians

Georg Klein (composer)


Bursa is a city in northwestern Turkey and the seat of Bursa Province. The population of city is about 2 million. It has a mixed humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa) and a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). Bursa is the fourth largest city, and also one of the most industrialized cities in the country. Sometimes the city is called "Yeşil Bursa" which means "Green Bursa" because of the large parks, forests and gardens in the urban area of the city. Bursa is home of Uludağ University. Uludağ is an important ski resort in Turkey and is a national park to protect the nature in the mountainous area.

Ottoman Empire

Bursa, Turkey


Tyler Hill is an unincorporated community in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along Pennsylvania Route 371,  northeast of Honesdale. Tyler Hill has a post office with ZIP code 18469, which opened on January 14, 1878.

References

Unincorporated communities in Wayne County, Pennsylvania
Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania

Tyler Hill, Pennsylvania