Anthony John Soprano is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO crime drama television series The Sopranos, and portrayed by James Gandolfini. Soprano is a member of the Italian-American Mafia and, especially later in the series, acts as the boss of the fictional North Jersey DiMeo crime family (later called the Soprano family). Usually referred to as Tony, the character was conceived by Sopranos creator and showrunner David Chase, who was also largely responsible for the character's story arc throughout the show's six seasons. Gandolfini was ultimately cast in the role ahead of several other actors including Steven Van Zandt and Michael Rispoli. The character is loosely based on stories from and about an assortment of La Cosa Nostra figures and especially on real-life New Jersey mobsters Ruggerio "Richie the Boot" Boiardo, boss of the North Jersey Genovese crime family, and Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, a former caporegime and de facto boss of the DeCavalcante crime family. Bobby Boriello and Mark Damiano II portrayed Tony Soprano as a child in one episode each, Danny Petrillo played the character as a teenager in three episodes, and James Gandolfini's son Michael Gandolfini portrayed a younger version of the character in the 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.

In the first season, Tony is a caporegime and also serves as acting underboss for ailing acting boss Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile in the DiMeo crime family. Between the first and second seasons, he is promoted to street boss, a position he retains until the sixth season; his uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano is the official boss up until early in the sixth season but has little or no actual power. Throughout the series, Tony struggles to balance the conflicting needs of his actual familywife Carmela, daughter Meadow, son A. J., and mother Liviawith those of the Mafia family he controls. He often displays behavior traits characteristic of a violent sociopath, struggles with depression, and is prone to panic attacks. In the first episode of the series he seeks treatment from Dr. Jennifer Melfi, a character Chase modeled after his own psychiatrist, and remains in therapy on and off up until the penultimate episode of the series.

Both the Tony Soprano character and Gandolfini's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim, with Soprano often being cited as one of the greatest and most influential characters in television history. Gandolfini, for his portrayal of the character, won three Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series, three Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Male Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama as well as two additional SAG Awards for Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Casting
James Gandolfini was invited to audition for the part of Tony Soprano after casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw a short clip of his performance in the 1993 film True Romance, ultimately receiving the role ahead of several other actors due to his large stature and acting abilities.

Anthony LaPaglia was interested in the role but due to his Broadway production and the decision not to go with Fox, he was not considered further. Series creator David Chase invited Steven Van Zandt, who was a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, to audition for the role of Tony Soprano. Van Zandt, who had never acted before, felt that the role should go to an experienced actor, so Chase wrote him into a part that did not exist—as Silvio Dante. Michael Rispoli, who played Jackie Aprile, the ailing boss of the DiMeo family in the first four episodes of the series, was also very close to being cast as Tony Soprano.

In the pilot, Tony was named Tommy—an homage to the character played by James Cagney in The Public Enemy, Tom Powers, but the clearance on naming the character Tom was never given. The name "Tony Soprano" came from a family friend that Chase had named Toby Soprano.

As methods to focus anger into his performances, Gandolfini said he would deliberately hit himself on the head, stay up all night to evoke the desired reaction, drink several cups of coffee, or walk around with a rock in his shoe.

Fictional character biography

Early life
Tony Soprano was born in 1959 (1955 in The Many Saints of Newark) to Livia and Johnny Soprano. His father was a caporegime in the DiMeo crime family. Tony grew up living with his parents and two sisters, Janice and Barbara, in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. Tony's paternal grandfather, Corrado Soprano, was from Avellino, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1911. He was a master stonemason who helped to build a church in Tony's old neighborhood.

In adulthood, Tony recalls how Johnny used Janice as a cover for attending meetings with criminal associates at a children's amusement park, leading him to assume she was his father's favorite child. In therapy, when asked to remember happy childhood memories about his mother, Tony struggles to come up with any; he later describes his mother as a cruel, joyless woman who wore his father down "to a little nub" and who seemed to delight in threatening her children.

Tony has a troubled relationship with Janice, due to her flighty and impulsive nature, which leads to her constantly relying on him for financial and emotional support. Their bond is further complicated in adulthood when she murders her boyfriend, Richie Aprile, one of Tony's subordinates, for striking her during a domestic dispute, leading to her calling on Tony for assistance in disposing of his body.

In high school, Tony met his future wife, Carmela DeAngelis, and became friends with Artie Bucco and Davey Scatino. He was also close to his maternal cousin Tony Blundetto. Their mutual relatives called them Tony-Uncle-Al and Tony-Uncle-Johnny (after their fathers) to tell them apart, although Tony Soprano and his friends would take to calling Blundetto "Tony B". The two Tonys spent summers at the farm of their uncle Pat Blundetto, a former DiMeo soldier allowed to retire from the Mafia due to chronic illness.

When they were in their early twenties, Tony Blundetto was arrested for his part in a hijacking; Tony Soprano was supposed to join him on the job but failed to appear because of a panic attack after an argument with his mother, which resulted in his blacking out and suffering a head injury. For years after, Tony Soprano claimed that he had sustained the injury during a mugging, a story he maintained to allay his guilt. As a young adult, he attended Seton Hall University for a semester and a half before dropping out to pursue a life of crime.

Tony was part of an unofficial crew of young criminals consisting of Silvio Dante, Ralph Cifaretto and Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile, Sr. He and Jackie gained notoriety in the DiMeo family by robbing a card game run by Feech La Manna. Ralph was left out of the plan due to debilitating pain from a venereal disease, leading to a lifelong animosity between the two. Under the tutelage of his father's friend Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri, Tony committed his first murder in 1982, killing a small-time bookie named Willie Overall. Following the murder, Paulie became Tony's mentor in the Mafia, with Paulie eventually settling into a role as Tony's own capo.

Johnny shepherded Tony through his ascendancy until his death in 1986 from emphysema. When he died, Johnny had risen to the level of capo of his crew, as had his older brother, Junior. Junior took over as Tony's mentor, with parental figures Paulie and Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero passing their loyalty to Tony upon his father's death, while Silvio joined the crew. Tony became acting capo of his father's old crew, a position which eventually became permanent.

In 1995, Jackie became acting boss after Ercole "Eckley" DiMeo was sent to prison. The family was prosperous under Jackie's rule until 1998 when he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. With Jackie's death in mid-1998, a succession crisis between Tony and Junior reached a point where a war within the family appeared imminent. However, Tony brought a quick end to the conflict by endorsing Junior as the official boss of the family. Unbeknownst to Junior, Tony secretly struck a deal with the rest of the family to be the true boss, allowing Junior to believe that he is in power and act as a distraction for the FBI.

Narrated killings committed by Tony Soprano
Tony personally committed eight murders during the show. As a boss, he was responsible for the deaths of others killed on his orders. The eight known murders, all explicitly presented onscreen, were:

 Willie Overall, shot and killed by Tony to "make his bones" (become a made man) (1982, in "Remember When").
 Fabian "Febby" Petrulio, strangled by Tony for ratting out members of Paulie and Pussy's crew and joining the witness protection program (1999, in "College").
 Chucky Signore, shot and killed by Tony for conspiring to kill him with Junior (1999, in "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano").
 Matthew Bevilaqua, killed by Tony and Big Pussy for attempting to kill Christopher Moltisanti (Tony's protégé and cousin-in-law) (2000, in "From Where to Eternity").
 Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, executed by Tony, Silvio, and Paulie on a yacht, after they discovered that he was an FBI informant (2000, in "Funhouse").
 Ralph Cifaretto, choked/bludgeoned to death in a fight over Ralph's supposedly killing their prize-winning racehorse "Pie-O-My" for insurance money (2002, in "Whoever Did This").
 Tony Blundetto, shot and killed by Tony with a shotgun for the unauthorized killings of Joe Peeps and Billy Leotardo, to spare him from being the subject of torture from Phil Leotardo in revenge for his brother's death, as well as spare his crew from the threat of retaliation (2004, in "All Due Respect").
 Christopher Moltisanti, suffocated by Tony, following a major car accident with Christopher as the driver and Tony as the passenger, Christopher revealed that he was still using drugs and was worried about going to the hospital (2007, in "Kennedy and Heidi").

It is made clear that some of these murders leave Tony perplexed as to how to cope with the situation; most notably, after murdering Christopher Moltisanti, he feels a rush of relief for finally being rid of an associate whom he feels he can no longer trust. He has to "show the sad face" while the rest of the family grieves, but Tony reassures himself that Moltisanti's murder was necessary, despite the hurt caused to the family.

The murder of Fabian "Febby" Petrulio in "College" is out of retaliation for Febby getting members of Tony's crew sent to prison when he ratted them out to get immunity. Tony does this out of a feeling of justice since he has contempt for Febby getting away with it initially.

The murder of Big Pussy in "Funhouse" weighs heavily on Tony. He is at first tempted to spare his old friend and even seems to be in denial for quite a long time, but in the end, realizes his priorities. In the years to follow, Tony talks about this with Paulie and Silvio, who also participated in the murder, and all three have had haunting dreams of the murder of their friend.

Tony kills Ralph Cifaretto after their horse, Pie-O-My, dies amid suspicious circumstances in "Whoever Did This". Tony tries to confront Ralph about the situation but, after some heated words, Tony loses control and murders Ralph following a violent fight. Though no solid proof was found that the fire killing Pie-O-My was arson, Tony is convinced Ralph did it. It is also implied that this burst of rage could have been fueled by anger over Ralph's brutal murder of stripper Tracee, considering Tony uttered "She was a beautiful, innocent creature. What'd she ever do to you? You fucking killed her!" which could apply to both the female horse and the young woman.

The murder of Matthew Bevilaqua is an act of revenge, which had to be carried out due to the fact that the failed murder attempt on Christopher was an attempt to topple Tony as the boss of the family. Tony takes pleasure in the murder because it was revenge for the attempted hit on a loved one. This murder was the closest Tony came to getting in trouble with the authorities, due to having been seen by a witness (who at first comes forward, but withdraws once he learns of the fact that Tony is a mafioso). In addition to his potential arrest, Tony was also uncomfortable about the murder due to Bevilaqua's young age, and the fact that his dying words were "mommy." This causes Tony to spend more quality time with his own son.

The murder of his cousin, Tony Blundetto (in "All Due Respect"), is solely to save him from a far worse death if he were to fall into Phil's hands, and so that Tony does not lose his reputation as a boss (as well as sparing the other members of his crew from Phil's threats of retaliation, thus preserving their loyalty).

The murder of his nephew, Christopher Moltisanti is not done out of mob-related necessity. Christopher had been addicted to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol for many years and had not conquered his addiction in rehab. While Moltisanti presents a threat to Tony's life and the New Jersey Mob, it is ultimately an emotional reaction. Tony is about to call 911 following a motor vehicle accident.  Christopher, who needs urgent medical attention, tells him that he would "never pass the drug test" and would therefore lose his driver's license. He asks Tony to call for a taxi. Tony looks at the baby seat on the backseat of the SUV which had been destroyed by a tree branch, closes his phone, and suffocates Christopher by holding his nose shut so that he chokes to death on his blood. Tony does not plan to murder Christopher but sees the opportunity after the car accident. Tony is never suspected of this murder.

As a father
Tony lives in North Caldwell, New Jersey with his wife and two children: Meadow Soprano and Anthony (A.J.) Soprano. He also treats Christopher Moltisanti, his wife's first cousin once removed, as a son in many ways.

Tony is often portrayed as a loving father—he attends his children's sporting events regularly and does all he can to ensure they have luxuries and opportunities. He hopes that both his children will escape the life of crime he has led. Tony takes great pride in Meadow's achievements. In Season 1, he is moved to tears by her performance at a choir recital. He often tells people about her aspiration to become a pediatrician.

He also sometimes alienates his children with his behavior. He has always tried to conceal his criminal life from them—something that Meadow saw through early on and A.J. also realizes with guidance from his sister.

Tony's over-protectiveness of Meadow leads to feuds between them on several occasions. For example, her first boyfriend at college is of black and Jewish ancestry and Tony's dislike of him leads him to try to drive him away. Meadow learns of her father's actions and does not speak to him for several months, eventually reconciling at Christmas in 2001.

Meadow's next boyfriend is Jackie Aprile Jr., the son of Tony's old friend, the late Jackie Aprile Sr. Tony had promised Jackie Jr.'s father that he would keep his son out of the Mafia life. Tony is initially pleased with the relationship, believing Jackie to be a hard-working pre-med student from a good family. However, since Jackie's uncle Richie Aprile's release from prison and subsequent death, Tony realizes that Jackie had become more involved in the Mafia when he sees him at strip clubs and a casino.

He eventually beats Jackie up to warn him about abusing his daughter's feelings and confiscates his gun. Tony begins seeing much of himself and his treatment of Carmela in Jackie's relationship with Meadow. Jackie is killed by Vito for his involvement in a robbery at Christopher's and Furio's executive card game, and for shooting a made man, Furio. This drives Meadow to drink and into depression, although they had broken up shortly before his death.

After Jackie's death, Tony accepts Meadow's college friends and gets along well with her fiancé, Finn, before the two separate under unrevealed circumstances.

When Meadow is out for dinner with her "mystery" boyfriend Patrick Parisi, New York mob member Salvatore "Coco" Cogliano walks up to the table and makes remarks about her looks and how "Tony must love tucking you in at night". After taking advice from her mother, Meadow tells Tony, who hides his rage and says Coco is "harmless" and "an idiot". Tony then tracks down Coco and Butch DeConcini at John's Restaurant on East 12th Street in Manhattan. Tony viciously pistol-whips Coco several times with a snubnosed revolver and warns Butch at gunpoint to shut up and remain seated at his table. After breaking off some of Coco's teeth with a curb stomp, Tony leaves the restaurant.

Tony's feelings toward his son are mixed; he worries about his future. From the beginning, Tony has doubts that his son could succeed in the Mafia, telling his therapist, Dr. Melfi that "he'd never make it". His fears are confirmed as A.J. consistently demonstrates throughout the series that he lacks his father's cunning and dominating persona. Tony tells A.J. numerous times that he is proud that his son is gentle and kind. Tony is especially proud of A.J.'s prowess on the football field, even amid his failing grades in high school, but is frustrated with A.J.'s lack of focus after graduation.

After flunking out of Ramapo State, A.J. loafs around the house, parties, and for a time holds a job at Blockbuster until his father gets him a job working construction. There, A.J. meets Blanca, and in Tony's opinion, A.J. does well until he and Blanca break up. Tony worries about A.J.'s depression, the "rotten putrid Soprano gene" that Tony believes he passed down to his son.

Hoping to get A.J. back on track, Tony rekindles A.J.'s friendship with "the Jasons", sons of two of his associates, and A.J. seems to be doing better. With the help of a therapist and medication, A.J. is finally getting back to college, this time at Rutgers University, to take classes and party with girls as Tony believes every college kid should. This later turns sour after A.J. sees his new friends attack a Somali student on a bike and he regresses into depression.

A.J. tries to drown himself in a swimming pool but decides he wants to live; he is unable to escape the pool, however. Tony hears his cries for help and rescues him. After A.J. is released from a mental health ward, Tony and Carmela dissuade him from joining the Army and persuade him instead to become involved in a film bankrolled by Carmine Lupertazzi Jr., with the possibility of opening a club.

Interests and hobbies
Tony is an animal lover and enjoys feeding the ducks that visit his pool. He has a sentimental attachment towards animals, as he had been traumatized by the loss of his childhood dog (as revealed in the episode "In Camelot"), whose name was "Tippy". When he goes to confront Angie Bonpensiero as she is walking her poodle, the dog greets Tony in a friendly manner, which Tony reciprocates. During Christopher Moltisanti's intervention, when Tony hears Christopher accidentally suffocated Adrianna's dog, he is furious, saying, "I oughta suffocate you, you little prick!".

He becomes involved in horse racing through his friend Hesh Rabkin, who owns a stable, and invests in a racehorse named Pie-O-My. When his horse is killed in a fire – possibly set by Ralph Cifaretto – Tony is deeply upset and saddened and kills Cifaretto, yelling: "She was a beautiful innocent creature. What did she ever do to you?" He repeats "You fucking killed her!", while banging Cifaretto's head against the floor.

When informed by Carmela that a black bear has been foraging in his home's backyard while they were separated during Season 5, he reacts with interest, rather than fear. During his stay in the hospital after his shooting, he can be seen reading a book about dinosaurs, given by Carmela. In the series finale, Tony finds a stray cat at his safe house during the war with New York and takes a liking to it. He brings it back to Satriale's, where it stares at the deceased Chris Moltisanti's photo (much to Paulie's dismay).

Tony is seen many times throughout the show engaging in both freshwater and saltwater angling. His son Anthony Jr. sometimes accompanies him on fishing outings. During the second season, he presents his son with a Fenwick rod and a Penn International reel, both extremely high-quality products. In the sixth season, while in Florida with Paulie, he rents a sport fishing boat. He is sometimes haunted by visions of Pussy Bonpensiero incarnated in the form of a fish – presumably a reference to the disposal of his body in the ocean. A Big Mouth Billy Bass novelty singing fish, brought into the Bada Bing by Georgie and another later presented to him as a Christmas present by his daughter Meadow, recalls his nightmare and disturbs him greatly.

Throughout the series, Tony is shown to be a frequent cigar smoker, as well as an occasional cigarette smoker. He can be seen smoking a cigar during important events, such as shortly before being told of his mother's death and when disposing of Ralph Cifaretto's corpse. In the Season 1 episode "A Hit Is a Hit", he gives his doctor and next-door neighbor Bruce Cusamano a box of Cuban cigars as a thank-you gift for referring him to Dr. Melfi.

He is a gun enthusiast and is shown to have an arsenal in his home. He gives guns as birthday gifts to his father-in-law Hugh DeAngelis (in "Marco Polo") and receives one from Bobby Baccialieri on his birthday (in "Soprano Home Movies").

Tony enjoys sports, particularly baseball, football, basketball, golf, and horse racing. He played baseball and football at West Essex High School, and is a fan of the New York Yankees and New York Jets. He has taken A.J. to New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils games occasionally throughout the series. Some objects and posters in A.J.'s room confirm this. He plays golf with Johnny Sack at Upper Montclair Country Club. A large portion of his income is derived from illegal sports betting.

Tony is an amateur yachtsman and has owned two motor yachts throughout the show: Stugots and Stugots II, where several of his affairs take place. The name comes from the Italian phrase sto cazzo, literally meaning "this dick" or "my dick", and depending on the context, "what the fuck" or "my ass".

Tony maintains an avid interest in history, particularly World War II. Throughout seasons 4 and 5, Tony is seen watching Vietnam War documentaries. He is a big fan of President John F. Kennedy and owns one of his captain sailor hats, which he won at an auction. He is often shown watching programs on the History Channel about leaders such as George S. Patton, Erwin Rommel, and Winston Churchill. He reads The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which is quoted by several other characters on the show, particularly Paulie Walnuts.

Tony is often seen watching classic mob films. For example, he is shown watching The Public Enemy (1931) throughout the episode "Proshai, Livushka", which addresses his mother's death. He also shares a love for The Godfather series (wondering what went wrong in the third installment).

Tony listens to classic, progressive rock and pop music, particularly of the 1960s and 1970s. Over the course of the show he is seen to enjoy AC/DC, Deep Purple, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, Rush, Steely Dan, The Clash, The Chi-Lites, The Lost Boys, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and Van Morrison.

Vehicles
Like most of the mobsters in the series, Tony is shown to be partial to Cadillac and Lincoln vehicles. When discussing with Dr. Melfi a bizarre dream in which his penis falls off, he mentions that he went to the guy who used to "work on my Lincoln when I drove Lincolns". For the first four seasons, Tony drives a burgundy 1999 Chevrolet Suburban LT 4x4.

In season 5 he drives a black Cadillac Escalade ESV. This black Escalade is totaled in an accident and quickly replaced with a white Escalade ESV. Tony has this Escalade until the end of the series. He has occasionally used Carmela's Mercedes-Benz E Class station wagon and drove it when they went places together.

Extramarital affairs
Throughout the series, Tony is shown to be a serial adulterer. He typically has mistresses whom he consistently sees for long periods, though he also has several brief one-night stands with strippers from the Bada Bing.

His wife Carmela is tacitly aware of his infidelity and usually views it as a form of masturbation, though sometimes the bottled-up tensions explode in domestic arguments. At the end of Season 4, Irina telephones Carmela in a jealous rage at Tony's cheating on her with her cousin Svetlana, which causes Carmela to finally snap. Carmela throws Tony out of the house and begins divorce proceedings.

Tony has a strong preference for women of European, particularly Italian descent, with dark hair and eyes and exotic features. His mistresses have been, in chronological order, of Russian (Irina and later Svetlana), Italian (Gloria Trillo), Italian-Cuban (Valentina La Paz), and Jewish descent (Julianna Skiff). He favors dark features but also has a few brief flings with blonde American European women, including a stewardess from Icelandic Airways and a medical assistant. He has one very short encounter with an Asian-American escort during "The Test Dream".

Mistresses:
 Irina Peltsin – a young Russian woman whom he sees consistently throughout the first two seasons. She frequently calls Tony's house when drunk, and when Carmela hints that she knows that he is seeing her, he breaks off the relationship. After her suicide attempt, Tony sends Silvio to give her a monetary compensation of $75,000 and try to reason with her about moving on with her life.
 Gloria Trillo – an Italian-American Mercedes-Benz saleswoman with stylish tastes. Tony dates her throughout Season 3 after meeting her at Dr. Melfi's office (Melfi repeatedly expresses her disapproval of their relationship, knowing it will likely turn out a disaster). He eventually stops seeing her when she begins stalking him and calling his house while exhibiting manipulative behaviors reminding him of his own mother (which is foreshadowed very early on when she teases him by saying "poor you", jokingly at first). He also understands through Dr. Melfi's hints that Gloria is trying to use him as a means to commit suicide (akin to the suicide by cop phenomenon). Tony asks Patsy Parisi to threaten her; Parisi tells her that, if she tries again to harass Tony, the last face she'll see will be his, not Tony's, and that "it won't be cinematic". It turns out that it throws her over the edge and she commits suicide soon afterward, hanging herself. This greatly upsets Tony, who blames it on himself as well as Dr. Melfi.
 Valentina La Paz – a beautiful art dealer of Italian and Cuban descent, initially the mistress of Ralph Cifaretto. Tony dates her throughout Season 4. They share a love of horses, and she visits Pie-O-My at the stable with Tony. She accidentally sets her robe on fire in Season 5 while cooking eggs for Tony. Shortly thereafter he decides to get back together with Carmela, and he breaks up with Valentina while she is in the hospital recovering from second-degree burns to her head, face, and arm. Tony offers to take care of any cost related to her treatment, but their relationship ends on bad terms.
 Svetlana Kirilenko – the cousin of Tony's ex- mistress Irina and the manager of a home care nursing business. During her childhood, Svetlana developed osteosarcoma in her leg, which was amputated soon afterward. Tony comments that she looks like the actress Greta Garbo. She was first hired as Livia Soprano's nurse since Janice had left town. Svetlana resurfaces as Uncle Junior's nurse after he suffers a fall at the courthouse. One afternoon while Uncle Junior is asleep, Tony has sex with Svetlana on Junior's sofa but they are caught by Junior's nurse, Branca. Irina soon finds out about this and informs Carmela about the affair, prompting Carmela's violent confrontation of Tony and their ultimate separation. Svetlana later tells Tony that Branca told Irina about their affair after an argument over Svetlana's withholding FICA and other taxes from her paycheck. Tony admires Svetlana for her toughness of spirit and her refusal to allow her disability and misfortune to get in the way of her ambitions. Arguably, Svetlana is the most psychologically balanced of all Tony's extramarital affairs.
 Julianna Skiff – a real estate developer of Jewish descent. She meets Tony in Season 6 when offering to buy a building that he owns, to be converted into a Jamba Juice. They later begin an affair, along with a business relationship, but never consummate their relationship sexually; Tony backs off and decides to be faithful to Carmela, who stuck with him after the shooting and seems re-devoted to him. Julianna eventually dates Christopher Moltisanti and the two begin a very destructive, co-dependent drug habit; she is last seen attending Christopher's funeral service, where she mentions that they had split up.

Therapy
Tony has suffered from panic attacks that sometimes cause him to lose consciousness since his childhood. He has his first on-screen panic attack while cooking sausages at his son's birthday party—this occurs in a flashback in the pilot episode. Tony loses consciousness and causes a small explosion when he drops a bottle of lighter fluid onto the coals. Tony describes the experience of the panic attack as feeling like he had "ginger ale in his skull". This prompts him to seek help for the attacks. After extensive testing that includes an MRI scan and blood work, no physical cause can be found, so Dr. Cusamano refers Tony to psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi.

Tony's therapy allows a discussion of his thoughts and feelings away from both aspects of his life—this forum for reaching into the character's thoughts has been described as a Greek chorus, and as a key for viewers to understand the character.

Tony is initially very resistant to the idea that there was a psychiatric cause for his symptoms. He resents being in therapy and refuses to accept the diagnosis of panic attacks given him by the neurologists who had investigated his illness. Tony begins to open up once Dr. Melfi explains the doctor-patient confidentiality rules. He tells her about the stress of his business life—he has a feeling that he has come in at the end of something and describes a reverence for the glorified "old days" of the Mafia. Tony leaves out the violence associated with his criminal career. Tony tells Dr. Melfi a story about ducks landing in his pool. He describes his mother Livia as a cold, mean-spirited woman with whom he has an openly hostile relationship. By the end of the first session Tony has admitted that he feels depressed, but storms out when Dr. Melfi presses him further about the relationship between his symptoms and the ducks.

When the family visits Green Grove, a retirement community where Tony is trying to place his mother, Livia's derisive outburst prompts a second panic attack. Melfi prescribes Prozac as an anti-depressant, telling him that no one needs to suffer from depression with the wonders of modern pharmacology. Tony fails to attend their next scheduled session.

At their next session, Tony is still reluctant to face his psychological weaknesses. Tony is quick to credit the medication for his improved mood, but Dr. Melfi tells him it cannot be that, as it takes six weeks to work—she credits their therapy sessions. Tony describes a dream where a bird steals his penis. Melfi extrapolates that Tony has projected his love for his family onto the family of ducks living in his pool. This brings him to tears, to his consternation. She tells him that their flight from the pool sparked his panic attack through the overwhelming fear of somehow losing his own family.

In the episode "46 Long", they continue discussing Tony's mother and her difficulties living alone. Tony admits that he feels guilty because his mother could not be allowed to live with his family. We learn that he has been left to care for his mother alone by his sisters. When Dr. Melfi asks him to remember good experiences from his childhood, he has difficulty. He blames Carmela for preventing his mother from living with them. Later they discuss Livia's car accident, and Melfi suggests depression may have contributed to the accident – Tony misunderstands her and becomes angry. Tony has a panic attack while visiting his mother's home after she moves to Green Grove. In a later session, Dr. Melfi pushes Tony to admit he has feelings of anger towards his mother, and he again storms out. During this episode, Tony introduces the concept of him acting like the sad clown – happy on the outside but sad on the inside.

In "Denial, Anger, Acceptance", Tony discusses Jackie's cancer with Dr. Melfi. She tries to use it as an example of Tony's negative thinking contributing to his depression. Tony becomes angry and storms out. He feels she is trying to trick him and manipulate his thoughts using the pictures that decorate her office. After Jackie worsens and Tony is called a "Frankenstein" by a business associate, he returns to therapy to discuss these things with Dr. Melfi. She asks him if he feels like a monster.

In "Fortunate Son", Tony discusses a childhood memory of an early panic attack. He saw his father and uncle mutilate Mr. Satriale, the local butcher, and later fainted at a family dinner made with free meat from Satriale's shop. Dr. Melfi makes a connection between meat and Tony's panic attacks.

Later Dr. Melfi tries prescribing lithium as a mood stabilizer. In the episode "Isabella", Tony sinks into a severe depressive episode and experiences hallucinations—he sees a beautiful Italian woman named Isabella in his neighbor's garden. Tony sees Isabella several times during the episode and later learns that she never existed. Melfi theorizes that Isabella was an idealized maternal figure that Tony's subconscious produced because he was deeply upset about his own mother's actions at the time.

In "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", Tony abruptly ends his therapy and persuades Dr. Melfi to go into hiding when he discovers that Uncle Junior has found out about their sessions.

The relationship between Tony and Dr. Melfi is up-and-down, with Tony reaching a level of comfort with Dr. Melfi that he has never experienced with anyone else before, not even his wife. This closeness leads Tony to have something of a "crush" on Dr. Melfi, something that is unattainable. However, the "prying" from Dr. Melfi is uncomfortable for Tony and he often turns sarcastic and antagonistic towards her, leading to an ongoing strain in their relationship. In the episode when Tony's sister, Janice, goes back to Seattle, it is revealed during a rushed conversation between Janice and Tony that their mother suffers from narcissistic personality disorder.

During the episode "The Second Coming", aired in part II of season six, Melfi's therapist suggests to her that her work with Tony could be considered enabling toward Tony's sociopathic tendencies. Finally, in the penultimate episode of the series, "The Blue Comet", Melfi severs her relationship with Tony after reading research recommended by her therapist that indicates sociopaths can use talk therapy to improve their skills in manipulating others and use what is learned in therapy to become more capable criminals.

Shootings
In the first season, Tony is attacked by William Johnson "Petite" Clayborn and Rasheen Ray, two hitmen sent by Donnie Paduana to execute Tony. Tony sustains an injury to his ear, which is partially shot off, and minor bruises and cuts from crashing his vehicle. One of the two assailants, Clayborn, is shot dead by Ray in an attempt to kill Tony, and Ray is left bruised but runs off.

In the premiere of the sixth season, "Members Only", Junior Soprano, suffering from dementia, believes Tony to be Gennaro "Little Pussy" Malanga, and shoots him in the abdomen. Tony dials 911 but loses consciousness before being able to tell the operator what happened.

In the second episode of the sixth season, "Join the Club", Tony is in a medically induced coma in the hospital. In the second and third episodes, the viewer sees Tony in a dream-like state, eventually arriving at what could be purgatory, where he is greeted by a man who takes the physical form of his late cousin Tony Blundetto. The shadowy figure in the doorway of the house has the profile of his mother, who is dead. The voice of a younger version of his daughter calls him back. At the end of the third episode, he awakes from his coma in a confused but stable state.

By the fourth episode, Tony is mobile and fully aware and has regained his voice. Tony's attitude toward life is changed by his near-death experience. He has yet to discuss his experiences while unconscious with anyone close to him. However, in the Season 6 episode "Kaisha", he admits to Phil Leotardo (who had just suffered a heart attack), that while he was in a coma, he went to a place where he never wants to go again. While talking philosophy with John Schwinn, another patient at the hospital, he mentions that while in the coma he had the experience of being drawn towards somewhere he did not want to go and narrowly avoided it.

In the sixth episode of season 6, part 2, "Kennedy and Heidi", Tony sustains minor injuries in a car accident that seriously injures his nephew, Christopher Moltisanti. Tony suffocates Christopher after this accident. Tony is on bed rest for a few days and quickly recovers. Nonetheless, this gives his family quite a scare and a painful memory of his nearly fatal shooting the previous year.

Dreams
Tony sometimes has vivid dreams that are shown to the viewer. Episodes with dream sequences include "Pax Soprana", "Isabella", "Funhouse", "Everybody Hurts", "Calling All Cars", and "The Test Dream".

In the pilot, Tony tells Dr. Melfi about a dream he had wherein a screw in his belly button when removed, causes his penis to fall off. He tries to find a car mechanic (who had worked on his Lincoln when Tony drove Lincolns) to put it back on, but a duck swoops down and snatches it from his hand.

In "Meadowlands", Tony has a dream that several people in his life are present in Dr. Melfi's office: Hesh Rabkin strolling by the window, A.J. behind the door, Silvio Dante having sex with a woman in the waiting room, and Paulie Walnuts and Big Pussy reading Chinese newspapers. This causes him to worry that people will find out he is seeing a psychiatrist. The dream ends with Tony confronting Melfi, seeing Jackie Aprile, Sr. on his deathbed smoking a cigarette, asking Tony, "You smell that? That's rain," and only to find out that Melfi is his mother, Livia.

In "Pax Soprana", Tony has several dreams and fantasies about Dr. Melfi. He becomes convinced that he is in love with her, but she turns him down when he makes advances toward her.

In "Isabella", Tony, suffering from depression after Big Pussy disappears, acquaints himself with a dental student named Isabella who is staying in the Cusamano home while they are on vacation. He later discovers that he had hallucinated Isabella due to taking too much lithium and that Isabella represented the mother he never had.

In "Funhouse", an extended dream sequence exposes many of Tony's subconscious thoughts and feelings through symbolic and sometimes bizarre events: he attempts suicide to preempt a doctor's diagnosis of early death by dousing himself in gasoline and lighting himself on fire; he witnesses himself shooting Paulie Walnuts to death during a card game; he has an innuendo-laden conversation with Dr. Melfi while sporting a prominent erection, and a fish that speaks with the voice of Big Pussy confirms his suspicions that the longtime friend and soldier is a federal informant.

In "Everybody Hurts", Tony dreams of his ex-mistress Gloria Trillo shortly after learning of her suicide by hanging. He visits her apartment and finds her in a black dress with a black scarf around her neck. She is cooking dinner, and when she goes over to the oven the scarf drapes across Tony. Plaster falls in front of Tony and when he looks up, he sees that the chandelier is almost pulled out of the ceiling. Gloria is suddenly back at the table and offers Tony a choice between seeing what she has under her dress or her scarf. As she begins to peel away the scarf, Tony wakes up and makes his way to the bathroom for some medication.

In "Calling All Cars", Tony has two dreams featuring Ralph Cifaretto. In the first, he is being driven by Carmela in the back of his father's old car while Ralph sits in the passenger seat. A caterpillar is crawling on the back of Ralph's head. Tony's fellow passenger in the back seat changes; Gloria Trillo and Svetlana Kirilenko are both seen. The caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Dr. Melfi later tells him that the dream signifies a change for Ralph (recently killed by Tony) and Carmela being in control, which Tony doesn't like.

In the second dream, Tony follows Ralph to an old house, which Ralph enters. Tony is dressed in trousers, suspenders, and an undershirt. He knocks on the door and a female figure descends slowly in shadow; the door creaks ominously. Tony says he is there for the stonemason job but does not speak English well (Tony's grandfather was an immigrant stonemason). Just as Tony is about to enter the house, he wakes up.

In "The Test Dream", Tony comes to terms with having to kill his cousin Tony Blundetto. The episode reflects on his inner demons and fears, including his children's future, his relationship with his wife, his infidelities, deceased acquaintances—including some who have died by his hand or by his orders—his fate, and his relationship with his father. He is again shown in his father's old car, accompanied by a range of past associates.

In "Join the Club", a comatose Tony finds himself in an alternate universe where he is a law-abiding salesman on a business trip. Among other differences, his accent has changed and his hotel's bartender condescends to him (in sharp contrast to the bartender at The Bing, who is a recurring punching bag for Tony). Tony has mistakenly taken another man's briefcaseKevin Finnerty'salong with all of his identification and work. The episode follows his attempts to discern his identity, recover his briefcase, and get back to his family.

In "Kennedy and Heidi", a stressed Tony Soprano has a dream following the death of Christopher Moltisanti. In this dream, he tells his therapist that Christopher was a burden and that he is relieved that he was dead. After that, he also tells her that he murdered Big Pussy and his cousin Tony Blundetto. Following the dream, he acts differently to his friends and family, trying to see if they also feel relieved now that Christopher is dead.

Legacy and cultural impact

The character of Tony Soprano was the first likable "antihero" character in television. Playwright Craig Wright stated, "A show like The Sopranos has a soothing quality because ultimately there's an unspoken assumption behind it that even the most monstrous people are haunted by the same concerns we're haunted by." Tony Soprano quickly became a pop culture icon during the show's run. In an article for the Los Angeles Times, Chris Lee referred to Tony Soprano as a "cultural sensation" who became the "unlikeliest of sex symbols." On the importance of Gandolfini's performance, Lee stated: "He forever rejiggered television's fascination with morally challenged antiheroes and less-than-physically-perfect protagonists."

The Globe and Mail wrote, "Women made Tony Soprano an unlikely sex symbol – and the men found him no less seductive. Wish fulfillment has always been at the queasy heart of the mobster genre, the longing for a life outside the bounds of convention, mingled with the conflicted desire to see the perpetrator punished for the same transgression. So it was for the fictional men of the straight world on The Sopranos, who were drawn to Tony's flame with consistently disastrous results. Likewise for viewers, for whom a life of taking, killing, and sleeping with whomever and whatever one wants had an undeniable, if conflict-laden, appeal."

The final scene of "Made in America" became the subject of much discussion, controversy, and analysis after its original broadcast. The use of an abrupt cut to black followed by several seconds of silence led many viewers to initially believe that their cable or DVR had cut out at a crucial moment. Opposing interpretations soon emerged among viewers regarding the ultimate fate of Tony, with some believing that he was killed while others believed that he remained alive. The final scene was the subject of extensive interpretation by media and fans alike about Tony's fate; however, Chase consistently refused to give any definitive answers. During a November 2021 interview with Hollywood Reporter, Chase made comments that some took as confirmation that Tony Soprano was in fact killed at the end of the episode.

Following Gandolfini's death on June 19, 2013, his portrayal of Tony Soprano was praised for its influence on subsequent other TV characters. TV Guide columnist Matt Roush stated, "Without Tony, there's no Vic Mackey of The Shield, no Al Swearengen of Deadwood, no Don Draper of Mad Men (whose creator, Matthew Weiner, honed his craft as a writer on The Sopranos)." Similar testimonials were included by his co-stars and colleagues; Bryan Cranston stated that his Breaking Bad character, Walter White, would not have existed without Tony Soprano. Mark Lawson of The Guardian praised Gandolfini for his "towering central performance" as Tony Soprano, writing: "The Sopranos was part of a wave of American TV dramas that finally persuaded cineastes and critics who had been snobbish and dismissive about television as a medium to accept the smaller screen as an artistic equivalent of the larger one. Although many of those who watched and wrote about TV had got this message much earlier, the remarkable and sustained range of Gandolfini's portrayal of Tony Soprano played a major part in ending any remaining inferiority complex about the medium."

Gandolfini's son, Michael, was cast in 2019 for the 2021 film The Many Saints of Newark to play a young Tony Soprano, as a prequel to the show. Michael, having never watched The Sopranos, watched through it to prepare for the role, describing it as an intense process.

References

External links
 HBO Character Profile: Tony Soprano

The Sopranos characters
American male characters in television
Catholicism in fiction
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional bullies
Fictional businesspeople
Fictional capos
Fictional characters based on real people
Fictional characters from New Jersey
Fictional Italian American people
Film characters introduced in 2021
Fictional characters with major depressive disorder
Fictional characters who awoke from a coma
Fictional child abusers
Fictional crime bosses
Fictional gangsters
Fictional domestic abusers
Fictional gamblers
Fictional murderers
Fictional thieves
Fictional torturers
Fictional victims of child abuse
Male film villains
Male villains
Television characters introduced in 1999

sv:Lista över rollfigurer i Sopranos#Tony Soprano

Tony Soprano


BeenVerified is a background check company that provides consumer initiated criminal background and people search services through its website for profit as well as its mobile application "Background Check App." The company also launched additional mobile applications including a reverse number look up called NumberGuru and a registered sex offender tracking app that uses augmented reality to locate  sex offenders.

History

Founded in 2007, Josh Levy and Ross Cohen launched BeenVerified in 2009 and began advertising on national television, as well as on the back of garbage trucks. Initially, the company included a service called StandOut that allowed people to check and verify their own background information to use as a marketing tool online in the form of an embeddable seal as well as see what information employers could potentially find out about them.

Levy and Cohen have discussed the company's pivot from originally focusing on the small business market to becoming a consumer-focused background check service in Inc. and CIO Magazine.

In 2009, BeenVerified launched an iPhone application called the Background Check App, allowing users to use the service on their iPhones.  It was the second background check app for the iOS platform behind the DateCheck app launched by Intelius a year earlier.

In 2010, BeenVerified released a sex offender tracking app for both iOS and Android platforms. The app uses public records such as sex offender registries, geolocation services, and augmented reality to show users the location of sex offenders.

The company released another app in 2011 called "Number Guru", a free reverse phone number look up service.

BeenVerified ranked #26 on the Inc. 5000 list for 2013, including being named the fastest growing company in New York. The company reported revenues of $13.7 million in 2012.

In 2015, BeenVerified launched a caller ID and reverse phone lookup app for the Apple Watch.

Services
BeenVerified uses traditional background methods in addition to Web 2.0 and social networking to return results to a requesting user. Users enter the name and/or email address of the person they are requesting information on and are given information from public records and other privately licensed databases of public record information. The Background Check App released allows users to run background checks with a smartphone. The app uses names and email addresses to run background checks through its website, with the capability of checking anyone in a user's contact list. The services at BeenVerified are not free, and users must pay for access through either a one- or three-month billing plan.

BeenVerified has an opt-out process for anyone wanting to remove their own information from the site. The company has also come under scrutiny in the past for its opt-out process and works with companies to remove their information upon request.

References

External links

Online person databases
Internet properties established in 2007
Companies based in New York City
2007 establishments in New York City

BeenVerified


John Earl Coleman (26 March 1930 – 22 November 2012) was a teacher of Vipassanā (insight) meditation, a form of meditation in Theravada Buddhism. He was born in Tresckow, a mining town in Pennsylvania. After attending his studies, he entered the US Army in the 1950s and served in Korea during the war. Afterwards he joined the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency, and was stationed in Thailand in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He worked officially for the Southeast Asia (SEA) Supply Corporation, advisers to the government of Thailand, as a specialist in criminology.

Vipassanā Meditation

During his years in Thailand he started to take an interest in Vipassanā meditation. Working for the CIA, Mr Coleman used his free time to explore different spiritual paths, as documented in his book The Quiet Mind (1971). He traveled through India, Burma, Japan and Thailand and encountered such legendary spiritual teachers as Jiddu Krishnamurti, Maharishi, and D. T. Suzuki.

After several attempts to study Vipassanā meditation with different monks in Thailand, his search for peace of mind and liberating insights came to fruition in Yangon/Rangoon under the tutelage of the great Vipassanā meditation master Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who had established the International Meditation Center. Sayagyi U Ba Khin was also the teacher of S. N. Goenka and Mya Thwin, also known as Mother Sayamagyi.

At the International Meditation Center in Rangoon Mr Coleman sat a 10-day Vipassanā course with Sayagyi U Ba Khin. In his book he says about the experience, "My enthusiasm to learn let me down. I spent a good part of my time analyzing, speculating, making copious notes, and in my zeal I'm afraid I missed the whole object of the exercise."

He was perhaps being overly critical of himself. He had certainly gained something because otherwise he would have gone on his way and never looked back. Instead, a few years later Mr Coleman returned to Sayagyi's center in Yangon for another course of meditation. This time, he writes, "I put away all my notebooks, pencils and papers and tape recorder and prepared myself to let come what may."

He describes how he immersed himself in the experience of Vipassanā. He went through stages familiar to any meditator. And once he stopped striving to understand, understanding came to him in a moment of transcendent insight. He writes, "I cannot, and never will, lose the memory of that moment. It will always remain absolutely unforgettable and ineradicable in my mind."

Lineage
Coleman's method of practising Vipassanā is based on ten day retreats as he learned from Sayagyi U Ba Khin. Ba Khin elaborated this method especially for householders with families and jobs. Ba Khin himself learned Vipassanā from a layman, Saya Thetgyi, whose teacher was the monk Ledi Sayadaw. Another important teacher of Ba Khin was the monk Webu Sayadaw, who was considered an arhat.

Teaching Meditation
After his travels in Asia, Mr Coleman resumed an ordinary life with his family in England. But in the early 1970s he began to receive visits from young people who had studied Vipassanā with S. N. Goenka in India. At first, Mr Coleman dismissed all such requests to teach meditation. In those years S. N. Goenka was unable to travel to other countries, so he referred some of those western students who were very keen to learn more to Mr Coleman and some others also authorized to teach in the West by Sayagyi U Ba Khin. After his own refresher course with S. N. Goenka in Dalhousie, India, in the mid 1970s, Mr Coleman returned to Europe and at the students' urging and with S. N. Goenka's encouragement, Mr Coleman began to conduct 10-day courses in earnest. He was associated with the International Meditation Centre in the UK for a few years. After resigning as the President of IMC-UK in the 1980's, he continued teaching Vipassanā courses on his own, in many countries all over the world. His teaching career spanned three decades, and he taught regularly in Italy with courses organized by the International Meditation Center (IMC) of Italy, where he authorized some Italian old students to teach on his behalf. He gradually cut back on his teaching schedule in his later years, finally retiring from teaching meditation in 2009.

As a teacher, he was unpretentious and often funny. He had a keen sense of humour while being deprecating with a dead pan seriousness. While being a physically big man, he had a lightness and playfulness that was catching, and his great weight was in proportion to the depth of knowledge of the subject of meditation that emanated from his presence during the sessions of intensive meditation. He did not like to be called a guru, but he saw himself as a good friend with a big heart, always ready to help his students with simple and foolproof tips on meditation.

Autobiography and other Books

His story and his method of teaching meditation is described in his autobiography "The Quiet Mind" and also the italian version, La Mente Tranquilla. - The important Italian writer, Tiziano Terzani, in one of his best-sellers, Un indovino mi disse, describes his ten day's meditation retreat with Mr. Coleman, in 1993. Also another writer, Tim Parks, describes a course with Coleman as teacher, in his book "Teach Us To Sit Still". Moreover, the Italian writer Emilio Lonardo describes his experience as student of john Coleman in his book "Sulla rotta dei ribelli".

Passing
John Coleman was diagnosed with prostate cancer in late 2006. He maintained his composure even facing the final stages of cancer. Months before his death, when meditation students telephoned him, he would joke with them and then talk about meditation. John Coleman, student of Sayagyi U Ba Khin and teacher of Vipassanā meditation, died on the morning of Thursday, November 22, 2012 in Cookham, England.

References

 https://web.archive.org/web/20110817104641/http://www.imcitalia.it/risorse/maestro.htm
 http://www.wise-society.com/salute-e-benessere/archivio/2010/primo-semestre/articoli/lnternational-meditation-center.html
 http://www.healthypages.co.uk/forum/archive/index.php?t-33820.html
 https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://imcitalia.it/risorse/introimc.htm[???]
 http://www.buddhanet.net/bvk_study/bvk001a.htm

2012 deaths
Buddhist meditation
1930 births
American Buddhists
Students of U Ba Khin

John Earl Coleman


In computer science, depth-first search (DFS) is a method used for traversing a graph. It starts at an arbitrary item of a graph and explores as far as possible along each branch before backtracking.

Implementation

Recursive
void depthFirstSearch(Item root) {
    if (root == null) return;
    root.found = true;
    for (Item neighbor : root.neighbors()) {
        if (!neighbor.found) depthFirstSearch(n);
    }
}

Uses

An example: To make a program that searches all the files on your computer, it has to be able to keep track of which folders it has already searched through, so it doesn't look through the same folder twice. So it does this: inside each folder, it goes as far down into subfolders as it can. Every time it checks something to see if it matches, it will write it down on the list as "already searched". Then it will leave and go to the next subfolder. If there are no subfolders left, it will backtrack another step and look in the next bigger folder. It does this until it has looked through everything.

We know that this is the best way to make sure the search program looks through every folder and file once, and only once, because graph theory has proved it.

Related pages
 Linear search
 Binary search
 Breadth-first search

Searching and sorting algorithms

Depth-first search


is a 1959 American science-fiction horror film. Shot in Japan, it was produced by George P. Breakston and directed by Breakston and Kenneth G. Crane from a screenplay by Walter J. Sheldon. Sheldon's script was based on Breakston's story which he originally titled The Split.

The film starred Peter Dyneley as a foreign correspondent in Japan who is given an experimental drug which causes an eye and eventually, a second head to grow from his shoulder. Tetsu Nakamura played the mad scientist, Dr. Suzuki, and Terri Zimmern his assistant, Tara. Jane Hylton also starred as Dyneley's wife.

Plot
American foreign news correspondent Larry Stanford has spent time in Tokyo, Japan and explains to his boss and friend Ian that he looks forward to going home to his wife Linda and the US. His final assignment is to interview the reclusive scientist Dr. Robert Suzuki, who lives atop a volcanic mountain.

The doctor has discovered that human evolutionary alterations may be naturally caused by sporadic atmospheric conditions, but change by chemical means is also possible. The well-meaning Suzuki's few experiments to date have gone very wrong; his last experiment resulted in a serial-killing beast, which Suzuki had to destroy. Despite his past failures, the doctor has invented a new and better formula, and needs only a subject on which to test it.

In response to Larry's inquiries, Suzuki amiably steers the conversation to asking some personal questions such as age and health status, upon which the doctor decides this man is qualified to be a test subject. The doctor's assistant Tara is against proceeding with these experiments being done in the absence of knowledge or consent, but Suzuki counters his opinion that the scientific knowledge to be gained outweighs the ethical considerations and he hopes for better results.

Suzuki sedates Larry with a strong liquor and injects his formula into Larry, resulting which soon begins a long process of personality and physical change. Instead of returning to the US as expected, or returning to work, Larry spends his time inebriated and accompanying Suzuki out on the town, soon beginning an affair with Tara.

Having stopped hearing from Larry, Linda, confused and concerned, travels to Japan. Larry abruptly tells Linda that their marriage is over and he wants a new life with Tara.

Ian makes several attempts to understand and help Larry, including introducing him to the best psychiatrist in Tokyo, but he rages to Ian to leave him alone. At the spot of Dr. Suzuki's right shoulder injection, an eyeball has grown, and his right hand has become a claw.

Wandering into a temple with a praying Buddhist monk, Larry attempts to pour out his confusion and frustrations but the monk doesn't understand English. Stanford steals his prayer bracelet and kills the monk. Arriving at the psychiatrist's office/home after hours, he pounds on the door and breaks in; the psychiatrist phones police but before they arrive, Larry murders the doctor.

Ian finds the incriminating prayer bracelet and takes it to police, who are also concerned about an unusual rash of street murders. They stake out locations where Stanford would be found; again evading them he makes his way to the laboratory of Dr. Suzuki.

Suzuki informs Tara that there is a remedy that is probably capable of causing the monster and Larry Stanford to split apart; unconvinced, she gives Suzuki a suicide knife. Instead, Suzuki murders his other failed specimen, a monster that was once his wife.

When Stanford enters the lab Suzuki is able to inject him. Stanford goes on a rampage, destroying the lab, then following Tara to the volcano. Will the new formula work to salvage Larry?

Cast
 Peter Dyneley as Larry Stanford
 Jane Hylton as Linda Stanford
 Tetsu Nakamura as Dr. Robert Suzuki
 Terri Zimmern as Tara
 Jerry Ito as Police Supt. Aida
 Norman Van Hawley as Ian Matthews
 Toyoko Takechi as Emiko Suzuki
 Kenzo Kuroki as Genji Suzuki
 Alan Tarlton as Dr. H. B. Jennsen
 Shinpei Takagi as Temple Priest
 George Wyman as the Monster

Production
The Manster was an American production filmed in Japan, using a mostly Japanese crew and a number of Japanese actors. The Manster was shot in English. The film had several working titles, including Nightmare and The Two-Headed Monster. It was photographed by David Mason and edited by Kenneth G. Crane. Shinpei Takagi handled the special effects, George Wyman played the titular monster and Hirooki Ogawa composed the soundtrack.

Release
The Manster was released in Japan on July 10, 1959 in Tokyo.

Lopert Pictures released The Manster in the United States on March 28, 1962 as a double feature with Eyes Without a Face. In the United Kingdom, The Manster was released as The Split. The American Film Institute also states that the film premiered in the United States in San Francisco on March 28, 1962, at a run time of 72 minutes.

The film was shown on Elvira's Movie Macabre and later released on DVD.

Reception
In a contemporary review, the Monthly Film Bulletin reviewed a 67-minute version of The Manster titled The Split. The review called the film to be "a pathetic pot-boiler", "never frightening" and an "incredibly far-fetched rehash of all the ingredients of the convention SF-horror film". The review criticized the fact that the second head of the character appears to only "bob up and down on the actor's raincoated shoulder, only visible in night scenes and never in close-up".

In a retrospective review, AllMovie film critic Hal Erickson wrote, "Manster is a favorite among campy horror aficionados and for good reason as it is both unintentionally funny and genuinely creepy...Wait till you see the climax, with the hero battling himself on the edge of a live volcano".

Footnotes

References

External links

 Manster informational site at B-Movie Central (includes images and detailed character descriptions)

1959 horror films
American science fiction horror films
American black-and-white films
Fictional mutants
Mad scientist films
American monster movies
Films directed by George Breakston
Films produced by George Breakston
Films set in Japan
Films shot in Japan
1950s English-language films
1950s monster movies
Films directed by Kenneth G. Crane
Japan in non-Japanese culture

The Manster


That Was the Year That Was (1965) is a live album recorded at the hungry i in San Francisco, containing performances by Tom Lehrer of satiric topical songs he originally wrote for the NBC television series That Was The Week That Was, known informally as TW3 (1964–65).  All of the songs related to items then in the news. The album peaked at #18 on [[Billboard 200|Billboard'''s Top 200 Albums]] on January 8, 1966 and was on the chart for 51weeks.

In October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain. In November 2022, he formally relinquished the copyright and performing/recording rights on his songs, making all music and lyrics composed by him free for anyone to use.

Track listing
Side one:
 "National Brotherhood Week" – 2:35
 "MLF Lullaby" – 2:25
 "George Murphy" – 2:08
 "The Folk Song Army" – 2:12
 "Smut" – 3:15
 "Send the Marines" – 1:46
 "Pollution" – 2:17

Side two:
 "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" – 2:23
 "Whatever Became of Hubert?" – 2:13
 "New Math" – 4:28
 "Alma" – 5:27
 "Who's Next?" – 2:00
 "Wernher von Braun" – 1:46
 "The Vatican Rag" – 2:14

 Topics of songs
Side one
 "National Brotherhood Week" – race relations in the U.S.; specifically, a week-long program sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) held generally during the third week of February from the 1940s through the 1980s. (Lehrer: "It's fun to eulogize the people you despise, as long as you don't let 'em in your school.")
 "MLF Lullaby" – Ribs an ultimately failed U.S. proposal for a multilateral nuclear force as part of NATO
 "George Murphy" – George Murphy, dancer, actor, U.S. Senator from California, and Robert F. Kennedy (D, NY), the putative third senator from Massachusetts. Democratic voters of the time questioned whether an actor with no political experience could function as a Senator. (Lehrer: "Oh, gee, it's great: at last we've got a Senator who can really sing and dance!") He also criticizes Murphy's comments about Mexicans working in the US.
 "The Folk Song Army" – Topical songs as part of the folk revival of the 1960s; also alludes to songs of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, especially "Venga Jaleo" which it excerpts musically. They are mocked as ineffective and having claimed bravery in advocating popular causes. (Lehrer:  "Remember the war against Franco / That's the kind where each of us belongs / Though he may have won all the battles / We had all the good songs")
 "Smut" – Censorship of obscenity, and the 1957 U.S. Supreme Court case Roth v. United States, which coined the expression "redeeming social importance" (Lehrer: "As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my aunt Hortense / To be smut it must be utterly without redeeming social importance"). The song refers to Fanny Hill, which at the time of the recording was engaged in an anti-obscenity case, Memoirs v Massachusetts, that would not be resolved until the following year. It also references Lady Chatterley's Lover, which had been subject to a similar case, R v Penguin Books Ltd, in Britain in 1960.
 "Send the Marines" – The history and habit of using the United States Marine Corps to intervene in other, usually weaker, countries, the latest example being the most recent U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic in April 1965. (In 2003, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix told a Swedish radio program that he did not think that the Invasion of Iraq, "in the way it was justified, was compatible with the UN Charter," and then had the station play this very song.)
 "Pollution" – Environmental pollution (Lehrer: "Turn on your tap / And get hot and cold running crud.")

Side two
 "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" – Nuclear war, Mutually Assured Destruction, nostalgia over past wars, and television news coverage. (Lehrer: "I feel that if any songs are gonna come out of World War III, we'd better start writing them NOW.")  In this, he references a 1904 George M. Cohan song and show, Little Johnny Jones. "Whatever Became of Hubert?" – Hubert Humphrey, then U.S. Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson. The song underscores the idea that going from any office to that of Vice President was actually a step down, because of traditional restrictions imposed by the President. (Lehrer: "Second fiddle's a hard part, I know / When they don't even give you a bow.")
 "New Math" – New Math, a trend at the time in the teaching of mathematics, is ribbed for being overly complex and quite confusing.
 "Alma" – Alma Mahler, who had recently died. Composer and painter; wife, successively, of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel. (Lehrer: "It's people like that who make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that, when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years." Lehrer was 37 at the time of this recording; Mozart died at the age of 35.)
 "Who's Next?" – Nuclear proliferation. An example of one of Lehrer's favorite styles, the List Song, it rattles off numerous places that either had already achieved the capacity to deploy nuclear weapons or could potentially do so, including a U.S. state ("We'll try to stay serene and calm / When Alabama gets the bomb!")  In later years, Lehrer replaced "Alabama" with "Neiman-Marcus."
 "Wernher Von Braun" – Before heading up the U.S. rocket development program during the 1960s Space Race with the Soviet Union, German-American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun had helped develop the infamous V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. Hence the verse: "Once the rockets are up / Who cares where they come down? / That's not my department / Says Wernher Von Braun". (Said Lehrer: "And what is it that will make it possible to spend $20 billion of your money to put some clown on the moon?  Well, it was good old American know-how, that's what − as provided by good old Americans like Dr. [exaggerated accent] Wernher Von Braun.") Contrary to popular belief, von Braun did not sue Tom Lehrer for defamation, nor has Lehrer been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. Lehrer firmly denied those claims in a 2003 interview.
 "The Vatican Rag" – The Second Vatican Council and the reform of Roman Catholic liturgy (Upon performing this song in the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco, Lehrer was harshly criticized by actor Ricardo Montalbán, who happened to be in the audience that night. Montalbán shouted "How dare you make fun of my religion! I love my religion! I will die'' for my religion!"  To which Lehrer responded "Hey, no problem, as long as you don't fight for your religion.")

References

External links
 Tom Lehrer Discography
 Tom Lehrer performing some of the songs on TV in the 1960s

Tom Lehrer albums
1965 live albums
Reprise Records live albums
Warner Records live albums
1960s comedy albums
Live comedy albums
Albums free for download by copyright owner

That Was the Year That Was


Stavros Dimas (, ; born 30 April 1941) is a Greek politician who was European Commissioner for the Environment from 2004 to 2009. From November 2011 to May 2012, he served in the government of Greece as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The New Democracy–PASOK coalition government nominated him for the post of President of Greece in December 2014, but he failed to achieve the necessary votes, forcing the dissolution of parliament.

Early life and education
Stavros Dimas was born in 1941 in the village of Klenia, Corinthia. Dimas studied law at the University of Athens and went on to earn a Master of Laws from New York University.

Career
In 1968 he began working as a lawyer for a firm on Wall Street, moving to the World Bank the following year, where he worked on investments in Africa and the Middle East. In 1975 he returned to Greece to take up the post of deputy governor of the Hellenic Industrial Development Bank (ETVA), while also being a member of the committee preparing Greek accession to the EEC.

Entry into politics
From 1977 he was active in Greek politics as a member of the conservative New Democracy party, being elected as an MP on the nationwide list. He was elected to the Greek parliament ten consecutive times that year.

He went on to hold a variety of ministerial and other political positions:

Deputy Minister of Economic Coordination (28 November 1977 – 10 May 1980)
Minister of Trade (10 May – 11 October 1980)
Minister without Portfolio (11 October 1980 – 21 October 1981)
Parliamentary spokesperson for the New Democracy party (October 1985 – June 1989)
Minister of Agriculture (2 July – 12 October 1989)
Minister of Agriculture (23 November 1989 – 13 February 1990)
Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology (11 April 1990 – 29 July 1991)
Secretary-General of New Democracy (1995–2000)
Senior Member of the Political Analysis Steering Committee of New Democracy (2000–2003)
Head of the New Democracy delegation to the Council of Europe (2000–2004)

European Commission
Dimas served briefly in the Prodi Commission. He was appointed European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs in March 2004, taking over the role from the previous Greek Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou. A major focus of his work during this time involved making it more difficult for states to opt out of the Working Time Directive. The Greek government nominated Dimas for the incoming Barroso Commission which took office on 22 November 2004.

In a speech to a committee of the European Parliament Dimas announced four main priorities for his term in office: climate change, biodiversity, public health, and sustainability. He emphasised the importance of the Kyoto Protocol, the Natura 2000 project, the REACH directive, and the need to better enforce existing EU environmental legislation.

Selection hearing

Concerns were raised in advance by MEPs and many NGOs that by appointing a former Wall Street lawyer and industry minister to the environment post the EU had signalled a decreased commitment to environmental issues in favour of promoting economic competitiveness. However, after some months time, the environment unions quickly endorsed his programme and publicly congratulated him for being able to support the positions of the environmental organizations with great success within the commission. Dimas' role was vital especially since the President, Mr Barroso, was ready to disregard the effects on the environment due to the need to improve economic development.

Questioned by the European Parliament, Dimas took the view that preserving the environment and promoting competitiveness went hand in hand, and that environmental policy could provide a stimulus for technological innovation. Among other statements, he said that GM residues in seeds should be the lowest technically feasible.

Following his hearing Dimas received a sceptical response from most MEPs. Many believed him to have insufficient experience to fulfill the role. Karl-Heinz Florenz, chair of the Environment Committee and a member of the conservative EPP-ED, said that European environment policy needed, "more than just declarations of intention.... If Commission President-designate Barroso puts the Lisbon Strategy on top of the agenda, this must not mean that the primacy of economic over environment policy gets cemented." However, he stressed the need to give Dimas time to 'grow into' his role. The Socialists gave him a qualified approval but criticised his plans as too vague. The Greens and the left-wing GUE/NGL opposed his appointment outright, with the Greens naming him as one of the three "incompetent" Commissioners-designate who prompted them to vote against the commission as a whole. Representatives of industry and the business community welcomed his appointment to the environment post.

In a dramatic change of stance, the Greens endorsed the programme plan by Commissioner Dimas and have argued that their cooperation in environmental issues is harmonic.

Stance on climate change

Dimas led the EU in its tough line on climate change during the first weeks of the new Commission. At UN talks on climate change in Buenos Aires in December 2004 he attempted to negotiate a new system of mandatory emissions reductions to follow the expiration of the initial Kyoto targets in 2012. This approach met with fierce opposition from the U.S., representatives of which refused to even discuss the matter. The Italian environment minister Altero Matteoli broke EU ranks on the issue, proposing voluntary targets after 2012, and saying that it was, "unthinkable to go ahead without the US, China and India."

In response to the refusal of countries to sign Kyoto, such as the United States and Australia (the latter of which exchanged viewpoints with the EU on the matter), the EU has been looking to tax products imported from those countries not taking low-carbon policies on board (Border Tax Adjustments).

When defending the commission's new proposals to climate change in 2007, he claimed "It is clear that the fight against climate change is much more than a battle. It is a world war that will last for many years."

Dimas oversaw the introduction of the EU's emissions trading scheme, that took effect on 1 January 2005, despite emissions reduction plans from Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Greece not having been approved on time. He also sought to include companies operating aircraft under the emissions trading regime.

In February 2007 the Commissioner put forward his plans to increase fuel efficiency standards of cars so that emissions are no more than 130g of CO2 per km, down from 162g/km in 2005. This caused anger from the European car industry which was stoked by the Commissioner requesting a Japanese car, a Toyota Prius, instead of a European make due to the Toyota's better environmental standards.

Return to Greece
In July 2010 the president of New Democracy Antonis Samaras appointed Stavros Dimas as vice-president of the party with responsibility for economic and social affairs. From 11 November 2011 to 17 May 2012 he served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Lucas Papademos interim cabinet.

On 9 December 2014, Prime Minister Samaras announced the candidacy of Dimas, jointly supported by New Democracy and PASOK, for the Presidency of Greece, which took place in three ballots on 17, 23 and 29 December. He failed to achieve the necessary votes, forcing the dissolution of parliament.

References

External links

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1941 births
Living people
Foreign ministers of Greece
Greek European Commissioners
Greek MPs 1977–1981
Greek MPs 1981–1985
Greek MPs 1985–1989
Greek MPs 1989 (June–November)
Greek MPs 1989–1990
Greek MPs 1990–1993
Greek MPs 1993–1996
Greek MPs 1996–2000
Greek MPs 2000–2004
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni
New Democracy (Greece) politicians
New York University School of Law alumni
People from Tenea

Stavros Dimas


L. Paige Patterson (born October 19, 1942) served as the fifth president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., from 1992 to 2003, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from 1998 to 2000, and as the eighth president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, from 2003 until his firing in 2018. He played a major role in the Southern Baptist "conservative resurgence", called "Fundamentalist Takeover" by opponents. He has been alternately described as a fundamentalist and a conservative evangelical.

Education
B.A. – Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas
Th.M. – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Th.D. – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Career
Patterson started preaching while still in his teens. He held several pastorates before becoming president of the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies (now Criswell College) in Dallas, Texas, a position from which he was eventually fired. Patterson formed a strong connection with W.A. Criswell of the First Baptist Church of Dallas while in this position. After 17 years he became president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina (1992–2003). Patterson was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in both 1998 and 1999. He has lectured and preached extensively and authored and edited many books and journals. In 2003, he became the 8th president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He was removed as president in May 2018 over his past advice to women concerning marital abuse and rape, then stripped of his positions of emeritus president and theologian-in-residence for his handling of several rape investigations. He served on the board of trustees of Cedarville University until he resigned on May 31, 2018.

Proponent of expository preaching

Patterson began preaching as a teenager, and continues to preach in churches and seminaries around the world. He is a strong proponent of expository preaching, once saying, "There is no genuinely good preaching except exposition". He has written on the topic of preaching, including the introduction to the 2010 publication Text-Driven Preaching: God's Word at the Heart of Every Sermon.

Role in the SBC conservative resurgence

Patterson is best known for his prominent role in the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence starting in 1979 with the election of Adrian Rogers as Convention President. Believing SBC seminaries and other SBC institutions had drifted away from their conservative Biblical roots, Patterson joined with Judge Paul Pressler of Houston, TX to carry out a plan that included exposing the theology taught and practiced by the leadership in SBC institutions, which Patterson and Pressler described as liberal theology. The main issue that divided the SBC was the nature of scripture, particularly, whether or not it is inerrant. Patterson, Pressler, and a host of self-described conservative pastors and laymen began to spread the word that the teaching of SBC leadership was not reflective of their constituents, who were paying their salaries. Patterson and the conservatives won the support of hundreds of like-minded churches, and as many as 40,000 messengers (church members willing to travel to the annual Southern Baptist Convention to vote) by using the inerrancy argument as the issue to gather support.

In 1998, Patterson was elected as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Patterson's influence has been felt at all levels of Southern Baptist life. The seminaries have for the most part become conservative institutions. Local churches have been hiring pastors educated at schools led by conservatives. Missionaries have also been influenced by Patterson's leadership. By the time Patterson was appointed president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2003, the conservative leadership required that all faculty sign documents stating their allegiance to Southern Baptist doctrine, most notably, the Baptist Faith and Message.

Patterson has been associated with the Council for National Policy, an umbrella organization and networking group for social conservative activists in the United States.

Seminary president
Patterson served as the president of Criswell College in Dallas, Texas from 1975 to 1992.

Following his time at Criswell College, Patterson became president of two prominent Southern Baptist seminaries: first Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) in Wake Forest, N.C., from 1992 to 2003, and then Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) from 2003 to 2018.

Views on women
Patterson has attracted interest because of his stance on the role of women in church and his opposition to ordaining women as ministers. According to Patterson, the "highest and noblest calling of God" for women is that of "mother and grandmother". Additionally, Patterson's interpretation of the Bible includes "an assignment from God, in this case that a woman not be involved in a teaching or ruling capacity over men".

In an interview taped in 2000, Patterson recounted how he counseled a woman, who told him about being abused by her husband, that she should pray for God's intervention. When the woman "came to him later with two black eyes" and said "I hope you're happy", Patterson said he was "very happy" because the next day the husband had come to church for the first time. As reported in The Washington Post, in April 2018 Patterson wrote on the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary website that:
"I have also said that I have never recommended or prescribed divorce. How could I as a minister of the Gospel? The Bible makes clear the way in which God views divorce ... I do not apologize for my stand for the family and for seeking to mend a marriage through forgiveness rather than divorce."

Patterson explains a wife's submission to her husband as voluntary rather than coerced: "It means voluntarily to line up in the right order that God has given, and the husband is loving his wife sacrificially as much as Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, so that all the husband can think of is, 'Honey, what can I do for you? What can I do to serve you? How can I make your life better?' And all the time she is submitting herself to her husband and saying, 'You just lead and, honey, I'll follow.'" "It depends on the level of abuse, to some degree. … I have never in my ministry counseled anyone to seek a divorce and that's always wrong counsel". Instead of divorce he recommended temporary separation in cases of extreme spousal abuse.

He has also compared female submissiveness to submissiveness to a police officer. Although the officer and Patterson would be equal before God, "He is above me," Patterson wrote. Just as "God gave him an assignment that affects me and made him a minister of God to correct my evil ways," so he believed women should submit to men.

Women faculty at SWBTS
While Patterson was president of SWBTS, there were two female faculty members in the School of Theology: his wife, Dorothy, and Candi Finch, a loyal ally of the Pattersons. Both Dorothy Patterson and Finch were fired in 2018 following Paige Patterson's ouster.

Alleged cover up of abuse
Patterson was a defendant in a 2018 suit which alleged he assisted in covering up sexual abuse by fellow Southern Baptist Paul Pressler. The claims against Patterson were dismissed as they exceeded the statute of limitations.

Removal as president of SWBTS and firing

From president to president emeritus and theologian-in-residence
On May 22, 2018, the board of trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) met to discuss "new leadership for the benefit of the future mission of the Seminary". They removed Patterson as President and conferred the title of President Emeritus upon him, with compensation, and provided for him and his wife to live in the seminary's Baptist Heritage Center as the school's first theologians-in-residence.

Fired from all positions at SWBTS
However, on May 30, 2018, the seminary's executive committee made an abrupt change:

Patterson was terminated "effective immediately" in response to mishandling the investigation of the alleged rape of a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003, based on their internal review reported to SWBTS. During that investigation, Patterson had sent an email "to the Chief of Campus Security in which Dr. Patterson discussed meeting with the student alone so that he could 'break her down' and that he preferred no officials be present"; the SWBTS Executive Committee stated that the "attitude expressed by Dr. Patterson in that email is antithetical to the core values of our faith and to SWBTS". The executive committee also found "undeniable" evidence that "contradicts a statement previously provided by Dr. Patterson in response to a direct question by a board member". Patterson has denied any mishandling of any investigation.

The SWBTS Executive Committee removed "all the benefits, rights and privileges provided by the May 22–23 board meeting, including the title of President Emeritus, the invitation to reside at the Baptist Heritage Center as theologian-in-residence and ongoing compensation". The SWBTS trustees voted on October 17, 2018, to uphold the decision to fire Patterson, though 4 of the 34 trustees present voted against and claimed that the process of his firing was flawed. At that same meeting, trustees voting by a similar margin to fire an SWBTS faculty member, apparently for voicing opposition to Patterson's firing.

The firing also led to the termination of Dorothy Patterson's pet project of installing over 60 stained glass windows on the SWBTS campus to honor leaders in the conservative resurgence. The project was begun in 2013 as a 12-year project, and some 32 windows had been installed by April 2019, at which time the trustees decided to remove the windows in the best interests of the seminary. Two of the windows depicted Paige and Dorothy Patterson.

Impact beyond SWBTS
Patterson's firing affected his standing in Baptist circles more broadly. Since 2003, Patterson had served on the board of trustees of Cedarville University, a Baptist institution. On May 30, 2018, Cedarville's president, Thomas White, who had worked with Patterson at both SEBTS and SWBTS, issued a statement that emphasized Cedarville's policies for reporting abuse and his uncertainty as to whether Patterson would continue to serve on the board. By May 31, 1,300 people had signed a petition for Patterson's resignation from Cedarville's board of trustees, which Patterson submitted that day.

Patterson's standing in the SBC was also affected by his firing. After receiving pressure from various Southern Baptist leaders, including SBC president Steve Gaines, Patterson announced in a letter to Gaines on June 8, 2018, that he was declining to give the keynote sermon at the annual meeting of the SBC the following week. Patterson said his decision came from his desires "to protect my family as much as I can", "to contribute to harmony within the Southern Baptist Convention", and "to respond to the request that has come especially from you and other Southern Baptist leadership".

Although Patterson did not attend the SBC annual meeting in June 2018, the scandal prompted a greater focus on gender for attendees, who passed two resolutions on gender. One of those resolutions affirmed roles for women in the church, while the other condemned all forms of abuse against women and insisted that Baptist leaders report alleged sexual abuse to police.

Patterson is still revered in some Baptist circles. During a chapel service on March 12, 2019, Truett McConnell University (TMU), an SBC school in Georgia, the school's dean and president presented Dr. and Mrs. Patterson with a plaque that renamed TMU's annual spring lecture series after them and claimed that they "provide an exemplary role model of Christian living."

Backlash to Patterson's firing
About two dozen SBC donors attempted to return Patterson to his positions of president emeritus and theologian-in-residence at SWBTS and to punish those who fired him. At the SBC's annual meeting in June 2018, they brought a resolution to the floor to fire all the trustees of SWBTS who voted to fire Patterson; that resolution was "soundly defeated". Then in early July 2018, several donors to SWBTS signed a public letter threatening to withhold funding from the seminary unless the SWBTS board reconsidered Patterson's firing. Their letter called the SWBTS Executive Committee's firing of Patterson a "travesty" and stated: "Dr. and Mrs. Patterson continue to have our absolute and unwavering support. They are both esteemed scholars and were stately ambassadors for the Seminary". Karen Swallow Prior, then a professor at Liberty University, said, "What we're seeing is people who are committed to a person rather than to an institution or to the convention, putting their loyalty to a person ahead of their adherence to the principles of the institution".

Patterson's public ministry since firing
Since his firing, Patterson has received public criticism for two sermons at a revival in September 2018. In the first sermon, he repeatedly highlighted the weight of a "fat" female parishioner, which led to charges that he was "body-shaming women". His second sermon referenced the biblical story of Joseph, who was falsely accused by a woman of sexual abuse, to criticize some women in the Me Too movement. Some Baptists who had previously called for Patterson's removal from SWBTS argued that his sermons showed a lack of repentance for his previous comments about women.

In mid-October 2018, Patterson accepted the opportunity to co-teach an ethics course at Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES). His co-teacher for the course was Richard Land, the former head of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and presently the president of SES. Richard Mouw, president emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary, noted that Patterson was an odd choice to teach the class because he was not a specialist in ethics and suggested that Patterson's hire was "a political statement" by the very conservative SES that "He's one of us. We want to keep his voice strong."

In October 2021, Patterson was elected to a three-year term on the board of trustees of Yellowstone Christian College in Kalispell, Montana.

Lawsuit for handling of rape allegations
In May 2019, an SWBTS former student, named "Jane Roe" in legal papers, filed a lawsuit against Paige Patterson for threatening, intimidating, and humiliating her when she told him that she had been repeatedly raped at gunpoint in 2014 and 2015 by another seminary student, named "John Doe". According to the lawsuit, Patterson told Roe to recount "lurid and graphic details" of her rape before a group of men, told her that the rape was a "good thing", and "seemed to enjoy making Roe even more uncomfortable with his questions". Patterson also reportedly said he was "too busy" to deal with the allegations, "callously rejected" her requests for prayers and financial assistance, and told seminary faculty members about the alleged rape without her consent. Doe was expelled after Fort Worth police searched his room and found nine firearms, which violated the seminary's weapon's policy.

The suit claims Roe is the same student about whom Patterson had promised to "break her down". Patterson allegedly later met with Roe and said that Doe has supplied him with nude photos that proved they had a consensual sexual relationship; Roe said the photos were taken while Doe was raping her at gunpoint. When Roe's mother asked Patterson how Doe had been allowed to attend SWBTS with his violent criminal past, Patterson reportedly "lunged across the table, firmly pointed his finger in her face and threatened to 'unleash' lawyers on her if she dared question his leadership".

See also
List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people
Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention Presidents

References

External links
 Official web site
  Chronicle of Higher Education article on the Klouda event and Patterson's role therein
 Interview with Dorothy Patterson

1942 births
Living people
Southern Baptist ministers
American Baptist theologians
Baptist writers
Seminary presidents
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty
Hardin–Simmons University alumni
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary alumni
Southern Baptist Convention presidents
Clergy from Dallas
People from Wake County, North Carolina
People from Fort Worth, Texas
Baptists from North Carolina
Sexual abuse scandals in Evangelicalism

Paige Patterson


Malvin Greston Whitfield (October 11, 1924 – November 18, 2015) was an American former athlete and goodwill ambassador. He was the Olympic champion in the 800 metres at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. Overall, he is a five-time Olympic medalist (three gold, one silver, one bronze).

Whitfield was born in Bay City, Texas. He moved at age 4 to Watts, Los Angeles. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen. After World War II he remained in the military, but also enrolled at the Ohio State University. He served inn the Korean War. Whitfield died under hospice care in Washington, D.C. on the night of November 18, 2015 from heart failure, aged 91.

References

Other websites
 Mal Whitfield's profile at Sports Reference.com

1924 births
2015 deaths
Deaths from heart failure
African-American track and field athletes
Ambassadors of the United States
American military personnel of the Korean War
American military personnel of World War II
American Olympic bronze medalists
American Olympic gold medalists
American Olympic silver medalists
Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Military people from California
Military people from Texas
Sportspeople from Los Angeles
Sportspeople from Texas

Mal Whitfield


The BMW i3 was made in Germany 2013. The car has 181 horsepower.The BMW i3 has 4 seats.  The BMW i3 is electric which helps the environment. The top range for a BMW i3 is £41,315. Bayerische Motoren is the creator of the popular BMW i3.

The top range for a BMW i3 with full battery is 231 miles.  They have sold over 43,722 from 2014 to 2021. The top speed for a BMW i3 is 93.21 to 99.42mph. It has 260 litres of luggage.  The colours are black, orange, grey,white,red,blue and beige.  The crash was 86% for adults and for kids 57%.

i3

BMW i3