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[
"Simon Cowell",
"Idol franchise",
"what year did idol begin",
"2002."
] | C_c5b3e9f3f8fc44cf90db56c180a43b4c_1 | is this show still on or did this franchise end | 2 | is the show idol franchise of Simon Cowel still on or did the Idol franchise end | Simon Cowell | In 2001, Cowell was given the role of judge on the first series of Pop Idol, a show that he and the show creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have No 1 UK hits, which were the top 2 best-selling singles of 2002, as well as that of top 2 of the decade of 2000s. He also became a judge on the first season of American Idol in 2002. With his notoriously critical reputation, Cowell has been likened to TV personalities such as Judith Sheindlin, and Anne Robinson of her show. Cowell's prominence grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but ...", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. A lot of these one-liners were the product of coaching that Cowell received from noted publicist Max Clifford (who was sacked by Cowell after being convicted of sex offences as of May 2014). Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol programme in 2003, where it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality. In 2003, Cowell placed No 33 on Channel 4's list of the all-time 100 Worst Britons. Cowell formed a new company Syco, which is divided into three units - Syco Music, Syco TV and Syco Film. Cowell returned to music with his latest brainchild signed to Syco, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006. On 11 January 2010, Cowell's exit from American Idol was made official. By the time Cowell left American Idol, the show was on its seventh consecutive season in its leadership among all primetime programmes in the United States, even lasting up to 2011 in the longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. The 2010 season was Cowell's last on the show. He was replaced by Steven Tyler. It was also announced that FOX had acquired the rights to The X Factor USA, an American version of Cowell's British show, The X Factor, which began in September 2011. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur, and record executive. He has judged on the British television talent competition series Pop Idol (2001–2003), The X Factor UK (2004–2010, 2014–2018) and Britain's Got Talent (2007–present), and the American television talent competition series American Idol (2002–2010), The X Factor US (2011–2013), and America's Got Talent (2016–present). Cowell is the founder and sole owner of the British entertainment company Syco.
After some success in the 1980s and 1990s as a record producer, talent scout and consultant in the UK music industry, Cowell came to public prominence in 2001 as a judge on Pop Idol, a show which he and its creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. He subsequently created The X Factor and Got Talent franchises which have been sold around the world. In 2004 and 2010, Time named Cowell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him sixth in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". The same year, he received the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. At the 2010 British Academy Television Awards, Cowell received the BAFTA Special Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry and for his development of new talent". In 2018, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the television category.
Cowell often makes blunt and controversial comments as a television music and talent show judge, including insults and wisecracks about contestants and their singing abilities. He combines activities in both the television and music industries. Cowell has produced and promoted successful singles and albums for various recording acts whom he has signed and taken under his wing, including Little Mix, James Arthur, Labrinth, Leona Lewis, Fifth Harmony, Il Divo, Olly Murs, Noah Cyrus, Cher Lloyd, Fleur East, and Susan Boyle. He has also signed successful boybands such as Westlife, One Direction, PrettyMuch, CNCO.
Early life
Simon Phillip Cowell was born on 7 October 1959 in Lambeth, London, and raised in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish, 1925–2015), was a ballet dancer and socialite, and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell (1918–1999), was an estate agent, property developer, and music industry executive. Cowell's father was from a mostly Jewish family (his own mother was born in Poland), though he did not discuss his ancestry with his children. Cowell's mother was from a Christian background. He has a younger brother, Nicholas Cowell; three half brothers, John, Tony, and Michael Cowell; and a half sister, June Cowell.
Cowell attended Radlett Preparatory School and the independent Dover College, as did his brother, but left after taking GCE O levels. He passed English Language and Literature and then attended Windsor Technical College, where he gained another GCE in Sociology. Cowell took a few menial jobs—including, according to his brother Tony, working as a runner on Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining—but did not get along well with colleagues and bosses, until his father, who was an executive at EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room. However, after failing to get a promotion, he left to try out other jobs before returning to EMI.
Career
Early career
In the early 1980s, Cowell left EMI to form E&S Music with his former boss at EMI but quit in 1983. He then formed Fanfare Records with Iain Burton, initially selling exercise videos, and music from acts such as the Italian orchestra Rondò Veneziano. He had his first hit song in 1986 with "So Macho" by Sinitta. Some of Cowell's early success came through Stock Aitken Waterman, who produced a number of hits in the 1980s. However, in 1989 the company went under and he nearly became bankrupt.
He then found a job with BMG as an A&R consultant and set up S Records under BMG. He restarted his career in the music business by creating novelty records with acts such as the puppets Zig and Zag, Power Rangers and World Wrestling Federation. In 1995, through his persistence, he persuaded two actors, Robson Green and Jerome Flynn from the UK television drama series Soldier Soldier, to sign with him and record the song "Unchained Melody", which they had performed on the show. The recording by the duo, now named Robson & Jerome, quickly reached number 1 in the UK, staying at the top of the chart for seven weeks. It became the best-selling single of 1995, and their self-titled album released later in the year also became the best-selling album of 1995. They released another album and two more singles before disbanding, and sold 7 million albums and 5 million singles in total. According to Cowell, they made him his first million. Later acts he signed included Five, Westlife and Teletubbies.
Idol franchise
In 2001, Cowell was given the role of judge on the first series of Pop Idol, a show that he and the show creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. Maggie Brown in The Guardian states, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have No 1 UK hits, and they were the top 2 best-selling singles of 2002 and the decade of 2000s. He also became a judge on the first season of American Idol in 2002. With his notoriously critical reputation, Cowell has been likened to TV personalities such as Judge Judy and The Weakest Link host Anne Robinson. His closest predecessor was British TV critic Nina Myskow who, in the 1980s, became known for her harsh put-downs in New Faces, a talent show that Cowell cited as an influence. Cowell's prominence grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but ...", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. A lot of these one-liners were the product of coaching that Cowell received from publicist Max Clifford. Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol programme in 2003, in which it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality.
Cowell formed a new company, Syco, in 2005. The company is divided into three units: Syco Music, Syco TV and Syco Film. Cowell returned to music with his latest brainchild signed to Syco, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006.
On 11 January 2010, Cowell's exit from American Idol was made official. By the time Cowell left American Idol, the show was on its seventh consecutive season in its leadership among all primetime programmes in the United States, even lasting up to 2011 in the longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. The 2010 season was Cowell's last on the show, and he was replaced by Steven Tyler. It was also announced that FOX had acquired the rights to The X Factor USA, an American version of British show The X Factor that launched in 2011.
The X Factor
In 2004, with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Cowell was a judge on the first series of the British television music competition The X Factor, which he created using his production company, Syco TV. The X Factor was an instant success with the viewers and enjoyed its tenth series in 2013.
Leona Lewis, the winner of the third series of The X Factor, was signed to Cowell's label Syco and has had number one singles and album sales around the world. Cowell returned for a fourth series on 18 August 2007 alongside Osbourne, Walsh and new judge, Dannii Minogue. Walsh had previously been sacked from the judging panel by Cowell for the fourth series, and he was subsequently replaced by Brian Friedman, who was a judge on Grease Is the Word. Walsh was later brought back by Cowell a week into the auditions when he and Osbourne realised that they missed Walsh and that without him, there was no chemistry between the judges. Cowell returned for the fifth series in 2008, with Walsh, Minogue, and new judge Cheryl Cole, as Osbourne had decided to quit before the show began. Cowell returned for series 6 and 7 as well, although series 7 was to be his last, as he left in 2011 in order to launch The X Factor in America. After placing third in the seventh series of The X Factor in the UK, boyband One Direction signed to Cowell's label in 2011, and the group has gone on to top singles and album charts worldwide. Cowell was replaced by Gary Barlow. In 2011, UK series eight winners Little Mix signed to Cowell's label. The girl group has sold 50 million records worldwide.
Australian The X Factor launched in 2005 on Network Ten, and it featured Mark Holden, Kate Ceberano and John Reid as the show's judges, but it was cancelled after just one season due to poor ratings. However, the show returned in 2010 and performed strongly on the Seven Network until its eighth season in 2016, when its ratings declined. Subsequently, the show was axed for a second time in January 2017.
Cowell also launched American The X Factor in September 2011 on American broadcaster Fox. It was originally announced that he would be a judge both on the UK and US editions of the show, which aired at similar times of the year, but MTV officially reported on 17 April 2011 that this was not true. Cowell was no longer to be a judge on the UK version, but he would remain a major presence backstage. He was joined by Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid, Nicole Scherzinger and formerly Cheryl Cole. Cowell's act Melanie Amaro won the season, making Cowell the winning judge. Cowell and Reid returned for season 2, while Demi Lovato and Britney Spears joined the judging panel as replacements for Abdul and Scherzinger. This season launched another of Cowell's acts into worldwide fame, the group Fifth Harmony.
Cowell returned for a third season of The X Factor in September 2013 alongside Demi Lovato, while Britney Spears and L.A. Reid announced they would not be returning and were replaced by Paulina Rubio and Kelly Rowland. Cowell's last act Alex & Sierra won the season, marking Cowell's second season as the winning mentor after he won with Melanie Amaro in 2011.
In October 2010, Cowell signed new three-year deals with ITV for both Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, retaining them until 2013. On 15 November 2013, the three-year deal was extended by another three years, keeping it on air until 2016.
In October 2013, it was reported that Cowell might return to the UK version of The X Factor for series 11 in place of Gary Barlow, and on 7 February 2014, his return was officially confirmed. This resulted in the cancellation of the US version after three seasons by Fox. He joined judges Louis Walsh, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who replaced Sharon Osbourne, and new judge, former Spice Girls member Mel B, who replaced Nicole Scherzinger. For his eighth series, he was given the Over 25s category. On 13 December, Ben Haenow and Fleur East reached the final two, which meant that Cowell was the winning mentor for the first time since series 3 2006, when he had both Leona Lewis and Ray Quinn in the final. Ben Haenow became the eleventh winner on 14 December. In 2015, Cowell returned to the X Factor for its twelfth series, along with veteran judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and newcomers Rita Ora and BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw.
In December 2020 it was announced that Cowell will be a judge on The X Factor Israel in 2021. In late May 2021, Cowell announced he will be cancelling his appearance on the show in context of the Israeli aggression against Gaza.
Got Talent
Following the success of the Idol and X Factor franchises, Cowell, his company Syco, and its business partners developed a talent show format open to performers of any kind, not only singers, but also dancers, instrumentalists, magicians, comedians, novelty acts, and so on. The origins of the Got Talent format can be traced to the British talent shows Opportunity Knocks (on screen from 1956, with the winner using the now-standard method of a telephone vote) and New Faces. Immensely popular with weekly audiences of 20 million, Opportunity Knocks showcased singers, dancers and comedians in addition to non standard performers such as acrobats, animal acts and novelty acts. Cowell states, "I was a fan of variety shows Opportunity Knocks and New Faces, and to be able to update that tradition, really was a buzz".
Cowell is the executive producer of America's Got Talent, which debuted in June 2006, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series. The show was a huge success for NBC, drawing around 12 million viewers a week and beating So You Think You Can Dance on Fox (produced by rival and Idol creator Simon Fuller).
Britain's Got Talent debuted on ITV in June 2007. Cowell appeared as a judge alongside Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. The show was a ratings success, and second and third seasons followed in 2008 and 2009. The third series featured a publicity coup when Susan Boyle made a global media impact comparable to that of any previous talent show series winner with her regional audition performance. In December 2019, Cowell signed a five-year deal with ITV ensuring Britain's Got Talent will stay on the channel until 2024.
In 2014, Got Talent was named the world's most successful reality TV format by Guinness World Records, with spin-offs in over 68 countries. Cowell stated, “I am very proud that Got Talent is a home grown British show. We owe its success to a group of very talented producers all over the world who have made this happen. And of course amazing talent.”
In 2015, Cowell launched La Banda, his first US show since his stint with American The X Factor. The show, designed to find male singers to form the "ultimate Latino Boy Band," launched on Univision in the US on 13 September 2015. The winner of the show, boy band CNCO, signed to Cowell's record label Syco Music.
Cowell was announced as the replacement for Howard Stern on America's Got Talent on 22 October 2015. On 15 July 2020, it was announced that Cowell had bought out Sony Music from their joint venture, Syco Entertainment.
Other talent shows
On 16 March 2006, American Inventor debuted on ABC. Cowell co-produced the show with British entrepreneur Peter Jones, who had devised the concept. Fledgling entrepreneurs from across the United States competed to see who could come up with the best new product concept. The 2006 winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and the opportunity to develop his idea into a business. The show returned one more time in 2007 for a second season.
In 2006, Cowell executive-produced Celebrity Duets, which was described as "an Idol show for Hollywood superstars." The show was hosted by Wayne Brady, and its judges were Marie Osmond, Little Richard, and David Foster.
Cowell was also the executive producer of Grease Is the Word for ITV. This show set out to find performers to play Danny and Sandy in the 2007 West End revival of Grease. It was hosted by Zoë Ball and judged by Britons David Ian and Sinitta and Americans David Gest and Brian Friedman. The musical theatre casting concept had already been introduced by the BBC with the ratings hit How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?, but Cowell's show was not the hoped-for success. He himself said, "It has been slaughtered by the critics – and rightly so. It is far too similar to our other formats."
Cowell collaborated with UK production company Shed Media to produce 2008 ITV drama series Rock Rivals, which is based on an X Factor type show. In 2011, Cowell also created his first game show, titled Red or Black? and hosted by Ant & Dec, for ITV. Series 1 was broadcast from 3 to 10 September. The show was recommissioned by ITV for a second series in 2012, which aired weekly.
In 2013, Cowell, in partnership with YouTube, launched a video-sharing competition called The You Generation. In 2013, Simon was executive producer for ITV cookery series Food Glorious Food, which was hosted by Carol Vorderman. He did the same for a game show called Keep it in the Family, presented by Bradley Walsh in 2016.
In 2018, it was announced that Cowell created his first show to air on the BBC, titled The Greatest Dancer, which debuted on 5 January 2019. In the show, dancers competed for a £50,000 and a performance on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. A second series is scheduled to air in 2020.
In April 2020, Cowell judged a spin-off version of the former show Canada's Got Talent called Canadian Family's Got Talent, carried out virtually by Canadian broadcaster Citytv during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
In the media
Cowell has been involved in charity work for many years. He is a patron of Together for Short Lives, the leading UK charity for all children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. He was patron of Children's Hospices UK between 2009 and 2011 before it merged to become Together for Short Lives. He donated money to Manchester Dogs' Home in England after it was hit by a large fire. In view of his charitable works, particularly the production of the charity single "Everybody Hurts" in aid of victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as well as his services to the music industry, there was considerable media speculation as to whether Cowell would receive a knighthood in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours, a proposal allegedly put forward by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In November 2003, Cowell appeared on the charity telethon Children in Need where viewers pledged thousands to see him get sawn in half. In December 2003, Cowell published his autobiography titled I Don't Mean to be Rude, but.... In it, he told the whole story of his childhood, his years working in music and experiences on Pop Idol, Pop Stars Rivals, and American Idol, and finally, his tips for being successful as a pop star. In 2010, he was added as a new entry to the latest edition of the UK's Who's Who.
Cowell has appeared as a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons ("Smart and Smarter"), in which he gets beaten up by Homer Simpson (while criticising Homer's punches). In May 2010, he portrayed himself again in an episode of The Simpsons, "Judge Me Tender". His voice was heard on an episode of Family Guy ("Lois Kills Stewie"), in which he told Stewie that his singing was so awful that he should be dead. He made an MTV Movie Award-winning cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 3, where he sits in judgment during a battle rap (and is subsequently killed by gunfire for criticising the rappers). He appears in the DVD version of Shrek 2 as himself in Far Far Away Idol and also provided the voice.
Cowell was once the fastest "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on BBC's motoring show Top Gear, driving a Suzuki Liana around the show's test track in a time of 1:47.1. When Top Gear retired the Liana along with its rankings after the eighth series, Cowell was the eighth fastest overall and the third fastest non-professional driver. On 11 November 2007 Cowell yet again appeared on Top Gear, achieving a time of 1:45.9 thus putting him ahead of chef Gordon Ramsay and back at the top of the table. His time of 1:45.9 was then tied with English rock singer Brian Johnson of AC/DC and Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud for the second fastest time, just 0.1 seconds behind Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay. In March 2015, Cowell backed Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after he was suspended by the BBC for punching a colleague, with Cowell stating on Good Morning Britain: "He's apologised. But I think what is quite obvious is that the public are behind him, but you know, that's Jeremy."
He appeared on an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (the original British version) and Saturday Night Live in 2004. Cowell has also guest-starred (filling in for Regis Philbin) in the popular talk show Live with Regis and Kelly during American Idol'''s finalist week in early 2006. Cowell introduced entertainer Dick Clark at the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards. He was seen on the British charity telethon Comic Relief, appearing on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice where he donated £25,000 for a fun fair ticket. Cowell has also appeared on the MTV shows Cribs and Punk'd. On Punk'd, Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson set him up to believe his $400,000 Rolls Royce was stolen and had caused an accident by using a nearly identical car.
Cowell was a partner in the Royal Ascot Racing Club, a thoroughbred horse racing syndicate which owned the 2005 Epsom Derby winner, Motivator. Cowell was chosen as the first subject of the re-launched This Is Your Life, in an episode broadcast on 2 June 2007. He was presented with the Red Book by Sir Trevor McDonald while presenting American Idol.
On 1 July 2007, Cowell appeared as a speaker at the Concert for Diana (alongside Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest) held at Wembley Stadium, London, to celebrate the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death. Proceeds from the concert went to Diana's charities as well as to charities of which her sons Princes William and Harry are patrons.Diana concert a 'perfect tribute' BBC News. Retrieved 12 April 2012
At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards on 30 October, Cowell, along with Michael Caine, Elton John, Richard Branson and Stephen Fry, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes. In October 2013 Cowell took part in a fundraising event in Los Angeles in support of the Israeli Defense Forces. The event raised $20 million and Cowell made a personal donation of $150,000.
To raise money for the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017 and for The London Community Foundation, Cowell arranged the recording and release of a charity single "Bridge over Troubled Water". Cowell collaborated with a number of vocalists for the single, including Robbie Williams, Dua Lipa, Roger Daltrey and Rita Ora, and the song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.
Recognition
In 2004 and 2010, Time magazine named Cowell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2008 he received the Special Recognition Award (presented to him by Andrew Lloyd Webber) at the National Television Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall. New Statesman listed Cowell at number 41 in a list of "50 People who Matter [in] 2010". TV Guide named him at number 10 in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.
In 2012, Cowell was featured in the BBC Radio 4 series The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Cowell among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character". Cowell was announced to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 22 August 2018, in the Television category.
Personal life
Cowell dated English presenter Terri Seymour from 2002 to 2008. Cowell was engaged to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy from 2010 to 2011. In 2013, Cowell allegedly began dating an American woman named Lauren Silverman. In July 2013, Silverman's husband and Cowell's friend, Andrew Silverman, filed for an at-fault divorce, citing adultery by his wife and naming Cowell as a co-respondent. News of the divorce filing became public two weeks later, when it was widely reported that Silverman and Cowell were expecting a baby together. Cowell said, "There are a lot of things I will eventually clear up when the time is right, but I really have to be sensitive because there's a lot of people's feelings involved here." The Silvermans released separate statements expressing concern for the well-being of their son during the divorce process. In August 2013, the Silvermans settled their divorce out of court, enabling Cowell to avoid being called as a witness in the divorce proceedings. He subsequently confirmed that Silverman was pregnant with his child, and she gave birth to their son, Eric, on 14 February 2014. The couple confirmed their engagement in January 2022.
In 2010, Cowell came out in support for then Conservative Party leader David Cameron for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, writing in The Sun: "I believe he is the Prime Minister Britain needs at this time. He has substance and the stomach to navigate us through difficult times." In 2013, Cowell contravened his previous statement about David Cameron. According to the interview while he has supported candidates, he has never voted in an election. An opponent of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (Brexit), Cowell came out in support of Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.
In 2019, Cowell became a vegan after doctors advised him to change his diet for health reasons. He was also named one of the wealthiest people in the UK by the Sunday Times Rich List, Cowell was worth £385 million in 2019.
In 2020, Cowell announced he would be writing a seven-book series titled Wishfits'' with his son. The first three volumes are to be released in 2021, with the remaining four the next year. On 8 August 2020, Cowell broke his back after he fell off his new electric motorcycle which many press sources confused with an electric bike. The incident occurred while he was testing it at his home in Malibu, California. Cowell was taken to the hospital, where he underwent back surgery overnight. After the accident, he began eating animal-based food again in order to "rebuild his strength". In February 2022, it was revealed Cowell tested positive for COVID-19.
References
External links
1959 births
A&R people
British music industry executives
Businesspeople from London
English expatriates in the United States
English film producers
English memoirists
English music managers
English music publishers (people)
English people of Polish-Jewish descent
English philanthropists
English racehorse owners and breeders
English record producers
English talent agents
English television producers
International Emmy Founders Award winners
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
Participants in British reality television series
America's Got Talent judges
People educated at Dover College
People educated at Licensed Victuallers' School
Television personalities from London
People named in the Panama Papers
People from Elstree
Contestants on British game shows | false | [
"Flip or Flop is a television franchise of television programs. With the exception of Flip or Flop: Follow Up, each series follows a format, with couples in different parts of the United States purchasing homes, flipping them, and reselling.\n\n, 132 episodes of the Flip or Flop franchise have aired.\n\nFranchise overview\n\nHosts\n\nOverview\n\nFlip or Flop\n\nThe El Moussas were both real estate agents prior to the crash in 2008, and later they began flipping homes, mostly in Orange County, California.\n\nIn 2011, Tarek asked a friend to help him make an audition tape for HGTV. The friend filmed an entire episode of the process of house flipping from start to finish. The audition tape was sent to HGTV, and they were interested in talking to the couple. In 2012, HGTV signed the couple to a regular weekly program that shows the process of buying distressed property and renovating it.\n\nChristina's expertise is primarily in design, while Tarek finds and renovates homes. The show follows them as they buy homes, typically bank-owned, short sales or foreclosures, to renovate and resell.\n\nFlip or Flop Follow-Up\n\nFlip or Flop Follow-Up premiered July 14, 2015. The show revisits old house flips from previous Flip or Flop episodes. The series goes deeper into the issues with the individual flips, and shows previously unaired footage. The series also updates on houses that remained unsold at the time of the original production. These three stories include a successful flip, a flop, and a follow-up that ends with Tarek and Christina revisiting one of their house flips. This series did not return for a season 2 making it the first series in the franchise to end.\n\nFlip or Flop Vegas\n\nFlip or Flop Vegas is a television series airing on HGTV hosted by real estate agents Bristol and Aubrey Marunde. Filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada, it premiered on April 6, 2017. On June 5, 2017, HGTV announced Flip or Flop Vegas would be renewed for a second season, with 16 episodes.\n\nFlip or Flop Atlanta\n\nFlip or Flop Atlanta is a television series airing on HGTV hosted by real estate agent Anita Corsini and contractor husband Ken. Filmed in the metro Atlanta, Georgia area, it premiered on July 20, 2017. On August 21, 2017, HGTV announced Flip or Flop Atlanta would be renewed for a second season, with 14 episodes, which is expected to debut in 2018.\n\nFlip or Flop Nashville\n\nFlip or Flop Nashville will be a television series airing on HGTV hosted by real estate agents DeRon Jenkins and Page Turner. It will premiere on January 18, 2018 and will be filmed in Nashville, Tennessee.\n\nFlip or Flop Fort Worth\n\nFlip or Flop Fort Worth is a television series airing on HGTV hosted by real estate agents Andy and Ashley Williams. Filmed in Dallas, Texas, it premiered on November 2, 2017.\n\nFlip or Flop Chicago\n\nFlip or Flop Chicago will be a television series airing on HGTV hosted by real estate agents Mark and Liz Perez. It will premiere in February 2018 and will be filmed in Chicago, Illinois.\n\nChristina on the Coast\n\nIn June 2018 it was announced that Christina would be receiving her own spin off show known as Christina on the Coast. The series premiere will focus on Christina renovating her new home following her divorce; with the remaining seven episodes focusing on her fixing up other people's homes. Filming began in fall 2018, for a spring 2019 premiere. On February 13, 2019, it was announced that the series will premiere on May 23, 2019.\n\nSee also\nLove It or List It (franchise)\nProperty Brothers (franchise)\n\nReferences\n\n \nTelevision franchises",
"Jurassic World Live is a live show produced by Feld Entertainment and NBCUniversal based on the Jurassic World franchise. The show started touring arenas around the United States in September 2019, beginning with the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.\n\nShow \nJurassic World Live Tour is a live arena show. Twenty-four dinosaurs will be included in the show with seven species in total. These dinosaurs include a 43-foot long T. rex that weighs 8,000 lbs., Blue, the Velociraptor from the Jurassic World franchise, and Pteranodons that will swoop down and pick performers up during the show.\n\nThe dinosaurs move through animatronics (for the larger dinosaurs) and live acting (for the smaller dinosaurs) in which \"dinoteers\" walk the dinosaurs around the arena while wearing dinosaur costumes. The show also features stunts using props such as a Jurassic World Jeep, motorcycles and a Gyrosphere.\n\nThe show is canon. The production crew consulted with Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall during the creation of the show, ensuring that there were no continuity errors between the show and the Jurassic World story, as well as ensuring that the dinosaurs, props and tone of the show aligned with that of the Jurassic World franchise. The show features the original score from the movies.\n\nStoryline \nThe Jurassic World Live Tour show follows an original storyline that takes place at some point between the first two Jurassic World movies. The story is written by Shawn Thomas and Steve Jarczak and directed by Dan Shipton and Ross Nicholson. The story begins on the day Jurassic World falls and ends before the beginning of the adventures shown in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The story will focus around a team of scientists led by Dr. Kate Walker that have been working on a \"Dino-Decoder,\" a device that allows humans to understand dinosaur emotions. After the Indominus rex escapes on Isla Nublar, the team becomes separated. It is not until later on when the \"Dino-Decoder\" sends out a signal that the team discovers that Jeannie - a Troodon that the team had been testing the device on - is still alive. As the team sets out on a quest to save her, they discover that InGen still intends to weaponize dinosaurs and that they are intrigued by the \"Dino-Decoder\" and Jeanie. The adventure moves to an InGen facility in Chile, where conflict breaks out featuring dinosaur-on-dinosaur and dinosaur-on-human battles. The story then circles back to Isla Nublar.\n\nReferences \n\nJurassic Park"
] |
[
"Simon Cowell",
"Idol franchise",
"what year did idol begin",
"2002.",
"is this show still on or did this franchise end",
"I don't know."
] | C_c5b3e9f3f8fc44cf90db56c180a43b4c_1 | did this franchise do good | 3 | did the idol franchise of Simon Cowell do good | Simon Cowell | In 2001, Cowell was given the role of judge on the first series of Pop Idol, a show that he and the show creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have No 1 UK hits, which were the top 2 best-selling singles of 2002, as well as that of top 2 of the decade of 2000s. He also became a judge on the first season of American Idol in 2002. With his notoriously critical reputation, Cowell has been likened to TV personalities such as Judith Sheindlin, and Anne Robinson of her show. Cowell's prominence grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but ...", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. A lot of these one-liners were the product of coaching that Cowell received from noted publicist Max Clifford (who was sacked by Cowell after being convicted of sex offences as of May 2014). Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol programme in 2003, where it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality. In 2003, Cowell placed No 33 on Channel 4's list of the all-time 100 Worst Britons. Cowell formed a new company Syco, which is divided into three units - Syco Music, Syco TV and Syco Film. Cowell returned to music with his latest brainchild signed to Syco, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006. On 11 January 2010, Cowell's exit from American Idol was made official. By the time Cowell left American Idol, the show was on its seventh consecutive season in its leadership among all primetime programmes in the United States, even lasting up to 2011 in the longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. The 2010 season was Cowell's last on the show. He was replaced by Steven Tyler. It was also announced that FOX had acquired the rights to The X Factor USA, an American version of Cowell's British show, The X Factor, which began in September 2011. CANNOTANSWER | longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. | Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur, and record executive. He has judged on the British television talent competition series Pop Idol (2001–2003), The X Factor UK (2004–2010, 2014–2018) and Britain's Got Talent (2007–present), and the American television talent competition series American Idol (2002–2010), The X Factor US (2011–2013), and America's Got Talent (2016–present). Cowell is the founder and sole owner of the British entertainment company Syco.
After some success in the 1980s and 1990s as a record producer, talent scout and consultant in the UK music industry, Cowell came to public prominence in 2001 as a judge on Pop Idol, a show which he and its creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. He subsequently created The X Factor and Got Talent franchises which have been sold around the world. In 2004 and 2010, Time named Cowell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him sixth in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". The same year, he received the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. At the 2010 British Academy Television Awards, Cowell received the BAFTA Special Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry and for his development of new talent". In 2018, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the television category.
Cowell often makes blunt and controversial comments as a television music and talent show judge, including insults and wisecracks about contestants and their singing abilities. He combines activities in both the television and music industries. Cowell has produced and promoted successful singles and albums for various recording acts whom he has signed and taken under his wing, including Little Mix, James Arthur, Labrinth, Leona Lewis, Fifth Harmony, Il Divo, Olly Murs, Noah Cyrus, Cher Lloyd, Fleur East, and Susan Boyle. He has also signed successful boybands such as Westlife, One Direction, PrettyMuch, CNCO.
Early life
Simon Phillip Cowell was born on 7 October 1959 in Lambeth, London, and raised in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish, 1925–2015), was a ballet dancer and socialite, and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell (1918–1999), was an estate agent, property developer, and music industry executive. Cowell's father was from a mostly Jewish family (his own mother was born in Poland), though he did not discuss his ancestry with his children. Cowell's mother was from a Christian background. He has a younger brother, Nicholas Cowell; three half brothers, John, Tony, and Michael Cowell; and a half sister, June Cowell.
Cowell attended Radlett Preparatory School and the independent Dover College, as did his brother, but left after taking GCE O levels. He passed English Language and Literature and then attended Windsor Technical College, where he gained another GCE in Sociology. Cowell took a few menial jobs—including, according to his brother Tony, working as a runner on Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining—but did not get along well with colleagues and bosses, until his father, who was an executive at EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room. However, after failing to get a promotion, he left to try out other jobs before returning to EMI.
Career
Early career
In the early 1980s, Cowell left EMI to form E&S Music with his former boss at EMI but quit in 1983. He then formed Fanfare Records with Iain Burton, initially selling exercise videos, and music from acts such as the Italian orchestra Rondò Veneziano. He had his first hit song in 1986 with "So Macho" by Sinitta. Some of Cowell's early success came through Stock Aitken Waterman, who produced a number of hits in the 1980s. However, in 1989 the company went under and he nearly became bankrupt.
He then found a job with BMG as an A&R consultant and set up S Records under BMG. He restarted his career in the music business by creating novelty records with acts such as the puppets Zig and Zag, Power Rangers and World Wrestling Federation. In 1995, through his persistence, he persuaded two actors, Robson Green and Jerome Flynn from the UK television drama series Soldier Soldier, to sign with him and record the song "Unchained Melody", which they had performed on the show. The recording by the duo, now named Robson & Jerome, quickly reached number 1 in the UK, staying at the top of the chart for seven weeks. It became the best-selling single of 1995, and their self-titled album released later in the year also became the best-selling album of 1995. They released another album and two more singles before disbanding, and sold 7 million albums and 5 million singles in total. According to Cowell, they made him his first million. Later acts he signed included Five, Westlife and Teletubbies.
Idol franchise
In 2001, Cowell was given the role of judge on the first series of Pop Idol, a show that he and the show creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. Maggie Brown in The Guardian states, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have No 1 UK hits, and they were the top 2 best-selling singles of 2002 and the decade of 2000s. He also became a judge on the first season of American Idol in 2002. With his notoriously critical reputation, Cowell has been likened to TV personalities such as Judge Judy and The Weakest Link host Anne Robinson. His closest predecessor was British TV critic Nina Myskow who, in the 1980s, became known for her harsh put-downs in New Faces, a talent show that Cowell cited as an influence. Cowell's prominence grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but ...", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. A lot of these one-liners were the product of coaching that Cowell received from publicist Max Clifford. Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol programme in 2003, in which it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality.
Cowell formed a new company, Syco, in 2005. The company is divided into three units: Syco Music, Syco TV and Syco Film. Cowell returned to music with his latest brainchild signed to Syco, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006.
On 11 January 2010, Cowell's exit from American Idol was made official. By the time Cowell left American Idol, the show was on its seventh consecutive season in its leadership among all primetime programmes in the United States, even lasting up to 2011 in the longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. The 2010 season was Cowell's last on the show, and he was replaced by Steven Tyler. It was also announced that FOX had acquired the rights to The X Factor USA, an American version of British show The X Factor that launched in 2011.
The X Factor
In 2004, with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Cowell was a judge on the first series of the British television music competition The X Factor, which he created using his production company, Syco TV. The X Factor was an instant success with the viewers and enjoyed its tenth series in 2013.
Leona Lewis, the winner of the third series of The X Factor, was signed to Cowell's label Syco and has had number one singles and album sales around the world. Cowell returned for a fourth series on 18 August 2007 alongside Osbourne, Walsh and new judge, Dannii Minogue. Walsh had previously been sacked from the judging panel by Cowell for the fourth series, and he was subsequently replaced by Brian Friedman, who was a judge on Grease Is the Word. Walsh was later brought back by Cowell a week into the auditions when he and Osbourne realised that they missed Walsh and that without him, there was no chemistry between the judges. Cowell returned for the fifth series in 2008, with Walsh, Minogue, and new judge Cheryl Cole, as Osbourne had decided to quit before the show began. Cowell returned for series 6 and 7 as well, although series 7 was to be his last, as he left in 2011 in order to launch The X Factor in America. After placing third in the seventh series of The X Factor in the UK, boyband One Direction signed to Cowell's label in 2011, and the group has gone on to top singles and album charts worldwide. Cowell was replaced by Gary Barlow. In 2011, UK series eight winners Little Mix signed to Cowell's label. The girl group has sold 50 million records worldwide.
Australian The X Factor launched in 2005 on Network Ten, and it featured Mark Holden, Kate Ceberano and John Reid as the show's judges, but it was cancelled after just one season due to poor ratings. However, the show returned in 2010 and performed strongly on the Seven Network until its eighth season in 2016, when its ratings declined. Subsequently, the show was axed for a second time in January 2017.
Cowell also launched American The X Factor in September 2011 on American broadcaster Fox. It was originally announced that he would be a judge both on the UK and US editions of the show, which aired at similar times of the year, but MTV officially reported on 17 April 2011 that this was not true. Cowell was no longer to be a judge on the UK version, but he would remain a major presence backstage. He was joined by Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid, Nicole Scherzinger and formerly Cheryl Cole. Cowell's act Melanie Amaro won the season, making Cowell the winning judge. Cowell and Reid returned for season 2, while Demi Lovato and Britney Spears joined the judging panel as replacements for Abdul and Scherzinger. This season launched another of Cowell's acts into worldwide fame, the group Fifth Harmony.
Cowell returned for a third season of The X Factor in September 2013 alongside Demi Lovato, while Britney Spears and L.A. Reid announced they would not be returning and were replaced by Paulina Rubio and Kelly Rowland. Cowell's last act Alex & Sierra won the season, marking Cowell's second season as the winning mentor after he won with Melanie Amaro in 2011.
In October 2010, Cowell signed new three-year deals with ITV for both Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, retaining them until 2013. On 15 November 2013, the three-year deal was extended by another three years, keeping it on air until 2016.
In October 2013, it was reported that Cowell might return to the UK version of The X Factor for series 11 in place of Gary Barlow, and on 7 February 2014, his return was officially confirmed. This resulted in the cancellation of the US version after three seasons by Fox. He joined judges Louis Walsh, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who replaced Sharon Osbourne, and new judge, former Spice Girls member Mel B, who replaced Nicole Scherzinger. For his eighth series, he was given the Over 25s category. On 13 December, Ben Haenow and Fleur East reached the final two, which meant that Cowell was the winning mentor for the first time since series 3 2006, when he had both Leona Lewis and Ray Quinn in the final. Ben Haenow became the eleventh winner on 14 December. In 2015, Cowell returned to the X Factor for its twelfth series, along with veteran judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and newcomers Rita Ora and BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw.
In December 2020 it was announced that Cowell will be a judge on The X Factor Israel in 2021. In late May 2021, Cowell announced he will be cancelling his appearance on the show in context of the Israeli aggression against Gaza.
Got Talent
Following the success of the Idol and X Factor franchises, Cowell, his company Syco, and its business partners developed a talent show format open to performers of any kind, not only singers, but also dancers, instrumentalists, magicians, comedians, novelty acts, and so on. The origins of the Got Talent format can be traced to the British talent shows Opportunity Knocks (on screen from 1956, with the winner using the now-standard method of a telephone vote) and New Faces. Immensely popular with weekly audiences of 20 million, Opportunity Knocks showcased singers, dancers and comedians in addition to non standard performers such as acrobats, animal acts and novelty acts. Cowell states, "I was a fan of variety shows Opportunity Knocks and New Faces, and to be able to update that tradition, really was a buzz".
Cowell is the executive producer of America's Got Talent, which debuted in June 2006, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series. The show was a huge success for NBC, drawing around 12 million viewers a week and beating So You Think You Can Dance on Fox (produced by rival and Idol creator Simon Fuller).
Britain's Got Talent debuted on ITV in June 2007. Cowell appeared as a judge alongside Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. The show was a ratings success, and second and third seasons followed in 2008 and 2009. The third series featured a publicity coup when Susan Boyle made a global media impact comparable to that of any previous talent show series winner with her regional audition performance. In December 2019, Cowell signed a five-year deal with ITV ensuring Britain's Got Talent will stay on the channel until 2024.
In 2014, Got Talent was named the world's most successful reality TV format by Guinness World Records, with spin-offs in over 68 countries. Cowell stated, “I am very proud that Got Talent is a home grown British show. We owe its success to a group of very talented producers all over the world who have made this happen. And of course amazing talent.”
In 2015, Cowell launched La Banda, his first US show since his stint with American The X Factor. The show, designed to find male singers to form the "ultimate Latino Boy Band," launched on Univision in the US on 13 September 2015. The winner of the show, boy band CNCO, signed to Cowell's record label Syco Music.
Cowell was announced as the replacement for Howard Stern on America's Got Talent on 22 October 2015. On 15 July 2020, it was announced that Cowell had bought out Sony Music from their joint venture, Syco Entertainment.
Other talent shows
On 16 March 2006, American Inventor debuted on ABC. Cowell co-produced the show with British entrepreneur Peter Jones, who had devised the concept. Fledgling entrepreneurs from across the United States competed to see who could come up with the best new product concept. The 2006 winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and the opportunity to develop his idea into a business. The show returned one more time in 2007 for a second season.
In 2006, Cowell executive-produced Celebrity Duets, which was described as "an Idol show for Hollywood superstars." The show was hosted by Wayne Brady, and its judges were Marie Osmond, Little Richard, and David Foster.
Cowell was also the executive producer of Grease Is the Word for ITV. This show set out to find performers to play Danny and Sandy in the 2007 West End revival of Grease. It was hosted by Zoë Ball and judged by Britons David Ian and Sinitta and Americans David Gest and Brian Friedman. The musical theatre casting concept had already been introduced by the BBC with the ratings hit How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?, but Cowell's show was not the hoped-for success. He himself said, "It has been slaughtered by the critics – and rightly so. It is far too similar to our other formats."
Cowell collaborated with UK production company Shed Media to produce 2008 ITV drama series Rock Rivals, which is based on an X Factor type show. In 2011, Cowell also created his first game show, titled Red or Black? and hosted by Ant & Dec, for ITV. Series 1 was broadcast from 3 to 10 September. The show was recommissioned by ITV for a second series in 2012, which aired weekly.
In 2013, Cowell, in partnership with YouTube, launched a video-sharing competition called The You Generation. In 2013, Simon was executive producer for ITV cookery series Food Glorious Food, which was hosted by Carol Vorderman. He did the same for a game show called Keep it in the Family, presented by Bradley Walsh in 2016.
In 2018, it was announced that Cowell created his first show to air on the BBC, titled The Greatest Dancer, which debuted on 5 January 2019. In the show, dancers competed for a £50,000 and a performance on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. A second series is scheduled to air in 2020.
In April 2020, Cowell judged a spin-off version of the former show Canada's Got Talent called Canadian Family's Got Talent, carried out virtually by Canadian broadcaster Citytv during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
In the media
Cowell has been involved in charity work for many years. He is a patron of Together for Short Lives, the leading UK charity for all children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. He was patron of Children's Hospices UK between 2009 and 2011 before it merged to become Together for Short Lives. He donated money to Manchester Dogs' Home in England after it was hit by a large fire. In view of his charitable works, particularly the production of the charity single "Everybody Hurts" in aid of victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as well as his services to the music industry, there was considerable media speculation as to whether Cowell would receive a knighthood in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours, a proposal allegedly put forward by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In November 2003, Cowell appeared on the charity telethon Children in Need where viewers pledged thousands to see him get sawn in half. In December 2003, Cowell published his autobiography titled I Don't Mean to be Rude, but.... In it, he told the whole story of his childhood, his years working in music and experiences on Pop Idol, Pop Stars Rivals, and American Idol, and finally, his tips for being successful as a pop star. In 2010, he was added as a new entry to the latest edition of the UK's Who's Who.
Cowell has appeared as a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons ("Smart and Smarter"), in which he gets beaten up by Homer Simpson (while criticising Homer's punches). In May 2010, he portrayed himself again in an episode of The Simpsons, "Judge Me Tender". His voice was heard on an episode of Family Guy ("Lois Kills Stewie"), in which he told Stewie that his singing was so awful that he should be dead. He made an MTV Movie Award-winning cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 3, where he sits in judgment during a battle rap (and is subsequently killed by gunfire for criticising the rappers). He appears in the DVD version of Shrek 2 as himself in Far Far Away Idol and also provided the voice.
Cowell was once the fastest "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on BBC's motoring show Top Gear, driving a Suzuki Liana around the show's test track in a time of 1:47.1. When Top Gear retired the Liana along with its rankings after the eighth series, Cowell was the eighth fastest overall and the third fastest non-professional driver. On 11 November 2007 Cowell yet again appeared on Top Gear, achieving a time of 1:45.9 thus putting him ahead of chef Gordon Ramsay and back at the top of the table. His time of 1:45.9 was then tied with English rock singer Brian Johnson of AC/DC and Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud for the second fastest time, just 0.1 seconds behind Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay. In March 2015, Cowell backed Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after he was suspended by the BBC for punching a colleague, with Cowell stating on Good Morning Britain: "He's apologised. But I think what is quite obvious is that the public are behind him, but you know, that's Jeremy."
He appeared on an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (the original British version) and Saturday Night Live in 2004. Cowell has also guest-starred (filling in for Regis Philbin) in the popular talk show Live with Regis and Kelly during American Idol'''s finalist week in early 2006. Cowell introduced entertainer Dick Clark at the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards. He was seen on the British charity telethon Comic Relief, appearing on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice where he donated £25,000 for a fun fair ticket. Cowell has also appeared on the MTV shows Cribs and Punk'd. On Punk'd, Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson set him up to believe his $400,000 Rolls Royce was stolen and had caused an accident by using a nearly identical car.
Cowell was a partner in the Royal Ascot Racing Club, a thoroughbred horse racing syndicate which owned the 2005 Epsom Derby winner, Motivator. Cowell was chosen as the first subject of the re-launched This Is Your Life, in an episode broadcast on 2 June 2007. He was presented with the Red Book by Sir Trevor McDonald while presenting American Idol.
On 1 July 2007, Cowell appeared as a speaker at the Concert for Diana (alongside Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest) held at Wembley Stadium, London, to celebrate the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death. Proceeds from the concert went to Diana's charities as well as to charities of which her sons Princes William and Harry are patrons.Diana concert a 'perfect tribute' BBC News. Retrieved 12 April 2012
At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards on 30 October, Cowell, along with Michael Caine, Elton John, Richard Branson and Stephen Fry, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes. In October 2013 Cowell took part in a fundraising event in Los Angeles in support of the Israeli Defense Forces. The event raised $20 million and Cowell made a personal donation of $150,000.
To raise money for the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017 and for The London Community Foundation, Cowell arranged the recording and release of a charity single "Bridge over Troubled Water". Cowell collaborated with a number of vocalists for the single, including Robbie Williams, Dua Lipa, Roger Daltrey and Rita Ora, and the song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.
Recognition
In 2004 and 2010, Time magazine named Cowell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2008 he received the Special Recognition Award (presented to him by Andrew Lloyd Webber) at the National Television Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall. New Statesman listed Cowell at number 41 in a list of "50 People who Matter [in] 2010". TV Guide named him at number 10 in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.
In 2012, Cowell was featured in the BBC Radio 4 series The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Cowell among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character". Cowell was announced to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 22 August 2018, in the Television category.
Personal life
Cowell dated English presenter Terri Seymour from 2002 to 2008. Cowell was engaged to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy from 2010 to 2011. In 2013, Cowell allegedly began dating an American woman named Lauren Silverman. In July 2013, Silverman's husband and Cowell's friend, Andrew Silverman, filed for an at-fault divorce, citing adultery by his wife and naming Cowell as a co-respondent. News of the divorce filing became public two weeks later, when it was widely reported that Silverman and Cowell were expecting a baby together. Cowell said, "There are a lot of things I will eventually clear up when the time is right, but I really have to be sensitive because there's a lot of people's feelings involved here." The Silvermans released separate statements expressing concern for the well-being of their son during the divorce process. In August 2013, the Silvermans settled their divorce out of court, enabling Cowell to avoid being called as a witness in the divorce proceedings. He subsequently confirmed that Silverman was pregnant with his child, and she gave birth to their son, Eric, on 14 February 2014. The couple confirmed their engagement in January 2022.
In 2010, Cowell came out in support for then Conservative Party leader David Cameron for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, writing in The Sun: "I believe he is the Prime Minister Britain needs at this time. He has substance and the stomach to navigate us through difficult times." In 2013, Cowell contravened his previous statement about David Cameron. According to the interview while he has supported candidates, he has never voted in an election. An opponent of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (Brexit), Cowell came out in support of Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.
In 2019, Cowell became a vegan after doctors advised him to change his diet for health reasons. He was also named one of the wealthiest people in the UK by the Sunday Times Rich List, Cowell was worth £385 million in 2019.
In 2020, Cowell announced he would be writing a seven-book series titled Wishfits'' with his son. The first three volumes are to be released in 2021, with the remaining four the next year. On 8 August 2020, Cowell broke his back after he fell off his new electric motorcycle which many press sources confused with an electric bike. The incident occurred while he was testing it at his home in Malibu, California. Cowell was taken to the hospital, where he underwent back surgery overnight. After the accident, he began eating animal-based food again in order to "rebuild his strength". In February 2022, it was revealed Cowell tested positive for COVID-19.
References
External links
1959 births
A&R people
British music industry executives
Businesspeople from London
English expatriates in the United States
English film producers
English memoirists
English music managers
English music publishers (people)
English people of Polish-Jewish descent
English philanthropists
English racehorse owners and breeders
English record producers
English talent agents
English television producers
International Emmy Founders Award winners
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
Participants in British reality television series
America's Got Talent judges
People educated at Dover College
People educated at Licensed Victuallers' School
Television personalities from London
People named in the Panama Papers
People from Elstree
Contestants on British game shows | true | [
"Scheck v. Burger King Corp. (756 F. Supp. 543 (S.D. Fla. 1991) was a case of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in which it considered motions for summary judgement brought by defendant Burger King Corporation concerning four counts raised by Plaintiff Scheck who alleged that defendant \"breached an implied non-competition agreement (Count I), an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing (Count II) an implied contract created by promissory estoppel (Count III) and the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act\" which plaintiff alleged incorporates the proceeding three claims. Burger King moved for summary judgement on the basis that Scheck's claims were insufficient \"as a matter of law\", were barred by the Massachusetts Statute of Frauds, or were released by the plaintiff as a direct result of two releases executed by Scheck in 1985 and 1986, respectively. The case invoked legal questions concerning the covenant of good faith and fair dealing related to legal protection of the territory rights of franchisees.\n\nBackground and procedural history\nOn February 6, 1989, Steven Scheck, the owner of a Burger King franchise restaurant located in Lee, Massachusetts, filed a complaint in four counts against Burger King in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Prior to the Scheck's complaint, a nearby Howard Johnson restaurant, located two miles away from Scheck's franchise, was converted into a new Burger King restaurant by Marriott Corporation. This conversion was supported by Burger King holdings, and effectively allowed for the creation of a corporately-owned but competing franchise location. Scheck alleged that he was entitled to compensable damages due to Burger King's sanctioning of the conversion. Burger King's initial response was composed of a motion to dismiss and/or transfer the case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1404 , claiming that the forum selection provision of the Assignment Agreement requires that the suit be litigated in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In an order dated June 15, 1989, Chief U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts Judge Frank H. Freedman denied the motion to dismiss, but ordered that in the interest of justice, the case be transferred to the District Court for the Southern District of Florida pursuant to the previously mentioned change of venue provision of the United States code. The matters of jurisdiction and venue were decided under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. §1332 and 28 U.S. Code § 1391(a), respectively, with the court finding complete diversity between the parties and an amount in controversy in excess of $50,000 with regard to the former issue, and interpreting §1391(a) as allowing jurisdiction regardless of whether the action itself was local or transitory.\n\nOn choice of law\nThe district court relied on the parties' original franchise agreement in determining that Florida law would govern all suits related to protecting or securing rights as they arose under the conditions of the agreement. Scheck argued that the dispute should be governed by Massachusetts law, as \"most of the transactions between Scheck and Burger King [had] taken place in Massachusetts.\" Scheck also alleged that the issues raised in his original complaint did not invoke rights under the specific provisions of the franchise agreement, and are thus not subject to that agreement's choice of law provision. He argued that his complaint did not seek to \"protect or secure:\" rights as they arose under the franchise agreement, but rather sought to enforce rights that were created independently of the agreement. In transferring the original action to the current court, Massachusetts District Court Judge Freedman ruled that, regardless of how the plaintiff sought to characterize his claims against Burger King, were not for the franchise agreement, Plaintiff would have no rights upon which to state a claim. The Florida court agreed with Freedman's ruling, and accepted the franchise agreement as the origin and merit for the plaintiff's claims. The court next considered the proper conflict of laws rule and legitimacy of the choice of law clause as provided in the franchise agreement. \nOn this issue, the court turned to the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co., Inc., 313 U.S. 487 (1941), which held, \"In diversity of citizenship cases, the federal courts when deciding questions of conflict of laws must follow the rules prevailing in the States in which they sit.\" The court thus applied its own conflict of laws rule with respect to the franchise agreement's initial determination of the law to be applied to the suit. The court did allow that the original forum state of the suit is that where the action was originally filed , but noted that under Massachusetts law, choice of law and forum selection clauses, such as those found in the original franchise agreement, are valid without rebuttal, and must be upheld unless a party can present \"evidence of fraud, undue influence, [or] overweening bargaining power. . Upholding the validity of the original franchise agreement and the absence of fraud or unequal bargaining power, the court held that both parties originally intended to be governed by the rules of Florida rendering the original transfer of the case valid and standing.\n\nMotions for summary judgement\n\nNullification of claims under lease termination and general release\nBurger King raised a motion for summary judgment, claiming that the totality of Scheck's claims had been released as a result of a jointly-executed \"Agreement of Cancellation and Termination of Lease and General Release\" on November 20, 1985. \nBurger King alleged a second release effective May 27, 1986 which concerned Scheck's purchase of his partner Ralph Marvin's interest in the franchise Burger King alleged that since Scheck was aware of the dispute that arose during the conversion of the Howard Johnson in Massachusetts before the releases were signed, all of his claims against Burger King are nullified by these releases. This contention is supported under Florida case law, which holds that a general release \"will ordinarily be regarded as embracing all claims or demands which had matured at the time of its execution.\" . The court held that as a result, a general release cannot be held to bar a claim which did not exist when it was signed Judge Hoeveler held that, though Burger King argued that general releases could serve to bar claims that arose after execution of a release when those claims came about from promises and obligations that existed prior to the release, it offered no grounding in Florida law for this argument. He also found that Burger King's reliance on the precedent of Coral Gables Imported Motorcars, Inc. v. Flat Motors of North America, Inc. 673 F.2d 1234 (11th Cir. 1982) was misplaced, writing that there the appellate court found that Coral Cables Motorcars claims of fraud under the terms of an initial franchise agreement had matured and were thus compensable at the time the plaintiff entered into and executed a general release in conjunction with a subsequent franchise agreement. The court found that, when Scheck's releases from Burger King were executed, he had no grounding for an encroachment claim against Burger King. It was also found that, while Scheck may have been aware of the possible conversion of the Howard Johnson's as early as late 1985, a claims could not arise until Burger King Corporation actually allowed the Marriott Corporation to open the new franchise itself, or at least until an agreement was entered by both Burger King and Marriott that indicated both had intention to open the new franchise at the contentious location. As the site selection for the new franchise was in question as late as February 1987, and a franchise agreement between Burger King Corporation and Marriott was not entered until June 30, 1987, any attempt by Scheck even to enjoin Burger King before May 1986 would have been dismissed as not yet ripe . Judge Hoeveler thus denied Burger King's motion for summary judgement under the release by prior agreement theory.\n\nSummary judgement through statute of frauds defense\nBurger King also raised the statute of frauds as defense and motion for summary judgement with respect to all of Scheck's claims, arguing that the claims are contingent on an exclusive territory agreement, which was found by the court to not meet statutory requirements, as it was unwritten and not susceptible of performance, nor intended to be performed, in less than one year The Court found that Scheck did not assert breach of an oral exclusive territory agreement, nor entitlement to an exclusive territory. Rather, as was previously settled, Scheck claimed a breach of duties that were implied in the Franchise Agreement. Thus, the court did not acknowledge the finding of an \"independent contract\" which would have governed territorial exclusivity, and denied summary judgment pertaining to a statute of frauds defense.\n\nDiscussion\n\nRespecting count I: Implied non-competition agreement\nScheck alleged that when his original Lee site was purchased from Burger King it came with an implied promise of general non-competition, and a specific promise not to establish a franchise at the Howard Johnson location. Florida law prohibits express or implied contracts that restrain trade, but allows an exception where the good will of a business the value of the business's reputation in the community is part of a sale. Burger King argued that summary judgment must be entered in its favor respecting Count I as there was no sale of a business or good will. Rather, the statute would only extend to the sale of the Lee real estate proper, \"from which one may nt imply a covenant of non-competition\". The court acknowledged the good faith of Burger King's argument, and found that the document from which Scheck's contention that he obtained some portion of good will arose was aptly titled \"Contract for Sale of Real Estate\", and only stated that Scheck \"[agreed] to buy that certain piece of real property together with the building and improvements located thereon...\" The court also conceded that, if Burger King owned any portion of the franchise's good will as defined by Florida statute, it must have arisen by virtue of the Franchise Agreement's license of the Burger King trademark to Scheck, and was thus not contingent strictly on owning the land and buildings on which the franchise sat. The Court thus found that Burger King's combined interests in the franchise, composed of its monthly royalties and fees, reversionary interest, and expectation that the franchisee not act to sully or dilute the Burger King trademark, were related strictly to Burger King's interest in their trademark(s) alone, and not affected in any way by the sale and transfer of the underlying property.\nScheck, however, claimed that the selling price for the real estate, valued at $691,000, reflected the value of the premises as a Burger King franchise, and not simply as a piece of commercial real estate. Judge Hoeveler wrote that, \"even if Scheck could show the Lee property cost more than comparable surrounding commercial real estate, that alone would not suffice to avoid summary judgement.\" The court held that even if Scheck could prove that the Lee property cost more than comparable surrounding commercial properties, that alone would not negate grounds for summary judgment, as the site itself would likely be more valuable to Scheck alone as compared to a non-Burger King franchisee, as the sale would come complete with a functioning Burger King restaurant. The court did allow, however, that the simple notion that a building is valuable or desirable does not constitute good will as defined by Florida statute.\n\nScheck's argument with respect to Count I would require him to establish evidence of an implied non-competition agreement. As noted by the U.S. Supreme Court, summary judgement is mandated when, after sufficient time is allowed for discovery, there is a lack of evidence to support a non-moving party's case on issues for which that party bears the burden of proof. It is also the burden of the non-moving party to rebut any facts presented affidavit or other evidence that would indicate the presence of a genuine and material issue of fact for trial, rather than to simply allege the existence of a broad factual dispute. For these reasons, the count did grant Burger King's motion for summary judgement with respect to Count I.\n\nRespecting count II: Implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing\nA given contract includes not only what is expressly written in it, but also those matters or terms which, though not expressed, are implied by law, which are held to be as binding as those terms which are either written or oral. The state of Florida also recognizes the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, as held in \nFernandez v. Vazquez and Johnson v. Davis. Burger King did not explicitly deny the existence of this implied covenant of good faith in its motion for summary judgement, but rather argued that those acts explicitly authorized through the Franchise Agreement cannot constitute prima facie bad faith. This reasoning arose primarily from the defendant's interpretation that the Franchise Agreement declines to \"grant or imply\" Scheck \"any area, market, or territorial rights\" . However, the Court noted here that the explicit denial of territory rights to Scheck does not apply that Burger King itself has the right to open other proximate franchises at its will, regardless of their effect on Scheck's franchise operations. Thus, while Scheck is not entitled by agreement to an exclusive territory per se, he is entitled to expect that Burger King Corporation will not willfully act to destroy the rights of their franchisees to enjoy the natural fruits of the contract. For its part, Burger King had developed explicit policies and procedures specifically to protect against this kind of \"cannibalization: and potential ruin of other Burger King franchises (corporate-owned or otherwise), which could result in an overall weakening of the Burger King chain. Scheck's claim here is based on Burger Kings alleged failure to exercise the discretion implied by these policies with good faith and fair dealing, and indeed contravened these policies to protect against the encroachment of other franchises. The court declined to grant summary judgement on this count, citing open issues on whether Burger King actually breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing in its Franchise Agreement.\n\nRespecting count III: Implied contract (promissory estoppel)\nScheck claimed that an implied oral contract by Burger King not to franchise Marriott's Massachusetts Turnpike site was formed when, at a regional Burger King conference, Region Vice President Charles Olcott stated to Scheck and eight to ten \"Burger King VIPs\" that \"I can't believe that [Burger King President] Jeff Campbell is ever going to allow [the Howard Johnson's conversion]\" . Scheck thus claimed compensable damages based on reliance on this statement, and also sought to estop Burger King from denying that it agreed to forgo the planned Turnpike franchise site.\n\nThe Court declined to agree that an implied contract was created by Olcott's statement, noting that, while Scheck may have relied on the good faith implications of the statement, he relied on a supposition and not on an actionable promise . Further, the Court noted that the doctrine of promissory estoppel \"require[s] affirmative action indicative of a desire to be contractually bound\" . There was found nothing on record to suggest that Olcott intended either to enter into a contract, nor induce Scheck to do so. Summary judgement on this count was thus granted with the count itself dismissed.\n\nRespecting count IV: Massachusetts consumer protection act\nScheck also alleged violations of Mass. Gen. Laws c. 93(a), commonly known as the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act. This count was summarily dismissed as the Court had already settled that Florida law governed this case.\n\nHolding\nThe court thus held that:\n1) Florida law governed the case;\n2) The Defendant's affirmative defenses of Release and Statute of Frauds were denied and dismissed;\n3) Defendant's motion for summary judgement respecting count I of an implied non-competition agreement was granted and count I dismissed. \n4) Defendant's motion for summary judgement respecting Count II of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing was denied,\n5) Defendant's motion for summary judgement respecting Count III of an implied contract and resultant assertion of promissory estoppel was granted and count 3 dismissed, and\n6) Defendant's motion for summary judgement respecting Count IV of violations of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act was granted and Count IV summarily dismissed.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences \n\nUnited States District Court for the Southern District of Florida cases",
"I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American slasher film based on the 1973 novel.\n\nI Know What You Did Last Summer may also refer to:\n\nFranchise\nI Know What You Did Last Summer (novel), a 1973 suspense novel for young adults by Lois Duncan\nI Know What You Did Last Summer (franchise)\nI Still Know What You Did Last Summer, a 1998 slasher film and a sequel to the 1997 film\nI'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, a 2006 horror film released straight to DVD and the third installment in the series\nI Know What You Did Last Summer (TV series), a 2021 Amazon Prime TV series\n\nOther uses\n\"I Know What You Did Last Summer\" (Supernatural), an episode of the TV series Supernatural\n\"I Know What You Did Last Summer\" (The Vampire Diaries), an episode of the TV series The Vampire Diaries\n\"I Know What You Did Last Summer\" (Scream), an episode of the TV series Scream\n\"I Know What You Did Last Summer (song)\", a 2015 song by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello\n\"I Know What You Did Last Summer\", a 2015 song by Jacob Whitesides featuring Kelly Rowland\n\nSee also\nI Know What You'll Do Next Summer, a third-season episode of the mystery series Veronica Mars"
] |
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"Simon Cowell",
"Idol franchise",
"what year did idol begin",
"2002.",
"is this show still on or did this franchise end",
"I don't know.",
"did this franchise do good",
"longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings."
] | C_c5b3e9f3f8fc44cf90db56c180a43b4c_1 | who else has he worked with within the franchise | 4 | Together with him, who else has Simone Cowell worked with within the idol franchise | Simon Cowell | In 2001, Cowell was given the role of judge on the first series of Pop Idol, a show that he and the show creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have No 1 UK hits, which were the top 2 best-selling singles of 2002, as well as that of top 2 of the decade of 2000s. He also became a judge on the first season of American Idol in 2002. With his notoriously critical reputation, Cowell has been likened to TV personalities such as Judith Sheindlin, and Anne Robinson of her show. Cowell's prominence grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but ...", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. A lot of these one-liners were the product of coaching that Cowell received from noted publicist Max Clifford (who was sacked by Cowell after being convicted of sex offences as of May 2014). Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol programme in 2003, where it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality. In 2003, Cowell placed No 33 on Channel 4's list of the all-time 100 Worst Britons. Cowell formed a new company Syco, which is divided into three units - Syco Music, Syco TV and Syco Film. Cowell returned to music with his latest brainchild signed to Syco, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006. On 11 January 2010, Cowell's exit from American Idol was made official. By the time Cowell left American Idol, the show was on its seventh consecutive season in its leadership among all primetime programmes in the United States, even lasting up to 2011 in the longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. The 2010 season was Cowell's last on the show. He was replaced by Steven Tyler. It was also announced that FOX had acquired the rights to The X Factor USA, an American version of Cowell's British show, The X Factor, which began in September 2011. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur, and record executive. He has judged on the British television talent competition series Pop Idol (2001–2003), The X Factor UK (2004–2010, 2014–2018) and Britain's Got Talent (2007–present), and the American television talent competition series American Idol (2002–2010), The X Factor US (2011–2013), and America's Got Talent (2016–present). Cowell is the founder and sole owner of the British entertainment company Syco.
After some success in the 1980s and 1990s as a record producer, talent scout and consultant in the UK music industry, Cowell came to public prominence in 2001 as a judge on Pop Idol, a show which he and its creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. He subsequently created The X Factor and Got Talent franchises which have been sold around the world. In 2004 and 2010, Time named Cowell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him sixth in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". The same year, he received the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. At the 2010 British Academy Television Awards, Cowell received the BAFTA Special Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry and for his development of new talent". In 2018, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the television category.
Cowell often makes blunt and controversial comments as a television music and talent show judge, including insults and wisecracks about contestants and their singing abilities. He combines activities in both the television and music industries. Cowell has produced and promoted successful singles and albums for various recording acts whom he has signed and taken under his wing, including Little Mix, James Arthur, Labrinth, Leona Lewis, Fifth Harmony, Il Divo, Olly Murs, Noah Cyrus, Cher Lloyd, Fleur East, and Susan Boyle. He has also signed successful boybands such as Westlife, One Direction, PrettyMuch, CNCO.
Early life
Simon Phillip Cowell was born on 7 October 1959 in Lambeth, London, and raised in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish, 1925–2015), was a ballet dancer and socialite, and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell (1918–1999), was an estate agent, property developer, and music industry executive. Cowell's father was from a mostly Jewish family (his own mother was born in Poland), though he did not discuss his ancestry with his children. Cowell's mother was from a Christian background. He has a younger brother, Nicholas Cowell; three half brothers, John, Tony, and Michael Cowell; and a half sister, June Cowell.
Cowell attended Radlett Preparatory School and the independent Dover College, as did his brother, but left after taking GCE O levels. He passed English Language and Literature and then attended Windsor Technical College, where he gained another GCE in Sociology. Cowell took a few menial jobs—including, according to his brother Tony, working as a runner on Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror film The Shining—but did not get along well with colleagues and bosses, until his father, who was an executive at EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room. However, after failing to get a promotion, he left to try out other jobs before returning to EMI.
Career
Early career
In the early 1980s, Cowell left EMI to form E&S Music with his former boss at EMI but quit in 1983. He then formed Fanfare Records with Iain Burton, initially selling exercise videos, and music from acts such as the Italian orchestra Rondò Veneziano. He had his first hit song in 1986 with "So Macho" by Sinitta. Some of Cowell's early success came through Stock Aitken Waterman, who produced a number of hits in the 1980s. However, in 1989 the company went under and he nearly became bankrupt.
He then found a job with BMG as an A&R consultant and set up S Records under BMG. He restarted his career in the music business by creating novelty records with acts such as the puppets Zig and Zag, Power Rangers and World Wrestling Federation. In 1995, through his persistence, he persuaded two actors, Robson Green and Jerome Flynn from the UK television drama series Soldier Soldier, to sign with him and record the song "Unchained Melody", which they had performed on the show. The recording by the duo, now named Robson & Jerome, quickly reached number 1 in the UK, staying at the top of the chart for seven weeks. It became the best-selling single of 1995, and their self-titled album released later in the year also became the best-selling album of 1995. They released another album and two more singles before disbanding, and sold 7 million albums and 5 million singles in total. According to Cowell, they made him his first million. Later acts he signed included Five, Westlife and Teletubbies.
Idol franchise
In 2001, Cowell was given the role of judge on the first series of Pop Idol, a show that he and the show creator Simon Fuller successfully pitched to ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz. Maggie Brown in The Guardian states, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have No 1 UK hits, and they were the top 2 best-selling singles of 2002 and the decade of 2000s. He also became a judge on the first season of American Idol in 2002. With his notoriously critical reputation, Cowell has been likened to TV personalities such as Judge Judy and The Weakest Link host Anne Robinson. His closest predecessor was British TV critic Nina Myskow who, in the 1980s, became known for her harsh put-downs in New Faces, a talent show that Cowell cited as an influence. Cowell's prominence grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but ...", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. A lot of these one-liners were the product of coaching that Cowell received from publicist Max Clifford. Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol programme in 2003, in which it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality.
Cowell formed a new company, Syco, in 2005. The company is divided into three units: Syco Music, Syco TV and Syco Film. Cowell returned to music with his latest brainchild signed to Syco, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006.
On 11 January 2010, Cowell's exit from American Idol was made official. By the time Cowell left American Idol, the show was on its seventh consecutive season in its leadership among all primetime programmes in the United States, even lasting up to 2011 in the longest winning streak in the US overall viewership and demographics in the Nielsen ratings. The 2010 season was Cowell's last on the show, and he was replaced by Steven Tyler. It was also announced that FOX had acquired the rights to The X Factor USA, an American version of British show The X Factor that launched in 2011.
The X Factor
In 2004, with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Cowell was a judge on the first series of the British television music competition The X Factor, which he created using his production company, Syco TV. The X Factor was an instant success with the viewers and enjoyed its tenth series in 2013.
Leona Lewis, the winner of the third series of The X Factor, was signed to Cowell's label Syco and has had number one singles and album sales around the world. Cowell returned for a fourth series on 18 August 2007 alongside Osbourne, Walsh and new judge, Dannii Minogue. Walsh had previously been sacked from the judging panel by Cowell for the fourth series, and he was subsequently replaced by Brian Friedman, who was a judge on Grease Is the Word. Walsh was later brought back by Cowell a week into the auditions when he and Osbourne realised that they missed Walsh and that without him, there was no chemistry between the judges. Cowell returned for the fifth series in 2008, with Walsh, Minogue, and new judge Cheryl Cole, as Osbourne had decided to quit before the show began. Cowell returned for series 6 and 7 as well, although series 7 was to be his last, as he left in 2011 in order to launch The X Factor in America. After placing third in the seventh series of The X Factor in the UK, boyband One Direction signed to Cowell's label in 2011, and the group has gone on to top singles and album charts worldwide. Cowell was replaced by Gary Barlow. In 2011, UK series eight winners Little Mix signed to Cowell's label. The girl group has sold 50 million records worldwide.
Australian The X Factor launched in 2005 on Network Ten, and it featured Mark Holden, Kate Ceberano and John Reid as the show's judges, but it was cancelled after just one season due to poor ratings. However, the show returned in 2010 and performed strongly on the Seven Network until its eighth season in 2016, when its ratings declined. Subsequently, the show was axed for a second time in January 2017.
Cowell also launched American The X Factor in September 2011 on American broadcaster Fox. It was originally announced that he would be a judge both on the UK and US editions of the show, which aired at similar times of the year, but MTV officially reported on 17 April 2011 that this was not true. Cowell was no longer to be a judge on the UK version, but he would remain a major presence backstage. He was joined by Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid, Nicole Scherzinger and formerly Cheryl Cole. Cowell's act Melanie Amaro won the season, making Cowell the winning judge. Cowell and Reid returned for season 2, while Demi Lovato and Britney Spears joined the judging panel as replacements for Abdul and Scherzinger. This season launched another of Cowell's acts into worldwide fame, the group Fifth Harmony.
Cowell returned for a third season of The X Factor in September 2013 alongside Demi Lovato, while Britney Spears and L.A. Reid announced they would not be returning and were replaced by Paulina Rubio and Kelly Rowland. Cowell's last act Alex & Sierra won the season, marking Cowell's second season as the winning mentor after he won with Melanie Amaro in 2011.
In October 2010, Cowell signed new three-year deals with ITV for both Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, retaining them until 2013. On 15 November 2013, the three-year deal was extended by another three years, keeping it on air until 2016.
In October 2013, it was reported that Cowell might return to the UK version of The X Factor for series 11 in place of Gary Barlow, and on 7 February 2014, his return was officially confirmed. This resulted in the cancellation of the US version after three seasons by Fox. He joined judges Louis Walsh, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who replaced Sharon Osbourne, and new judge, former Spice Girls member Mel B, who replaced Nicole Scherzinger. For his eighth series, he was given the Over 25s category. On 13 December, Ben Haenow and Fleur East reached the final two, which meant that Cowell was the winning mentor for the first time since series 3 2006, when he had both Leona Lewis and Ray Quinn in the final. Ben Haenow became the eleventh winner on 14 December. In 2015, Cowell returned to the X Factor for its twelfth series, along with veteran judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and newcomers Rita Ora and BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw.
In December 2020 it was announced that Cowell will be a judge on The X Factor Israel in 2021. In late May 2021, Cowell announced he will be cancelling his appearance on the show in context of the Israeli aggression against Gaza.
Got Talent
Following the success of the Idol and X Factor franchises, Cowell, his company Syco, and its business partners developed a talent show format open to performers of any kind, not only singers, but also dancers, instrumentalists, magicians, comedians, novelty acts, and so on. The origins of the Got Talent format can be traced to the British talent shows Opportunity Knocks (on screen from 1956, with the winner using the now-standard method of a telephone vote) and New Faces. Immensely popular with weekly audiences of 20 million, Opportunity Knocks showcased singers, dancers and comedians in addition to non standard performers such as acrobats, animal acts and novelty acts. Cowell states, "I was a fan of variety shows Opportunity Knocks and New Faces, and to be able to update that tradition, really was a buzz".
Cowell is the executive producer of America's Got Talent, which debuted in June 2006, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series. The show was a huge success for NBC, drawing around 12 million viewers a week and beating So You Think You Can Dance on Fox (produced by rival and Idol creator Simon Fuller).
Britain's Got Talent debuted on ITV in June 2007. Cowell appeared as a judge alongside Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. The show was a ratings success, and second and third seasons followed in 2008 and 2009. The third series featured a publicity coup when Susan Boyle made a global media impact comparable to that of any previous talent show series winner with her regional audition performance. In December 2019, Cowell signed a five-year deal with ITV ensuring Britain's Got Talent will stay on the channel until 2024.
In 2014, Got Talent was named the world's most successful reality TV format by Guinness World Records, with spin-offs in over 68 countries. Cowell stated, “I am very proud that Got Talent is a home grown British show. We owe its success to a group of very talented producers all over the world who have made this happen. And of course amazing talent.”
In 2015, Cowell launched La Banda, his first US show since his stint with American The X Factor. The show, designed to find male singers to form the "ultimate Latino Boy Band," launched on Univision in the US on 13 September 2015. The winner of the show, boy band CNCO, signed to Cowell's record label Syco Music.
Cowell was announced as the replacement for Howard Stern on America's Got Talent on 22 October 2015. On 15 July 2020, it was announced that Cowell had bought out Sony Music from their joint venture, Syco Entertainment.
Other talent shows
On 16 March 2006, American Inventor debuted on ABC. Cowell co-produced the show with British entrepreneur Peter Jones, who had devised the concept. Fledgling entrepreneurs from across the United States competed to see who could come up with the best new product concept. The 2006 winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and the opportunity to develop his idea into a business. The show returned one more time in 2007 for a second season.
In 2006, Cowell executive-produced Celebrity Duets, which was described as "an Idol show for Hollywood superstars." The show was hosted by Wayne Brady, and its judges were Marie Osmond, Little Richard, and David Foster.
Cowell was also the executive producer of Grease Is the Word for ITV. This show set out to find performers to play Danny and Sandy in the 2007 West End revival of Grease. It was hosted by Zoë Ball and judged by Britons David Ian and Sinitta and Americans David Gest and Brian Friedman. The musical theatre casting concept had already been introduced by the BBC with the ratings hit How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?, but Cowell's show was not the hoped-for success. He himself said, "It has been slaughtered by the critics – and rightly so. It is far too similar to our other formats."
Cowell collaborated with UK production company Shed Media to produce 2008 ITV drama series Rock Rivals, which is based on an X Factor type show. In 2011, Cowell also created his first game show, titled Red or Black? and hosted by Ant & Dec, for ITV. Series 1 was broadcast from 3 to 10 September. The show was recommissioned by ITV for a second series in 2012, which aired weekly.
In 2013, Cowell, in partnership with YouTube, launched a video-sharing competition called The You Generation. In 2013, Simon was executive producer for ITV cookery series Food Glorious Food, which was hosted by Carol Vorderman. He did the same for a game show called Keep it in the Family, presented by Bradley Walsh in 2016.
In 2018, it was announced that Cowell created his first show to air on the BBC, titled The Greatest Dancer, which debuted on 5 January 2019. In the show, dancers competed for a £50,000 and a performance on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. A second series is scheduled to air in 2020.
In April 2020, Cowell judged a spin-off version of the former show Canada's Got Talent called Canadian Family's Got Talent, carried out virtually by Canadian broadcaster Citytv during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
In the media
Cowell has been involved in charity work for many years. He is a patron of Together for Short Lives, the leading UK charity for all children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. He was patron of Children's Hospices UK between 2009 and 2011 before it merged to become Together for Short Lives. He donated money to Manchester Dogs' Home in England after it was hit by a large fire. In view of his charitable works, particularly the production of the charity single "Everybody Hurts" in aid of victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, as well as his services to the music industry, there was considerable media speculation as to whether Cowell would receive a knighthood in the Queen's 2010 Birthday Honours, a proposal allegedly put forward by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In November 2003, Cowell appeared on the charity telethon Children in Need where viewers pledged thousands to see him get sawn in half. In December 2003, Cowell published his autobiography titled I Don't Mean to be Rude, but.... In it, he told the whole story of his childhood, his years working in music and experiences on Pop Idol, Pop Stars Rivals, and American Idol, and finally, his tips for being successful as a pop star. In 2010, he was added as a new entry to the latest edition of the UK's Who's Who.
Cowell has appeared as a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons ("Smart and Smarter"), in which he gets beaten up by Homer Simpson (while criticising Homer's punches). In May 2010, he portrayed himself again in an episode of The Simpsons, "Judge Me Tender". His voice was heard on an episode of Family Guy ("Lois Kills Stewie"), in which he told Stewie that his singing was so awful that he should be dead. He made an MTV Movie Award-winning cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 3, where he sits in judgment during a battle rap (and is subsequently killed by gunfire for criticising the rappers). He appears in the DVD version of Shrek 2 as himself in Far Far Away Idol and also provided the voice.
Cowell was once the fastest "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on BBC's motoring show Top Gear, driving a Suzuki Liana around the show's test track in a time of 1:47.1. When Top Gear retired the Liana along with its rankings after the eighth series, Cowell was the eighth fastest overall and the third fastest non-professional driver. On 11 November 2007 Cowell yet again appeared on Top Gear, achieving a time of 1:45.9 thus putting him ahead of chef Gordon Ramsay and back at the top of the table. His time of 1:45.9 was then tied with English rock singer Brian Johnson of AC/DC and Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud for the second fastest time, just 0.1 seconds behind Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay. In March 2015, Cowell backed Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after he was suspended by the BBC for punching a colleague, with Cowell stating on Good Morning Britain: "He's apologised. But I think what is quite obvious is that the public are behind him, but you know, that's Jeremy."
He appeared on an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (the original British version) and Saturday Night Live in 2004. Cowell has also guest-starred (filling in for Regis Philbin) in the popular talk show Live with Regis and Kelly during American Idol'''s finalist week in early 2006. Cowell introduced entertainer Dick Clark at the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards. He was seen on the British charity telethon Comic Relief, appearing on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice where he donated £25,000 for a fun fair ticket. Cowell has also appeared on the MTV shows Cribs and Punk'd. On Punk'd, Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson set him up to believe his $400,000 Rolls Royce was stolen and had caused an accident by using a nearly identical car.
Cowell was a partner in the Royal Ascot Racing Club, a thoroughbred horse racing syndicate which owned the 2005 Epsom Derby winner, Motivator. Cowell was chosen as the first subject of the re-launched This Is Your Life, in an episode broadcast on 2 June 2007. He was presented with the Red Book by Sir Trevor McDonald while presenting American Idol.
On 1 July 2007, Cowell appeared as a speaker at the Concert for Diana (alongside Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest) held at Wembley Stadium, London, to celebrate the life of Princess Diana almost 10 years after her death. Proceeds from the concert went to Diana's charities as well as to charities of which her sons Princes William and Harry are patrons.Diana concert a 'perfect tribute' BBC News. Retrieved 12 April 2012
At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards on 30 October, Cowell, along with Michael Caine, Elton John, Richard Branson and Stephen Fry, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes. In October 2013 Cowell took part in a fundraising event in Los Angeles in support of the Israeli Defense Forces. The event raised $20 million and Cowell made a personal donation of $150,000.
To raise money for the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June 2017 and for The London Community Foundation, Cowell arranged the recording and release of a charity single "Bridge over Troubled Water". Cowell collaborated with a number of vocalists for the single, including Robbie Williams, Dua Lipa, Roger Daltrey and Rita Ora, and the song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart.
Recognition
In 2004 and 2010, Time magazine named Cowell one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2008 he received the Special Recognition Award (presented to him by Andrew Lloyd Webber) at the National Television Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall. New Statesman listed Cowell at number 41 in a list of "50 People who Matter [in] 2010". TV Guide named him at number 10 in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.
In 2012, Cowell was featured in the BBC Radio 4 series The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Cowell among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character". Cowell was announced to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 22 August 2018, in the Television category.
Personal life
Cowell dated English presenter Terri Seymour from 2002 to 2008. Cowell was engaged to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy from 2010 to 2011. In 2013, Cowell allegedly began dating an American woman named Lauren Silverman. In July 2013, Silverman's husband and Cowell's friend, Andrew Silverman, filed for an at-fault divorce, citing adultery by his wife and naming Cowell as a co-respondent. News of the divorce filing became public two weeks later, when it was widely reported that Silverman and Cowell were expecting a baby together. Cowell said, "There are a lot of things I will eventually clear up when the time is right, but I really have to be sensitive because there's a lot of people's feelings involved here." The Silvermans released separate statements expressing concern for the well-being of their son during the divorce process. In August 2013, the Silvermans settled their divorce out of court, enabling Cowell to avoid being called as a witness in the divorce proceedings. He subsequently confirmed that Silverman was pregnant with his child, and she gave birth to their son, Eric, on 14 February 2014. The couple confirmed their engagement in January 2022.
In 2010, Cowell came out in support for then Conservative Party leader David Cameron for Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, writing in The Sun: "I believe he is the Prime Minister Britain needs at this time. He has substance and the stomach to navigate us through difficult times." In 2013, Cowell contravened his previous statement about David Cameron. According to the interview while he has supported candidates, he has never voted in an election. An opponent of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (Brexit), Cowell came out in support of Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.
In 2019, Cowell became a vegan after doctors advised him to change his diet for health reasons. He was also named one of the wealthiest people in the UK by the Sunday Times Rich List, Cowell was worth £385 million in 2019.
In 2020, Cowell announced he would be writing a seven-book series titled Wishfits'' with his son. The first three volumes are to be released in 2021, with the remaining four the next year. On 8 August 2020, Cowell broke his back after he fell off his new electric motorcycle which many press sources confused with an electric bike. The incident occurred while he was testing it at his home in Malibu, California. Cowell was taken to the hospital, where he underwent back surgery overnight. After the accident, he began eating animal-based food again in order to "rebuild his strength". In February 2022, it was revealed Cowell tested positive for COVID-19.
References
External links
1959 births
A&R people
British music industry executives
Businesspeople from London
English expatriates in the United States
English film producers
English memoirists
English music managers
English music publishers (people)
English people of Polish-Jewish descent
English philanthropists
English racehorse owners and breeders
English record producers
English talent agents
English television producers
International Emmy Founders Award winners
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
Participants in British reality television series
America's Got Talent judges
People educated at Dover College
People educated at Licensed Victuallers' School
Television personalities from London
People named in the Panama Papers
People from Elstree
Contestants on British game shows | false | [
"'Franchise consulting' traditionally meant the same consultant-to-client relationship as any other industry wherein the consultant charges a 'fee for services'. But, as of the late 1990s the term 'consultant' has been adopted by many franchise salesmen and brokers who represent themselves as 'free' consultants to prospective franchise buyers. These franchise brokers provide introduction services for franchise sellers with whom they have worked out a pay-for-sale agreement. \n\nSome franchise consultants charge clients an upfront or ongoing fee for finding and analyzing franchises to buy regardless of compensation from the franchisor. \n\nFranchise development consultants assist businesses in becoming a franchisor. They also might support with improving operations, marketing and sales of existing franchise systems.\n\nFor Franchise Buyers\n\nFranchise Broker (paid by seller) \nMuch like a real estate agent, a franchise broker typically charges no upfront fees to \"buyers\" (franchisees); instead, he or she receives the bulk of his or her income from \"sellers\" (franchisors). \n\nThe role of the franchise broker is to build a win-win relationship between the franchisor and the potential franchisee. There are numerous franchise consulting firms that have a large footprint in the franchising industry and have referral agreement set up with 400+ franchises. Franchise brokers receive a commission of up to 50% or more of the franchise fee the buyer pays to the franchise company. \n\nThe potential buyer would pay exactly the same franchise fee as he or she would pay if they had contacted the same franchise on their own. It is illegal for the franchisor to charge anything additional for the use of a Franchise Consultant, unless this is disclosed in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). \n\nFranchise brokers often screen out under qualified candidates and only introduce to franchisors screened candidates that fit their business model. Many franchises are not concerned with paying the consultant/ broker a percentage of the initial franchise fee because they are looking at the long term residual value of on-going royalties from the franchisee.\n\nFranchise Consultant (paid by buyer) \nThere are franchise consultants who charge an upfront or ongoing fee from prospective franchise buyers. Instead of working only with franchises that pay high placement fees, they advise the franchise buyer on any franchise publicly available. As of April 2021, there are over 2,000 franchises being offered in the United States alone. Many popular franchises like Chick-fil-A do not work with franchise brokers and can cost as little as $5,000 for the franchise buyer (Chick-Fil-A corporate covers the difference for opening a store which can be over $2,000,000). Other franchises like Papa John's, Subway, IHOP and Jimmy John's do not compensate franchise brokers from the franchise fee. Business brokers may be compensated on franchise resales by the franchisee selling his/ her location but generally not by the franchisor who collects a transfer fee from the seller.\n\nFranchise Attorney (paid by buyer) \nThere are many licensed franchise attorneys who will consult/represent the franchisee or the franchisor under a fee agreement. Attorneys cannot take fees from franchisors and consult with the franchisee at the same time because this would represent a conflict of interest for an attorney under state laws. A consultant package from an attorney will, of course, be expensive, but the attorney has the incentive and the duty under the law to \"vet\" the franchisor and perform \"due diligence\" on the offering on behalf of his/her client when he/she offers a consultant package to a client.\n\nFor Franchisors\n\nFranchise Consulting Firms \nSmaller and more pragmatic consultancy practices may work much closer with smaller businesses to franchise their business over time. This enables the business to begin franchising their business much sooner, often within 2 years of successful operation of a local model. \n\nServices provided for new franchisors might include: \n\n Franchise legal documentation (generally in conjunction with a licensed franchise attorney)\n Franchise operatorios and training support\n Franchise sales material \n Franchise sales training \n Website development \n Online marketing for franchise buyers\n Online marketing for end consumers\n Franchise compliance training\n\nFranchise consultants might also provide services to existing franchise systems that are looking to expand and improve operational efficiencies. Further services provided to these franchisors include: \n\n Franchise marketing material \n Franchise sales coaching (to franchise brokers and internal salesmen employed by franchisor)\n Operation manuals \n Strategizing on best utilization and implementation of money from the advertising fund\n International expansion\n\nSee also\nFranchise Disclosure Document\nFranchise fraud\nFranchising\nFranchise agreement\nThe Franchise Rule\nFranchise termination\n\nReferences\n\nFranchising\nConsulting occupations",
"Franchise validation is the process of interviewing franchise owners by someone who is interested in investing in that franchise. It is a best practice for prospective franchise owners. \n\nDuring the validation process, the prospect franchisee conducts Interviews with current franchise owners. As an alternative, there are companies and consultants that provide validation services for prospective owners..\n\nSelf validation \n\nFor prospective franchisees doing their own valuation, the first step is to contact the franchise owners. \n\n A complete list of current franchises must be listed in a franchise's Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD). \n In addition, some franchises provide a list of franchise owners. \n\nContacting franchises can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience because franchisees are typically busy people. As a consequence, many prospective owners drop the validation process. However, once contacted, many franchisees will openly and honestly share the lessons they've learned.\n\nA prospect should expect some negative feedback from franchise owners in interview. These perspectives can help prospects identify potential pitfalls and set appropriate expectations. \n\nSome of the topics for a franchisee interview include:\n\n Training programs and opening support - Determine how well the initial training programs and support through getting the first unit opened prepared the franchisees for opening and running their business.\n Ongoing training and support - How effective is the ongoing support services of the franchisor in terms of helping franchises deal with problems that come up in the running of their business.\n Advertising, marketing and promotional programs - Most franchisors collect marketing dollars from every franchisee into a pool that is spent to promote the brand. Determine whether the franchisees are happy and supportive of the way this process is handled. This is typically the area that generates the most complaints.\n Quality of products or services – Determine if the franchisees are happy with the quality of the services and/or products offered through the franchisor.\n Franchisor/franchisee relations - Determine how the franchisees feel about the franchisor in general. Is the franchisor supportive, knowledgeable, responsive, accessible, organized, and trustworthy?\n Financial health – Some franchisees will be guarded about revealing financial details of their operation but others will be open. Is the franchisee meeting his financial expectations? How much is his total investment in the business and over what time period? How long before they reached break-even? How many hours per week does the franchisee work in the business?\n\nValidation services and consultants \n\nIt can be difficult to get a hold of enough franchisees to gather enough information for a proper validation process. Many franchise systems recognize this and hire third party validation services to assist their prospects through this stage. \n\nThese validation services survey existing franchisees about their satisfaction on a wide variety of topics and publish the results. Typically the information provided by the service answers many questions for the prospect who can then focus energies finding answers to more specific questions, saving time and effort with all parties involved. Be certain to review the methodology used by the research company before using the data for making decisions.\n\nThere are franchise consultants who as part of their services will arrange for phone calls with franchisees not presented by the franchisors. Generally franchisors will facilitate introductions to franchisees that our performing well and have a positive working relationship with the franchisor. A consultant can also arrange phone calls with franchisees who have left the system due to non-renewal (after the initial franchise term), closed location or sold their franchise to someone else. Speaking to current franchises and former franchises is important for franchises especially those that are investing a significant amount of capital into the franchise.\n\nExternal links \nFranchise Business Review's Franchise Buying Advice\nFranchise Talk Radio Show Topic: Choosing a Franchise\n\nFranchising"
] |
[
"Jin Akanishi",
"2001-2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN"
] | C_5de9dbc4f8264cbd9fb92742263ae7ba_1 | What was his first band? | 1 | What was Jin Akanishi's first band? | Jin Akanishi | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005--a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success. Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21. Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "Murasaki (murasaki)", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN). CANNOTANSWER | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, | is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.
Biography
Early life
Akanishi was born in Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo Area, Japan on July 4, 1984, as the eldest of two sons. He has a younger brother Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name Fuuta. Akanishi moved to Tokyo in the first grade.
In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself.
2001–2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN
After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005—a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success.
Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21.
Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN).
2009–2010: Solo debut and working with LANDS
At the event of Tokyo Girls Collection on September 5, 2009, Jin appeared as a special guest to promote his new movie, Bandage, and he performed the movie's theme song which marked this as the solo debut under the temporary band unit, LANDS, with Takeshi Kobayashi, the producer of Mr. Children. Kobayashi wrote the lyrics and music of their debut single "Bandage". It was released on November 25, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. In 2010, on January 13, was released the studio album Olympos, which also topped the Oricon charts. On January 19, the band held their only live concert, titled LANDS Last Live.
Akanishi had a series of solo concerts, titled "You & Jin", comprising a total of 32 shows from February 7 to 28, 2010. The song "A Page", he co-wrote, composed and arranged, featured at his concerts, was released as part of KAT-TUN's 11th single, "Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)", on the 2nd limited edition. On June 19 and 20, Akanishi's solo tour "You & Jin" had a 3 sold-out show tour in Los Angeles, California.
In the last show of his "You & Jin" concert Akanishi announced a tour in the United States. In July, Akanishi announced that he would permanently leave the band KAT-TUN, becoming a solo artist of Johnny & Associates. On September 16, were released dates for Akanishi's November tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the cities included were Chicago, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tour featured songs entirely in English, mostly written and produced by the Akanishi himself.
On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Jin will be joining the Warner Music Group and Warner Music Japan on a global basis and became responsible for his recording career in both English and Japanese language. After the "Yellow Gold Tour 3010" ended with success, Jin returned to Japan to hold "Yellow Gold Tour 3011" with total 12 concerts in Osaka-jō Hall, World Memorial Hall, Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.
2011–2013: The U.S. debut, Japonicana and #JustJin
Jin's first solo single titled "Eternal" was released on March 2, 2011, in Japan, and topped both Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts. His debut single in the United States was the digitally released extended play Test Drive released on November 8, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo and producer J. R. Rotem. It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. The Japanese release was on December 7, and it peaked at number fourteen on the Japan Hot 100, and topped both Oricon and Billboard album charts in Japan. On December 28, was released his second physical single in Japan, Seasons, which also topped the charts.
In 2012, on January 26 his second US digital single "Sun Burns Down" was released, and reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts again. On March 6, was released his debut studio album Japonicana, on which collaborated with The Stereotypes and Static Revenger. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. From March 9 to 17 was held a promotional concert tour, which started at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. In Japan from April to May was scheduled to hold 7 concerts in 5 cities including Tokyo and Osaka for a total of 70,000 people, but his further plans were abruptly cancelled due to a penalty by his own agency Johnny's Entertainment because didn't contacted his agency beforehand and reported his marriage at time.
In 2013, on August 7 was released his third single in Japan, "Hey What's Up?", which was chosen as the first official theme song for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show, which was held on the 31st of that same month at the Saitama Super Arena. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. On October 2 was released the fourth single "Ai Naru Hō e" (To Where Love Rings), which reached number three on the charts.
On November 6 Akanishi released his second studio album #JustJin. The self-produced album included all the singles released in Japan since his solo debut in 2011, and a second bonus disc featured songs written in English during his Japonicana era. It reached number three on the charts.
2014–present: Indies debut and Mi Amor
In 2014, on March 2 was made known to the public that Akanishi had decided not to renew his contract with Johnny & Associates, and had left the agency as of February 28. On July 4, was announced that he had set up his own independent label, Go Good Records, and that opened his new fan club, "JIP's" (Jin's Important People).
On August 6, under Go Good Records Akanishi re-debuted with his fifth physical single "Good Time". It reached number two on the charts. The single was also made available on the iTunes Store across the globe.
On November 12 Akanishi released his second extended play, Mi Amor, and the second release from his own record label. It reached number three on the charts. The entire album was written, composed, and produced by Akanishi himself. The previous day of the release, on November 11 Akanishi went on a nationwide "Jindependence" tour from Zepp Sapporo, which ended on December 2 at Zepp Tokyo, with a total of 11 shows in 5 cities.
He collaborated with Takayuki Yamada in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. The duo released their only single "Choo choo shitain" on September 21.
Filmography
Akanishi made his debut as an actor in 1999 in a cameo appearance in the second episode of NTV's romance comedy, P.P.O.I., and also had small roles in TV Asahi's Best Friend, Omae no yukichi ga naiteiru and in NHK series, Haregi, Koko Ichiban. He also started appearing in musicals from 2000 taking on supporting roles in Millennium Shock (2000), Show Geki Shock (2001–2002), Dream Boy (2004) and Dream Boys (2006). Akanishi returned to the small screen in 2005 in the second season of the award-winning and popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, starring opposite Yukie Nakama and former bandmate Kazuya Kamenashi. The show won "Best Drama" at the 44th Television Drama Academy Awards and ended its run with an average viewership rating of 27.8%. He also had a supporting role in NTV's romance series, Anego, the same year.
In 2007, Akanishi starred in his first lead role in Yukan Club, a school comedy series, with ex-bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi and was voted "Best Actor" at the 11th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. He made his debut as a voice actor in 2008 for the Japanese dub of Speed Racer, providing the voice for protagonist Speed played by Emile Hirsch.
In 2009, Akanishi was cast as the lead actor in the movie Bandage directed by Takeshi Kobayashi and released on January 16, 2010. This marked his debut on the big screen.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut with the film 47 Ronin which also had Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Akanishi played the role of Chikara Oishi, the samurai leader's son, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and a close friend to Reeves' character, Kai. The film's director, Carl Rinsch, said he was "impressed by Akanishi's English abilities and motivation". Thus, he turned out to be the second Johnny & Associates artist within the agency after Ninomiya Kazunari in Letters From Iwo Jima to star in a Hollywood movie and the third overall to work with an American director.
Theatre
Personal life
Akanishi wed Japanese actress and model Meisa Kuroki in a private ceremony on February 2, 2012, just two weeks after they'd released official statements denying they were seeing one other. The marriage immediately had a negative effect on Akanishi's career, not only because he failed to inform his talent agency, Johnny & Associates, of his plans to wed but because rumors began circulating that Kuroki was pregnant at the time of the wedding. In response to the scandal, his talent agency made the decision to cancel his solo tour. Together, Akanishi and Kuroki have a daughter, Theia Akanishi (Japanese: 赤西 ティア, Akanishi Tia), who was born September 23, 2012, and a son, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public, who was born June 6, 2017. In 2018, it was reported that the family had returned to Japan, having previously resided in Hawaii, and that Theia was attending the American School in Japan.
Discography
Test Drive (extended-play) (2011)
Japonicana (2012)
#JustJin (2013)
Mi Amor (extended-play) (2014)
Me (2015)
Audio Fashion (2016)
Choo choo shitain (2016) (single) (as Jintaka, unit formed with Takayuki Yamada)
Blessèd (2017)
À la carte (rearranged album) (2018)
THANK YOU (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1984 births
Living people
Japanese idols
KAT-TUN members
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male child actors
Japanese child singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese male voice actors
Lands (band) members
Warner Music Japan artists
Musicians from Chiba Prefecture
English-language singers from Japan
20th-century Japanese male singers
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese male actors | true | [
"\"What a Night\" is a song performed by British band, Loveable Rogues. It was their debut single and was intended to feature on a debut album. The single was released in Ireland and the United Kingdom on 19 April 2013. The band were dropped from Syco in October 2013, but the single was featured on their debut album This and That, released in 2014 on Super Duper Records.\n\nBackground\nLoveable Rogues first announced that they're signed to Syco on June, 2012. In late 2012, the band released a free mixtape through their Soundcloud channel. The collection of songs was released as a free download and was called 'First Things First'. \"What A Night\" was previewed along with new songs such as \"Maybe Baby\", \"Talking Monkeys\" and \"Honest\".\n\nMusic video\n\nTwo teaser videos were released before the music video. The first teaser video was uploaded to their Vevo channel on 11 February 2013. The second teaser released two days after or a week before the music video released; on 19 February 2013, the music video was uploaded to their Vevo channel.\nThe video features the band having a night party with their friends.\n\nChart performance\n\"What a Night\" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number 9 on 27 April 2013 after debuting at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart Update.\n\nTrack listing\nDigital download\n What a Night - 2:50\n Nuthouse - 3:58\n What a Night (feat. Lucky Mason) Sonny J Mason Remix] - 3:41\n What a Night (Supasound Radio Remix) - 2:42\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2013 debut singles\n2013 songs\nSyco Music singles\nSong recordings produced by Red Triangle (production team)\nSongs written by Rick Parkhouse\nSongs written by George Tizzard",
"What We Do Is Secret is a 12\" EP compiling material recorded by the Germs. It was released posthumously by Slash Records in the United States in 1981 as SREP-108. It was later also released in 1982 in Italy on the Expanded Music label as EX-20-Y. What We Do Is Secret includes the three songs from the band's second release, the Lexicon Devil EP, as well as one cover, one outtake, some crowd conversation from the band's last show, and two live tracks.\n\nThe title was taken from the first track of their 1979 (GI) LP, which was not included on this release.\n\nA 2008 biopic of vocalist Darby Crash and the Germs was also titled What We Do Is Secret.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n1982 EPs\nGerms (band) EPs\nSlash Records EPs\n1982 compilation albums\nGerms (band) compilation albums\nSlash Records compilation albums\nEPs published posthumously"
] |
[
"Jin Akanishi",
"2001-2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN",
"What was his first band?",
"After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000,"
] | C_5de9dbc4f8264cbd9fb92742263ae7ba_1 | Any notable songs with them? | 2 | Did Jin Akanishi have any notable songs with Johnny's Jr? | Jin Akanishi | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005--a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success. Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21. Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "Murasaki (murasaki)", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.
Biography
Early life
Akanishi was born in Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo Area, Japan on July 4, 1984, as the eldest of two sons. He has a younger brother Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name Fuuta. Akanishi moved to Tokyo in the first grade.
In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself.
2001–2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN
After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005—a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success.
Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21.
Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN).
2009–2010: Solo debut and working with LANDS
At the event of Tokyo Girls Collection on September 5, 2009, Jin appeared as a special guest to promote his new movie, Bandage, and he performed the movie's theme song which marked this as the solo debut under the temporary band unit, LANDS, with Takeshi Kobayashi, the producer of Mr. Children. Kobayashi wrote the lyrics and music of their debut single "Bandage". It was released on November 25, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. In 2010, on January 13, was released the studio album Olympos, which also topped the Oricon charts. On January 19, the band held their only live concert, titled LANDS Last Live.
Akanishi had a series of solo concerts, titled "You & Jin", comprising a total of 32 shows from February 7 to 28, 2010. The song "A Page", he co-wrote, composed and arranged, featured at his concerts, was released as part of KAT-TUN's 11th single, "Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)", on the 2nd limited edition. On June 19 and 20, Akanishi's solo tour "You & Jin" had a 3 sold-out show tour in Los Angeles, California.
In the last show of his "You & Jin" concert Akanishi announced a tour in the United States. In July, Akanishi announced that he would permanently leave the band KAT-TUN, becoming a solo artist of Johnny & Associates. On September 16, were released dates for Akanishi's November tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the cities included were Chicago, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tour featured songs entirely in English, mostly written and produced by the Akanishi himself.
On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Jin will be joining the Warner Music Group and Warner Music Japan on a global basis and became responsible for his recording career in both English and Japanese language. After the "Yellow Gold Tour 3010" ended with success, Jin returned to Japan to hold "Yellow Gold Tour 3011" with total 12 concerts in Osaka-jō Hall, World Memorial Hall, Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.
2011–2013: The U.S. debut, Japonicana and #JustJin
Jin's first solo single titled "Eternal" was released on March 2, 2011, in Japan, and topped both Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts. His debut single in the United States was the digitally released extended play Test Drive released on November 8, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo and producer J. R. Rotem. It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. The Japanese release was on December 7, and it peaked at number fourteen on the Japan Hot 100, and topped both Oricon and Billboard album charts in Japan. On December 28, was released his second physical single in Japan, Seasons, which also topped the charts.
In 2012, on January 26 his second US digital single "Sun Burns Down" was released, and reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts again. On March 6, was released his debut studio album Japonicana, on which collaborated with The Stereotypes and Static Revenger. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. From March 9 to 17 was held a promotional concert tour, which started at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. In Japan from April to May was scheduled to hold 7 concerts in 5 cities including Tokyo and Osaka for a total of 70,000 people, but his further plans were abruptly cancelled due to a penalty by his own agency Johnny's Entertainment because didn't contacted his agency beforehand and reported his marriage at time.
In 2013, on August 7 was released his third single in Japan, "Hey What's Up?", which was chosen as the first official theme song for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show, which was held on the 31st of that same month at the Saitama Super Arena. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. On October 2 was released the fourth single "Ai Naru Hō e" (To Where Love Rings), which reached number three on the charts.
On November 6 Akanishi released his second studio album #JustJin. The self-produced album included all the singles released in Japan since his solo debut in 2011, and a second bonus disc featured songs written in English during his Japonicana era. It reached number three on the charts.
2014–present: Indies debut and Mi Amor
In 2014, on March 2 was made known to the public that Akanishi had decided not to renew his contract with Johnny & Associates, and had left the agency as of February 28. On July 4, was announced that he had set up his own independent label, Go Good Records, and that opened his new fan club, "JIP's" (Jin's Important People).
On August 6, under Go Good Records Akanishi re-debuted with his fifth physical single "Good Time". It reached number two on the charts. The single was also made available on the iTunes Store across the globe.
On November 12 Akanishi released his second extended play, Mi Amor, and the second release from his own record label. It reached number three on the charts. The entire album was written, composed, and produced by Akanishi himself. The previous day of the release, on November 11 Akanishi went on a nationwide "Jindependence" tour from Zepp Sapporo, which ended on December 2 at Zepp Tokyo, with a total of 11 shows in 5 cities.
He collaborated with Takayuki Yamada in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. The duo released their only single "Choo choo shitain" on September 21.
Filmography
Akanishi made his debut as an actor in 1999 in a cameo appearance in the second episode of NTV's romance comedy, P.P.O.I., and also had small roles in TV Asahi's Best Friend, Omae no yukichi ga naiteiru and in NHK series, Haregi, Koko Ichiban. He also started appearing in musicals from 2000 taking on supporting roles in Millennium Shock (2000), Show Geki Shock (2001–2002), Dream Boy (2004) and Dream Boys (2006). Akanishi returned to the small screen in 2005 in the second season of the award-winning and popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, starring opposite Yukie Nakama and former bandmate Kazuya Kamenashi. The show won "Best Drama" at the 44th Television Drama Academy Awards and ended its run with an average viewership rating of 27.8%. He also had a supporting role in NTV's romance series, Anego, the same year.
In 2007, Akanishi starred in his first lead role in Yukan Club, a school comedy series, with ex-bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi and was voted "Best Actor" at the 11th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. He made his debut as a voice actor in 2008 for the Japanese dub of Speed Racer, providing the voice for protagonist Speed played by Emile Hirsch.
In 2009, Akanishi was cast as the lead actor in the movie Bandage directed by Takeshi Kobayashi and released on January 16, 2010. This marked his debut on the big screen.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut with the film 47 Ronin which also had Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Akanishi played the role of Chikara Oishi, the samurai leader's son, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and a close friend to Reeves' character, Kai. The film's director, Carl Rinsch, said he was "impressed by Akanishi's English abilities and motivation". Thus, he turned out to be the second Johnny & Associates artist within the agency after Ninomiya Kazunari in Letters From Iwo Jima to star in a Hollywood movie and the third overall to work with an American director.
Theatre
Personal life
Akanishi wed Japanese actress and model Meisa Kuroki in a private ceremony on February 2, 2012, just two weeks after they'd released official statements denying they were seeing one other. The marriage immediately had a negative effect on Akanishi's career, not only because he failed to inform his talent agency, Johnny & Associates, of his plans to wed but because rumors began circulating that Kuroki was pregnant at the time of the wedding. In response to the scandal, his talent agency made the decision to cancel his solo tour. Together, Akanishi and Kuroki have a daughter, Theia Akanishi (Japanese: 赤西 ティア, Akanishi Tia), who was born September 23, 2012, and a son, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public, who was born June 6, 2017. In 2018, it was reported that the family had returned to Japan, having previously resided in Hawaii, and that Theia was attending the American School in Japan.
Discography
Test Drive (extended-play) (2011)
Japonicana (2012)
#JustJin (2013)
Mi Amor (extended-play) (2014)
Me (2015)
Audio Fashion (2016)
Choo choo shitain (2016) (single) (as Jintaka, unit formed with Takayuki Yamada)
Blessèd (2017)
À la carte (rearranged album) (2018)
THANK YOU (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1984 births
Living people
Japanese idols
KAT-TUN members
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male child actors
Japanese child singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese male voice actors
Lands (band) members
Warner Music Japan artists
Musicians from Chiba Prefecture
English-language singers from Japan
20th-century Japanese male singers
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese male actors | false | [
"This is a list of songs written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland. In most cases the original recordings were for Motown, for whom the three were contracted until 1968. They continued to have success after establishing the Invictus and Hot Wax labels, in some cases using the writing pseudonym \"Edyth Wayne\" (in various spellings). \n\nThe article also lists songs written by any of the three writers, sometimes in collaboration with others.\n\nFor a list of their production credits, see Holland–Dozier–Holland#Production.\n\nChart hits and other notable songs written by Holland, Dozier and Holland\n\nOther chart hits and notable songs written by Brian Holland alone or with others\n\nOther chart hits and notable songs written by Lamont Dozier\n\nOther chart hits and notable songs written by Eddie Holland Jr. with others\n\nSee also\nHolland-Dozier-Holland\n\nReferences\n\nHolland, Dozier, Holland\nAmerican rhythm and blues songs",
"This is a list of songs written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, including those written by Hayes or Porter solo, or with other writers.\n\nChart hits and other notable songs written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter\n\nChart hits and other notable songs written by Isaac Hayes solo\n\nChart hits and other notable songs written by Isaac Hayes with other writers\n\nChart hits and other notable songs written by David Porter solo or with other writers\n\nReferences\n\nHayes, Isaac and David Porter\nAmerican rhythm and blues songs"
] |
[
"Jin Akanishi",
"2001-2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN",
"What was his first band?",
"After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000,",
"Any notable songs with them?",
"I don't know."
] | C_5de9dbc4f8264cbd9fb92742263ae7ba_1 | What happened next with Johnny's Jr? | 3 | After Jin Akanishi joined, what happened next with Johnny's Jr? | Jin Akanishi | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005--a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success. Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21. Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "Murasaki (murasaki)", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN). CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.
Biography
Early life
Akanishi was born in Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo Area, Japan on July 4, 1984, as the eldest of two sons. He has a younger brother Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name Fuuta. Akanishi moved to Tokyo in the first grade.
In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself.
2001–2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN
After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005—a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success.
Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21.
Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN).
2009–2010: Solo debut and working with LANDS
At the event of Tokyo Girls Collection on September 5, 2009, Jin appeared as a special guest to promote his new movie, Bandage, and he performed the movie's theme song which marked this as the solo debut under the temporary band unit, LANDS, with Takeshi Kobayashi, the producer of Mr. Children. Kobayashi wrote the lyrics and music of their debut single "Bandage". It was released on November 25, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. In 2010, on January 13, was released the studio album Olympos, which also topped the Oricon charts. On January 19, the band held their only live concert, titled LANDS Last Live.
Akanishi had a series of solo concerts, titled "You & Jin", comprising a total of 32 shows from February 7 to 28, 2010. The song "A Page", he co-wrote, composed and arranged, featured at his concerts, was released as part of KAT-TUN's 11th single, "Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)", on the 2nd limited edition. On June 19 and 20, Akanishi's solo tour "You & Jin" had a 3 sold-out show tour in Los Angeles, California.
In the last show of his "You & Jin" concert Akanishi announced a tour in the United States. In July, Akanishi announced that he would permanently leave the band KAT-TUN, becoming a solo artist of Johnny & Associates. On September 16, were released dates for Akanishi's November tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the cities included were Chicago, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tour featured songs entirely in English, mostly written and produced by the Akanishi himself.
On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Jin will be joining the Warner Music Group and Warner Music Japan on a global basis and became responsible for his recording career in both English and Japanese language. After the "Yellow Gold Tour 3010" ended with success, Jin returned to Japan to hold "Yellow Gold Tour 3011" with total 12 concerts in Osaka-jō Hall, World Memorial Hall, Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.
2011–2013: The U.S. debut, Japonicana and #JustJin
Jin's first solo single titled "Eternal" was released on March 2, 2011, in Japan, and topped both Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts. His debut single in the United States was the digitally released extended play Test Drive released on November 8, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo and producer J. R. Rotem. It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. The Japanese release was on December 7, and it peaked at number fourteen on the Japan Hot 100, and topped both Oricon and Billboard album charts in Japan. On December 28, was released his second physical single in Japan, Seasons, which also topped the charts.
In 2012, on January 26 his second US digital single "Sun Burns Down" was released, and reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts again. On March 6, was released his debut studio album Japonicana, on which collaborated with The Stereotypes and Static Revenger. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. From March 9 to 17 was held a promotional concert tour, which started at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. In Japan from April to May was scheduled to hold 7 concerts in 5 cities including Tokyo and Osaka for a total of 70,000 people, but his further plans were abruptly cancelled due to a penalty by his own agency Johnny's Entertainment because didn't contacted his agency beforehand and reported his marriage at time.
In 2013, on August 7 was released his third single in Japan, "Hey What's Up?", which was chosen as the first official theme song for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show, which was held on the 31st of that same month at the Saitama Super Arena. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. On October 2 was released the fourth single "Ai Naru Hō e" (To Where Love Rings), which reached number three on the charts.
On November 6 Akanishi released his second studio album #JustJin. The self-produced album included all the singles released in Japan since his solo debut in 2011, and a second bonus disc featured songs written in English during his Japonicana era. It reached number three on the charts.
2014–present: Indies debut and Mi Amor
In 2014, on March 2 was made known to the public that Akanishi had decided not to renew his contract with Johnny & Associates, and had left the agency as of February 28. On July 4, was announced that he had set up his own independent label, Go Good Records, and that opened his new fan club, "JIP's" (Jin's Important People).
On August 6, under Go Good Records Akanishi re-debuted with his fifth physical single "Good Time". It reached number two on the charts. The single was also made available on the iTunes Store across the globe.
On November 12 Akanishi released his second extended play, Mi Amor, and the second release from his own record label. It reached number three on the charts. The entire album was written, composed, and produced by Akanishi himself. The previous day of the release, on November 11 Akanishi went on a nationwide "Jindependence" tour from Zepp Sapporo, which ended on December 2 at Zepp Tokyo, with a total of 11 shows in 5 cities.
He collaborated with Takayuki Yamada in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. The duo released their only single "Choo choo shitain" on September 21.
Filmography
Akanishi made his debut as an actor in 1999 in a cameo appearance in the second episode of NTV's romance comedy, P.P.O.I., and also had small roles in TV Asahi's Best Friend, Omae no yukichi ga naiteiru and in NHK series, Haregi, Koko Ichiban. He also started appearing in musicals from 2000 taking on supporting roles in Millennium Shock (2000), Show Geki Shock (2001–2002), Dream Boy (2004) and Dream Boys (2006). Akanishi returned to the small screen in 2005 in the second season of the award-winning and popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, starring opposite Yukie Nakama and former bandmate Kazuya Kamenashi. The show won "Best Drama" at the 44th Television Drama Academy Awards and ended its run with an average viewership rating of 27.8%. He also had a supporting role in NTV's romance series, Anego, the same year.
In 2007, Akanishi starred in his first lead role in Yukan Club, a school comedy series, with ex-bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi and was voted "Best Actor" at the 11th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. He made his debut as a voice actor in 2008 for the Japanese dub of Speed Racer, providing the voice for protagonist Speed played by Emile Hirsch.
In 2009, Akanishi was cast as the lead actor in the movie Bandage directed by Takeshi Kobayashi and released on January 16, 2010. This marked his debut on the big screen.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut with the film 47 Ronin which also had Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Akanishi played the role of Chikara Oishi, the samurai leader's son, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and a close friend to Reeves' character, Kai. The film's director, Carl Rinsch, said he was "impressed by Akanishi's English abilities and motivation". Thus, he turned out to be the second Johnny & Associates artist within the agency after Ninomiya Kazunari in Letters From Iwo Jima to star in a Hollywood movie and the third overall to work with an American director.
Theatre
Personal life
Akanishi wed Japanese actress and model Meisa Kuroki in a private ceremony on February 2, 2012, just two weeks after they'd released official statements denying they were seeing one other. The marriage immediately had a negative effect on Akanishi's career, not only because he failed to inform his talent agency, Johnny & Associates, of his plans to wed but because rumors began circulating that Kuroki was pregnant at the time of the wedding. In response to the scandal, his talent agency made the decision to cancel his solo tour. Together, Akanishi and Kuroki have a daughter, Theia Akanishi (Japanese: 赤西 ティア, Akanishi Tia), who was born September 23, 2012, and a son, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public, who was born June 6, 2017. In 2018, it was reported that the family had returned to Japan, having previously resided in Hawaii, and that Theia was attending the American School in Japan.
Discography
Test Drive (extended-play) (2011)
Japonicana (2012)
#JustJin (2013)
Mi Amor (extended-play) (2014)
Me (2015)
Audio Fashion (2016)
Choo choo shitain (2016) (single) (as Jintaka, unit formed with Takayuki Yamada)
Blessèd (2017)
À la carte (rearranged album) (2018)
THANK YOU (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1984 births
Living people
Japanese idols
KAT-TUN members
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male child actors
Japanese child singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese male voice actors
Lands (band) members
Warner Music Japan artists
Musicians from Chiba Prefecture
English-language singers from Japan
20th-century Japanese male singers
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese male actors | false | [
"Debbie Burton was an American singer. She is best known for dubbing the singing voice of the young Baby Jane Hudson (played by child actress Julie Allred) in the 1962 film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, singing the song \"I've Written a Letter to Daddy\". Burton also sang a duet with Bette Davis, the rock and roll song \"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?\", written by Frank DeVol and Lukas Heller. It was released as a promotional single, with Burton's rendition of \"I've Written a Letter to Daddy\" on the flipside. An instrumental version of \"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?\" can be heard in the movie.\n\nIn 1964 Burton released a single entitled \"The Next Day\", which was co-written by Perry Botkin, Jr. with Harry Nilsson. The song was featured on the 2004 compilation Girls Go Zonk: US Beat Chicks and Harmony Honeys.\n\nThe single \"Baby It's Over\" (Capitol 1966) was also written by Nilsson and produced by Botkin.\n\nThe music to the song was originally If I Had My Life to Live Over, written by Henry Tobias, Moe Jaffe and Larry Vincent in 1939.\n\nFilmography\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\n\n[ Debbie Burton on Allmusic]\nDebbie Burton on Myspace\n\nAmerican women singers\nMGM Records artists\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\n21st-century American women",
"is a Japanese actor from Tottori Prefecture.\n\nCareer\nIn 2007, Nagase started his career as a Kansai Johnny's Jr. under Johnny & Associates, with which he was associated until 2010. He was a member of the Johnny's Jr. unit \"Ossan\" from 2007 to 2008. In 2011, he debuted as an actor under Ken-On, with which he was associated until August 2018. He works as freelance from September 1, 2018.\n\nFilmography\n\nTV series\n\nFilm\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n1993 births\nLiving people\n21st-century Japanese male actors"
] |
[
"Jin Akanishi",
"2001-2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN",
"What was his first band?",
"After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000,",
"Any notable songs with them?",
"I don't know.",
"What happened next with Johnny's Jr?",
"I don't know."
] | C_5de9dbc4f8264cbd9fb92742263ae7ba_1 | Was he with another band? | 4 | Other than Johnny's Jr., was Jin Akanishi with any other bands? | Jin Akanishi | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005--a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success. Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21. Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "Murasaki (murasaki)", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN). CANNOTANSWER | Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., | is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.
Biography
Early life
Akanishi was born in Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo Area, Japan on July 4, 1984, as the eldest of two sons. He has a younger brother Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name Fuuta. Akanishi moved to Tokyo in the first grade.
In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself.
2001–2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN
After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005—a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success.
Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21.
Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN).
2009–2010: Solo debut and working with LANDS
At the event of Tokyo Girls Collection on September 5, 2009, Jin appeared as a special guest to promote his new movie, Bandage, and he performed the movie's theme song which marked this as the solo debut under the temporary band unit, LANDS, with Takeshi Kobayashi, the producer of Mr. Children. Kobayashi wrote the lyrics and music of their debut single "Bandage". It was released on November 25, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. In 2010, on January 13, was released the studio album Olympos, which also topped the Oricon charts. On January 19, the band held their only live concert, titled LANDS Last Live.
Akanishi had a series of solo concerts, titled "You & Jin", comprising a total of 32 shows from February 7 to 28, 2010. The song "A Page", he co-wrote, composed and arranged, featured at his concerts, was released as part of KAT-TUN's 11th single, "Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)", on the 2nd limited edition. On June 19 and 20, Akanishi's solo tour "You & Jin" had a 3 sold-out show tour in Los Angeles, California.
In the last show of his "You & Jin" concert Akanishi announced a tour in the United States. In July, Akanishi announced that he would permanently leave the band KAT-TUN, becoming a solo artist of Johnny & Associates. On September 16, were released dates for Akanishi's November tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the cities included were Chicago, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tour featured songs entirely in English, mostly written and produced by the Akanishi himself.
On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Jin will be joining the Warner Music Group and Warner Music Japan on a global basis and became responsible for his recording career in both English and Japanese language. After the "Yellow Gold Tour 3010" ended with success, Jin returned to Japan to hold "Yellow Gold Tour 3011" with total 12 concerts in Osaka-jō Hall, World Memorial Hall, Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.
2011–2013: The U.S. debut, Japonicana and #JustJin
Jin's first solo single titled "Eternal" was released on March 2, 2011, in Japan, and topped both Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts. His debut single in the United States was the digitally released extended play Test Drive released on November 8, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo and producer J. R. Rotem. It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. The Japanese release was on December 7, and it peaked at number fourteen on the Japan Hot 100, and topped both Oricon and Billboard album charts in Japan. On December 28, was released his second physical single in Japan, Seasons, which also topped the charts.
In 2012, on January 26 his second US digital single "Sun Burns Down" was released, and reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts again. On March 6, was released his debut studio album Japonicana, on which collaborated with The Stereotypes and Static Revenger. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. From March 9 to 17 was held a promotional concert tour, which started at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. In Japan from April to May was scheduled to hold 7 concerts in 5 cities including Tokyo and Osaka for a total of 70,000 people, but his further plans were abruptly cancelled due to a penalty by his own agency Johnny's Entertainment because didn't contacted his agency beforehand and reported his marriage at time.
In 2013, on August 7 was released his third single in Japan, "Hey What's Up?", which was chosen as the first official theme song for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show, which was held on the 31st of that same month at the Saitama Super Arena. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. On October 2 was released the fourth single "Ai Naru Hō e" (To Where Love Rings), which reached number three on the charts.
On November 6 Akanishi released his second studio album #JustJin. The self-produced album included all the singles released in Japan since his solo debut in 2011, and a second bonus disc featured songs written in English during his Japonicana era. It reached number three on the charts.
2014–present: Indies debut and Mi Amor
In 2014, on March 2 was made known to the public that Akanishi had decided not to renew his contract with Johnny & Associates, and had left the agency as of February 28. On July 4, was announced that he had set up his own independent label, Go Good Records, and that opened his new fan club, "JIP's" (Jin's Important People).
On August 6, under Go Good Records Akanishi re-debuted with his fifth physical single "Good Time". It reached number two on the charts. The single was also made available on the iTunes Store across the globe.
On November 12 Akanishi released his second extended play, Mi Amor, and the second release from his own record label. It reached number three on the charts. The entire album was written, composed, and produced by Akanishi himself. The previous day of the release, on November 11 Akanishi went on a nationwide "Jindependence" tour from Zepp Sapporo, which ended on December 2 at Zepp Tokyo, with a total of 11 shows in 5 cities.
He collaborated with Takayuki Yamada in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. The duo released their only single "Choo choo shitain" on September 21.
Filmography
Akanishi made his debut as an actor in 1999 in a cameo appearance in the second episode of NTV's romance comedy, P.P.O.I., and also had small roles in TV Asahi's Best Friend, Omae no yukichi ga naiteiru and in NHK series, Haregi, Koko Ichiban. He also started appearing in musicals from 2000 taking on supporting roles in Millennium Shock (2000), Show Geki Shock (2001–2002), Dream Boy (2004) and Dream Boys (2006). Akanishi returned to the small screen in 2005 in the second season of the award-winning and popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, starring opposite Yukie Nakama and former bandmate Kazuya Kamenashi. The show won "Best Drama" at the 44th Television Drama Academy Awards and ended its run with an average viewership rating of 27.8%. He also had a supporting role in NTV's romance series, Anego, the same year.
In 2007, Akanishi starred in his first lead role in Yukan Club, a school comedy series, with ex-bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi and was voted "Best Actor" at the 11th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. He made his debut as a voice actor in 2008 for the Japanese dub of Speed Racer, providing the voice for protagonist Speed played by Emile Hirsch.
In 2009, Akanishi was cast as the lead actor in the movie Bandage directed by Takeshi Kobayashi and released on January 16, 2010. This marked his debut on the big screen.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut with the film 47 Ronin which also had Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Akanishi played the role of Chikara Oishi, the samurai leader's son, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and a close friend to Reeves' character, Kai. The film's director, Carl Rinsch, said he was "impressed by Akanishi's English abilities and motivation". Thus, he turned out to be the second Johnny & Associates artist within the agency after Ninomiya Kazunari in Letters From Iwo Jima to star in a Hollywood movie and the third overall to work with an American director.
Theatre
Personal life
Akanishi wed Japanese actress and model Meisa Kuroki in a private ceremony on February 2, 2012, just two weeks after they'd released official statements denying they were seeing one other. The marriage immediately had a negative effect on Akanishi's career, not only because he failed to inform his talent agency, Johnny & Associates, of his plans to wed but because rumors began circulating that Kuroki was pregnant at the time of the wedding. In response to the scandal, his talent agency made the decision to cancel his solo tour. Together, Akanishi and Kuroki have a daughter, Theia Akanishi (Japanese: 赤西 ティア, Akanishi Tia), who was born September 23, 2012, and a son, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public, who was born June 6, 2017. In 2018, it was reported that the family had returned to Japan, having previously resided in Hawaii, and that Theia was attending the American School in Japan.
Discography
Test Drive (extended-play) (2011)
Japonicana (2012)
#JustJin (2013)
Mi Amor (extended-play) (2014)
Me (2015)
Audio Fashion (2016)
Choo choo shitain (2016) (single) (as Jintaka, unit formed with Takayuki Yamada)
Blessèd (2017)
À la carte (rearranged album) (2018)
THANK YOU (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1984 births
Living people
Japanese idols
KAT-TUN members
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male child actors
Japanese child singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese male voice actors
Lands (band) members
Warner Music Japan artists
Musicians from Chiba Prefecture
English-language singers from Japan
20th-century Japanese male singers
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese male actors | true | [
"Four0ninE is the first EP by Canadian grindcore band Fuck the Facts. It was recorded in mid May 2001 by the band. It marks the first recordings with vocalist Brent Christoff, and the only recordings with bassist Shomir Das. It is the second release by Fuck the Facts as a band, the first being a split with Ames Sanglates. Days after the recording of this EP, Shomir left the band.\n\nTrack listing\n\nRelease\nTopon had been in contact with Mortuary I.O.D. for recording a split with another band he was in, Recondite. However, he was asked to leave Recondite before the release was finalized. Because he had been in contact with Mortuary I.O.D., he decided that Fuck the Facts would be on the split instead.\n\nUltimately, the split was never released due to financial complications, so the band decided to release the songs on their own. It was released on 99 3\" mini CD-Rs in August. It was re-released in 2003 on a split with Banzai 606 on First Aid Productions and again in 2005 as part of the Mullet Fever reissue documenting the first year of Fuck the Facts as a full band.\n\nReferences\n\n2001 debut EPs\nFuck the Facts albums\nGrindcore EPs\nElectronic EPs",
"David 'Duck' Dowle (born 20 October 1953 in London, England) is an English drummer who has played with the bands Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, Streetwalkers, Whitesnake, Runner, Midnight Flyer, Bernie Marsden.\n\nBiography\nDave Dowle started his career when he was 13: he joined his first band, Canterbury Glass, playing alongside future Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. According to Dowle, the band recorded a Radio One session after meeting the late John Peel DJing at a gig. Following Canterbury Glass, he worked with a variety of artists including Doris Troy and PP Arnold before forming a band called Curly who also recorded a John Peel session in November 1973. Steve Farr and Stewart Blandameer from Curly both ended up in the Q-Tips with Paul Young, with Blandameer also working with Status Quo. Dowle next worked with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, touring the US and appearing on the Reinforcements album in 1975.\n\nIn September 1976, Dowle joined the Streetwalkers replacing Nicko McBrain, and this line-up of Dowle, Brian Johnston, Roger Chapman, Charlie Whitney, Bobby Tench and Micky Feat released a studio album, 'Vicious But Fair' in January 1977. By the end of '77, however, the band had run out of steam, and a live album, released in December 1977, proved to be their final release.\n\nIn January 1978, Dowle joined ex-Deep Purple singer David Coverdale in his new band Whitesnake. Joining David Dowle in the band was another ex-member of the Streetwalkers, keyboard player, Brian Johnston, although he would be replaced within a couple of months by Pete Solley. The rest of the band was Coverdale on vocals, Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden on guitars and Neil Murray on bass. This line-up recorded the 'Snakebite' EP, which was released in June 1978. By August 1978, another change of keyboard player was announced with Coverdale's old Purple buddy Jon Lord adding his considerable experience to the band. This line-up undertook a major UK tour in October and November 1978 and released an album Trouble in December of that year. Whitesnake then undertook a world tour, which served notice of a major new band on the scene. Another album, Lovehunter, was recorded, but in July 1979, even before the album was released, Dowle was replaced by Ian Paice, yet another ex-member of Deep Purple. Dowle's final appearance on a Whitesnake recording was on two sides of Live... in the Heart of the City released in 1980.\n\nAfter departure from Whitesnake, Dowle continued to play on sessions. \"I was really a session player. With any band I was working with I'd always carry on doing sessions.\"\n\nDiscography\n\nWith Brian Auger's Oblivion Express\nReinforcements\n\nWith Whitesnake\nSnakebite (1978)\nTrouble (1978)\nLovehunter (1979)\nLive At Hammersmith (1979)\n\nWith Runner\nRunner (1978)\n\nWith Midnight Flyer\n Midnight Flyer\n Rock 'n' Roll Party\n\nWith Mark Zed\n My Calculator's Right (1980)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1953 births\nLiving people\nBritish male drummers\nEnglish rock drummers\nWhitesnake members\nMusicians from London\nStreetwalkers members"
] |
[
"Jin Akanishi",
"2001-2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN",
"What was his first band?",
"After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000,",
"Any notable songs with them?",
"I don't know.",
"What happened next with Johnny's Jr?",
"I don't know.",
"Was he with another band?",
"Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D.,"
] | C_5de9dbc4f8264cbd9fb92742263ae7ba_1 | Were they successful? | 5 | Was Johnny's Jr. successful? | Jin Akanishi | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005--a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success. Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21. Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "Murasaki (murasaki)", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN). CANNOTANSWER | the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, | is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.
Biography
Early life
Akanishi was born in Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo Area, Japan on July 4, 1984, as the eldest of two sons. He has a younger brother Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name Fuuta. Akanishi moved to Tokyo in the first grade.
In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself.
2001–2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN
After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005—a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success.
Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21.
Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN).
2009–2010: Solo debut and working with LANDS
At the event of Tokyo Girls Collection on September 5, 2009, Jin appeared as a special guest to promote his new movie, Bandage, and he performed the movie's theme song which marked this as the solo debut under the temporary band unit, LANDS, with Takeshi Kobayashi, the producer of Mr. Children. Kobayashi wrote the lyrics and music of their debut single "Bandage". It was released on November 25, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. In 2010, on January 13, was released the studio album Olympos, which also topped the Oricon charts. On January 19, the band held their only live concert, titled LANDS Last Live.
Akanishi had a series of solo concerts, titled "You & Jin", comprising a total of 32 shows from February 7 to 28, 2010. The song "A Page", he co-wrote, composed and arranged, featured at his concerts, was released as part of KAT-TUN's 11th single, "Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)", on the 2nd limited edition. On June 19 and 20, Akanishi's solo tour "You & Jin" had a 3 sold-out show tour in Los Angeles, California.
In the last show of his "You & Jin" concert Akanishi announced a tour in the United States. In July, Akanishi announced that he would permanently leave the band KAT-TUN, becoming a solo artist of Johnny & Associates. On September 16, were released dates for Akanishi's November tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the cities included were Chicago, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tour featured songs entirely in English, mostly written and produced by the Akanishi himself.
On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Jin will be joining the Warner Music Group and Warner Music Japan on a global basis and became responsible for his recording career in both English and Japanese language. After the "Yellow Gold Tour 3010" ended with success, Jin returned to Japan to hold "Yellow Gold Tour 3011" with total 12 concerts in Osaka-jō Hall, World Memorial Hall, Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.
2011–2013: The U.S. debut, Japonicana and #JustJin
Jin's first solo single titled "Eternal" was released on March 2, 2011, in Japan, and topped both Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts. His debut single in the United States was the digitally released extended play Test Drive released on November 8, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo and producer J. R. Rotem. It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. The Japanese release was on December 7, and it peaked at number fourteen on the Japan Hot 100, and topped both Oricon and Billboard album charts in Japan. On December 28, was released his second physical single in Japan, Seasons, which also topped the charts.
In 2012, on January 26 his second US digital single "Sun Burns Down" was released, and reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts again. On March 6, was released his debut studio album Japonicana, on which collaborated with The Stereotypes and Static Revenger. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. From March 9 to 17 was held a promotional concert tour, which started at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. In Japan from April to May was scheduled to hold 7 concerts in 5 cities including Tokyo and Osaka for a total of 70,000 people, but his further plans were abruptly cancelled due to a penalty by his own agency Johnny's Entertainment because didn't contacted his agency beforehand and reported his marriage at time.
In 2013, on August 7 was released his third single in Japan, "Hey What's Up?", which was chosen as the first official theme song for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show, which was held on the 31st of that same month at the Saitama Super Arena. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. On October 2 was released the fourth single "Ai Naru Hō e" (To Where Love Rings), which reached number three on the charts.
On November 6 Akanishi released his second studio album #JustJin. The self-produced album included all the singles released in Japan since his solo debut in 2011, and a second bonus disc featured songs written in English during his Japonicana era. It reached number three on the charts.
2014–present: Indies debut and Mi Amor
In 2014, on March 2 was made known to the public that Akanishi had decided not to renew his contract with Johnny & Associates, and had left the agency as of February 28. On July 4, was announced that he had set up his own independent label, Go Good Records, and that opened his new fan club, "JIP's" (Jin's Important People).
On August 6, under Go Good Records Akanishi re-debuted with his fifth physical single "Good Time". It reached number two on the charts. The single was also made available on the iTunes Store across the globe.
On November 12 Akanishi released his second extended play, Mi Amor, and the second release from his own record label. It reached number three on the charts. The entire album was written, composed, and produced by Akanishi himself. The previous day of the release, on November 11 Akanishi went on a nationwide "Jindependence" tour from Zepp Sapporo, which ended on December 2 at Zepp Tokyo, with a total of 11 shows in 5 cities.
He collaborated with Takayuki Yamada in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. The duo released their only single "Choo choo shitain" on September 21.
Filmography
Akanishi made his debut as an actor in 1999 in a cameo appearance in the second episode of NTV's romance comedy, P.P.O.I., and also had small roles in TV Asahi's Best Friend, Omae no yukichi ga naiteiru and in NHK series, Haregi, Koko Ichiban. He also started appearing in musicals from 2000 taking on supporting roles in Millennium Shock (2000), Show Geki Shock (2001–2002), Dream Boy (2004) and Dream Boys (2006). Akanishi returned to the small screen in 2005 in the second season of the award-winning and popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, starring opposite Yukie Nakama and former bandmate Kazuya Kamenashi. The show won "Best Drama" at the 44th Television Drama Academy Awards and ended its run with an average viewership rating of 27.8%. He also had a supporting role in NTV's romance series, Anego, the same year.
In 2007, Akanishi starred in his first lead role in Yukan Club, a school comedy series, with ex-bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi and was voted "Best Actor" at the 11th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. He made his debut as a voice actor in 2008 for the Japanese dub of Speed Racer, providing the voice for protagonist Speed played by Emile Hirsch.
In 2009, Akanishi was cast as the lead actor in the movie Bandage directed by Takeshi Kobayashi and released on January 16, 2010. This marked his debut on the big screen.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut with the film 47 Ronin which also had Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Akanishi played the role of Chikara Oishi, the samurai leader's son, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and a close friend to Reeves' character, Kai. The film's director, Carl Rinsch, said he was "impressed by Akanishi's English abilities and motivation". Thus, he turned out to be the second Johnny & Associates artist within the agency after Ninomiya Kazunari in Letters From Iwo Jima to star in a Hollywood movie and the third overall to work with an American director.
Theatre
Personal life
Akanishi wed Japanese actress and model Meisa Kuroki in a private ceremony on February 2, 2012, just two weeks after they'd released official statements denying they were seeing one other. The marriage immediately had a negative effect on Akanishi's career, not only because he failed to inform his talent agency, Johnny & Associates, of his plans to wed but because rumors began circulating that Kuroki was pregnant at the time of the wedding. In response to the scandal, his talent agency made the decision to cancel his solo tour. Together, Akanishi and Kuroki have a daughter, Theia Akanishi (Japanese: 赤西 ティア, Akanishi Tia), who was born September 23, 2012, and a son, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public, who was born June 6, 2017. In 2018, it was reported that the family had returned to Japan, having previously resided in Hawaii, and that Theia was attending the American School in Japan.
Discography
Test Drive (extended-play) (2011)
Japonicana (2012)
#JustJin (2013)
Mi Amor (extended-play) (2014)
Me (2015)
Audio Fashion (2016)
Choo choo shitain (2016) (single) (as Jintaka, unit formed with Takayuki Yamada)
Blessèd (2017)
À la carte (rearranged album) (2018)
THANK YOU (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1984 births
Living people
Japanese idols
KAT-TUN members
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male child actors
Japanese child singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese male voice actors
Lands (band) members
Warner Music Japan artists
Musicians from Chiba Prefecture
English-language singers from Japan
20th-century Japanese male singers
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese male actors | true | [
"The Bengal Nagpur Railway class HSG was a class of two 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt locomotives.\n\nAfter NWR's GAS class, BNR conducted similar experiments for pulling heavier trains up the ghats with successful results. Its parts were similar to BESA heavy goods 2-8-0s. They worked on the Chakradharpur-Jharsuguda section coupled to each other. After electrification they became obsolete. In the end, they were stationed at Kharagpur workshops. They were the first successful class of Garratts.\n\nTechnical specifications\n\nSee also\nIndian Railways\nHistory of rail transport in India\nLocomotives of India\nRail transport in India\n\nReferences\n\n5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives\nBeyer, Peacock locomotives\nSteam locomotives of India\nGarratt locomotives\n2-8-0+0-8-2 locomotives\nScrapped locomotives",
"Between 1980 and 1989, there were 58 Thor missiles launched, of which 56 were successful, giving a 96.6% success rate.\n\nLaunch statistics\n\nRocket configurations\n\nLaunch sites\n\nLaunch outcomes\n\n1980\nThere were 5 Thor missiles launched in 1980. 4 of the 5 launches were successful, giving an 80% success rate.\n\n1981\nThere were 7 Thor missiles launched in 1981. All 7 launches were successful.\n\n1982\nThere were 8 Thor missiles launched in 1982. All 8 launches were successful.\n\n1983\nThere were 10 Thor missiles launched in 1983. All 10 launches were successful.\n\n1984\nThere were 6 Thor missiles launched in 1984. All 6 launches were successful.\n\n1986\nThere were 4 Thor missiles launched in 1986. 3 of the 4 launches were successful, giving a 75% success rate.\n\n1987\nThere were 4 Thor missiles launched in 1987. All 4 launches were successful.\n\n1988\nThere were 3 Thor missiles launched in 1988. All 3 launches were successful.\n\n1989\nThere were 9 Thor missiles launched in 1989. All 9 launches were successful.\n\nReferences \n\n \n \n\nLists of Thor and Delta launches\nLists of Thor launches\nLists of Delta launches"
] |
[
"Jin Akanishi",
"2001-2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN",
"What was his first band?",
"After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000,",
"Any notable songs with them?",
"I don't know.",
"What happened next with Johnny's Jr?",
"I don't know.",
"Was he with another band?",
"Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D.,",
"Were they successful?",
"the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN,"
] | C_5de9dbc4f8264cbd9fb92742263ae7ba_1 | When was KAT-TUN formed? | 6 | When was KAT-TUN formed? | Jin Akanishi | After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005--a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success. Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21. Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "Murasaki (murasaki)", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN). CANNOTANSWER | they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, | is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He has been active since 1998 as one of the two lead vocalists of the J-pop boy-band KAT-TUN before starting a solo career in 2009. Akanishi has also acted in several films and dramas.
Biography
Early life
Akanishi was born in Chiba Prefecture, Greater Tokyo Area, Japan on July 4, 1984, as the eldest of two sons. He has a younger brother Reio, who also works in the entertainment industry as an actor under the stage name Fuuta. Akanishi moved to Tokyo in the first grade.
In 1997, when he was still in grade school, a classmate sent in a photo of him to idol magazine Myojo, and he was featured in the "Cool Classmates" corner of the issue. Akanishi expressed interest in the entertainment industry and his mother thus sent in an application to Johnny's Entertainment on his behalf in 1998. Though he technically failed his audition on November 8, 1998, he was told to stay when he tried to return his number plate to a man who happened to be Johnny Kitagawa himself.
2001–2009: Early career and debut of KAT-TUN
After he was made a Johnny's Jr. member in 2000, Akanishi was part of a number of groups like Musical Academy Dancing, J2000 and B.A.D., before being drafted into a six-member unit in 2001 with other juniors Kazuya Kamenashi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda and Yuichi Nakamaru. Though the group was originally meant to only be backup dancers for Koichi Domoto of KinKi Kids, the sextet's unexpected popularity led their agency to allow them to expand into a separate group called KAT-TUN, an acronym formed by the first letter of the members' surnames. Despite the group's popularity (they even released DVDs of their live concerts in 2003 and 2005—a first for Johnny's groups that hadn't debuted), they were not allowed to make their bow until five years later in 2006, to immense success.
Much to the Japanese public's surprise, Akanishi announced in a press conference on October 13, 2006, that he was leaving the country to study English abroad for an indefinite amount of time. Despite his absence, KAT-TUN were obliged to continue its activities Akanishi finally returned from Los Angeles in the United States after six months on April 19, 2007. He quickly resumed work by joining his bandmates on their nationwide tour on April 21.
Akanishi was also a songwriter for the group, having written songs for KAT-TUN and for himself, including "Hesitate", "Love or Like" (from Cartoon KAT-TUN II You), "Lovejuice" (B-side of the limited edition 2 of "Don't U Ever Stop"), "Care" (from Break the Records: By You & For You), and "Wonder". The song "Wonder" is a collaboration with R&B artist, Crystal Kay in 2009, and Akanishi also featured in her song "Helpless Night". He can play the guitar and has composed both music and lyrics for "", "ha-ha" and "Pinky". He also collaborated with bandmate Ueda to create the song, "Butterfly" (from Best of KAT-TUN).
2009–2010: Solo debut and working with LANDS
At the event of Tokyo Girls Collection on September 5, 2009, Jin appeared as a special guest to promote his new movie, Bandage, and he performed the movie's theme song which marked this as the solo debut under the temporary band unit, LANDS, with Takeshi Kobayashi, the producer of Mr. Children. Kobayashi wrote the lyrics and music of their debut single "Bandage". It was released on November 25, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts. In 2010, on January 13, was released the studio album Olympos, which also topped the Oricon charts. On January 19, the band held their only live concert, titled LANDS Last Live.
Akanishi had a series of solo concerts, titled "You & Jin", comprising a total of 32 shows from February 7 to 28, 2010. The song "A Page", he co-wrote, composed and arranged, featured at his concerts, was released as part of KAT-TUN's 11th single, "Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)", on the 2nd limited edition. On June 19 and 20, Akanishi's solo tour "You & Jin" had a 3 sold-out show tour in Los Angeles, California.
In the last show of his "You & Jin" concert Akanishi announced a tour in the United States. In July, Akanishi announced that he would permanently leave the band KAT-TUN, becoming a solo artist of Johnny & Associates. On September 16, were released dates for Akanishi's November tour "Yellow Gold Tour 3010", named after the tour's title song "Yellow Gold", and the cities included were Chicago, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tour featured songs entirely in English, mostly written and produced by the Akanishi himself.
On December 9, 2010, it was announced that Jin will be joining the Warner Music Group and Warner Music Japan on a global basis and became responsible for his recording career in both English and Japanese language. After the "Yellow Gold Tour 3010" ended with success, Jin returned to Japan to hold "Yellow Gold Tour 3011" with total 12 concerts in Osaka-jō Hall, World Memorial Hall, Nippon Budokan and Saitama Super Arena.
2011–2013: The U.S. debut, Japonicana and #JustJin
Jin's first solo single titled "Eternal" was released on March 2, 2011, in Japan, and topped both Oricon and Japan Hot 100 charts. His debut single in the United States was the digitally released extended play Test Drive released on November 8, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Jason Derulo and producer J. R. Rotem. It reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts, and tenth spot on the overall Albums chart. The Japanese release was on December 7, and it peaked at number fourteen on the Japan Hot 100, and topped both Oricon and Billboard album charts in Japan. On December 28, was released his second physical single in Japan, Seasons, which also topped the charts.
In 2012, on January 26 his second US digital single "Sun Burns Down" was released, and reached the number one spot on the iTunes Dance Charts again. On March 6, was released his debut studio album Japonicana, on which collaborated with The Stereotypes and Static Revenger. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. From March 9 to 17 was held a promotional concert tour, which started at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. In Japan from April to May was scheduled to hold 7 concerts in 5 cities including Tokyo and Osaka for a total of 70,000 people, but his further plans were abruptly cancelled due to a penalty by his own agency Johnny's Entertainment because didn't contacted his agency beforehand and reported his marriage at time.
In 2013, on August 7 was released his third single in Japan, "Hey What's Up?", which was chosen as the first official theme song for the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show, which was held on the 31st of that same month at the Saitama Super Arena. It reached number two on the Oricon charts. On October 2 was released the fourth single "Ai Naru Hō e" (To Where Love Rings), which reached number three on the charts.
On November 6 Akanishi released his second studio album #JustJin. The self-produced album included all the singles released in Japan since his solo debut in 2011, and a second bonus disc featured songs written in English during his Japonicana era. It reached number three on the charts.
2014–present: Indies debut and Mi Amor
In 2014, on March 2 was made known to the public that Akanishi had decided not to renew his contract with Johnny & Associates, and had left the agency as of February 28. On July 4, was announced that he had set up his own independent label, Go Good Records, and that opened his new fan club, "JIP's" (Jin's Important People).
On August 6, under Go Good Records Akanishi re-debuted with his fifth physical single "Good Time". It reached number two on the charts. The single was also made available on the iTunes Store across the globe.
On November 12 Akanishi released his second extended play, Mi Amor, and the second release from his own record label. It reached number three on the charts. The entire album was written, composed, and produced by Akanishi himself. The previous day of the release, on November 11 Akanishi went on a nationwide "Jindependence" tour from Zepp Sapporo, which ended on December 2 at Zepp Tokyo, with a total of 11 shows in 5 cities.
He collaborated with Takayuki Yamada in August 2016 to form the unit called "Jintaka", which disbanded 2 months later. The duo released their only single "Choo choo shitain" on September 21.
Filmography
Akanishi made his debut as an actor in 1999 in a cameo appearance in the second episode of NTV's romance comedy, P.P.O.I., and also had small roles in TV Asahi's Best Friend, Omae no yukichi ga naiteiru and in NHK series, Haregi, Koko Ichiban. He also started appearing in musicals from 2000 taking on supporting roles in Millennium Shock (2000), Show Geki Shock (2001–2002), Dream Boy (2004) and Dream Boys (2006). Akanishi returned to the small screen in 2005 in the second season of the award-winning and popular NTV school drama, Gokusen, starring opposite Yukie Nakama and former bandmate Kazuya Kamenashi. The show won "Best Drama" at the 44th Television Drama Academy Awards and ended its run with an average viewership rating of 27.8%. He also had a supporting role in NTV's romance series, Anego, the same year.
In 2007, Akanishi starred in his first lead role in Yukan Club, a school comedy series, with ex-bandmate Junnosuke Taguchi and was voted "Best Actor" at the 11th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix. He made his debut as a voice actor in 2008 for the Japanese dub of Speed Racer, providing the voice for protagonist Speed played by Emile Hirsch.
In 2009, Akanishi was cast as the lead actor in the movie Bandage directed by Takeshi Kobayashi and released on January 16, 2010. This marked his debut on the big screen.
In 2013, he made his Hollywood debut with the film 47 Ronin which also had Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Akanishi played the role of Chikara Oishi, the samurai leader's son, played by Hiroyuki Sanada and a close friend to Reeves' character, Kai. The film's director, Carl Rinsch, said he was "impressed by Akanishi's English abilities and motivation". Thus, he turned out to be the second Johnny & Associates artist within the agency after Ninomiya Kazunari in Letters From Iwo Jima to star in a Hollywood movie and the third overall to work with an American director.
Theatre
Personal life
Akanishi wed Japanese actress and model Meisa Kuroki in a private ceremony on February 2, 2012, just two weeks after they'd released official statements denying they were seeing one other. The marriage immediately had a negative effect on Akanishi's career, not only because he failed to inform his talent agency, Johnny & Associates, of his plans to wed but because rumors began circulating that Kuroki was pregnant at the time of the wedding. In response to the scandal, his talent agency made the decision to cancel his solo tour. Together, Akanishi and Kuroki have a daughter, Theia Akanishi (Japanese: 赤西 ティア, Akanishi Tia), who was born September 23, 2012, and a son, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public, who was born June 6, 2017. In 2018, it was reported that the family had returned to Japan, having previously resided in Hawaii, and that Theia was attending the American School in Japan.
Discography
Test Drive (extended-play) (2011)
Japonicana (2012)
#JustJin (2013)
Mi Amor (extended-play) (2014)
Me (2015)
Audio Fashion (2016)
Choo choo shitain (2016) (single) (as Jintaka, unit formed with Takayuki Yamada)
Blessèd (2017)
À la carte (rearranged album) (2018)
THANK YOU (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1984 births
Living people
Japanese idols
KAT-TUN members
Japanese male pop singers
Japanese male child actors
Japanese child singers
Japanese male singer-songwriters
Japanese male voice actors
Lands (band) members
Warner Music Japan artists
Musicians from Chiba Prefecture
English-language singers from Japan
20th-century Japanese male singers
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male singers
21st-century Japanese male actors | true | [
"Chain is the Sixth studio album by Japanese boy band KAT-TUN and was released in Japan on February 22, 2012 by J-One Records. On January 13, KAT-TUN endorsed the mobile game site \"entag!\" which used KAT-TUN's album track \"Smile for You\" as a CM song and the first-ever KAT-TUN animation, \"Ai wa KAT-TUN\", voiced by KAT-TUN themselves, was launched on entag! site for a limited period. Ai wa KAT-TUN hit 1,000,000 views in just 2 weeks.\n\nAlbum information\nSixth album release from KAT-TUN including five single tracks, seven new songs, and five new songs featuring member's solo part (total of 17 songs). Regular Edition contains a bonus hidden track, \"CHAIN OF LOVE\". The jacket design used for the limited edition is different from the one used for the regular edition. This edition includes a lyrics card. The jacket design used for the limited edition is different from the one used for the regular edition. This edition includes a bonus DVD with music video(s) and bonus video footage. Comes with a booklet.\n\nChart performance\nIn its first week of its release, the album topped the Oricon album chart, reportedly selling 110,055 copies. This feat will mark their sixth consecutive album to top the Oricon Album Charts since their first album, “Best of KAT-TUN” (released in March 2006). This record has surpassed rock band The Checker’s record of topping five consecutive albums and with this, KAT-TUN broke the record for the first time in 24 years and 10 months. KAT-TUN placed at No.8 in the second weeks, reportedly selling 10,761 copies and in the third weeks of its release the single placed at No.25, reportedly selling 4,235 copies.\n\nBy the end of the year, Chain was reported to selling 133,262 copies and was later certified Gold by RIAJ denoting over 100,000 shipments.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Chain product information\n\nKAT-TUN albums\n2012 albums",
"is a Japanese boy band formed under Johnny & Associates (Johnny's) in 2001. The group's name was originally an acronym based on the first letter of each member's family name: Kazuya Kamenashi, Jin Akanishi, Junnosuke Taguchi, Koki Tanaka, Tatsuya Ueda, and Yuichi Nakamaru. Their debut on March 22, 2006 was marked by a tripartite release of a CD single, album and music DVD on their exclusive record label J-One Records. Since then, all of their single, album and music DVD releases have debuted at number one on the Oricon music and DVD charts.\n\nIn 2010, Akanishi left the group to start a solo career, making the group's acronym then come from KAmenashi, Taguchi, Tanaka, Ueda, and Nakamaru, and the group toured with five members. In 2013, Tanaka's contract was terminated for several violations, leaving KAT-TUN as a four-man ensemble, and Tatsuya Ueda took the T to keep the acronym. By the end of March 2016, Taguchi left both the group and the agency, leaving KAT-TUN with only three remaining members.\n\nHistory\n\n2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities\nBefore becoming KAT-TUN, each member belonged to different trainee units within Johnny & Associates. In 2001, eight members were chosen to become a temporary dancing unit in order to support Koichi Domoto in the NHK music program, Pop Jam. The eight members were switched around before it officially became KAT-TUN, with the current three members plus Jin Akanishi, Koki Tanaka and Junnosuke Taguchi. Although the formation was only meant to be a temporary support unit, KAT-TUN gained a great deal of attention and became a solid unit.\n\nIn 2002, in response to many requests, KAT-TUN held their first concert called , for which 550,000 people tried to get tickets. That same year, they performed eleven shows in a single day. This is the current record in Japan for the most performances in one day. Since then, KAT-TUN has held concerts in Japan almost every season.\n\nIn 2003-2004, their popularity rose to that of a debuted group, to the point where they performed on Music Station multiple times before debuting. In 2005, KAT-TUN released their first major DVD, , which topped the Oricon yearly chart for the best-selling DVD. At the 20th Japan Gold Disc Awards, Live Kaizokuban placed on the Music Video Of The Year list.\n\n2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN \nOn March 22, KAT-TUN released their debut single \"Real Face\", accompanied by an album, Best of KAT-TUN and a DVD Real Face Film. These were released on their own label J-One Records. The group also went on a nationwide tour, Live of KAT-TUN \"Real Face\", in support of the album. Within the first week, Best of KAT-TUN, \"Real Face\" and Real Face Film topped all three Oricon weekly charts by selling 556,548 copies, 754,234 copies and 374,202 copies respectively Total 1,684,984 copies. They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki. With these numbers, KAT-TUN holds the record for the highest weekly single debut sales (previously held by Arashi with their debut single \"Arashi\" of 557,000 copies sold in 1999). In addition, \"Real Face\" topped the Oricon charts for three weeks straight, becoming the first debut single to do so in Japan in 8 years 8 months since KinKi Kids' debut single \"Garasu no Shōnen.\" The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making \"Real Face\" the highest selling single for the year 2006.\n\nIn March 2006, KAT-TUN became the first group to hold their own performances in Japan's most popular stadium, Tokyo Dome, before debuting. They performed to 110,000 people over two days and about 630,000 people in total during the tour. About three months after releasing \"Real Face\", KAT-TUN released their second single, \"Signal\", on July 19.\n\nOn October 12, member Akanishi announced a hiatus from the group in order to study linguistics abroad in the United States, leaving KAT-TUN as a five-member group for six months. The remaining members continued activities by releasing their third single, \"Bokura no Machi de\" as the theme song to members Kamenashi and Tanaka's drama, Tatta Hitotsu no Koi and their second album, Cartoon KAT-TUN II You on December 7.\n\nKAT-TUN is the first group in Japan to have all three singles from debut to exceed 500,000 in yearly sales, taking first, fifth and thirteenth place on the Oricon yearly singles chart.\n\n2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You\nUnder the same name as their second album, KAT-TUN started their second nationwide tour, Tour 2007 Cartoon KAT-TUN II You, still without Akanishi, on April 3. The next day, KAT-TUN began to host their own variety show Cartoon KAT-TUN, which aired every Wednesday from 11:55 p.m. to 12:26 a.m.\n\nAkanishi returned to Japan on April 19 and officially resumed work activities on April 20. Akanishi joined the rest of KAT-TUN during their tour on April 21 in Sendai for the encore, marking his official return to KAT-TUN.\n\nOn June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, \"Yorokobi no Uta\", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.\n\nOn November 21, they simultaneously released their fifth single, \"Keep the Faith\", as the theme song to members Akanishi and Taguchi's drama, Yukan Club, and the DVD to their Tokyo Dome Live of KAT-TUN \"Real Face\" concert. The DVD marked their fifth consecutive release topping the Oricon musical DVD chart, and set the opening week record for the year. KAT-TUN took the annual number one position on the Oricon musical DVD charts for the third time in a row with the release.\n\nAfter KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.\n\n2008: Queen of Pirates\nKAT-TUN released 'Lips', the theme song to Kamenashi's drama based on the manga One Pound Gospel, as their sixth single on February 6. The single topped at number one on the Oricon charts.\n\nKAT-TUN released their seventh single \"Don't U Ever Stop\" on May 14, which topped the weekly Oricon chart. On May 15, during the MC segment promoting \"Don't U Ever Stop\" on Music Station, Kamenashi announced that two shows had been added to their Tokyo Dome tour dates, resulting in a total of four consecutive days at the Dome. This marked a historic event in the Dome's history, as KAT-TUN became the first Japanese artist to hold four consecutive days at the stadium since it opened in 1988. Other Japanese artists, such as SMAP, X Japan and Ayumi Hamasaki have had three consecutive days at the Dome. The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson have played multiple days at the Dome, but they were not consecutive.\n\nOn June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.\n\nOn December 3, KAT-TUN released \"White X'mas\", their first Christmas single.\n\nOn December 21, it was announced that KAT-TUN would release a new single \"One Drop\" as a tie-in theme song to Kamenashi's new drama, Kami no Shizuku, just two months after their \"White X'mas\" single. The release consisted of three versions: Limited Edition w/DVD, Regular Edition (First Press) and a Regular Edition.\n\n2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain \nOn February 10, KAT-TUN released their first single since March 2009, which was used for Kamenashi's live-action drama adaptation of Tomoko Hayakawa's manga series Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, which premiered January 15 on TBS. The single, \"Love Yourself (Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki)\", debuted at number one on the Oricon weekly singles chart, resulting in KAT-TUN's eleventh consecutive number one single since their debut. It became KAT-TUN's first single to sell more than 350,000 copies in its first week since the May 2008 release of their single \"Don't U Ever Stop\", which sold more than 381,000 copies in its first week.\n\nOn March 24, Johnny & Associates announced that KAT-TUN would go on their first Asia concert tour as a five-member group while Akanishi held his own solo concerts in the United States, making him the first Johnny's artist to perform solo in the United States. KAT-TUN is set to have their Asia Tour from early May to late August and although the majority of the concerts will be held in Japan, KAT-TUN will also be heading to Bangkok on July 31, Seoul from August 6 to 7, and Taipei from August 27 to 28; other sources say that a Hawaii concert is also being considered. Due to his absence from KAT-TUN's Asia concert tour and single promotions, Akanishi did not participate in the recording of KAT-TUN's twelfth single \"Going!\" set for release on May 12. Due to the political unrest in Thailand, Johnny & Associates announced on May 15 that KAT-TUN's concert in Bangkok would be indefinitely postponed.\n\nKAT-TUN released their first 2010 album, No More Pain, on June 16 in two versions: a limited and regular edition that both include solo songs by each member. The limited edition contains thirteen songs and a bonus DVD with the PVs and making-of's the album's songs while the regular edition contains a bonus track.\n\nJohnny & Associates announced on July 17 that Akanishi would leave the group in late 2010 to pursue a solo career while the rest of the members would continue to work as a five-member group. On July 21, Akanishi himself confirmed through the official Johnny's mobile site, Johnny's Web, that he would leave KAT-TUN to focus on his solo career, although he had not appeared on any event to his fans until October.\n\nKAT-TUN continued as a group of five. On August 28, the last day of their World Big Tour 2010, KAT-TUN revealed their 2011 tour plan to celebrate their fifth anniversary by performing at industrial complexes in five cities in Japan and expanding its overseas tour to five different countries including Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and Hawaii. The Hawaii concert would make them the first Johnny artist to hold a concert in Hawaii. The World Big Tour is where former member Tanaka Koki gave the name \"hyphens\" to the fans, saying that the fans unite KAT-TUN together.\n\nOn October 13, KAT-TUN announced the release of their new single, \"Change Ur World\", which was KAT-TUN's 13th single and the first single after Akanishi's official departure, was released on November 17. The single debuted at number one on the Oricon weekly singles chart for selling 230,829 copies, resulting in KAT-TUN's thirteenth consecutive number one single since their debut plus all of their 13 singles sold over 200,000 copies in the first week.\n\nOn December 29, KAT-TUN released KAT-TUN -NO MORE PAIИ- WORLD TOUR 2010 DVD, featuring their last day in Japan leg of their successful World Big Tour 2010 at Kyocera Dome and more concert footages from their Korea and Taiwan legs.\n\n2011: 5th Anniversary\nThe group announced a release of their 14th single on 2010s Christmas Eve, \"Ultimate Wheels\" on February 2, 2011 along with a tie-in CM of Suzuki Solio car that the group endorsed. On January 6, KAT-TUN announced its plan of KAT-TUN Live Tour 2011 during May to October. The tour includes the 5 big dome tour at Sapporo Dome, Tokyo Dome, Nagoya Dome, Yahoo Dome in Fukuoka, and Kyocera Dome in Osaka and a special live event in Kawasaki on July 17–19. KAT-TUN will become the fourth Johnny group to be able to conquer the 5 big domes in Japan after SMAP, KinKi Kids and Arashi. After October, the group will start their Asia Tour that includes Thailand, Taiwan, and Korea. \"Ultimate Wheels\" became their 14th straight No.1 single since their debut. The total number of copies sold in the first week was over 180,000 copies, reported by Oricon. Early March, KAT-TUN announced three new songs in three days, including \"Perfect\" for Kamenashi's new Aoki TV commercial, \"White\" for a Sofina commercial, and \"Diamond\" as the theme song of NTV telecasts of Yomiuri Giants baseball games.\n\nIt was announced on March 29 that Johnny's Company would start a new charity project called Marching J, a fundraising project for the Tohoku earthquake victims. The first part of the project started as an event held from April 1 through April 3. From the company, SMAP, Tokio, KinKi Kids, V6, Arashi, Tackey and Tsubasa, NEWS, Kanjani8, KAT-TUN, Hey! Say! JUMP and some of Johnny's Juniors participated in this first event. The first event will be held in Tokyo, in front of the first Yoyogi gymnasium. Groups took turns according to their schedule and will have a talk session in front of the fans, also calling out for donations for the earthquake victims. And due to this disaster, all the planned events to celebrate KAT-TUN's 5th debut anniversary were canceled.\n\nOn May 18, KAT-TUN's 15th single, \"White\", was released with \"Perfect\" as its coupling song. By this time, they also announced another two new songs, \"Cosmic Child\" for a Wing TV commercial, and \"Run For You\" for a New Suzuki Solio commercial. On May 29, KAT-TUN with all its five members joined another Marching J project, \"Johnny's Charity Baseball Tournament\" with other Johnny artists and juniors at Tokyo Dome, in which the ticket sales would be donated for Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims.\n\nIt was announced in mid-June that members Kazuya Kamenashi, Koki Tanaka and Yuichi Nakamaru would star in this year's Dream Boy musicals as the leads, shows will commence from September 3 to 25.\n\nOn September 8, 2011, it was confirmed that KAT-TUN would host a new TV show titled KAT-TUN no Zettai Manetaku Naru TV, their first show since Cartoon KAT-TUN ended in March 2010. The new show began airing on October 18 on NTV. During the broadcast of the first episode, it was revealed that the show will only air for a limited time until the end of December 2011 with a total of 10 episodes. \nOn September 30, 2011, KAT-TUN announced their 17th single \"Birth\" as the soundtrack to Kamenashi Kazuya's drama \"Youkai Ningen Bem\" would have been released on November 30. \"Birth\" became their 17th straight No.1 single on the Oricon's weekly chart since their debut.\n\n2012: Chain\nKAT-TUN began their new year with an extreme special TV show titled KAT-TUN no Sekaiichi Dame Yoru Ni, a one-off show broadcast on the night of January 1 on TBS. A few weeks later they announced the release of their sixth album, titled Chain, scheduled for release on February 22. On January 13, KAT-TUN endorsed the mobile game site Entag which used KAT-TUN's album track \"Smile for You\" as the commercial song and the first-ever KAT-TUN animation, \"Ai wa KAT-TUN\", voiced by KAT-TUN themselves, was launched on The Entag site for a limited period. On February 11, they kicked off their nationwide tour \"KAT-TUN Live Tour 2012 Chain\". This tour covered 12 cities, including Sendai. The tour started in Niigata and will end in Sendai. They will become the first Johnnys group to perform in the affected areas after the earthquake and tsunami disaster. Music Station presented on Jan 13 with a special report for the 'Most Powerful Group BEST 20' which listed the Top 20 most powerful groups of all-time in terms of physical single and album sales, KAT-TUN was listed at number 16 with their five-year debut, 17 singles and 5 albums, together they have sold over 8,450,000 records. Music Station hints to this ranking included the debut single 'Real Face' which became 2006's number 1 selling single and how they managed to hold 8 consecutive concerts at Tokyo Dome. Among the groups in Top 20, KAT-TUN is apparently the newest group on the list.\n\nKAT-TUN's 6th studio album, \"CHAIN\", reached No.1 on Oricon album ranking on March 5, making them the first male artist in history to have six consecutive No.1 albums ever since the debut. KAT-TUN broke the record for the first time in 24 years and 10 months. On March 8, it was announced that the second episode of KAT-TUN no Sekaiichi Dame Yoru Ni will be aired on April 3.\n\nOfficial confirmations for the upcoming 2012 shows for Johnny's long-running Dream Boys musicals were released, and once again member Kamenashi reprises his role as the main lead for the musical. According to confirmation, the shows will begin in September. On April 20–22, KAT-TUN performed at Tokyo Dome as parts of their LIVE TOUR 2012 CHAIN tour. According to news reports, KAT-TUN's original idea \"Flash-Tree\" spotlights was introduced for the first time in Johnny and also Tokyo Dome's 25m moving stage was the longest in Johnny's history.\n\nOn June 27, KAT-TUN released its 18th single To The Limit, which was used as a tie-up song for Suzuki Solio Bandit CM. On June 29 Music Station reported that KAT-TUN ranked as No.10 best-selling Heisei era's idol with the total sales of 6,661,293 copies from 17 singles. In early August it was announced that KAT-TUN's Sekaiichi Dame Yoru Ni TV special will be turned into a regular show due to the success of the previous 2 special episodes. The regular show was renamed KAT-TUN Sekaiichi dame na yoru! and began airing on August 24 on TBS.\n\nKAT-TUN's 19th single \"Fumetsu no Scrum\" which was used as the theme song for Kanjani8 member Yasuda Shota's drama Dragon Seinendan, was released on September 12 and sold around 157,000 copies within its first week of release, this gives KAT-TUN their 19th consecutive #1 single since their debut in 2006.\nIn November, KAT-TUN achieved their 9th consecutive no.1 music-DVD, and 8th no.1 overall DVD with their live DVD, \"KAT-TUN LIVE TOUR 2012 CHAIN TOKYO DOME.\" The latter achievement puts them at 3rd place among male groups who have done the most no.1 overall DVDs in history after B'z and Mr.Children.\n\n2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here \n\"Expose\" sold 155,000 copies in the first weeks. With this single, their number of consecutive singles topping the chart has reached 20. KAT-TUN is the second artist to top the singles chart for 20 consecutive singles since the debut. It was only achieved by their senior KinKi Kids 8 years and a month ago with “Anniversary”.\n\nIn October 2013, Koki Tanaka was removed from the band and the talent agency for having violated his contract, leaving KAT-TUN as a four-man ensemble.\n\nThe mini album \"Kusabi\" was released on November 27, 2013, on J-Storm. The title track \"Kusabi\" was used as the theme song for the drama Henshin Interviewer no Yūutsu starring KAT-TUN member Yuichi Nakamaru and actress Fumino Kimura, while \"Gimme Luv\" was used in a Suzuki Solio Bandit television commercial. \"Kusabi\" debuted at the number one spot top the Oricon weekly album chart, selling approximately 168,000 copies in its first week of release. The album is KAT-TUN's seventh consecutive album to achieve number one, putting them in a tie with singer Hikaru Utada for most consecutive album number ones in Oricon chart history.\n\n\"In Fact\" was their 22nd single released on June 4, 2014 under the label J-One Records. The title track \"In Fact\" was the main theme song for the TV drama series \"First Class\". In Fact debuted at the number one spot top the Oricon weekly single chart, selling over 146,000 copies in its first week of release. With this, KAT-TUN achieved their 22nd consecutive No.1 with their 22nd single.\n\nOn June 25, \"Come Here\" album was released and KAT-TUN became the first artist in history to have 8 consecutive No.1 albums since debut according to Oricon.\n\n2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure\n\"Dead or Alive\" was released on January 21, 2015 and it debuted at the number one spot on the Oricon weekly single chart, selling over 192,000 copies in its first week of release. With this, KAT-TUN has then achieved their 23rd consecutive No.1 with their 23rd single. They are currently behind KinKi Kids who are with 34 consecutive No.1 singles since debut.\n\nOn November 24, 2015, before their performance at Best Artist, Junnosuke Taguchi surprised the audience by announcing that he had decided to quit not only KAT-TUN but also from Johnny's Entertainment and that he would retire from the industry by Spring the following year.\n\n2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite \nKAT-TUN released two more singles as a four-member group entitled \"Tragedy\" on February 10, 2016 followed by \"Unlock\" on March 2, 2016, both of which had reached number 1 in Oricon chart in their first week. A compilation album entitled \"KAT-TUN 10th Anniversary BEST 10Ks\" and a 3-Dome Tour entitled \"KAT-TUN 10th Anniversary LIVE TOUR 10Ks\" were announced by the three remaining members through their official website. They also announced that the group activities of KAT-TUN will be on a temporary, indefinite hiatus (or so-called \"recharging period\") starting on May 1, 2016, as each member will focus more on their solo projects and works. ″KAT-TUN 10th Anniversary BEST “10Ks”″ album was then released on March 22, 2016 (the same date with their debut album released back in 2006) and has reached number 1 in the Oricon chart in its first week. On August 17, 2016, KAT-TUN released the DVD for KAT-TUN 10TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE TOUR\"10Ks!” and it reached the number one spot in the Oricon Chart as well.\n\nWhile the group activities are temporarily on hold, each member had their own individual projects, apart from the regular TV programs where they were regulars individually. All had been part or starred in different dramas, movies and theatrical plays and all three also had the chance to perform in a concert and stage shows.\n\nOn January 1, 2018 on the annual Johnny's Countdown, a big surprise had been announced and that KAT-TUN had finally resumed their group activities. The group sang their debut song, Real Face, which was then followed by their new song \"Ask Yourself\" which will be the main theme song for Kamenashi's drama this January. After the performance, the group also announced that concert dates had been decided, which would be happening on April 20–22, 2018. The group later announced they would be releasing CAST on 18 July, their first original album in four years. On July 31, 2019 KAT-TUN released their 9th full album, \"IGNITE\".\n\n2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey\nIn January 2021, NTV drama 'Red Eyes: Kanshi Sousa-han' premiered on January 23, starred Kamenashi. The title of the theme song was \"Roar,\" and it's a song about one's determination to keep walking towards the future even though the present is ambiguous and has no correct answer. The single was released on March 10 as KAT-TUN's first single in three years. To commemorate the 15th anniversary of debut, KAT-TUN embarked on their nationwide tour '15TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE KAT-TUN' on March 20 at Yoyogi National Stadium First Gymnasium (Tokyo), and wrapped up on June 9 at Marine Messe Fukuoka, 22 performances in 7 cities. Their live tour was later released through DVD and Blue Ray on November 24, which feature footage from the group's concert on May 29 at Pia Arena MM. On September 8, KAT-TUN announced double sided A-side single \"We Just Go Hard feat. AK-69 \", the single was the image song for NTV's broadcast of professional baseball 'DRAMATIC BASEBALL 2021' as well as the theme song for NTV's 'Going! Sports & News'. Meanwhile, \"EUPHORIA\" as the theme song for Bishounen's drama 'The High School Heroes' that premiered on July 31.\n\nIn February 2022, KAT-TUN announced the release of their digital single \"Crystal Moment\", as the theme song for NTV’s coverage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the rap lyrics was written by Arashi’s Sho Sakurai. For the first time in about two and a half years, KAT-TUN announced the release of the 10th full album \"Honey\". Two songs, \"Ain't Seen Nothing Yet\" and \"STING\", which symbolize this work, are the lead songs, the album was released on March 29. They also held \"KAT-TUN LIVE TOUR 2022 Honey\" from April 1 to June 4, via eight locations.\n\nCurrent members\n\n (born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)\n (born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)\n (born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)\n\nFormer members\n\n (born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)\n (born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)\n (born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)\n\nDiscography\n\n Best of KAT-TUN (2006)\n Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)\n KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)\n Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)\n No More Pain (2010)\n Chain (2012)\n Come Here (2014)\n Cast (2018)\n Ignite (2019)\n Honey (2022)\n\nOther activities\n\nTV shows\nKAT-TUN had regularly appeared on NHK's Johnny's Jr. show Shounen Club and became the regular hosts and leaders of the show until 2006 when they made their official debut. They also became part of other variety programs like Minna no Terebi and KAT-TUNx3. KAT-TUN even became special supporters for the FIVB World Grand Champions Cup in 2005, wherein their song \"Gloria\" served as its theme song.\n\nFrom 2005 to January 2007, KAT-TUN was a regular participant in the variety show Utawara Hot Hit 10 with Jun Matsumoto. From October 8, 2006, members Tanaka Koki & Nakamaru Yuichi hosted the show YouTachi! YOUたち! together, until the show ended on September 30, 2007.\n\nFrom April 4, 2007, KAT-TUN then began hosting their own talk show Cartoon KAT-TUN every Wednesday until March 24, 2010, comprising a total of 152 episodes. This was their last regular show as a 6-member group.\n\nAfter becoming a 5-member group, their next TV show titled KAT-TUN no Zettai Manetaku Naru TV began on October 18, 2011 on NTV and lasted only for a total of 10 episodes, with the show's finale on December 20, 2011.\n\nKAT-TUN then also had a one-off TV special titled KAT-TUN no Sekaiichi Dame Yoru Ni which was aired on the night of January 1, 2012 on TBS. It was soon followed by another special episode on April 3, 2012. Following the success of the two special episodes of the show, it became KAT-TUN's third regular TV show. The show was then renamed as KAT-TUN Sekaiichi Dame na Yoru! and began airing from August 24, 2012 until December 28, 2012.\n\nOn January 11, 2014, after becoming a four-man group, KAT-TUN became guests for a special program titled KAT-TUN Sekaiichi Tame ni Naru Tabi where they traveled to Okinawa (for two episodes), Aomori, Hokkaido and Kumamoto. The 5-part special became a success that the show was soon confirmed to become another regular show for KAT-TUN, retaining the same title of the program. The first episode aired on April 17, 2015 and lasted until the 42nd episode on March 25, 2016.\n\nIn 2014, KAT-TUN also became the main hosts for the Shounen Club Premium, replacing Taichi Kokubun from TOKIO. Their stint as the show's main hosts started from April 2014 until March 2016. Another Johnny's group NEWS then replaced them as the hosts of the show.\n\nRadio\nThe group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.\n\nFormer members Jin Akanishi, Koki Tanaka and Junnosuke Taguchi hosted KAT-TUN Style together from April 2006 until March 2012. Yuichi Nakamaru and Tatsuya Ueda hosted R-One KAT-TUN every Tuesday from 12am – 12:30am.\n\nKazuya Kamenashi had his own radio show called Kamenashi Kazuya - Kase by Kase until it ended on September 20. He has a new radio show called Kamenashi Kazuya - Hang Out and currently airs every Saturday from 10:20am – 10:50am.\n\nTaguchi Junnosuke also had his own radio show called \"Tag-tune driving\" and a radio show together with Yuichi Nakamaru called \"KAT-TUN no Gatsūn\" from April 2012 and ended in March 2016.\n\nMusicals\nAs a group, KAT-TUN has appeared in Koichi Domoto's Shock musical, Summary of Johnnys World with NEWS and Ya-ya-yah and Johnny's long-running Dream Boys musicals from 2004 to 2006.\n\nSince 2004, member Kazuya Kamenashi has played the lead role in Dream Boys musicals consecutively each year, after senior Hideaki Takizawa handed down the role to Kamenashi.\nKamenashi and fellow KAT-TUN member Koki Tanaka paired up to play the lead roles for the shows held in 2007 and 2008. The pair collaborated once again as the leads for the 2011 shows alongside fellow KAT-TUN member Yuichi Nakamaru. The 2012 shows for the musical began in September, and once again Kamenashi reprised his role as the lead for the musical.\n\nConcerts\nSince their first concert in 2002, granted after overwhelming numbers of fan requests to Johnny's, KAT-TUN regularly holds concerts during almost every season of the year in Japan. This has helped them gain more popularity with their fans. It was considered remarkable for a Johnny's group which had not yet officially debuted to be able to hold its own concerts.\n\nKAT-TUN was the first Japanese artist to perform for four days in a row at Tokyo Dome during their Queen of Pirates tour. The following year, they broke their own record becoming the first artists ever to perform for eight consecutive days at Tokyo Dome during their Break The Records: By You & For You 2009 tour. Now, Johnny & Associates submitted this new record to Guinness Book of World Records for KAT-TUN to be recognized as the Japanese boy band who broke the records in Tokyo Dome performances.\n\nThe group (excluding Jin Akanishi) held their biggest ever concert tour in 2010 titled KAT-TUN -NO MORE PAIИ- WORLD TOUR 2010 which consisted of concerts in many major cities across Japan. The tour also included concerts held in Taiwan and Korea; the first time the group has ever toured outside Japan for their official concerts. \nAlthough during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.\n\nTheir nationwide tour for 2012 titled KAT-TUN LIVE TOUR 2012 CHAIN began in Nagiita on Feb 11, they toured 12 cities across Japan including Sendai; which was one of the worst affected areas by the Tohoku earthquake & tsunami disaster back in March 2011.\n\nCommercials\nKAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.\n\nSince 2010, member Kazuya Kamenashi endorses Panasonic's Lamdash shaver and DOLTZ electric toothbrush, and AOKI 3D slim suits. Kamenashi also endorses KIRIN's 'Gogo no Kocha' tea since March 2012, and is endorsing SOURS Gummies since early 2013.\n\nSince early 2011, the group together has endorsed Suzuki's 'SOLIO' car, and has sung commercial theme songs for Sofina and Wing products. The group are also currently endorsing the mobile game site entag!.\n\nEvents\nOn August 26–27, 2006 KAT-TUN members were the main personality supporters for the NTV telethon 24 Hour Television: Love Saves the Earth charity program.\n\nAwards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial page on J-Storm/J-One Records \nOfficial page on Johnny's Website \n\nJapanese pop music groups\nJapanese rock music groups\nMusical groups established in 2001\nJohnny & Associates\nJapanese boy bands\nJapanese idol groups\nJ Storm\nMusical groups from Tokyo\nJin Akanishi"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983"
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | How did the band form? | 1 | How did Culture Club form? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | false | [
"Shinola, Vol. 1 is a compilation album by the American rock band Ween. Released by Chocodog on July 19, 2005, Shinola is a collection of odds and ends that the band put together over the years.\n\nAll of the songs on this album were previously released in demo form in some way or another. \"Did You See Me?\" was originally recorded for The Mollusk but was not released until it appeared on this album. \"The Rift\" and \"Gabrielle\" appeared in the 1992 Chocolate and Cheese demos. \"Tastes Good on Th' Bun\" appeared in The Pod demos of 1990. \"I Fell in Love Today\" and \"Someday\" appear in Quebec'''s Caesar Demos, which would not be released until 2011. \"Boys Club\", \"Israel\" and \"Transitions\" have appeared in demo form on various other tapes. \"Big Fat Fuck\", \"How High Can You Fly\", and \"Monique the Freak\" were on the band's self-released Internet album Craters of the Sac. All of those songs were changed for this release. \"How High Can You Fly\" went from a running time of 1:47 on Craters to a running time of 2:41 on this album. \"Big Fat Fuck\" went from a running time of 7:09 on Craters to a running time of 2:57 on this album. Last, \"Monique the Freak\" went from the running time of 10:17 on Craters, to 5:49 on Shinola''. Not many lyrics are different between the two releases, just longer instrumental parts.\n\nThe album gets its title from the colloquial phrase \"You don't know shit from Shinola\".\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks written by Ween.\n\nPersonnel\nProduced/mixed by Andrew Weiss and Ween.\nWritten and performed by Dean and Gene Ween.\nArt direction, design by Aaron Tanner.\nMastered by Emily Lazar.\n\nReferences\n\n2005 albums\nWeen albums",
"\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" is a song by English new wave and synth-pop band ABC. It was the first single taken from their third studio album, How to Be a ... Zillionaire!\n\nThe single peaked at a modest No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart, though it fared better in the US where it reached No. 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 4 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.\n\nThe CBS Orchestra played the song for Regis Philbin when he was a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman. Philbin was the former host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for the ABC television network.\n\nMusic video\nThe animated music video shows a cartoon Martin Fry and Mark White being overwhelmed by their luxury goods, which are continually growing in size. The other two band members make a brief appearance also in animated form.\n\nTrack listing\n\n7\": Neutron NT107\n\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" – 3:30\n\"(How to Be A) Billionaire\" – 3:37\n\n12\": Neutron NTXR 107\n\"(How to Be A) Zillionaire\" (Bond Street Mix) – 6:05\n\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" (Single Remix) – 3:31\n\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" (A Capella Version) – 3:30\n\n12\": Neutron NTX 107\n\"(How to Be A) Zillionaire\" (Wall Street Mix) – 7:33\n\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" – 3:31\n\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" (Accapella) – 3:30\n\"(How to Be A) Millionaire\" (Nickel & Dime Mix) – 5:22 (included on US version only)\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1984 singles\nABC (band) songs\nSongs written by Martin Fry\nSongs written by Mark White (musician)\n1984 songs\nMercury Records singles\nAnimated music videos"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay."
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | When did this happen? | 2 | When did George start his own band with Mikey Craig, Jon Moss, and Roy Hay? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | In 1981, | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | true | [
"What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? is the debut studio album from Los Angeles band 2AM Club. It was released September 14, 2010 by RCA Records.\n\nCritical reception\n\nMatt Collar of AllMusic stated that with this album \"2AM Club reveal themselves as the best and brightest of the nu-eyed-soul set\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nOn May 31, the band released a song named \"Baseline\" that was a bonus track on What Did You Think Was Going to Happen? (sold on iTunes). It was advertised by them via Twitter, and was available for free download through a file sharing website, Hulk Share.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2010 albums\nPop rock albums by American artists",
"Friend Public Schools is a school district headquartered in Friend, Nebraska.\n\nIt operates Friend Elementary School and Friend Junior-Senior High School.\n\nIn 2017 a Twitter account criticizing officials and using the logo of the district had appeared. The district board asked for the owner to contact them. When this did not happen, the district filed a lawsuit to find the identity of the owner in 2019.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Friend Public Schools\n \n\nEducation in Saline County, Nebraska\nSchool districts in Nebraska"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,"
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | Did they get a recording contract soon after that? | 3 | Did Culture Club get a recording contract soon after forming the band in 1981? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | true | [
"Kayax Production & Publishing Sp. z o.o. is an independent Polish entertainment company that operates a record label, music publisher, management and concert agency. It was founded by singer Kayah and her business partner, musician Tomasz Grewiński, in 2001 in Warsaw. Kayah was initially founded as a record label. In 2003, Kayax signed chillout duo 15 Minut Projekt and producer Envee.\n\nFolk, hip-hop and rock acts have signed with Kayax. The label's best-selling artists include alternative singer Maria Peszek, jazz-pop singer Krzysztof Kiljański and folk pop band Zakopower, yielding albums certified Gold and Platinum in Poland.\n\nArtists\n\nCurrent\n\nArtur Rojek (recording contract)\nAtom String Quartet (recording contract)\nMonika Brodka (recording contract and management)\nUrszula Dudziak (recording and management contract)\nMaria Peszek (management contract, formerly also recording contract)\nMarek Dyjak (recording and management contract)\nMery Spolsky\nFox (recording contract)\nGrabek (recording contract)\nHEY (recording and management contract)\nKrzysztof Zalewski (recording contract)\nJune (recording and management contract)\nKayah (recording and management contract)\nLoco Star (recording contract)\nKasia Nosowska (recording and management contract)\nPatrick The Pan (recording and management contract)\nSara Brylewska (recording contract)\nSkubas (recording and management contract)\nAndrzej Smolik (recording and management contract)\nZakopower (recording and management contract)\n\nFormer\n\n15 Minut Projekt (recording contract)\nAndrzej Bachleda (recording contract)\nBisquit (recording contract)\nBenzyna (recording contract)\nBuldog (recording contract)\nEnvee (recording contract)\nIncarNations (recording contract)\nKrzysztof Kiljański (recording contract)\nL.U.C (recording contract)\nMarcin Wyrostek (recording contract)\nMaja Kleszcz & IncarNations (recording contract)\nMosqitoo (recording contract)\nNatalia Lubrano (recording contract)\nNovika (recording contract)\nSnowman (recording contract)\nSofa (recording contract)\nTatiana Okupnik (recording contract)\nWarsaw Village Band (recording contract)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nPolish companies established in 2001\nMass media companies established in 2001\nPolish independent record labels",
"Jeffrey Scott Wood (born May 10, 1968) is an American country music artist. Wood was signed to a publishing contract in 1994, writing songs for other country artists, including \"Cowboy Love\", a Top 5 hit for John Michael Montgomery in 1996. He signed to a recording contract with Liberty Records later that year, but did not release anything while on the label. His debut album, Between the Earth and the Stars, was released in 1997 on Imprint Records. This album produced three chart singles for Wood on the Hot Country Songs charts that year, including the No. 44-peaking \"You Just Get One\". Although he did not chart again after 1997, Wood continued to write songs for other artists into the 2000s, including Neal McCoy and Phil Vassar, and independently released a second album in 2008.\n\nBiography\nWood was born May 10, 1968, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He later attended Oklahoma State University, where he earned a degree in finance and was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity. One of Wood's classmates was Garth Brooks, who, like Wood, had aspirations to become a country music artist. Eventually, both singers moved to Nashville, Tennessee to begin their respective careers.\n\nWood was signed to a songwriting contract with EMI Publishing in 1994. One of his first cuts as a songwriter was \"Cowboy Love,\" which was a top five hit on the country charts for John Michael Montgomery in early 1996. Liberty Records signed Wood to a recording contract later that year, although he did not release anything for the label.\n\nBy the end of the year, he had signed to his second recording contract, this time with a newly started independent label, Imprint Records. His debut album, Between the Earth and the Stars, was released on February 11, 1997, under the production of Mark Bright. The album's lead-off single, \"You Just Get One\", reached number 44 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts. This song was co-written by Don Schlitz and Vince Gill (who also played mandolin and guitar on the album), and was previously cut by Ty Herndon on his 1995 debut album What Mattered Most. Wood's rendition of the song featured Gill performing on guitar and mandolin. Brett Atwood of Billboard called \"You Just Get One\" an \"immensely likeable\" single. Between the Earth and the Stars also produced minor chart singles in the number 55 \"Use Mine\" and number 63 \"You Call That a Mountain\", which was later a single in 2000 for B.J. Thomas from his album of the same name. Imprint closed at the end of 1997, and Wood was left without a record label. He continued to write songs for other artists, including Tracy Byrd, Neal McCoy, and Phil Vassar.\n\nWood was formerly the brother-in-law of Phil Vassar from 2003 to 2007. Vassar was married to Wood's sister, Julie.\n\nIn 2008, Wood returned to recording, issuing an album entitled Raw Wood independently. Its first single is a song entitled \"Long Way from OK\", a re-recording of a song previously found on his debut album. Wood also released a Christmas album and a religious-themed album.\n\nJeff Wood was nominated for the 7th Annual Independent Music Awards for Band Venue Poster of the year.\n\nIn 2013, Wood issued his third country album entitled \"The Jeff Scott Wood Project, Nothin' But Blue\" independently, JeffScottWood.com.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nSingles\n\nMusic videos\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nJeffScottWood.com\n\n1968 births\nLiving people\nMusicians from Oklahoma City\nCountry musicians from Oklahoma\nAmerican country bass guitarists\nAmerican country singer-songwriters\nAmerican male singer-songwriters\nSinger-songwriters from Oklahoma\nGuitarists from Oklahoma\nAmerican male bass guitarists\nImprint Records artists\n20th-century American bass guitarists\n20th-century American male musicians"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed"
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | What label did then end up signing with? | 4 | What label did Culture Club end up signing with? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | true | [
"Portrait Records was a sister label of Epic Records and later of Columbia Records. Notable artists Cyndi Lauper and Sade signed with Portrait, but their contracts were absorbed by Epic after that incarnation of the label was shuttered.\n\nHistory & Overview\n\nPortrait began in 1976 as a sister label of Epic; its initial signings were Joan Baez, Burton Cummings, and the McCrarys. Cummings' \"Stand Tall\" was the lead-off single. Baez's Blowin' Away album and the McCrarys' self-titled debut bowed in early 1977. The label design was similar to that of Columbia's singles; design on it was in grey tones, while the logo was handwritten orange with a red outline. This was also the launch of Epic/Portrait/Associated (EPA) under the CBS moniker.\n\nOne of the signings the label had was the band Heart. The band had been signed with Mushroom Records, but left after a dispute in advertising their Dreamboat Annie album. The print ads led some fans to think that the sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were lesbians. Portrait snatched the group up quickly, releasing the single \"Barracuda\" before Little Queen was to hit the shelves. The McCrarys also scored big with \"You\".\n\nBy 1979, however, Epic was looking to consolidate some of its low-end producing labels and, for a short time, Portrait and Epic had both names on the same label. In 1980, only Heart was picked up from Portrait; releasing Bébé le Strange, after which they took a two-year hiatus, releasing Private Audition in 1982.\n\nBaez left the label after the release of her 1979 Honest Lullaby album; she later admitted in her 1987 memoir, And a Voice to Sing With, that she regretted signing with the label, describing her having left her previous label (A&M) for Portrait as \"the stupidest career move I ever made\".\n\nIn 1982, the label was relaunched again tapping into the new wave scene and other music not gaining any airplay. It signed artists such as Altered Images, Aldo Nova, Accept, Arc Angel, Hawaiian Pups, The Elvis Brothers, Eddy Grant, Orion the Hunter, The Producers, Saga, and Peter Baumann (formerly of Tangerine Dream). The label was completely black but the red logo stayed intact. Portrait struck gold again with the signings of Cyndi Lauper and Sade, both in 1983. Americans wouldn't get Sade until a year later. Aldo Nova did make some headway with the songs \"Fantasy\" and \"Monkey on Your Back\" from his Subject...Aldo Nova album. Saga also found success with the songs \"On the Loose\" and \"Wind Him Up\", which would gain the band gold and platinum albums worldwide. In 1985, British singer Toyah released her album Minx on Portrait. In 1986, British guitarist and songwriter Bill Nelson released (US title: on the label.\n\nBy the end of 1986, the only act making money on this label was Lauper. Her album True Colors went platinum, but it wasn't enough to keep the label afloat. At the end of 1986, Portrait was shuttered again.\n\nIn 1988, the label re-emerged once more but as a contemporary jazz outfit, with signings as diverse as Stanley Clarke, Ornette Coleman, Prime Time and Japanese import T-Square. The logo changed dramatically. This time the label had two: the primary one was a painted P with the word \"portrait\" in a red block, while the secondary one was an outline drawing of a woman. This one was gone by 1990.\n\nEpic did try to make the label work two more times: in 1988, it was trying to do jazz collections, and, in 1999, it was relaunched through Columbia Records as a hard-rock/metal label, signing Ratt, Cinderella, Great White, the Union Underground, and Mars Electric. In 2000, Iron Maiden signed with Portrait in conjunction with Columbia Records in the US. Finally, after trying so hard to keep it afloat, Portrait dissolved in 2002 after the US release of Iron Maiden's Rock in Rio album.\n\nIn late 2012, Sony Masterworks reactivated the label as a classical music imprint with its first artists The Piano Guys on the newly relaunched imprint, and subsequently transferring Jackie Evancho to Portrait from the Columbia label.\n\nArtists\n\nThrough Epic\n Burton Cummings\n Saga\n Heart\n Cyndi Lauper\n Eddy Grant\n Bill Nelson\n Sade\n Joan Baez\n Toyah\n\nThrough Columbia\n Cinderella\n Great White\n Ratt\n The Union Underground\n\nThrough Sony Masterworks\n Jackie Evancho\n Natalie Imbruglia\n The Piano Guys\n Yanni\n\nSee also\n List of record labels\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican record labels\nRecord labels established in 1976\nRecord labels established in 2012\nRecord labels disestablished in 2002\nRock record labels\nPop record labels\nJazz record labels\nColumbia Records\nEpic Records\n1976 establishments in the United States",
"The Millions were an alternative rock band from Lincoln, Nebraska, that included members of For Against and New Brass Guns. They were the first Lincoln band to be signed to a major label in more than two decades. The band released two albums, M is for Millions (1991, Smash Records) and Raquel (1994, Dream Circle Records), before disbanding in 1995.\n\nFormation\nAfter completing a tour in support of the 1987 album Echelons, For Against returned to the studio to record their follow-up album, December. During the recording, guitarist Harry Dingman and drummer Greg Hill left the band. Dingman and bassist Marty Amsler began collaborating after the demise of Amsler's band, New Brass Guns, in 1989. The pair invited Amsler's former bandmate, Lori Allison, to sing vocals for their new songs. Hill was brought in on drums to complete the lineup of what would become The Millions.\n\nM is for Millions\nHaving achieved modest success on an independent label with For Against, Dingman immediately set his sights on a major label. After first focusing on building a Midwest fan base, the band sent demos to several major labels across the country before signing with Chicago-based Smash Records, a subsidiary of PolyGram.\n\nWithin months of signing with PolyGram, the band was given a schedule to record its first album, M is for Millions. The label assigned Canadian producer Terry Brown, best known for producing albums by progressive rock band Rush as well as \"(I Just) Died in Your Arms\", the biggest hit from British pop band Cutting Crew. The band would eventually feel that Brown had been a bad fit. \n\nThe album's lead single, \"Sometimes,\" performed well on the CMJ charts, but the band immediately felt frustrations with their label. Fans would express their inability to find copies of the album at retailers. Dingman said the label's merchandising decisions puzzled the band.\n\nRaquel\nHealth problems, deaths of friends and family, and other stresses led the band to begin writing much darker material for its second album, Raquel.\n\nGerman fans circulated some demos to record labels in their home country, and several European labels contacted the band. The Millions would end up signing with DreamCircle, and independent German label. The band was encouraged by the label owner's attitude that they produce the album how they wished—a stark contrast to the experience with PolyGram and Brown. During that time, in 1993, the band would also add a fifth member, Benjamin Kushner, on guitar.\n\nThe band recorded Raquel with producer Eric Medley and mixer Lee Popa, who had previously worked with bands like The Replacements and Killing Joke. They toured Europe with Sheryl Crow, including an opportunity to play two encores as the opening band at a show in Berlin.\n\nAfter returning from the Raquel tour in 1994, Amsler decided to leave the band to focus on his career outside of music; he was replaced by Mike Keeling. \n\nThe band continued writing and touring for a third album, including drawing the attention of a Warner Bros. Records subsidiary. But internal tensions fueled by exhaustion and the lack of any meaningful break led the band to break up before the album could be recorded.\n\nPost-Millions and reunion\nAllison would go on to perform with Lincoln bands Junior Mighty and Floating Opera. Dingman rejoined For Against in 2004. Keeling continued to perform with The Self-Righteous Brothers, subsequently joining Drive-By Honky and then Ideal Cleaners. Hill retired from music.\n\nIn late 2012, original members Allison, Amsler and Dingman began rehearsing with drummer Brandon McKenzie for a show to celebrate the release of Poison Fish, a 21-track disc of rarities.\n\nReferences\n\nAlternative rock groups from Nebraska\nMusicians from Lincoln, Nebraska\nMusical groups established in 1989"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,"
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | Did they have a different label in the US? | 5 | Did Culture Club have a different label in the US? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | true | [
"\"I'm In a Different World\" is a song written and produced by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland Jr. \nBillboard described the single as a \"smooth swinger that moves and grooves throughout\" which \"should\nfast prove a sales topper.\"\n\nBackground\n\"I'm in a Different World\" is the final recording they did for the Four Tops before leaving the label due to royalty disputes with Motown. The label issued the song in 1968 as the follow-up single to \"Yesterday's Dreams\".\n\nCredits\nLead vocal by Levi Stubbs\nBackground vocals by Abdul \"Duke\" Fakir, Lawrence Payton and Renaldo \"Obie\" Benson\nAdditional background vocals by The Andantes\nInstrumentation by The Funk Brothers\n\nChart history\n\"I'm in a Different World\" peaked at number 51 on the US pop chart and number 27 on the UK chart.\n\nReferences\n\n1968 singles\nFour Tops songs\nMotown singles\nSongs written by Holland–Dozier–Holland\n1968 songs\nSong recordings produced by Lamont Dozier\nSong recordings produced by Brian Holland",
"Temple US Records is a record label founded in the late 1970s by Robin Morton. Morton, a former member of The Boys of the Lough, had already founded Temple in Temple, Midlothian; Temple US is based in Arlington, Massachusetts.\n\nMorton worked as a producer for Topic Records. This label was not interested in recording the clarsach player Alison Kinnaird, as they did not think the record would sell. He formed Temple Records to release her first LP, The Harp Key (1978), which became a best selling traditional music record. Morton later married Kinnaird.\n\nOne of the earliest signings was The Battlefield Band, who rapidly rose to international fame. Morton became their manager in 1980. All their albums are on the Temple label. The success of the Battlefield Band in America prompted Morton to set up Temple US Records in the mid-1980s. As well as recordings by current folk artists, the label has released historic recordings by James Scott Skinner.\n\nSee also\n List of record labels\n\nAmerican record labels"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,",
"Did they have a different label in the US?",
"while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world"
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | What year was Kissing to Be Clever released? | 6 | What year was Kissing to Be Clever released? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | false | [
"Greatest Hits is a greatest hits compilation by British band Culture Club with androgynous frontman Boy George. It was released in the US and Canada on 21 June 2005.\n\nThe album includes their best known hits, starting with their debut album Kissing to Be Clever, and finishing with their most recent album Don't Mind If I Do. Because their final album was not released in America, this compilation was the only US release which featured the UK singles \"Your Kisses Are Charity\" and \"Cold Shoulder\". Only one American Culture Club single was omitted from the compilation, the non-charting \"Gusto Blusto\" from 1986's From Luxury to Heartache. By 2006, US sales for the album were reported at 40,164 although it failed to make Billboards album chart.\n\nThis compilation was reissued for the European market in August 2010. It was released as a DVD and CD combo, the DVD including 17 music videos and a 13-song live show from December 1983, recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon and titled A Kiss Across the Ocean, which was previously released on VHS in 1984. This CD is reflection of the DVD, including the 17 audio tracks of those videos, with some different mixes and edits.\n\nTrack listing \nUS edition\n \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"White Boy\" (Dance Mix) from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Church of the Poison Mind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Karma Chameleon\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Miss Me Blind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"It's a Miracle\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Victims\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Black Money\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"The War Song\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Mistake No. 3\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Love is Love\" from Electric Dreams movie soundtrack\n \"Move Away\" from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"I Just Wanna Be Loved\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Cold Shoulder\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Your Kisses Are Charity\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n\nUK edition\n \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Church of the Poison Mind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Karma Chameleon\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Victims\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"It's a Miracle\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Miss Me Blind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"The War Song\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"The Medal Song\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Mistake No. 3\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Love is Love\" from Electric Dreams movie soundtrack\n \"Move Away\" from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"God Thank You Woman\" from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"I Just Wanna Be Loved\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Cold Shoulder\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Your Kisses Are Charity\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Culture Club website\n Culture Club on MySpace\n Rock on the Net:Culture Club\n\nCulture Club albums\n2005 greatest hits albums\nAlbums produced by Steve Levine\nVirgin Records compilation albums",
"This Time – The First Four Years is the first official greatest hits album by British new wave group Culture Club, released by Virgin Records on 6 April 1987. Its release came one year after the band had split up.\n\nOverview\nThe compilation exclusively includes, in its vinyl edition, Culture Club's most successful hits. The one track which was never available in single format is \"Black Money\" (originally on the band's second album, Colour by Numbers), which was intended to be released to promote this collection, but never actually came out. The album includes a wide selection of tracks taken from all their albums (including more than half the tracks from the Colour by Numbers album), as well as the group's contribution to the Electric Dreams film soundtrack; \"Love Is Love\". For many countries, it was the first time that their hit \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" was included on an album.\n\nTwo additional tracks are featured on the CD and cassette version: the remix of \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" and a medley segueing the remixes of \"It's a Miracle\" and \"Miss Me Blind\".\n\nThe bulk of these tracks would be re-issued on numerous compilations for years after.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Karma Chameleon\" - 4:01 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Church of the Poison Mind\" - 3:31 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Miss Me Blind\" - 4:29 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" - 3:43 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Kissing to Be Clever (US Edition)\n \"It's a Miracle\" - 3:25 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Black Money\" - 5:19 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me\" - 4:24 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from ''Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Move Away\" - 4:10 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" - 2:35 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Love Is Love\" - 3:52 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Electric Dreams\n \"The War Song\" - 3:59 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Victims\" - 4:55 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" (U.S. 12\" Remix) - 4:40 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) [CD/MC bonus track] from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"It's a Miracle/Miss Me Blind\" (U.S. 12\" Remix) - 9:12 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) [CD/MC bonus track] from Colour by Numbers\n\nPersonnel\n\nBand/musicians\nBoy George: lead vocals and lyrics\nRoy Hay: guitars, keyboards, sitar, synth guitar\nMikey Craig: bass\nJon Moss: drums and percussion\nHelen Terry: female lead and background vocals\n for the other musicians, see Culture Club's first four albums\n\nStaff/production\nSteve Levine: production, except track 8 \nArif Mardin, Lew Hahn: production on track 8\nAssorted iMaGes: album cover\nDavid Levine, Jamie Morgan, Mark LeBon, Kate Garner, Stevie Hughes: photography\nMitaka: booklet Japanese translation\n for the other members of staff and production, see Culture Club's first four albums\n\nRelease details\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n AllMusic review\n FnacMusic.com where it is possible to listen to short samples of all tracks on the collection \n Amazon.com Use the \"Search\" box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections\n Artist Direct Use \"Search\" box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections\n Rate Your Music Use search box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections\n\n1987 compilation albums\nCulture Club albums\nAlbums produced by Steve Levine\nVirgin Records compilation albums\nEpic Records compilation albums"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,",
"Did they have a different label in the US?",
"while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world",
"What year was Kissing to Be Clever released?",
"The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982,"
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | Who produced the record? | 7 | Who produced the album Kissing to be Clever? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | false | [
"The Indestructible Record Company was an American record label that produced plastic cylinder records between 1907 and 1922.\n\nThe company was established by William Messer, who had worked with Thomas Lambert, the inventor of plastic celluloid cylinder records. In 1900, the records were made by the Lambert Company, but that company went bankrupt in early 1906 after Thomas Edison brought a suit against Lambert for patent infringement. Messer had been responsible for developing a means of mass-producing the Lambert cylinders using a steam press. In 1906 he set up the Indestructible Phonographic Record Co. in Albany, New York, to record and produce them.\n\nThe company was also known as the Albany Indestructible Record Company and acquired the patent rights held by Lambert. It produced celluloid cylinders in two-minute and, from 1909, four-minute versions, each having a cardboard core with metal reinforcing rings. Between 1907 and 1922, it produced 1,598 titles, almost all of which have survived. The cylinders are described as \"rugged\" and \"practically immune to splitting\".\n\nFrom 1908 to 1912, the Indestructible Company's output was distributed by Columbia Records. After the arrangement with Columbia ended, the cylinders were sold directly by the firm as well as through Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward retail stores. In 1917 the company was re-organized as the Federal Record Corporation of Albany, New York, which began disc record production in 1919 as the Federal label. After a factory fire in 1922, the company ceased making cylinders, and it formally closed down in 1925.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican record labels\nCylinder record producers\nRecord labels established in 1906\nAmerican companies established in 1906",
"Pale Horses is the sixth studio album by American indie rock band mewithoutYou. The record was produced by Will Yip.\n\nOn June 10, 2015, the record became available for streaming on Vices Noisey website.\n\nThe artwork was painted in 1978 by Vasily Kafanov, who also painted the artwork for the band's previous five albums.\n\nTrack listing\nMusic by mewithoutYou, lyrics by Aaron Weiss.\n\nWeekly charts\n\nReferences\n\n2015 albums\nMewithoutYou albums\nAlbums produced by Will Yip"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,",
"Did they have a different label in the US?",
"while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world",
"What year was Kissing to Be Clever released?",
"The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982,",
"Who produced the record?",
"I don't know."
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | What was the first single released from Kissing to Be Clever? | 8 | What was the first single released from Kissing to Be Clever? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). " | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | true | [
"Greatest Hits is a greatest hits compilation by British band Culture Club with androgynous frontman Boy George. It was released in the US and Canada on 21 June 2005.\n\nThe album includes their best known hits, starting with their debut album Kissing to Be Clever, and finishing with their most recent album Don't Mind If I Do. Because their final album was not released in America, this compilation was the only US release which featured the UK singles \"Your Kisses Are Charity\" and \"Cold Shoulder\". Only one American Culture Club single was omitted from the compilation, the non-charting \"Gusto Blusto\" from 1986's From Luxury to Heartache. By 2006, US sales for the album were reported at 40,164 although it failed to make Billboards album chart.\n\nThis compilation was reissued for the European market in August 2010. It was released as a DVD and CD combo, the DVD including 17 music videos and a 13-song live show from December 1983, recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon and titled A Kiss Across the Ocean, which was previously released on VHS in 1984. This CD is reflection of the DVD, including the 17 audio tracks of those videos, with some different mixes and edits.\n\nTrack listing \nUS edition\n \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"White Boy\" (Dance Mix) from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Church of the Poison Mind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Karma Chameleon\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Miss Me Blind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"It's a Miracle\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Victims\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Black Money\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"The War Song\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Mistake No. 3\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Love is Love\" from Electric Dreams movie soundtrack\n \"Move Away\" from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"I Just Wanna Be Loved\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Cold Shoulder\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Your Kisses Are Charity\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n\nUK edition\n \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Church of the Poison Mind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Karma Chameleon\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Victims\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"It's a Miracle\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"Miss Me Blind\" from Colour by Numbers\n \"The War Song\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"The Medal Song\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Mistake No. 3\" from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Love is Love\" from Electric Dreams movie soundtrack\n \"Move Away\" from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"God Thank You Woman\" from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"I Just Wanna Be Loved\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Cold Shoulder\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n \"Your Kisses Are Charity\" from Don't Mind If I Do\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Culture Club website\n Culture Club on MySpace\n Rock on the Net:Culture Club\n\nCulture Club albums\n2005 greatest hits albums\nAlbums produced by Steve Levine\nVirgin Records compilation albums",
"This Time – The First Four Years is the first official greatest hits album by British new wave group Culture Club, released by Virgin Records on 6 April 1987. Its release came one year after the band had split up.\n\nOverview\nThe compilation exclusively includes, in its vinyl edition, Culture Club's most successful hits. The one track which was never available in single format is \"Black Money\" (originally on the band's second album, Colour by Numbers), which was intended to be released to promote this collection, but never actually came out. The album includes a wide selection of tracks taken from all their albums (including more than half the tracks from the Colour by Numbers album), as well as the group's contribution to the Electric Dreams film soundtrack; \"Love Is Love\". For many countries, it was the first time that their hit \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" was included on an album.\n\nTwo additional tracks are featured on the CD and cassette version: the remix of \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" and a medley segueing the remixes of \"It's a Miracle\" and \"Miss Me Blind\".\n\nThe bulk of these tracks would be re-issued on numerous compilations for years after.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Karma Chameleon\" - 4:01 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Church of the Poison Mind\" - 3:31 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Miss Me Blind\" - 4:29 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\" - 3:43 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Kissing to Be Clever (US Edition)\n \"It's a Miracle\" - 3:25 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Black Money\" - 5:19 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me\" - 4:24 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from ''Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Move Away\" - 4:10 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) from From Luxury to Heartache\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" - 2:35 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"Love Is Love\" - 3:52 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Electric Dreams\n \"The War Song\" - 3:59 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Waking Up with the House on Fire\n \"Victims\" - 4:55 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) from Colour by Numbers\n \"I'll Tumble 4 Ya\" (U.S. 12\" Remix) - 4:40 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss) [CD/MC bonus track] from Kissing to Be Clever\n \"It's a Miracle/Miss Me Blind\" (U.S. 12\" Remix) - 9:12 (O'Dowd/Hay/Craig/Moss/Pickett) [CD/MC bonus track] from Colour by Numbers\n\nPersonnel\n\nBand/musicians\nBoy George: lead vocals and lyrics\nRoy Hay: guitars, keyboards, sitar, synth guitar\nMikey Craig: bass\nJon Moss: drums and percussion\nHelen Terry: female lead and background vocals\n for the other musicians, see Culture Club's first four albums\n\nStaff/production\nSteve Levine: production, except track 8 \nArif Mardin, Lew Hahn: production on track 8\nAssorted iMaGes: album cover\nDavid Levine, Jamie Morgan, Mark LeBon, Kate Garner, Stevie Hughes: photography\nMitaka: booklet Japanese translation\n for the other members of staff and production, see Culture Club's first four albums\n\nRelease details\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n AllMusic review\n FnacMusic.com where it is possible to listen to short samples of all tracks on the collection \n Amazon.com Use the \"Search\" box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections\n Artist Direct Use \"Search\" box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections\n Rate Your Music Use search box for infos on Culture Club's albums and collections\n\n1987 compilation albums\nCulture Club albums\nAlbums produced by Steve Levine\nVirgin Records compilation albums\nEpic Records compilation albums"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,",
"Did they have a different label in the US?",
"while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world",
"What year was Kissing to Be Clever released?",
"The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982,",
"Who produced the record?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the first single released from Kissing to Be Clever?",
"the follow-up single, \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). \""
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | Did they tour in support of the album? | 9 | Did Culture Club tour in support of Kissing to be Clever? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | false | [
"The Revolt Tour was a tour by rap rock band Hollywood Undead, taking place in support of their second studio album American Tragedy, which was released on April 5, 2011. The tour began the day after the album's North American release on April 6, 2011. The tour follows their supporting role in Bullet for my Valentine's Fever Tour in late 2010 and Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare After Christmas Tour in early 2011. It is the band's first headlining promotional tour following their 2009 touring in support of their 2008 debut album, Swan Songs.\n\nThe tour began in Boston, Massachusetts on April 6, 2011 and concluded on May 27 in Des Moines, Iowa. The tour venues consisted mainly of \"House of Blues\" locations along with other various venues along the way. Following the Revolt Tour, Hollywood Undead played several festivals then headlined a second major tour, the Endless Summer Tour, where they were joined by All That Remains beginning on July 9, 2011. Supporting act All That Remains was in the tour in support of their album, For We Are Many.\n\nSet list\n{{hidden\n| headercss = background: #ccccff; font-size: 100%; width: 65%;\n| contentcss = text-align: left; font-size: 100%; width: 75%;\n| header = Hollywood Undead (headliner)\n| content = \n \"Undead\"\n \"Sell Your Soul\"\n \"Been to Hell\"\n \"Bottle and a Gun\"\n \"Gangsta Sexy\" (performed in place of \"Bottle and a Gun\" on certain tour dates)\n \"California\"\n \"City\"\n \"Black Dahlia\"\n \"Comin' in Hot\"\n \"Paradise Lost\"\n \"My Town\"\n \"No. 5\"\n \"Young\"\n\nEncore\n \"Everywhere I Go\"\n \"Hear Me Now\"\n}}\n\nTour dates\n\nSupport acts\n10 Years\nDrive-A\nNew Medicine\n\nExternal links\nOfficial tour website\n\nReferences \n\n2011 concert tours",
"Twentysevens (styled as twentysevens) are an Australian blues rock band, best known for being the support act during Status Quo's 2006 Winter Tour, consisting of 31 dates in major UK venues.\n\nHistory\nMembers of various other bands Steve Tyson, John Barr and Dave Parnell met up in summer 2005 to write an album without the pressures of touring. The album Songs From the Middle Ages was recorded in guitarist and vocalist Tyson's studio and released in Australia in early 2006.\n\nThe album received solid radio support across the country, and in May 2006, the band were invited to support Foreigner on their Australian tour. They also supported Status Quo during their show at Twin Towns in Queensland. Status Quo subsequently asked the band to support them on their full 31-date tour of the United Kingdom.\n\nTo commemorate this, the band went back to the studio and recorded some additional tracks for their 2006 EP Diplomatic, which was sold in all venues on the tour.\n\nA DVD of the tour, Keeping up with the Status Quo, was released alongside their upcoming album Sex Politics and Religion in October 2008.\n\nDiscography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website\nKeeping up with the Status Quo Official Website\n\nAustralian blues rock groups"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,",
"Did they have a different label in the US?",
"while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world",
"What year was Kissing to Be Clever released?",
"The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982,",
"Who produced the record?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the first single released from Kissing to Be Clever?",
"the follow-up single, \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). \"",
"Did they tour in support of the album?",
"I don't know."
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | Were there any notable reviews of the album? | 10 | Were there any notable reviews of the Kissing to be Clever? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | true | [
"Anthems for Doomed Youth is the third studio album by English garage rock band The Libertines, released on 11 September 2015.\nThe album contains two notable literary references, the tracks \"Anthem for Doomed Youth\" and \"Gunga Din\" referencing poems of the same titles by Wilfred Owen and Rudyard Kipling respectively. \"Gunga Din\" was released as the album's first single on 2 July 2015. The album's second single, \"Glasgow Coma Scale Blues\", was released on 20 August 2015. The success of the album produced multiple European tours from 2015-2019.\n\nRelease\nThe album was released in 3 formats: Digital, CD, and Vinyl. There is also a Deluxe Edition, released on CD and Digitally, including extra tracks. A box set, including a Deluxe CD, a Vinyl copy, exclusive film, and signed art prints, was also released. \nTo celebrate the release of the new LP 'a week of shenanigans' was announced, mainly taking place at Camden's Dublin Castle venue. The run of events was titled 'Somewhere Over the Railings'.\n\nCritical reception\n\nReviews for the album were generally positive, earning a rating of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating generally favourable reviews. Charles Pitter at PopMatters declared the album \"an enjoyable overload of charisma\".\n\nAccolades\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks written by Doherty and Barât.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nThe Libertines albums\n2015 albums\nVirgin EMI Records albums\nHarvest Records albums",
"Game Face is the tenth studio album by American rapper Master P, released on December 18, 2001. It marked the debut of The New No Limit Records and a partnership with Universal Records. There are three singles released from the album, \"Ooohhhwee\", \"Real Love\", and \"Rock it\", Music videos were released for all three. The album received a mixed reception from critics who saw some change in Master P's production choices from his producers and lyrical delivery but felt that it wasn't anything new from the genre.\n\nReception\n\nCritical reception\n\nGame Face garnered mixed reviews from music critics who saw some change in lyrical content and production but felt that it didn't deliver anything new to the genre. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 40, based on 4 reviews.\n\nShawn Edwards of Vibe praised Master P for using simplistic wordplay and different production on his songs to feel more accessible saying, \"While P's rhyme schemes haven't changed much, he has improved his musical backdrops significantly.\" Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly found most of the album to be pleasant concluding with, \"there's something oddly comforting about the inexorability of it all.\" AllMusic editor Jason Birchmeier complimented Master P for changing his Southern sound into a more pop rap direction with the samples he used for his songs saying, \"Game Face isn't any more impressive than any of his past few albums since Ghetto D. However, it is a much more accessible album because of the pop approach.\" Wise Q of HipHopDX found tracks like \"The Farm,\" \"Lose It and Get It Back\" and \"Back on Top\" as stand outs from the album but felt that it didn't deliver anything new to the genre saying \"Most reviews have substance but, like this CD, hip hop will be left feeling empty.\"\n\nCommercial performance\nThe album debuted at number seventy-two on the Billboard 200 and sold 95,000 copies in its first week of sales. It later climbed up the charts and peaked at number 46 early in 2002.\n\nMusic videos\nThere was a music video for the single entitled \"Real Love\" featuring Sera-Lynn. There was also a music video for the single \"Ooohhhwee\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nAlbum\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nSingles\nOoohhwee\n\nRock It\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Game Face at ARTISTdirect\n\n2001 albums\nMaster P albums\nNo Limit Records albums"
] |
[
"Culture Club",
"Formation and Kissing to Be Clever: 1981-1983",
"How did the band form?",
"George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay.",
"When did this happen?",
"In 1981,",
"Did they get a recording contract soon after that?",
"The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed",
"What label did then end up signing with?",
"Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK,",
"Did they have a different label in the US?",
"while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world",
"What year was Kissing to Be Clever released?",
"The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982,",
"Who produced the record?",
"I don't know.",
"What was the first single released from Kissing to Be Clever?",
"the follow-up single, \"Time (Clock of the Heart)\", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). \"",
"Did they tour in support of the album?",
"I don't know.",
"Were there any notable reviews of the album?",
"This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album."
] | C_f079f35397e646b884094d6bdb2a29d8_1 | Did they write their own material? | 11 | Did Culture Club write their own material? | Culture Club | In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow under the stage name Lieutenant Lush. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay. Realising they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to call themselves Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world since Virgin did not have a US presence at the time. George began sporting a look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux with "heavy make-up and swaggy hair". The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In August the single "Mystery Boy" was released in Japan. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, peaking at No. 1 in over a dozen countries (No. 2 in the US), this track sold up to 6.5 million copies worldwide. The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better." The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum, and sold another 3 million worldwide at the time of its release. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Mikey Craig (bass guitar) and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.
Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records including over 6 million BPI certified records sold in the UK and over 7 million RIAA certified records sold in the US. Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve Top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US Top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British new wave groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music combines British new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and also other styles such as calypso, salsa, and with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.
In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.
History
1981–1983: Formation and Kissing to Be Clever
In 1981, Blitz Club regular Boy George occasionally sang with the group Bow Wow Wow, performing under the stage name Lieutenant Lush with the group. After his tenure with the group ended, George decided to start his own band and enlisted bassist Mikey Craig, drummer Jon Moss, and finally guitarist Roy Hay joined the group.
Realizing they had an Irish gay man as the lead singer, a black Briton on bass, a blond Englishman on guitar and keyboards, and a Jewish drummer, they eventually decided to name the group Culture Club. The group recorded demos, which were paid for by EMI Records, but the label was unimpressed and decided not to sign the group. Virgin Records heard the demos and signed the group in the UK, releasing their albums in Europe, while Epic Records released their albums in the United States and much of the rest of the world.
The band released two singles in May and June 1982, "White Boy" and "I'm Afraid of Me", though both failed to chart. In September of that year, the group released their third single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", a reggae-influenced number, which became one of their biggest hits. The song went to No. 1 in the UK in late 1982 and became an international smash, topping the charts in twenty-three countries (No. 2 in the US), and the top ten in several more countries.
The band's 1982 debut on Top of the Pops created tabloid headlines, which focused on George's androgynous style of dress and sexual ambiguity. Magazines began to feature George prominently on their covers. Pete Burns, lead singer of the new wave band Dead or Alive, would later claim he was the first to wear braids, big hats, and colourful costumes, but George would cut back with a sharp-tongued remark, "It's not who did it first, it's who did it better."
The band's debut album, Kissing to Be Clever (UK No. 5, US No. 14) was released in October 1982, and the follow-up single, "Time (Clock of the Heart)", became another Top 10 hit in the US (Number 2) and UK (Number 3). "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" also became a Top Ten hit in the US (Number 9) and in Canada. This gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever sold over 1.5 million copies in the US, being certified platinum.
1983–1984: Colour by Numbers
The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (UK No. 1, US No. 2), was released in 1983. The first single, "Church of the Poison Mind", featuring backing vocalist Helen Terry, reached the UK and US Top 10. The second single, "Karma Chameleon", gave the band their biggest hit, peaking at No. 1 in the UK (the band's second chart-topper there), where it became the best selling single of 1983 and has sold 1.5 million copies there to date. It also peaked at No. 1 in the US for three consecutive weeks, and would ultimately hit No. 1 in 30 countries, thus becoming one of the top twenty best-selling singles of the 1980s sold up seven million copies worldwide, with one of the most iconic images of Boy George on the cover shot by photographer David Levine.
The album Colour by Numbers would spawn more hits including "Miss Me Blind" (#5 US), "It's a Miracle" (#4 UK, No. 13 US), and "Victims" (#3 UK), and sold four million copies in the US and another five million worldwide at its time of release. The album gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada (for sales of one million copies in that country). The band also won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Group and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, where George gave a speech via satellite stating, "Thanks America, you've got style, you've got taste, and you know a good drag queen when you see one."
The group's back-up singer, Helen Terry, began work on her solo album, for which George and Hay wrote the song "Love Lies Lost". The pair also wrote "Passing Friend" for the Beach Boys' album. Culture Club wrote two songs for the soundtrack to the movie Electric Dreams. George and Hay wrote "The Dream" and "Love Is Love", with the latter being released as a single in Canada and Japan, the E.P "Love is Love" became a major hit in Japan. George also collaborated on the song "Electric Dreams", sung by P. P. Arnold. The song was written with Phil Pickett (former member of the 1970s band Sailor) who had also co-written "Karma Chameleon" and frequently played keyboards for the group.
Despite Culture Club's commercial success, there were significant pressures within the band. George was using drugs with money from his new-found fame. George and Moss were also romantically involved with each other, which was unknown to the public and the media at the time. Their relationship lasted for over four years and was often turbulent, with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides. Their constant arguments and the pressure to hide the relationship from the public started to take its toll on the band.
1984–1986: Waking Up with the House on Fire, From Luxury to Heartache and decline
In 1984, the group released their third album Waking Up with the House on Fire (UK No. 2, US No. 26) which sold 2.8 million copies worldwide. Although certified platinum in both the UK and the US, it was a commercial and critical disappointment compared to their first two albums. The album contained the hit single "The War Song", which reached No. 2 in the UK, and Top 20 in the US. Other singles like "Mistake No. 3" (US No. 33) and "The Medal Song" (UK No. 32) would become modest hits. George later stated he felt the album experienced a lukewarm reception because of half-hearted material he felt they released due to pressure from Virgin and Epic. According to him, the band had just come off an exhausting world tour in 1984.
At the end of 1984, Boy George was recruited by Bob Geldof to join the Band Aid recording, consisting of mostly internationally known UK and Irish recording stars. George was in New York City for an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman when Geldof called him, but managed to catch the final Concorde of the day to London and was the last singer to record a lead vocal track for the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?". The song would become the biggest selling single of all-time in the UK and a huge international hit, raising millions for famine victims in several African nations, particularly Ethiopia.
Due to all the heartache from the break-up of his relationship with Moss, and all the ensuing tension with rest of the band, George turned to relief in drugs. Consequently, he soon developed a self-destructive drug addiction, which in merely four months escalated from marijuana to heroin. By 1986, George had become seriously addicted. The recording of their fourth studio album, 1986's From Luxury to Heartache (UK No. 10, US No. 32) dragged on for so long that producer Arif Mardin had to abandon the sessions due to prior commitments and leave it to engineer Lew Hahn to finish the sessions. Nevertheless, the first single "Move Away" became a hit, peaking at UK No. 7 and US No. 12 and appeared the album would return the group back to its previous success. But by the time of the release of the second single "God Thank You Woman", news of George's drug addiction began to circulate in British and American tabloids, and the second single stalled on its way up the charts, failing to make a big impact.
George and Moss also no longer wanted to be around each other due to the constant relationship battles and with George's addiction. From Luxury to Heartache began to fade from the charts as well, and the album ultimately sold less than one million copies worldwide at the time of release. By the summer of 1986, George finally admitted that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July of that year, he was arrested by the British police for possession of heroin. The band broke up and George pursued a solo career, having several European hits and a couple of US Top 40 hits.
Reunions
1989
The band first tried to reunite in 1989, after many requests from Tony Gordon, the group's former manager and George's manager at that time. George agreed to try some songs with the band again, resulting in recording sessions and producing more than a dozen songs that remain unreleased. George, however, was more excited about his future projects like his record label, More Protein, and his new acid house project Jesus Loves You. The proposed reunion ended up being cancelled.
1998–2000, 2002
In 1998, George and Moss put their differences aside and the band reunited to do a reunion tour, kicking off with a performance on VH1 Storytellers. George said about the reunion, "Culture Club's reunion couldn't have come at a better time for rock", adding that, "It's a nostalgia trip, there's no way of avoiding that." The tour was a major success. Greatest Moments, a compilation album based around the Storytellers performance, was released, and went platinum in UK. It included new songs such as "I Just Wanna Be Loved", which hit UK No. 4. However, their new-found success was short-lived and their fifth studio album, Don't Mind If I Do, released in 1999, peaked at No. 64 in the UK. It included minor UK hits in "Your Kisses Are Charity" (UK No. 25) and "Cold Shoulder" (UK No. 43).
The band went on to tour, then reunited again for a 20th anniversary concert in 2002 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This performance was released on DVD the following year. Culture Club then became inactive again, largely due to George's successful DJ career, as well as his semi-autobiographical musical Taboo. It was a success in London, but was a flop on Broadway, only running for 100 performances, as well as losing $10 million for its producer, Rosie O'Donnell.
2006
In 2006, original members Craig and Moss tried to launch a new tour with another lead singer, as George and Hay had declined to tour. Early that year, the band's record company placed an ad for a lead singer to "...take part in a 2007 World Tour and TV Series." The new singer, Sam Butcher was selected because of his own personality, "not a Boy George lookalike." After watching a video on MySpace, George described the singer who replaced him as "terrible" and "dreadful". George said: "I wanted to like it but I couldn't. They're my songs, they're my heart, they're my life." A proposed tour for December 2006 in the UK did not take place.
2011
In late 2011, George was part of a three-man Culture Club band that performed two live concerts, in Dubai and Sydney, the latter being a New Year's Eve concert, although Moss did not appear due to a back injury.
2014–present
In 2014, the band reformed and announced a tour and a new album. A new picture of the four members was also posted on the band's official website, along with the list of the 11 UK concert dates.
The band travelled to Spain for a two-week recording session. 18 new tracks were completed for a new album produced by Youth. The new album, entitled Tribes, was scheduled for release in early 2015 on the band's own label Different Man Music (via Kobalt Label Services). At the end of that year the album had still not materialised.
On 19 July 2014, the band were among the line-up for a two-hour concert in Edinburgh Castle, ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hay did not perform with the band because he was in recovery after having knee surgery. The band played two songs, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon" which were shown on BBC TV.
In mid-November 2014, two days before the start of their 21-date US and UK tour, Culture Club announced they had to cancel the tour due to George suffering from a serious throat condition. The cancelled tour would have represented the full original line-up's first tour in 12 years. The North American tour was eventually rescheduled and started on 17 July 2015 in Canada. A television documentary, Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity, aired on BBC Four on 6 March 2015. The programme documented the band's reunion in 2014 and the making of their new album in Spain, up to the announcement to cancel the tour. Based on the popularity of 2015's mini-tour, Culture Club began a 40-city summer tour in 2016. The major success of this tour culminated in a DVD/CD/Blu-ray release, Live At Wembley: World Tour 2016.
In August 2016, the band announced that the album Tribes was permanently shelved, and offered refunds to all those who had pre-ordered the album online.
In 2018, Culture Club toured the US and Europe from June to December. Dubbed The Life Tour, the band toured in support of their namesake album, along with supporting acts The B-52s, Tom Bailey (formerly of The Thompson Twins) and Belinda Carlisle (Europe dates only). Jon Moss was originally part of the line-up, but did not participate in the European leg of the tour. A spokeswoman for Boy George confirmed: "Jon's taking a break from Culture Club but the door is open in the future." In December 2019, Moss filed a writ at London's High Court naming the band trio as defendants. Moss' lawyers say he was told to "take a break" by manager Paul Kemsley, demanding nearly £200,000 in missing payments and a share of profits. Jon Moss officially left Culture Club in May 2021.
Culture Club returned to the SSE Arena in Wembley on 19 December 2020 for a livestream concert, broadcast around the world, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Titled Rainbow in the Dark, the concert saw the band play their classic hits, new material, including a new ballad version of "Karma Chameleon", featuring Mila, and covers of T. Rex's "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" and George's solo cover of Bread's "Everything I Own".
Awards and achievements
ASCAP Pop Music Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"|1984
| "Karma Chameleon"
| rowspan="2"|Most Performed Songs
|
|-
| "It's a Miracle"
|
American Music Awards
|-
| 1985
| rowspan="2" | Culture Club
| rowspan="2" | Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group
|
|-
| 1987
|
American Video Awards
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| rowspan=2|A Kiss Across the Ocean
| Best Long-Form Video
|
|-
| Best Home Video
|
|-
| "The War Song"
| Best Choreography
|
|-
| "Miss Me Blind"
| Best Set Design
|
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
| rowspan=4|Themselves
| Top Pop New Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Pop Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Top Adult Contemporary Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Top Pop Album
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Top UK Single
|
BRIT Awards
|-
| 1983
| rowspan="2"|Culture Club
| Best British Breakthrough Act
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Best British Group
|
|-
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Best British Single
|
Classic Pop Reader Awards
|-
| 2019
| Culture Club
| Artist of the Year
|
Creem Magazine Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1983
| Themselves
| Worst Group – No. 1
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers
| Top Album – No. 19
|
Goldene Europa
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best International Group
|
Grammy Awards
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Culture Club
| Best New Artist
|
|-
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
|
Ivor Novello Awards
|-
| 1983
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1984
| rowspan="4" | "Karma Chameleon"
| Best Pop Song
|
|-
| Best Selling A-Side
|
|-
| Most Performed Work
|
|-
| International Hit of the Year
|
Juno Awards
|-
| 1984
| Colour by Numbers
| International Album of the Year
|
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| rowspan=2|1985
| rowspan=2|"It's a Miracle"
| Best Special Effects
|
|-
| Best Art Direction
|
Q Awards
|-
| 2006
| "Karma Chameleon"
| Q Classic Song Award
|
|-
| 2014
| Culture Club
| Q Idol
|
Rockbjörnen
|-
| 1983
| Colour by Numbers
| Best Foreign Album
|
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party
|-
| rowspan=4|1982
| "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Kissing to Be Clever
| Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=3|Themselves
| Most Promising New Act
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Best Group
|
|-
| rowspan=6|1983
|
|-
| Culture Club's "Colour by Numbers" Tour
| rowspan=2|Event of the Year
|
|-
| Culture Club Making No.1 with "Karma Chameleon"|
|-
| rowspan=2|"Karma Chameleon"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| Colour by Numbers| rowspan=2|Best Album
|
|-
| rowspan=4|1984
| Waking Up with the House on Fire|
|-
| rowspan=2|"The War Song"
| Best Single
|
|-
| Best Video
|
|-
| rowspan=2|Themselves
| Best Group
|
|-
| 1985
| Worst Group
|
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
|-
| 1999
| "Time (Clock of the Heart)"
| 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
|
| No. 107
Variety Club of Great Britain Awards
|-
| 1985
| The War Song| Best Recording Artist
|
Musical style and development
Culture Club's sound combines British new wave and American soul with Jamaican reggae and also other styles as calypso, salsa or country.Philadelphia Daily News described Culture Club as a hot new rock act, while William K Knoedelseder Jr from Los Angeles Times said about the group, "Boy George of Culture Club, a rock group MTV helped make popular", adding that, "There's some debate in the record industry about MTV's ability to directly increase record sales across the board but there's no doubt that the channel has been responsible for exposing such rock artists as Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Men at Work to a national audience..."
In the 1980s, Boy George said about the music style of his band Culture Club, "We play rock 'n' roll and I love rock 'n' roll music but I don't like the lifestyle. I don't like people tipping beer over their heads.... I just hate rock 'n' roll in that way. It's disgusting and boring. I look at what we're doing as very intelligent."
Stephen Holden, music critic for The New York Times, said in his article Rock: British Culture Club, that "Culture Club blends soul, rock, funk, reggae and salsa into a music that programmatically reconciles white, black and Latin styles", adding that, "Mr. O'Dowd made the group's best songs – the Motown-flavoured Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and the Latin-inflected dance tune I'll Tumble 4 Ya – shine like jewels."
Star-News considered Culture Club as a 'new rock' band of the 1980s; the newspaper said "Now you see the more rhythm-oriented, 'new rock of the 80s,' like Culture Club and the Eurythmics, fitting in more easily with urban contemporary formats."
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, described specifically Culture Club as a new wave band and generically as the most successful pop/rock group in America and England during the 1980s, adding that, "By 1986, the group had broken up, leaving behind several singles that rank as classics of the new wave era."
The music of Culture Club is described by George as, "The aim is to be creatively fluid to make everything we do a little different. We want to be a bridge between white rock and black soul", adding that, "I want Culture Club to represent all peoples and minorities".
The band was part of the second British rock invasion of the 1980s in the United States, as R. Serge Denisoff and William L. Schurk said in their book Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited, "Here comes the rock and roll of 1984. The invaders were a mixed bunch led by Culture Club, whose sound has been described as 'recycled Smokey Robinson' or 'torchy American schmaltz and classic Motown'", adding that, "Boy George's drag-queen appearance made the group a natural for the visual demands of cable television".
In her book Magazines for children: a guide for parents, teachers, and librarians, author Selma K. Richardson said that Culture Club's music is soft rock that contains, "enough soul and new wave elements to cover almost all audiences".
Band members
Principal members
Boy George – vocals, tambourine (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Mikey Craig – vocals, bass, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Roy Hay – guitars, vocals, keyboards (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–present)
Touring/session members
Phil Pickett – keyboards, vocals (1981–1986)
Darius Zickus – keyboards (1998–2002)
Darren Lewis – keyboards, percussion (2011–present)
Meryl Evans – drums, percussion, vocals (2021–present)
Former members
Jon Moss – drums, percussion, vocals (1981–1986, 1998–2002, 2011–2021)
Discography
Kissing to Be Clever (1982)
Colour by Numbers (1983)
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984)
From Luxury to Heartache (1986)
Don't Mind If I Do (1999)
Life (2018)
Citations
Bibliography
Songbooks
Kissing to Be Clever (including "Time (Clock of the Heart)" – 1982), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Colour by Numbers (1983), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
Waking Up with the House on Fire (1984), London & Suffolk, West Central Printing Co. Ltd., distr. Music Sales Ltd.
From Luxury to Heartache (1986), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
Culture Club'' (10 of their best songs – 1987), Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd., distr. IMP-International Music Publications, Essex, England
N.B.: Each of the first four songbooks includes a detailed official biography, which is each time updated: this way, such songbooks, corresponding to the band's first four albums, chronicle the early official biography of Culture Club, from 1982 to 1986.
External links
Culture Club VH1 artist page
Culture Club MTV artist page
[ Culture Club Billboard artist page]
Culture Club Rolling Stone artist page
Brit Award winners
English dance music groups
English pop music groups
English new wave musical groups
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
LGBT-themed musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups reestablished in 1998
Musical groups reestablished in 2011
Musical quartets
Virgin Records artists
British soul musical groups | false | [
"Multigenre research paper is an alternative to the traditional five paragraph essay commonly used in secondary education. It emphasizes the use of multiple genres to represent a given or chosen research topic. A genre is a specific type of art including literature, speech, drawings, music, etc. With this type of project, students are expected to research their given topic and then present the information they gathered using a variety of genres, with an emphasis on writing and composition. The genres created to represent the topic can be put together through the creation of a theme and bracketed by an introduction and conclusion. This creates a unified research paper that avoids the structure of a traditional five paragraph essay.\n\nBenefits\nWhile some educators may argue that certain genres are not scholarly and/or appropriate to the social studies classroom, the option of utilizing narrative thinking may give students, particularly those who have difficulty connecting with the material, a way to relate to the topic under consideration. Students will have more options in the ways they choose to think and write about a specific topic by having the opportunity to choose multiple genres to write in. The power to choose which genres they include in their papers, mainly based on the particular topic and writer preference, will also create a greater sense of ownership in the written product. In addition, allowing students to choose the genres that they include in their multigenre research papers will help them to recognize that each piece of writing has a specific purpose and audience.\n\nAccording to Camille A. Allen, there are four main benefits for students who create a multigenre research paper:\n\n Students Become More Interested in Content: Method helps students remember the content because they become invested in it by focusing on areas of interest and connecting the material to their own interests and skills.\n Students Gain a New Attitude Toward Learning: Students have the opportunity to make choices about topics and genres and how to present their material in a meaningful way. They are actively involved in the creation process, not simply given a topic and then passively write on it based on research. Students have the opportunity to take risks and be creatively in charge of their own learning.\n Students Build Self-Confidence: Students spend time evaluating themselves and their peers and see the value of bouncing their ideas off of others. They also take ownership of the multigenre paper they create and recognize the difficult process that both they and their peers went through in order to create such a paper.\n Students Learn to Think: In order to be successful, students are required to communicate with their teacher and peers while composing a multigenre research paper. They get practice asking questions concerning how they will write and present their information.\n\nStudents also gain experience by discussing, with others, their possible genre ideas for their topic and work on editing their papers through peer revision.\n\nAccording to Nancy Mack, other benefits to a multigenre research paper include:\n Requires that diverse types of writing be generated for a theme.\n Stimulates critical analysis and higher level thinking skills.\n Integrates factual information into a meaningful text versus copying or simple recall.\n Creates coherence among the parts of a problem to be solved.\n Requires a bibliography, footnotes, and careful documentation of sources.\n Permits the author to highlight personal interests and special expertise.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n Dickson, R., DeGraff, J., & Foard, M. (2002). \"Learning about Self and Others through Multigenre Research Projects\". The English Journal, Vol. 92, No. 2, Multigenre Teaching\n Glasgow, Jacqueline. (2002). \"Radical Change in Young Adult Literature Informs the Multigenre Paper\". The English Journal, Vol. 92, No. 2, Multigenre Teaching\n Grierson, Sirpa T. (1999). \"Circling through Text: Teaching Research through Multigenre Writing\". The English Journal, Vol. 89, No. 1, Research Revisited\n Kittle, Penny. (2008). Write Beside Them. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann\n LeNoir, W. David. (2002). \"The Multigenre Warning Label\". The English Journal, Vol. 92, No. 2, Multigenre Teaching\n Tchudi, Stephen (Ed.). (1997). Alternatives to Grading Student Writing. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English\n\nExternal links\n Multigenre Writing\n Exploring Genres: A Curriculum Web for Students Writing Multigenre Papers\n Tips to Draft a Research Paper Cover Page\n\nWritten communication",
"Los Speakers (the Speakers) from Bogotá, Colombia, were a beat and garage rock band active the 1960s. Their particular style was characterized by the influence of early Beatles and the Byrds, as well as other popular music of the era. Later, they would experiment with other musical forms, such as psychedelic before their separation in late 1968.\n\nWhile much of their recorded material consisted of covers of popular songs by acts such as the Beatles, not to mention other Latin American rock bands, such as Los Brincos, they began to write their own material as their sound evolved. Some of their original material would be characterized by ghostly downcast melodies and arrangements. Their albums are sought after among collectors, particularly their final LP, which is their most experimental.\n\nThe band began with the merging of two earlier groups, Dynamic (1961–1964), whose membership included Fernando Latorre, Alfredo Besoza and Humberto Monroy, and Electronic, whose roster included Luis and Edgar Duenas, children of the composer Luis Dueñas Knob. The earliest lineup of the Speakers was Rodrigo Garcia, from Spain (guitar) Colombian Humberto Monroy (bass), Fernando Latorre (drums) and guitarists Oswaldo Hernandez and Luis Dueñas. With this lineup, they supported Enrique Guzman, who was visiting Bogota, in 1964. The Speakers became popular with the public during the beat group movement in Colombia .\n\nThe band\nRodrigo Garcia - Leader (1964–1969)\nHumberto Monroy - Bass (1961–1969)\nRoberto Fiorilli- Drums (1967–1969)\nOscar Lasprilla - Guitar (1967\nFernando Latorre - Drums (1961–1965)\nOswaldo Hernandez - Guitar (1964–1966)\nLuis Dueñas - Guitar (1964–1966)\nEdgar Dueñas - Drums (1966)\n\nDiscography\nThe Speakers (1965), Sello Vergara\nLa Casa Del Sol Naciente (1965), Discos Bambuco\nTuercas, Tornillos y Alicates (US Release 1966), Discos Bambuco\nThe Speakers IV (1967), Discos Bambuco\nThe Speakers En El Maravilloso Mundo De Ingeson (1968), Producciones Kriss\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSpeaking of the Speakers\n\nColombian rock music groups\nMusical groups from Bogotá\nMusical groups established in 1963\nMusical groups disestablished in 1969"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers"
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | Who does Kermit perform with? | 1 | Who does Kermit the frog perform with? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | Jim Henson originated the character | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | true | [
"Kermit Unpigged is a comedy album released by The Jim Henson Company through BMG Kidz in 1994, and the last album released by Jim Henson Records. The record's title is a parody of the MTV series MTV Unplugged, and the cover is a parody of Eric Clapton's Unplugged album cover as well. The album consists of Kermit the Frog and the other Muppets getting lost at a recording studio and encountering celebrities including Linda Ronstadt, with whom Kermit sings \"All I Have to Do Is Dream\", Vince Gill who sings \"Daydream\" with Kermit, Jimmy Buffett who sings \"Mr. Spaceman\" with Gonzo, and Ozzy Osbourne with whom Miss Piggy sings \"Born to Be Wild\". The album ends with the Muppets meeting back up and singing the Beatles song \"All Together Now\".\n\nThe album reached #20 on Billboards Top Kid Audio chart.\n\nTrack listing\n \"She Drives Me Crazy\" - Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy\n \"Daydream\" - Vince Gill and Kermit the Frog\n \"On Broadway\" - George Benson, Clifford and the Rhythm Rats\n \"All I Have to Do Is Dream\" - Linda Ronstadt and Kermit the Frog\n \"Born to Be Wild\" - Ozzy Osbourne and Miss Piggy\n \"Mr. Spaceman\" - Jimmy Buffett, The Great Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat\n \"Bein' Green\" - Don Henley and Kermit the Frog\n \"Wild Thing\" - Animal, Floyd Pepper and Kermit the Frog\n \"Can't Get Along Without You\" - Kermit the Frog and Robin \n \"All Together Now\" - The Muppets with Harry Smith\n\nReferences \n\n1994 albums\nThe Muppets albums\n1990s comedy albums",
"The Sesame Street News Flash was a recurring segment on the children's television show Sesame Street. First aired in 1972, the series starred Kermit the Frog as a trench coat-dressed roving reporter who interviews Muppet versions of characters from fairy tales, Mother Goose nursery rhymes and key moments in history.\n\nGiven the basic format of the segments, the \"Sesame Street News Flash\" series served several purposes, namely to act out simple stories and nursery rhymes with which the show's audience might be familiar, and to give children a basic understanding of history. Other skits were spoofs of popular culture (such as one which parodied the then-popular The Six Million Dollar Man), while others involved Kermit asking children simple vox populi, or \"man on the street,\" style questions. With exception to the latter, the segments were often parodies and diverged from the traditional tellings.\n\nBasic outline of a sketch\nThe \"Sesame Street News Flash\" segments were introduced with a bumper slide, featuring a black background with a cloud outline, stars and lightning; the words \"NEWS FLASH\" were inserted in the cloud outline and flashed as a special bulletin-type jingle — an urgent-sounding version of the Sesame Street theme (composed by Joe Raposo), with Morse code beeps — played. An announcer (voiced by Jerry Nelson) then stated, \"We take you now to Kermit the Frog with another fast-breaking news story!\"\n\nThe scene then broke to Kermit (performed by Jim Henson), who was stationed nearby where his report was taking place; often, he would engage in banter with his crew before realizing he was on-camera, to add to the realism and spontaneity of his report. After introducing himself (\"Hi-ho, this is Kermit the Frog of Sesame Street News...\") before reporting where he is.\n\nThe reports began smoothly enough before something invariably went wrong, in most cases the work of the hapless Kermit. For instance:\n\n A spoof on Humpty Dumpty began in medias res with \"all the king's horses\" and \"all the kings men\" finding the shattered Dumpty. Kermit follows the men's successful efforts to reconstruct Dumpty, then interviews the resurrected egg, finally after his statement \"it's so nice to have you back\", slaps Dumpty's back and shattering him again! The lead king's horse, naturally, blames Kermit.\n In a retelling of \"Rapunzel\", the main character reveals that she is bald as she literally \"lets down her hair.\" Other nursery rhyme and fairy tale retellings went similarly, such as Cinderella's fairy godmother accidentally poofing a fancy gown onto Kermit, or a whole band showing up at Old King Cole's castle instead of just his \"fiddlers three.\" One segment combined \"This Little Piggy\" and \"The Three Little Pigs, \" where after five pigs say their signature lines, the Big Bad Wolf — agitated at Kermit's constant asking him questions — makes good on a threat to \"blow the frog down.\"\n In re-telling the legend of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, Kermit interviews a young George just as he is about to chop down trees in a large cherry orchard. Kermit subtracts one from a running total (starting with 1,776) until one of the trees falls on top of him.\n In The Six Million Dollar Man parody, Kermit interviews Professor Nucleus Von Fission, who has invented a robot entitled \"The Six-Dollar Man\" (a makeshift robot made of everyday items, the cost of which adds up to $6.00). The robot comes to life and immediately goes crazy, destroying Von Fission's laboratory. (\"Well, what do you expect for six dollars?\")\n One segment, a spoof of human interest news items, turned out to be an elaborate prank on Kermit; he was covering a story about someone standing out in the snow for a long time, based on a call from some person. He remained out in the snow attempting to find that person but to no avail, until finally, Harvey Kneeslapper showed up and revealed he was the one who called Sesame Street News about the person standing in the snow for a long time...and that person he'd been referring to was Kermit himself!!\n\nOther segments were more serious. For example, one skit featured Kermit interviewing monsters at a daycare center about what they wanted to be when they grew up, while another featured Telly Monster and his sister being asked what they do on a rainy day. Another skit explored parential separation and divorce, featuring a young bird whose parents live in different trees; the song \"They Live in Different Places, But They Both Love Me\" was used to reinforce the moral.\n\nEach report concluded with Kermit saying, \"This is Kermit the Frog returning you to your regularly scheduled program.\"\n\nLongevity\nThere were many News Flash skits produced between 1972 and 1989. After Jim Henson's death, the skits were unofficially canceled, but older Sesame Street News segments were still rerun on the show. On a few occasions, a new Sesame Street News segment would be made relating to the episode, with Steve Whitmire performing Kermit.\n\nReferences\n\nSesame Street segments"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character"
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | what was his performance about? | 2 | what was Kermit the Frogs performance about? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | false | [
"\"I Am What I Am\" is the third and final single to be released from Take That band member Mark Owen's debut solo album, Green Man. The single was released on 1 August 1997. The single peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming his worst performing single from Green Man. \"I Am What I Am\" was originally intended to become the fourth single from the album, however due to ongoing battles between Owen and the label, became his final single on RCA Records before he was dropped.\n\nTrack listing\nUK CD single #1\n \"I Am What I Am\" – 4:21\n \"Mr. You\" – 4:23\n \"Johnny\" – 3:12\n \"Clementine\" (remix) – 3:56\n\nUK CD single #2\n \"I Am What I Am\" – 4:21\n \"Is That What It's All About\" (live) – 5:11\n \"Secondhand Wonderland\" (live) – 6:55\n \"I Am What I Am\" (remix) – 4:06\n\nUK cassette\n \"I Am What I Am\" – 4:21\n \"Johnny\" – 3:12\n\nPromotional single\n \"I Am What I Am\" – 4:06\n \"I Am What I Am\" (album version) – 4:21\n \"Child\" (radio edit) – 3:48\n \"Clementine\" (remix) – 3:56\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1997 singles\nMark Owen songs\nSongs written by Mark Owen\nRCA Records singles\n1996 songs",
"\"Nick of Time\" is a song by American blues musician Bonnie Raitt. Taken as the third single from her 10th solo album of the same name (1989), the song was released in May 1990. The song debuted at number 94 and reached its peak of 92 a week later on the Hot 100 chart. It also earned a top 10 placement on the Adult Contemporary Chart.\n\nComposition\nRaitt wrote most of the song during a week-long cabin retreat in Mendocino, California, and she recorded a homemade demo on her own. \n\nThe song was inspired by a culmination of observations about aging. The first verse (\"A friend of mine, she cries at night...\") was taken from a conversation Raitt had with a heartbroken friend who was nearing middle age and desperately wanting a baby, and the song also featured her singing about her own parents (“I see my folks, they’re getting old…”). \n\nThe singer recalled: \"In his vulnerable state I could see he was getting older and could really feel what it was like for a body to age. This whole idea of time and it being more precious as you age, I realized this would be what I'd write about.\"\n\nChart performance\nThe song was popular on multiple formats of radio: it peaked at number 10 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, and number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also placed at 82 on the UK Singles Chart. Despite its limited commercial success, the record became one of Raitt's most defining songs.\n\nNominations and awards\nRaitt won the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards for her recording of this song. Bonnie Raitt received three more wins at the ceremony, including Album of the Year.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1980s ballads\n1989 songs\n1990 singles\nBonnie Raitt songs\nCapitol Records singles\nGrammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance\nPop ballads\nSong recordings produced by Don Was\nSongs about old age"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know."
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 3 | Besides Kermitt the Frogs performances, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer."
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | Why did he need another performer? | 4 | In addition to Henson, why did Kermitt need another performer? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | Following Henson's death, | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | true | [
"Chocolate Supa Highway is the second studio album by Spearhead.\n\nTrack listing \n \"Africa On Line\" (0:44)\n \"Chocolate Supa Highway\" (5:08)\n \"Keep Me Lifted\" (4:20)\n \"Food for tha Masses\" (5:01)\n \"U Can't Sing R Song\" (5:27)\n \"Tha Payroll (Stay Strong)\" (5:09)\n \"Madness in tha Hood (Free Ride)\" (4:49)\n \"Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)\" (5:26)\n \"Why Oh Why\" (4:51)\n \"Comin' to Gitcha\" (4:07)\n \"Life Sentence\" (0:13)\n \"Ganja Babe\" (3:33)\n \"Wayfarin' Stranger\" featuring Joan Osborne (5:28)\n \"Gas Gauge (Tha World's in Your Hands)\" (4:35)\n \"Water Pistol Man (Chocolate Mix)\" (5:44)\n\nSingles \n \"U Can't Sing R Song\"\n \"Why Oh Why\"\n \"Keep Me Lifted\"\n\nPersonnel \n Michael Franti: vocalist, producer\n Trinna Simmons: vocalist\n Carl Young: bass/sax\n David James: guitar\n Kim Buie: executive producer\n Prince Charles Alexander: mixed and mastered, with the exception of \"Rebel Music\"\n Joe Nicolo: mixed and mastered \"Rebel Music\"\n Stephen Marley: co-producer on \"Rebel Music\"\n\nOther artists\nIn addition to co-producing the song, Stephen Marley is a guest performer on \"Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)\"\nZap Mama is a guest performer on \"Comin' to Gitcha\"\nJoan Osborne is a guest performer on \"Wayfaring Stranger\"\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nMichael Franti albums\n1997 albums\nCapitol Records albums",
"Sam Griffin Owens, known professionally as Sam Evian, is an American songwriter, instrumentalist and producer based in New York. He has released three full-length albums and one 7\" single.\n\nHistory \nIn 2016, Sam Evian signed with Saddle Creek Records. Sam Evian's music has been described as indie rock, \"crunchy country,\" and \"70s-tinged psychedelic soft rock.\" He released his debut album Premium in 2016. The album's lead single, \"I Need A Man,\" was premiered by Stereogum.\n\nIn 2018, Evian released his sophomore album You, Forever. Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead contributed to the album's song \"Next To You.\" The song \"Health Machine\" was released as a single and music video. Another single, entitled \"IDGAF,\" was premiered by Stereogum. In the Pitchfork review of You, Forever, Allison Hussey wrote that Evian \"offers rock songs about vulnerability and desire that are gentle and sweet but avoid the most saccharine tendencies of soft rock.\" Digital Trends included You, Forever in their list of the best albums of 2018.\n\nIn 2021 it was announced that Evian had been signed to Fat Possum Records and that his new album Time to Melt would be released Oct. 29, 2021. Of the album, Aquarium Drunkard said \"Time to Melt aspires to address the strife of the present and sound good while cooking dinner. No short order, but with its lush sounds and warm nods in the direction of Sly and the Family Stone, T Rex, and Shuggie Otis, he’s pulled it off.\" FLOOD Magazine said \"Time to Melt spins death in a funky, positive light.\"\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums \n\n Premium (2016)\n You, Forever (2018)\nTime to Melt (2021)\n\nSingles and EPs \n\n Sleep Easy/You Have To Hydrate (2016)\nEasy to Love (2021)\nKnock Knock (2021)\nTime to Melt (2021)\nNever Know (2021)\n\nProducer Discography \n\n Johanna Samuels - Excelsior (producer, engineer, mixing, performer)\n Widowspeak - Plum (producer, engineer, mixing, performer)\n Anna Burch - If You're Dreaming (producer, engineer, mixing, performer)\n Molly Sarlé - Karaoke Angel (producer, engineer, mixing, performer)\n Hannah Cohen - Welcome Home (producer, engineer, mixing, performer)\n Kazu Makino - Adult Baby (producer, engineer, mixing, performer)\n Cass McCombs - Tip of the Sphere (engineer, performer)\n Lina Tullgren - Free Cell (engineer)\n Wilder Maker - Zion (engineer)\n Cass McCombs - I'm A Shoe (Mangy Love) (producer, engineer)\n Okkervil River - In The Rainbow Rain (engineer)\n Okkervil River - New Blood/Skip Tracer (engineer, mixing)\n Sam Amidon - Juma Mountain and April (engineer)\n Blonde Redhead - Golden Light (engineer for string recordings)\n Cassandra Jenkins - Play Til You Win (engineer, producer, mixing, performer)\n Buck Meek - Heart Was Beat (engineer, mixing)\n Sam Evian - Premium (producer, engineer, mixing, performer, composer)\n Sam Evian - You, Forever (producer, engineer, mixing, performer, composer)\n Sam Evian - Need You EP (mixing, performer, composer)\n Sam Evian - Time To Melt (producer, performer, composer)\n Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (engineer, mixing, additional production)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nAmerican male singer-songwriters\nAmerican singer-songwriters"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer.",
"Why did he need another performer?",
"Following Henson's death,"
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | When did Henson die? | 5 | When did Henson die? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | Henson died twelve days after that appearance. | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | true | [
"Howard Keith Henson (born 1942) is an American electrical engineer and writer. Henson writes on subjects including space engineering, space law (Moon treaty), memetics, cryonics, evolutionary psychology, and the physical limitations of Transhumanism. In 1975, Henson founded the L5 Society with his then-wife Carolyn Meinel to promote space colonization. In 1987 the L5 Society merged with the National Space Institute to form the National Space Society.\n\nEarly influences\nHenson was raised in a military family and he attended seven schools before 7th grade. His father, Lt. Col. Howard W. Henson (1909–2001), was a decorated (Bronze Star and Legion of Merit) US Army officer who spent much of his career in Army Intelligence. The science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein heavily influenced his early life. Henson graduated from Prescott High School shortly after his father retired, before attending the University of Arizona and receiving a degree in electrical engineering.\n\nUniversity\nDuring most of his time at university, Henson worked at a geophysics company and mostly ran induced polarization surveys in the western US and Peru. He also programmed geophysical type cases and wrote data reduction programs for the company.\n\nDruid prank \nHenson was known at the University of Arizona as one of the founders of the Druid Student Center, where a campus humor newspaper, The Frumious Bandersnatch was published in the late 1960s. He cited an incident while he was a student as a good example of memetic replication. When someone asked him to fill in a form which required him to disclose his religious affiliations he wrote Druid. His prank was soon noticed by other students and before long almost 20% of the student body had registered themselves as Reform Druids, Orthodox Druids, Members of the Church of the nth Druid, Zen Druids, Latter-Day Druids and so on. The university was forced to remove the religious affiliation question.\n\nAnalog engineering\nAfter graduation, Henson went to work for Burr-Brown Research, now merged into Texas Instruments, in Tucson, Arizona. He worked on extremely low distortion quadrature oscillators and nonlinear function modules (multipliers, vector adders and root-mean-square). His first patent was a design for a 4-quadrant log-antilog multiplier. He claims to have been fired from an unnamed company in 1972 for refusing to certify an electronic module for a nuclear power plant that failed to meet a required MTBF specification. Henson set up his own company, Analog Precision Inc., to produce specialized computer interface equipment and related industrial control devices.\n\nHenson married his first wife, Carolyn Meinel, in 1967 and divorced in 1981.\n\nL5 Society\nIn 1974, Henson's occasional rock climbing partner, physicist Dr. Dan Jones, introduced him to the space colonization work of Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill from Princeton University. To promote these ideas, Henson and Meinel founded the L5 Society in 1975.\n\nHenson co-wrote papers for three Space Manufacturing conferences at Princeton. The 1977 and 1979 papers were co-authored with Eric Drexler. Patents were issued on both subjects—vapor phase fabrication and space radiators.\n\nIn 1980, Henson testified before the United States Congress when the L5 Society successfully opposed the Moon Treaty. The society was represented by Leigh Ratiner. The experience eventually became an article, Star Laws, jointly written by Henson and Arel Lucas and published in Reason Magazine. Timothy Leary was influenced by Henson's work-and credited him in publications when he referred to Space Migration and Life Extension.\n\nCryonics\nIn 1985, Henson, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter signed up with Alcor for cryonic suspension after being convinced by Eric Drexler that nanotechnology provided a method to make it work. Henson's daughter is the youngest member to sign up to Alcor. Following the Dora Kent problems, Henson became increasingly active with Alcor. After Alcor froze their chief surgeon, he learned enough surgery to put several cryonics patients on cardiac bypass. He also wrote a column for Alcor's magazine, Cryonics, for a few years. Henson persuaded Timothy Leary to become an Alcor member, though Leary eventually dropped his membership.\n\nIn that same year, Henson moved to Silicon Valley to consult for a number of firms and debugged garbage collection software for the last stage of Project Xanadu. He was working for the company that bought the Xanadu license when Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin tried to destroy the news group alt.religion.scientology. and later e-mailed legal warnings to participants who had quoted as few as six lines of Scientology texts.-->\n\nMemetics\nHenson's wife, Arel Lucas, was credited by Douglas Hofstadter in Metamagical Themas for suggesting that the study of memes be called memetics. Henson wrote two articles on memes in 1987, one published in Analog and the other, Memes, Meta Memes and Politics, circulated on the internet before being printed.\n\nRichard Dawkins, who created the concept of memes, approvingly cites Henson's coining of the neologism memeoids to refer to \"victims who have been taken over by a meme to the extent that their own survival becomes inconsequential\" in the second edition of his book The Selfish Gene.\n\nScientology\nHenson is one of the focal points of the ongoing struggle between the Church of Scientology and its critics, often referred to as Scientology versus the Internet. Henson entered the Scientology conflict when it was at its most heated in the mid-1990s. In 1996, many of Scientology's secret writings were released onto the Internet, and the Church of Scientology embarked on a massive worldwide campaign to keep them from being spread to the general public. Henson examined these writings, entitled New Era Dianetics (NOTS), and from his examination of these secret documents, claimed that Scientology was committing medical fraud. The NOTS documents, he said, contained detailed instructions for the treatment of physical ailments and illnesses through the use of Scientology practices. The Supreme Court decision in 1971 had declared that Scientology's writings were meant for \"purely spiritual\" purposes, and all Scientology books published since then have included disclaimers stating that Scientology's E-meter device \"does nothing\" and does not cure any physical ailments. The NOTS procedures, Henson claimed, were a violation of this decision. To prove his claim, Henson posted two pages from the NOTS documents onto the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology.\n\nThe Church of Scientology immediately initiated legal action, but Henson did not retract his claims. He was served with a lawsuit by the church's legal arm, the Religious Technology Center, (RTC). Henson defended himself. After a lengthy court battle involving massive amounts of paperwork, Henson was found guilty of copyright infringement. He was ordered to pay $75,000 in fines. Henson declared bankruptcy in response to the judgment. Henson began protesting Scientology regularly, standing outside Scientology's Gold Base, with a picket sign. The organization sought to obtain a restraining order, which failed.\n\nAs a result of this conflict, Henson was charged with three misdemeanors under California Law: making criminal threats (California Penal Code section 422), attempting to make criminal threats (California Penal Code section 422, charged pursuant to Penal Code 664, the \"general attempt\" statute), and threatening to interfere with freedom to enjoy a constitutional privilege. Sheriff's Detective Tony Greer, Riverside County lead investigator, said: \"In reviewing all of the Internet postings I did not see any direct threat of violence towards the church or any personnel of the church.\"\n\nThe jury verdict of the trial resulted in Henson being convicted of one of the three charges: \"interfering with a religion.\" This misdemeanor charge carried a prison term of six months. On the other two charges, the jury did not agree. Ken Hoden, the general manager of Golden Era Productions (the Church of Scientology's film production facility), claimed that Scientology's allegations against Henson had nothing to do with Scientology Fair Game policy, and that no such policy existed.\n\nHenson stated his belief that if he went to prison, his life would be placed in jeopardy. Rather than serve his sentence, Henson chose to enter Canada and apply for political asylum. Henson lived quietly in Brantford for three years while he awaited the decision. His request was ultimately denied and, in 2005, he was ordered to present himself for deportation and transfer to US authorities. Instead, Henson fled to the United States and later presented himself to the Canadian consulate in Detroit. Then he settled in Prescott, Arizona where he remained for two years until his arrest in 2007 by Arizona authorities.\n\nThe Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as Henson's supporters on the USENET newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, say that his trial was biased, unfair and a mockery of justice. Henson was prohibited by the trial judge, for example, from arguing that copying documents for the purpose of criticism is fair use. Henson's location as of February 3, 2007 was the Yavapai Detention Center in Prescott, Arizona, awaiting possible extradition to Riverside County, California. At the \"initial appearance\" hearing on February 5, 2007, Henson stated through counsel that he was fighting extradition and requested release.\n\nJudge Lindberg set a court date for March 5, 2007 in the Prescott Justice Court and set release at $7,500 cash or bond, with standard conditions. Henson's release on bond was secured. In spite of these distractions, Henson finished a space elevator presentation for a European Space Agency conference. The paper was presented by proxy on February 28, 2007.\n\nThe extradition hearing for Henson was postponed to May 8, 2007, at the request of Henson's attorney and the County attorney. At his release from jail, Henson was handed paper work from Riverside County, including a warrant from September 15, 2000. At the May 8, 2007 hearing, Henson was presented with an arrest warrant, and returned to jail. In 2007, Henson was jailed in Riverside, California for \"using threats of force to interfere with another's exercise of civil rights\". He was released in early September 2007.\n\nEnergy systems\nFrom 2007 on, Henson worked independently and with others on the problems of global energy supply and affordable cost, particularly on power satellites for space-based solar power. There he was particularly concerned with launch cost, system mass, waste heat, heat radiators, and economics.\n\nThe power satellite work was reported in a series of articles starting with two posted on The Oil Drum and three presented at IEEE SusTech conferences for Sustainable Technology. Henson also was involved in producing videos about thermal power satellites and beamed energy propulsion the latter of which won an award in an international competition. (See Online Journal of Space Communication, Issue No. 18 under Works, below.)\n\nA shorter version was shown at the White House in the last days of the Obama Administration by Lt. Col. Peter Garretson and Dr. Paul Jaffe as part of the D3 government-wide contest.\n\nAdditionally, he worked over a year for Ed Kelly on StratoSolar when it seemed possible that high altitude lighter-than-air StratoSolar could beat the projected cost of power satellites.\n\nHenson visited Reaction Engines in the UK twice: in 2012 on the way back from a power satellite presentation in Germany (\"Economic feedback for low-cost solar energy from space\") and in 2016 when he gave a two-hour presentation to the engineering department of Reaction Engines. The latter, plus other, later discussions set the rate of expansion for producing Skylon rocket planes used in the power satellite business cases.\n\nIn early 2015, Henson created the Google group Power Satellite Economics where various concerned citizens and experts from various fields can discuss the complexities and benefits of power satellites and related work.\n\nWorks\n\nHenson, H.K., and K.E. Drexler: Vapor-phase Fabrication of Massive Structures in Space, Space Manufacturing AIAA 1977\nHenson, H.K., and K.E. Drexler: Gas Entrained Solids: A Heat Transfer Fluid for Use in Space Space Manufacturing AIAA 1979\nH. Keith Henson and Arel Lucas: STAR LAWS Reason Magazine, Aug. 1982 STAR LAWS (text only)\nHenson, H.K.: Memes, L5 and the religion of the space colonies. L5 News, September 1985, pp. 5–8.\nHenson, H.K.: More on Memes L5 News, June 1986\nHenson, H.Keith: MEMETICS AND THE MODULAR-MIND Analog August 1987\nHenson, Keith: \"Memetics: The Science of Information Viruses\". Whole Earth Review no. 57, 1987\nHenson, H. Keith: MegaScale Engineering and Nanotechnology, 1987\nHenson, H. Keith: Memes Meta-Memes and Politics, 1988 Alt. \nH. Keith Henson and Arel Lucas: Darwin's difficulty (From Extropy) 1989\nH. Keith Henson and Arel Lucas: Memes, Evolution, and Creationism, 1989,\nH. Keith Henson: \nH. Keith Henson: and Arel Lucas: , 1993\nKeith Henson: Wogs at Cause—Car chases and other modern courtroom phenomena] (adapted from the version published in Biased Journalism) Also [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/21/171516/867\nH. Keith Henson: South of the Border at the Road Kill Cafe (Part 1)\nHenson, H. Keith: [https://archive.today/20120709131213/http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html Sex, Drugs, and Cults.] An evolutionary psychology perspective on why and how cult memes get a drug-like hold on people, and what might be done to mitigate the effects, The Human Nature Review 2002 Volume 2: 343–355\nH. Keith Henson: Evolutionary Psychology Memes and the Origin of War Also \nH. Keith Henson: ESA Conference presentation Feb 2007\nH. Keith Henson: , The Clinic Seed—Africa.\nKeith Henson: , Tunnel of Love.\nH. Keith Henson: Beamed Energy and the Economics of Space Based Solar Power, Beamed Energy Propulsion: 6th International Symposium, American Inst. of Physics, 2010 \n\n Also \n\n Comment on David MacKay's blog \n 2014 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech), (pp. 203–208). Portland: IEEE.\n Online Journal of Space Communication, Issue No. 18.\n Online Journal of Space Communication, Issue No. 18.\n \n \n 2016 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech), Phoenix, AZ: IEEE.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\nMedia/Press mention\n\n1998\nJudge OKs picketing of church, The Press-Enterprise, February 21, 1998\nInternet Czar?, Wall Street Journal, July 21, 1998\n2001\nScientology Critic Convicted, April 27, 2001 Wired article on Henson's conviction\n\nUnorthodox Arrest, Enzo Di Matteo, NOW Magazine, June 7 – 13, 2001.\nUnfair Game: Scientologists get their man, LA Weekly, June 22, 2001\n2007\nScientology Fugitive Arrested, 10 Zen Monkeys, February 4, 2007\nScientology foe Keith Henson arrested, defense mobilized, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 2007-02-04\nScientology activist arrested, p2p.net, February 5, 2007\nScientology Critic Arrested After 6 Years, Slashdot, February 5, 2007\nAnti-Scientology Activist Keith Henson Arrested, All Headline News , February 6, 2007, Prescott, Arizona\n, CNET News.com, February 5, 2007, California\nThe Tom Cruise Missile, About.com, February 6, 2007\nPrescott police arrest California fugitive, The Daily Courier, Yavapai County, Arizona, February 6, 2007.\nArizona to extradite Scientology protester to Riverside County, The Press-Enterprise , February 8, 2007, Riverside County, California\n\nExternal links\n\nBiographical\nKeith Henson Information\nCopy of Henson trial transcript\nElectronic Frontier Foundation statement re. Henson process ()\nExile on Meme Street – Keith Henson Talks about Memetics, Evolutionary Psychology and Scientology\n\nBibliographical\nWritings of Keith Henson\nKeith Henson quotes\n\nAmerican non-fiction writers\nCritics of Scientology\nUniversity of Arizona alumni\nScientology and law\nCryonicists\n1942 births\nSpace advocates\nLiving people\nMemetics\nScientology and the Internet\nAmerican transhumanists\nAmerican male non-fiction writers",
"Robert Henson (born January 27, 1986) is a former American football linebacker. He was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at TCU.\n\nEarly years\nHenson earned District 11-5A Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior in 2003 at Longview High School in Longview, Texas. He chose to attend TCU over offers from Arkansas and Nebraska.\n\nCollege career\nHenson began his college career at Texas Christian University as a redshirt freshman in 2005, when he started two games and played in all twelve as a redshirt freshman for the MWC Champion Horned Frogs. In his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons, Henson was at least third on the team in tackles, was named Honorable Mention All-MWC, and the Frogs won their bowl game. In his senior year, he was named 1st Team All-MWC and recorded 73 tackles, one sack and two interceptions.\n\nProfessional career\nHenson was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL Draft, to compete for a middle linebacker position and contributing to special teams.\n\nOn September 21, 2009, following an \"unsightly\" 9-7 home victory, Henson posted some disparaging remarks via his Twitter account about fans who had booed and jeered the Redskins' performance. Specifically he called the fans who jeered the team \"dim wits\", said that the same people would trade places with him in a second due to the money he was making, and that he did not appreciate being booed in his own home stadium. Henson went further by saying the fans did not understand what was best for the team because they \"work 9 to 5 at McDonald's\", which drew the most criticism. After much criticism from the media and fans, Henson apologized and has since deactivated his account. He was placed on injured reserve on September 4, 2010.\n\nOn August 5, 2011, he waived by the Redskins.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nTCU Horned Frogs bio\nWashington Redskins bio\n\n1986 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Longview, Texas\nLongview High School alumni\nTexas Christian University alumni\nPlayers of American football from Texas\nAmerican football linebackers\nTCU Horned Frogs football players\nWashington Redskins players"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer.",
"Why did he need another performer?",
"Following Henson's death,",
"When did Henson die?",
"Henson died twelve days after that appearance."
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | Which appearance had he had before his death? | 6 | Which appearance had Henson had before his death? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | false | [
"Henry de Cornhill was a medieval English priest.\n\nCornhill was appointed chancellor of the Diocese of London in 1217 by the papal legate Guala Bicchieri. He also held the prebends of Finsbury and Weldland in the same diocese. He remained in the chancellorship until June 1242. By 21 May 1243 he had been appointed to the office of Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, the cathedral church of the London diocese. He remained in that office until at least 28 October 1253, his last appearance in a document. He likely continued to hold the office until his death, which occurred before 26 August 1254. His death was commemorated by the cathedral on 9 April, which implies that he died in April 1254.\n\nCitations\n\nReferences\n\n \n \n\n1250s deaths\nDeans of St Paul's\nYear of birth unknown",
"James Cairns was a footballer who played at inside right for several English clubs, including Lincoln City and Newton Heath in the late 1890s.\n\nCairns began his football career with Stevenston Thistle in 1895, before moving to Glossop North End. In September 1897, he joined Football League side Lincoln City, but before he made an appearance for the club, he had moved on to Newton Heath in April 1898. It took Cairns six months to make his debut for the Heathens, eventually playing at inside right in a 2–1 home win over Burslem Port Vale on 8 October 1898. It would turn out to be his only appearance for Newton Heath, however, and he joined Berry's Association in November 1898 before retiring from football.\n\nExternal links\nProfile at StretfordEnd.co.uk\nProfile at MUFCInfo.com\n\nAssociation football forwards\nGlossop North End A.F.C. players\nLincoln City F.C. players\nManchester United F.C. players\nYear of death missing\nYear of birth missing\nEnglish footballers"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer.",
"Why did he need another performer?",
"Following Henson's death,",
"When did Henson die?",
"Henson died twelve days after that appearance.",
"Which appearance had he had before his death?",
"The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World."
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | What else did he promote about the show? | 7 | Together with The Arsenio Hall show, what else did Henson promote about the show? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | false | [
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer",
"\"What About Us\" is a single released by British-Irish girl group the Saturdays. Their first international single, it is the lead single from their first American-only release EP, Chasing the Saturdays (2013). It also acts as the second single from their fourth studio album Living for the Weekend (2013). The single was first released in the United States and Canada on 18 December 2012 via digital download, before being released in the United Kingdom on 16 March 2013 via CD single and digital download. The single was written by Camille Purcell, Ollie Jacobs, Philip Jacobs. There are two different versions of the track which have been recorded and released: a solo version, which was released exclusively in the US and Canada, and a version featuring Jamaican rapper Sean Paul, which was released internationally. Music critics gave the song positive feedback, but questioned the heavily auto-tuned chorus and the move away from the group's traditional sound.\n\nA music video was released for the song was published and released via the Saturdays' Vevo account on 11 January 2013. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, where the band were filming their US reality series, Chasing the Saturdays, which is broadcast through E!. An acoustic version of \"Somebody Else's Life\", which can be heard on the opening titles of the show, was released as a B-side. The Saturdays went on to a promotional tour in order to get the song \"out there\" in the United States, and appeared on a number of different chat shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Jeff Probst Show, Fashion Police, Chelsea Lately and The Today Show in New York City. They later went on to a promotional tour in the UK, visiting radio stations around the country.\n\n\"What About Us\" gained commercial success, debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart to become the Saturdays' twelfth UK top 10 single and first ever number-one. In Ireland, the song debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, gaining the group their fifth top 10 single there. With first-week sales of 114,000 copies and 40,000 copies more sold than their closest competitor to number one, \"What About Us\" was the fastest-selling single of 2013 in the UK until it was overtaken by Naughty Boy's \"La La La\" two months later. In December 2013, it was announced as the eleventh fastest-selling single of the year overall. As of August 2014, the song has sold over 400,000 copies in the UK. On 23 December 2013, Mollie King posted a photo on Instagram of her holding a 500,000 sales plaque from their record label, with the message that \"What About Us\" had sold over 500,000 copies in UK and USA, with 120,000 copies in the US alone even without charting on the Billboard Hot 100.\n\nBackground \n\nIn 2012, it was announced that the Saturdays had received an offer to star in their own reality television programme, Chasing the Saturdays, broadcast through E! Network. While filming their show, the band began visiting the recording studio, where they began work with Rodney \"Darkchild\" Jerkins.\n\nThe Saturdays felt comfortable with their US labels, and thanked them for not only giving them a chance in North America, but for making them feel at ease and welcome which took a lot of \"weight of our shoulders\". The band said they have always respected the labels due to the massive success they've had with artists. The band had been working with Demi Lovato in the recording studio.\n\nComposition\n\n\"What About Us\" was written and produced by Ollie Jacobs and acts as the Saturdays first single to be released in North America where it could appear on the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100. In America its release coincided with their TV show, Chasing the Saturdays. The track is the band's fourteenth single to be released in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the track is a dance-pop song. Before the release of the song, Mollie King said that the band were excited to share the track as they had the song \"for months\" She said: \"I can't wait for everyone to hear it and to get to perform it. I'm just so excited about this one, I think it's going down really well.\" The band said they didn't want to change their type of music just for the American public and would stick to their roots and the genre they enjoyed to perform. King spoke: \"We've always made a point that we don't want to change to go to America. We wanted to go over as we are and if they like us, they like us and if they don't, they don't!\" King said that the track is reggae pop music, a little different from what band usually record, but the track is still really \"dancey\" and \"upbeat\", as well a good song to dance to on either stage or at a club. When Una Healy was asked what the song was about she said that she \"did not know\" what the song was exactly about. \"To be honest I was trying to figure out the other day what exactly it's about. I could bullshit away telling you, but I really don't know. But I think it's all about someone driving you crazy.\" She said she \"thinks\" that 'What About Us' part means \"me and you getting together\". She did point out that she did know that the song was about \"making you happy\" and that the track was good for the summer and will get you on the dancefloor. The band teased saying that \"What About Us\" is a pop track, and that is a good indication of what the expect from the album, and that they've paired up with Diane Warren to record a few ballads and not just pop tracks. \"What About Us\" is the only collaboration on the album.\n\nRelease\n\"What About Us\" was confirmed as the Saturdays' first single to be released in North America, and would be released on 18 December 2012 to coincide with their American reality show, Chasing the Saturdays. It was also revealed that the track would be released as the lead single from the band's North America released only Extended play, Chasing the Saturdays, which was named after the show. Some critics said that releasing \"What About Us\" from an EP for the US market was a \"wise decision\". One critic said: For, throwing out a traditional release on the back of a show that isn't (yet) a hit would ultimately be setting them up for failure. What's more, the EP allows their \"storyline\" for the next season of the show (should there be one) to revolve around recording an album. In the United Kingdom, it was revealed that \"What About Us\" would be the follow-up single from \"30 Days\" in the UK and Ireland, and therefore would not be the lead single from the band's fourth studio album. The band announced that before the release of the album, there would be another single release from the album. The follow-up single was revealed to be titled \"Gentleman\".\n\nJust like all the band's previous singles, the record was accepted by all A-Lists at radio stations. The UK and Ireland version of the track features a guest rap from Sean Paul. Whereas the North American version does not feature vocals from Sean Paul and only vocals from the band. The original version of the track last 3 minutes and 24 seconds, whereas the version which features Sean Paul lasts 3 minutes and 40 seconds. The single was released with B-side, an Acoustic version of a brand new track, \"Somebody Else's Life\", which is the opening theme to Chasing the Saturdays. \"What About Us\" was released as a digital download EP, and this featured the single version which features Sean Paul, the solo version and the B-side track. Upon the release in North America, there was a digital remixes EP which featured remixes of \"What About Us\" by a number of DJs including: Seamus Haji, Guy Scheiman, the Buzz Junkies and 2nd Adventure and this was also made available to purchase on 18 December 2012. While in the UK, the CD single was made available to be from stores from 18 March 2013. On the CD single featured \"What About Us\", the B-side \"Somebody Else's Life\".\n\nThe band decided to release \"What About Us\" differently between the United Kingdom and the United States, \"What About Us\" was released onto the charts without any airplay and without a music video accompanying the release, something the band experienced in the UK, with \"Notorious\". Whereas in the UK, \"What About Us\" was released with airplay and the music video being released before the release of the single. During this time, Frankie Sandford became ambassadors for mental health after Sandford battled depression. The band said they choose \"What About Us\" to be the lead single in the US and follow-up single from \"30 Days\" because they all loved it once they demoed it and it gave them a \"really good feeling\" They also said it is a fresh start for a new album, with a \"reggae vibe\", but still a pop record. The Saturdays said that Sean Paul was \"perfect\" for the UK version of the song. They said that he was \"just so nice\" and that he would be present during some of the promotional performances when the single was released.\n\nCritical reception\nRobert Copsey of Digital Spy said that Rochelle Humes asks in a \"curious Jamaican-flecked timbre\" during the intro of \"What About Us\". During the lyrics \"Oh why are we are waiting so long I'm suffocating\", and he went on to say that it is in reference to \"man-related drama\" and also pointing out that there is plenty of that on their reality series, Chasing the Saturdays. Copsey later went on to tip the band for their first number-one single as he said: \"but we suspect it could also be a sly wink at their enduring quest for a number one single\". He said that track was \"radio-friendly\" due to the \"trace beats\" and \"demanding their contrary lover to give up the hard-to-get schtick sharpish\". Although he didn't think that the song was \"original\" enough for the band, but is \"strangely addictive\" and he would be happy to see the song at the top of the charts.\n\n4Music described the song as a \"electro-pop affair with a bucket-load of synths thrown in for good measure. It's quite good, but we wonder if they should reconsider this single choice if they truly want to launch an invasion on America's charts.\" Idolator wrote a mixed review criticizing the track for lacking the group's signature style; \"While the beat is pounding enough to nab the girls a chart hit, it doesn’t feel true to the spirit of The Sats. Then again, maybe it isn’t supposed to.\" Jessica Sager from PopCrush also touched on the departure from their original sound; \"It’s a pretty big departure from their usual sugary oeuvre, but not necessarily in a bad way.\" She went on to praise Sean Paul's feature; \"His presence on the track gives it an air of authenticity and fun, but pretty much only during his own verses and interjections.\" However, she criticised the mediocre attempt at dialect the groups sing in throughout the track; \"When the Saturdays try to emulate island tones, it sounds a little awkward and they start out like that right off the bat, but go in and out of the undistinguished dialect throughout the song.\" She also felt that the heavily Auto-Tuned chorus was not need; \"The Auto-Tune seems extraneous, because the Saturdays can actually sing well without it.\" She end the review by labeling their latest effort as \"generic\" and \"not the best the Saturdays have to offer\", also rating it two and a half stars out of five.\n\nCommercial reception\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number 44 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart for the week dated 8 December 2012. This marks their first ever chart entry in the United States and it has since peaked at number twenty-seven. The song debuted at number 79 on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the highest Canadian debut for a new artist in 2013.\n\nThe Saturdays admitted that they did not want to get their hopes up on debuting at number one on the UK Singles Charts due to being beaten to number-one three times before with \"Forever Is Over\", \"Just Can't Get Enough\" and \"Missing You\", after being number one on the Official Chart Update. During the latter two occasions, it was rapper Flo Rida who had pushed them back to numbers two and three respectively. It was revealed that the Saturdays had knocked Justin Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" off the number-one spot on the UK Singles Chart. This became the band's first ever number-one single in the United Kingdom, it also became Sean Paul's second number one in the United Kingdom after being featured on \"Breathe\" in 2003. For every one copy that Timberlake's \"Mirrors\" sold, the Saturdays sold two more copies of \"What About Us\". \"What About Us\" sold 114,000 copies in the first week of release, making it, at the time, the fastest selling single of 2013. The track sold 40,000 copies more than Timberlake, who was pushed back to number-two on the UK Singles Charts. The band said they were thrilled to be the UK's number-one with \"What About Us\". They went on to thanking their fans for supporting the single and supporting them for the past five years.\n\n\"What About Us\" debuted at number six on the Irish Singles Chart, marking the band's fifth top ten single in that country. \"What About Us\" made its debut at number thirty-six on the New Zealand Singles Chart.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"What About Us\" was filmed during the summer of 2012 in Los Angeles, while the Saturdays were filming their reality television series. The North American version of the video was released via the Saturdays' official Vevo account on YouTube on 11 January 2013. A variant of the video, featuring vocals and additional scenes of the women with Sean Paul, was later released on 5 February 2013.\n\nLive performances and promotion\nThe Saturdays appeared in a number of nightclubs throughout 2012 in the United States performing \"What About Us\" along other hits. On 14 January 2013, the group made their first televised performance of the single on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was their first performance done on American television. On 16 January, the girls performed \"What About Us\" on The Today Show in New York City. Along with the performances, they appeared on chat shows such as Chelsea Lately, Daybreak, Fashion Police, Lorraine, The Jeff Probst Show, Loose Women, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Sunday Brunch and What's Cooking? to promote the single.\n\nTrack listings\nUS digital download\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\nCD Single - UK Version Only\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\nUS Digital remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Radio Edit) - 3:06\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Dub) - 6:49\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:59\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Dub) - 7:20\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit) - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\nEurope and Oceania EP - digital download\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 3:40\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49 (only available through pre-order)\n\nUK Digital Remixes EP\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\nRevamped Version\n\"What About Us\" - 3:24\n\"Somebody Else's Life\" (Acoustic) - 3:18\n\"What About Us\" (Extended Mix) - 3:49\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Radio Edit) - 4:24\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Radio Edit) - 3:58\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [The Buzz Junkies Radio Edit] - 3:23\n\"What About Us\" (featuring Sean Paul) [Seamus Haji Radio Edit] - 3:37\n\"What About Us\" (2nd Adventure Club Mix) - 6:36\n\"What About Us\" (Guy Scheiman Club Mix) - 7:35\n\"What About Us\" (The Buzz Junkies Club Mix) - 4:32\n\"What About Us\" (Seamus Haji Club Mix) - 6:35\n\nCredits and personnel\n\"What About Us\" was recorded at Rollover Studios in London.\n\nOllie Jacobs a.k.a. Art Bastian ~ Songwriter, Producer, Vocal Producer, Mix Engineer\n\nPhillip Jacobs ~ co-writer\nCamille Purcell ~ co-writer\nThe Saturdays ~ vocals\nSean Paul ~ guest vocalist\n\nCharts and certifications\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nRelease and radio history\n\nSee also\n\nList of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 2010s\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n feat. Sean Paul\n\nThe Saturdays songs\nSean Paul songs\n2012 singles\nDance-pop songs\nNumber-one singles in Scotland\nUK Singles Chart number-one singles\nSongs written by Camille Purcell\n2012 songs\nFascination Records singles\nSongs written by Ollie Jacobs"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer.",
"Why did he need another performer?",
"Following Henson's death,",
"When did Henson die?",
"Henson died twelve days after that appearance.",
"Which appearance had he had before his death?",
"The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World.",
"What else did he promote about the show?",
"I don't know."
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | What else did Jim do shortly before he died? | 8 | Aside from promoting, What else did Jim do shortly before he died? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | false | [
"Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? is a 1963 children's book published by Beginner Books and written by Helen Palmer Geisel, the first wife of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Unlike most of the Beginner Books, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday? did not follow the format of text with inline drawings, being illustrated with black-and-white photographs by Lynn Fayman, featuring a boy named Rawli Davis. It is sometimes misattributed to Dr. Seuss himself. The book's cover features a photograph of a young boy sitting at a breakfast table with a huge pile of pancakes.\n\nActivities mentioned in the book include bowling, water skiing, marching, boxing, and shooting guns with the United States Marines, and eating more spaghetti \"than anyone else has eaten before.\n\nHelen Palmer's photograph-based children's books did not prove to be as popular as the more traditional text-and-illustrations format; however, Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday received positive reviews and was listed by The New York Times as one of the best children's books of 1963. The book is currently out of print.\n\nReferences\n\n1963 children's books\nAmerican picture books",
"What Else Do You Do? (A Compilation of Quiet Music) is a various artists compilation album, released in 1990 by Shimmy Disc.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nAdapted from the What Else Do You Do? (A Compilation of Quiet Music) liner notes.\n Kramer – production, engineering\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1990 compilation albums\nAlbums produced by Kramer (musician)\nShimmy Disc compilation albums"
] |
[
"Kermit the Frog",
"Performers",
"Who does Kermit perform with?",
"Jim Henson originated the character",
"what was his performance about?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer.",
"Why did he need another performer?",
"Following Henson's death,",
"When did Henson die?",
"Henson died twelve days after that appearance.",
"Which appearance had he had before his death?",
"The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World.",
"What else did he promote about the show?",
"I don't know.",
"What else did Jim do shortly before he died?",
"He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990."
] | C_6f9a0c8a66e445508b7ca425c6dd18d9_1 | How many years had he been the performer? | 9 | How many years had Jim Henson been the performer? | Kermit the Frog | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality--was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank." He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance. Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. In 2017, Whitmire seemed to imply in a blog post that Jim Henson had asked him to assume the role before he died, though Jim's daughter Cheryl Henson claimed Brian had selected him after Jim's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. He remained Kermit's principal performer until 2016. Disney announced that Matt Vogel would be taking over as the performer and voice for Kermit on July 10, 2017. Whitmire later revealed that he had not chosen to voluntarily leave the role, but rather, had been recast by Muppet Studios in October 2016. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter later in July 2017, Whitmire elaborated he was fired for two reasons: long-term creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet-related productions. For a brief demonstration at MuppetFest (a 2001 Muppet fan convention), Muppet performer John Kennedy performed Kermit opposite Whitmire's performance of young Kermit (from Kermit's Swamp Years). Kennedy also performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, an appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo with Rowlf the Dog as part of a tribute to Jim Henson). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. CANNOTANSWER | Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 | Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, as well as in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, and then Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016. Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel from 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit's iconic look and voice have been recognizable in popular culture worldwide for many decades, and in 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of WRC-TV's Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming
The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim on the Jim Henson Company's website:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Kermit Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Mr. Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street, but Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"), and in Brazil, his name is similar: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers
Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Henson himself described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable Jim and Kermit's personalities were. Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. Henson's last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following Henson's death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him after her father's death. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit, "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy." Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". He remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio. The Walt Disney Company (owner of The Muppets Studio) cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. Vogel's first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week” YouTube video.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the 2009 D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated Saturday morning cartoon, Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Character biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he was an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings, though a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp, and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kriebel) for the first time.
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent (Dom DeLuise) noted he had talent and, thus inspired, he headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord (Orson Welles) of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Performance
Kermit the Frog is a rather simple hand-rod Muppet, and is usually controlled by one puppeteer. His creator and original performer, Jim Henson, actually built Kermit's head around the size of his own hands (later builds of Kermit have extra padding inside the head to accommodate puppeteers whose hands were smaller than Henson's). The flexibility of the material use to make Kermit means the frog can pull off a wide range of expressions. For example, with a slight adjustment of their fingers, the puppeteer can make Kermit convincingly smile, frown, or act worried.
When it came to creating Kermit's voice, Henson actually took inspiration from an impression by Stan Freberg of Marlon Brando, one that can be heard on some of Freberg's comedy records, including vocals on his versions of "Sh-Boom" and "The Night Before Christmas". Over time, however, Henson's voice for the frog would evolve into an extension of his own natural voice.
Career
Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and appeared in the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never any property of Sesame Workshop and has rarely been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from The Jim Henson Company for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of The Walt Disney Company. His first Sesame Street appearance since Disney ownership was in an Elmo's World segment in the show's 40th-season premiere on November 10, 2009. His most recent appearance was in the 2019 television special Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets
In The Muppet Show television series, Kermit was the central character, the showrunner, and the long-suffering stage manager of the theater show, trying to keep order amidst the chaos created by the other Muppets. Henson once claimed that Kermit's job on the Muppet Show was much like his own: "trying to get a bunch of crazies to actually get the job done." It was on this show that the running gag of Kermit being pursued by leading lady Miss Piggy developed.
On Muppets Tonight, Kermit was still a main character, although he was the producer rather than frontman. He appeared in many parody sketches such as NYPD Green, City Schtickers, Flippers, and The Muppet Odd Squad, as well as in the Psychiatrist's Office sketch.
Kermit also served as the mascot for The Jim Henson Company, until the sale of the Muppet characters to Disney. A Kermit puppet can be seen at the National Museum of American History.
Kermit appears in Muppet*Vision 3D, an attraction that opened in 1991 and continues to run presently at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The character was also formerly featured in the aforementioned attraction in Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California until its closure in 2014. Kermit also appeared in The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History at the Magic Kingdom from 2016 to 2020. He also appeared in two parades; Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade which ran at Disney's Hollywood Studios from 2001 to 2008 and Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade which was held during 2010 at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.
Filmography
Kermit the Frog has appeared in almost every Muppet production, as well as making guest appearances in other shows and movies.
Below is a list of his more well-known appearances:
Sam and Friends (1955–1961) (TV)
Sesame Street (1969–1990, 1996–2001, 2009) (TV)
Hey, Cinderella! (1969) (TV)
The Muppets on Puppets (1970) (TV)
The Frog Prince (1971) (TV)
The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972) (TV)
The Muppets Valentine Show (1974) (TV)
The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence (1975) (TV)
The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (TV)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977) (TV)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Muppet Babies (1984–1991) (TV)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (1986) (TV)
The Christmas Toy (1986) (TV)
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987) (TV)
The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV)
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)
The Muppets at Walt Disney World (1990) (TV)
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990) (TV)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – Appearance as Bob Cratchit
Muppet Classic Theater (1994) (Direct-to-Video) – Appearance as King Midas and the King in Rumpelstiltskin.
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) – Appearance as Captain Abraham Smollett
Muppets Tonight (1996–1998) (TV)
Muppets from Space (1999)
The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon (2001) (TV)
Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) (Direct-to-Video)
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) (TV)
Saturday Night Live (1975/76, 2004, 2011) (TV)
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and The Scarecrow
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) (cameo)
Studio DC: Almost Live (2008) (TV)
A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) (TV)
The Muppets (2011)
"30 Rock (2012) - Appearance as Himself in "My Whole Life Is Thunder"
Good Luck Charlie (2013) (TV) – Appearance as Himself in "Duncan Dream House"
Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013) (TV)
Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
The Muppets (2015–2016) (TV)
Muppet Babies (2018–present) (TV)
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) (TV)
Muppets Now (2020) (TV)
Amphibia (2020) (TV) – Appearance as the voice of Crumpet the Frog in "Swamp and Sensibility"
The Masked Singer (2021) (TV) – The Snail
Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) (TV) – Appearance as Himself and a Ghost
Cultural impact
Accolades and commemorations
Kermit was awarded an honorary doctorate of Amphibious Letters on May 19, 1996, at Southampton College, New York, where he also gave a commencement speech. He is also the only "amphibian" to have had the honor of addressing the Oxford Union. A statue of Henson and Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson's alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.
Kermit was also given the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1996. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has featured a Kermit balloon since 1977.
On November 14, 2002, Kermit the Frog received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. Kermit has two stars on the Walk of Fame, the other as a member of the collective The Muppets.
On Kermit's 50th birthday in 2005, the United States Postal Service released a set of new stamps with photos of Kermit and some of his fellow Muppets on them. The background of the stamp sheet features a photo of a silhouetted Henson sitting in a window well, with Kermit sitting in his lap looking at him.
Kermit was also the grand marshal for Michigan State University's homecoming parade in 2006.
In 2013, the original Kermit puppet from Sam and Friends was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. for display in the pop culture gallery. In 2015, the Leland Chamber of Commerce in Leland, Mississippi opened a small museum containing puppets and memorabilia dedicated to Kermit.
Kermit's legacy is also deeply entrenched in the science community. One of the famous WP-3D Orion research platforms flown by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters is named after Kermit. The other is named after Miss Piggy. In 2015, the discovery of the Costa Rican glass frog Hyalinobatrachium dianae also attracted viral media attention due to the creature's perceived resemblance to Kermit, with researcher Brian Kubicki quoted as saying "I am glad that this species has ended up getting so much international attention, and in doing so it is highlighting the amazing amphibians that are native to Costa Rica and the need to continue exploring and studying the country's amazing tropical forests".
Guest television appearances
Kermit has made numerous guest appearances on popular television shows, including co-hosting individual episodes of a number of long-running talk shows; among other television media. On April 2, 1979, Kermit guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to promote The Muppet Movie. From 1983 to 1995, the French political satire show Le Bébête Show used copies of various Muppets to parody key political figures, and Kermit renamed "Kermitterrand", embodied President François Mitterrand. On May 21, 2018, Kermit and contestant Maddie Poppe performed "Rainbow Connection" live on American Idol.
A still photo of Kermit sitting in his Director's chair with his megaphone in his hand from The Muppet Show appeared on a technical difficulties telop graphic on Metromedia owned-and-operated station KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As an April Fool's joke, Kermit hosted CNN's Larry King Live in 1994 and interviewed Hulk Hogan. Kermit was also a semi-regular during various incarnations of Hollywood Squares, with other Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch also making appearances on the original Hollywood Squares.
In 2020, Kermit appeared on Monday Night Football with other Muppets characters as it was briefly rebranded "Muppet Night Football."
On March 10, 2021, Kermit was the first celebrity to be unmasked on the fifth season of The Masked Singer, having performed in costume as "Snail".
Merchandising
Jim Henson's characters, including the Muppets, have inspired merchandise internationally, with Chris Bensch, chief curator of Rochester, New York's The Strong National Museum of Play, reporting "There seems to have been a particular craze for Kermit the Frog in Japan," likely due to the "cuteness appeal". Baby Kermit plush toys became popular in the 1980s after the success of Muppet Babies. In 1991, one year after Jim Henson died, merchandise featuring Kermit and other Muppet characters was being sold at Disney theme parks, causing Henson Associates to file a lawsuit against Disney for copyright infringement. Henson alleged that the "counterfeit merchandise" falsely indicated that the characters belonged to Disney, although the latter company had the right to exercise use of the characters due to an earlier licensing agreement. The Henson Associates highlighted a T-shirt displaying Kermit, the Disney brand, and a copyright symbol. Disney representative Erwin Okun said the lawsuit was "outrageous" and "an unfortunate break with the legacy of a fine relationship with Disney that Jim Henson left behind". Disney later acquired the Muppets, and thusly, clothes, toys and souvenirs depicting Kermit and the Muppets continued to be sold at Disney theme parks and stores.
The Leland Chamber of Commerce's small Kermit-themed museum set out to preserve some of the dolls and merchandise. In 2016, The New Zealand Herald reported a hat featuring Kermit sipping Lipton tea, associated with the "But That's None of My Business" Internet meme, became a popular seller after basketball player LeBron James drew attention for wearing one.
Kermit in Internet culture
In March 2007, Sad Kermit, an unofficial parody, was uploaded to the website YouTube, showing a store-bought Kermit puppet performing a version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt" in a style similar to Johnny Cash's famous cover version. In contrast to the real Kermit character's usual family-friendly antics, the video shows the puppet engaging in drug abuse, smoking, alcoholism, performing oral sex on Rowlf the Dog, smashing a picture of Miss Piggy (with a breast exposed) and attempting suicide. The video became an Internet meme. The Victoria Times Colonist called it an "online sensation". The Chicago Sun-Times said it "puts the high in 'Hi-ho!'" The London Free Press said "Sad Kermit is in a world of pain". The Houston Press described it as the "world's most revolting web phenomenon". SF Weekly described the unauthorized video as "ironic slandering". Clips have been featured on the Canadian television series The Hour, where host George Stroumboulopoulos speculated that the Kermit version of "Hurt" was inspired by the Cash version rather than that of Nine Inch Nails.
Kermit has also appeared in a popular meme in which he is shown sipping tea, "one used when you sassily point something out, and then slyly back away, claiming that it's not [your] business". The photo is taken from "Be More Kermit," a Lipton advertisement that aired in 2014, and was adapted into the "But That's None of My Business" meme by African American comedians on the Tumblr blog Kermit the Snitch, making appearances on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Charles Pulliam-Moore of the TV station Fusion praised "But That's None of My Business" as "a symbol for the comedic brilliance born out of black communities on the internet," but Stephanie Hayes of Bustle magazine criticized the memes as racist and obscene.
In 2016, a Good Morning America post on Twitter referred to the "But That's None of My Business" meme as "Tea Lizard", becoming the subject of viral online derision. New York magazine replied that, "Kermit is a frog. A frog is an amphibian. A lizard is a reptile. It's just so insulting. Beyond a frog and a lizard both being clearly ectothermic, they couldn't be any more different. Not all green things are the same, you ignorant bastards". Popular Science also addressed the misnomer, writing "Frogs, which are amphibians, have quite a few significant differences from reptiles in how they breathe, their life cycles, whether they have scales or not... there's a lot to absorb here".
In November 2016, a new meme surfaced of Kermit talking to a hooded version of himself which represents the self and its dark inner thoughts. It involves captioning of a screenshot taken from the Muppets Most Wanted movie of Kermit and Constantine looking at each other. In the meme, Constantine is supposed to represent a Sith Lord from Star Wars.
References
External links
Kermit the Frog's character profile at Disney.com
Kermit's commencement address at Southampton College in 1996
Birthplace of the Frog: An Exhibit of Jim Henson's Delta Boyhood
(as himself)
Kermit the Frog on IMDb
Fictional characters from Mississippi
Television characters introduced in 1955
Mascots introduced in 1955
Fictional frogs and toads
Fictional producers
Fictional reporters
Fictional singers
Fictional string musicians
Frog mascots
Television mascots
Corporate mascots
Sesame Street Muppet characters
The Muppets characters
Internet memes
Film and television memes | true | [
"Jenny Louise Hengler became Jenny Kamienski (born March 23, 1849) was a British equestrian performer Jenny Hengler at her family's Hengler's Circus. She rose to be the star performer before she moved to America in the 1880s.\n\nLife\nHengler was born in Lewes.\n\nHer parents were Mary Ann Frances ( born Sprake) and (Frederick) Charles Hengler. Her great grandfather was a circus performer as were other relatives. Her father was not a performer per se but he started the Hengler's Circus in 1847. The circus moved to the first of several permanent buildings in 1857. The first was in Liverpool and other followed over the next 15 years.\n\nShe was soon a performer and by 1857 she is recorded as appearing in a Bradford pantomime. She was renowned for the quality of her riding which was regarded as a touchstone when judging how others rode. Her beauty was also widely acknowledged. In 1871 she was on the cover of the Illustrated Newspaper.\n\nShe became the star of the London location in 1873. The following year she married Waldemar Alexander Oscar Kamienski on 6 May 1874. Her husband had been a rider with the circus since 1869 and was said to be a Polish Count. He rode and performed at Hengler's Circus under the name \"Alexander Oscar\". She never appeared again at her family's circus venues but in 1882 she performed at Hengler's International Circus in Newcastle upon Tyne.\n\nSometime in the 1880s they went to America where they had a house at Astoria, Long Island. Her husband organised horse riding at Beretta College. She was last reported in 1892 when she returned to England to attend her sister's wedding. She and her husband had three children, Walter, Albert, and Beatrice.\n\nLegacy\nA pub in Glasgow in Sauchiehall Street is named \"The Hengler's Circus\" after the family's circus. Jenny Hengler features in a number of the information boards inside.\n\nReferences\n\n1849 births\nYear of death missing\n19th-century English women\n19th-century English people\nBritish circus performers\nEnglish female equestrians\nPeople from Lewes",
"How Hollow Heart... is a 1997 album by Dead Voices on Air.\n\nThe title of the album is taken from a poem by Samuel Beckett: \"How hollow heart and full of filth thou art\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nCredits\nMark Spybey - performer, artwork, producer\nGerald Belanger - performer, engineer\nSheldon Drake - performer\nChristopher Drost - performer\nHeiki Sillaste - performer\nDesmond K. Hill - lyrics and voice (on track 1)\nChris Greene - mastering\n\nReferences\n\n1997 albums"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting"
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | Who was cast for a role? | 1 | Who was cast for a role in Om Shanti Om? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | true | [
"Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series that debuted in broadcast syndication on September 28, 1987. The series lasted for seven seasons until 1994, and was followed by four movies which were released between 1994 and 2002. The series was a follow-up to the original Star Trek series which was broadcast on NBC between 1966 and 1969, with characters from the original series appearing in The Next Generation on several occasions; a crossover movie titled Star Trek Generations was also released. The Next Generation was developed by creator Gene Roddenberry, who served as an executive producer until his death in 1991, along with Maurice Hurley, Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor. The series was filmed primarily on the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles, California.\n\nPreliminary casting began during March 1987, and the main cast was announced on May 15. The initial press release highlighted the casting of LeVar Burton, known for appearing in the miniseries Roots, as Geordi La Forge. Burton had auditioned for the role following a suggestion from executive producer Robert H. Justman, who had previously worked with him on a television movie. The only other two members of the cast mentioned were Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard and Jonathan Frakes as William Riker. Stewart was cast in the lead role after being spotted by Justman at a dramatic reading at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, the series' creator, Roddenberry, wanted a French actor and was considering the role of Data for Stewart. Both Justman and Berman campaigned for Stewart to have the role of Captain Picard, and Roddenberry relented. Frakes became Roddenberry's favorite for the role of Riker after the actor went through seven auditions for the role.\n\nThe producers sought a black actor to portray Worf, as it would make the Klingon make-up easier. Michael Dorn was cast due to his theater training and the lack of a \"street-accent\". The character was intended to appear in seven of the first thirteen episodes, but after Dorn's performance in the pilot \"Encounter at Farpoint\", this was expanded to a series regular. Roddenberry's intention for the casting of the new series was to avoid using characters similar to those that appeared in The Original Series. However, some of the elements of the characters of Riker and Deanna Troi were modeled on the characters of William Decker and Ilia, who were originally conceived for the unfilmed Star Trek: Phase II and later appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. During casting, the role of Troi was originally assigned to Denise Crosby, with Marina Sirtis cast as Security Chief Macha Hernandez. Roddenberry believed that Sirtis would be better in the role of Troi and switched the two actresses; Crosby was cast as a modified version of the security chief, called Tasha Yar. Several candidates for the main roles were later cast in guest or recurring roles, including Eric Menyuk, who was second choice for the role of Data, and Rosalind Chao, who was originally considered for Tasha Yar. Tim Russ, who was considered for the role of Geordi La Forge, had a guest role on the series and would later be cast in main cast of Star Trek: Voyager as Tuvok.\n\nCrosby left the series before the end of the first season, while Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher was dropped after season one. Diana Muldaur joined the cast as Katherine Pulaski to replace McFadden but declined a place in the main cast list, instead receiving a \"Special Appearance By\" credit on the episodes where she appeared. Muldaur left after only one season and McFadden returned in season three. Crosby reprised the role of Yar in the season three episode \"Yesterday's Enterprise\", and returned for several more episodes as Yar's half Romulan daughter Sela. Wil Wheaton left the main cast during season four, but returned for a number of episodes in season five as well as a final appearance in season seven.\n\nSeveral actors were cast in roles which recurred throughout the seven seasons on television and into the four feature films. Majel Barrett, referred to as \"The First Lady of Star Trek\" due to her marriage with Roddenberry, appeared both as the voice of Starfleet computers and as Lwaxana Troi. The part of Lwaxana was specifically created for her. She had appeared in The Original Series and two Star Trek films as Christine Chapel, and as Number One in the original pilot \"The Cage\". John de Lancie was cast as Q despite missing his first audition as it conflicted with a play he was in at the time. A second audition was arranged, where de Lancie impressed Roddenberry, who told him that \"You make my words sound better than they are.\" Colm Meaney was originally cast as an unnamed Ensign in \"Encounter at Farpoint\", but was subsequently cast as the Transporter Chief Miles O'Brien, appearing in 52 episodes in that role. Whoopi Goldberg approached the producers and asked for a role in the series, resulting in Roddenberry writing her the role of Guinan. She credits Nichelle Nichols as Uhura in The Original Series as inspiring her, saying \"when I was nine years old Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mom, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.\" She made her first appearance in the second season episode \"The Child\" and went on to appear in a total of 28 episodes plus both Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: Nemesis.\n\nCast\n = Main cast (credited) \n = Recurring cast (4+)\n = Guest cast (1-3)\nNote\n\nAlexander was played by Jon Steuer for one episode of Season 4.\n\nSee also\n\n List of Star Trek: The Original Series cast members\n List of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast members\n List of Star Trek: Voyager cast members\n List of Star Trek: Enterprise cast members\n List of Star Trek: Discovery cast members\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nBibliography\n\n \n \n\nStar Trek: The Next Generation\nCast\ncast of Next Generation",
"Baykali Ganambarr (born 30 August 1994) is an Australian actor and dancer. He received the 2018 Marcello Mastroianni Award for his role in The Nightingale and was nominated for the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the same role. He was nominated for the 2021 AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in The Furnace.\n\nAfter posting Youtube videos of himself dancing he joined Djuki Mala. While still with the group he was cast in The Nightingale which was his first acting role. In the film, which was released in August 2019, he played an Aboriginal tracker named Billy. \n\nGanambarr's older sister Rarriwuy Hick is an actress who appears in Cleverman.\n\nReferences\n\nhttps://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/qa-baykali-ganambarr-actor-dancer-25/news-story/2793fa1f089c290fcc3440ee051d9369\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\nAustralian male film actors\nIndigenous Australian male actors\nMarcello Mastroianni Award winners\n1994 births"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;"
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | What was the lead character? | 2 | What was the lead character in Om Shanti Om? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | Om Shanti | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | true | [
"Fernanda de Vasconcellos Galvez (born September 14, 1984) is a Brazilian actress and voice actress.\n\nCareer \n\nShe worked as a model starring in several TV commercials and as a dancer in SBT's Domingo Legal show before becoming an actress. Fernanda played the lead role of Betina in the 2005 season of Malhação working with actor Thiago Rodrigues. After leaving Malhação, she played an art student character named Nanda in the 2006 Rede Globo telenovela Páginas da Vida. This was her second time as Thiago Rodrigues' love interest. Fernanda Vasconcellos won the Best Newcomer Actress Award for this performance. Next, she played the lead role of Clara in the 2007 telenovela Desejo Proibido. Set in a fictional 1930s city located in Minas Gerais state, her romantic interest was a character played by Murilo Rosa.\n\nIn the 2010 telenovela Tempos Modernos, Vasconcellos again played a character romantically involved opposite actor Thiago Rodrigues, in what would be the third time in her career. She played the lead as Nelinha. Vasconcellos plays the lead role in the 2011 Rede Globo telenovela A Vida da Gente as a tennis player named Ana Fonseca. She plays one of the lead roles in the 2013 Rede Globo telenovela Sangue Bom as Malu, a college student rejected by her famous mother.\n\nFilmography\n\nTelevision\n\nCinema\n\nStage\n\nAwards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1984 births\nLiving people\nActresses from São Paulo\nBrazilian film actresses\nBrazilian stage actresses\nBrazilian telenovela actresses",
"What If is an album by former Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw, released in 1985. It was his second solo release. The album received somewhat favorable reviews. The album peaked at #87 on the Billboard 200.\n\nThe album is named after the track \"Remo's Theme (What If)\", which is the theme song for the character Remo Williams in the movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. The song was not released on a soundtrack and was first made available on What If.\n\nTrack listing\nAll words and music by Tommy Shaw, except as indicated. The track \"Friendly Advice\" was moved to the end for the reissue.\n\n \"Jealousy\" - 4:43\n \"Remo's Theme (What If)\" (Shaw, Richie Cannata) - 4:23\n \"Reach for the Bottle\" - 5:44\n \"Friendly Advice\" - 3:29\n \"This Is Not a Test\" - 3:26\n \"See Me Now\" - 3:45\n \"True Confessions\" (Shaw, Cannata) - 3:27\n \"Count on You\" - 6:09\n \"Nature of the Beast\" - 4:04\n \"Bad Times\" - 2:44\n\nPersonnel\nTommy Shaw: Guitars, Keyboards, Lead Vocals, Background Vocals\nRichie Cannata: Saxophone, Keyboards\nBrian Stanley: Bass Guitar\nSteve Holley: Drums, Percussion\nMark Marshall: Drums on \"Bad Times\"\nGary Myrick: Electric Guitar on \"Count On You\" and \"Friendly Advice\"\n\nReferences\n\n1986 albums\nTommy Shaw albums\nA&M Records albums"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;",
"What was the lead character?",
"Om Shanti"
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 3 | Are there any other interesting aspects besides the lead character about this article? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;",
"What was the lead character?",
"Om Shanti",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language."
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | What other work are they known for? | 4 | What other work besides Om Shanti Om are Shah Rukh and Padukone known for? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | false | [
"Cullen Hightower (1923 – November 27, 2008) was a well-known quotation and quip writer from the United States. He is often associated with the American conservative political movement.\n\nHightower served in the U.S. army during World War II before beginning a career in sales. He began to publish his writing upon retirement. A collection of his quotations was published as Cullen Hightower's Wit Kit. One of Hightower's most notable quotations is \"People seldom become famous for what they say until after they are famous for what they've done.\" Ironically, Hightower became famous for what he said rather than for what he did. A number of other quotes are in his obituary.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican humorists\n1923 births\n2008 deaths\nUnited States Army personnel of World War II",
"Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby are screenwriters best known for their work on Children of Men (for which they were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay) and Iron Man. Their other work includes First Snow, which was also directed by Fergus, and Cowboys & Aliens.\n\nThey are the creators and executive producers of the TV series The Expanse, which debuted on Syfy in December 2015.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nPlace of birth missing (living people)\nYear of birth missing (living people)\n21st-century American male writers\nAmerican male screenwriters\nHugo Award-winning writers\nScreenwriting duos"
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"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;",
"What was the lead character?",
"Om Shanti",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language.",
"What other work are they known for?",
"I don't know."
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | Who was another person cast for a roll? | 5 | Who was another person besides Shah Rukh and Deepika cast for a roll? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | false | [
"General elections were due to be held for the Legislative Council in Nyasaland on 28 April 1964, and would have been the first in the country under universal suffrage. However, there were no opposition candidates to either the Malawi Congress Party in the general roll seats (the Nyasaland Asian Convention had dissolved itself and declared its support for the MCP), or the Nyasaland Constitutional Party in the special roll seats, resulting in all 53 candidates winning without votes being cast.\n\nMCP leader Hastings Banda remained as Prime Minister, leading the country to independence on 6 July that year.\n\nBackground\nThe elections were announced on Radio Malawi on 17 November 1963. The constituency borders were finalised on 11 March. Candidates were nominated on 6 April.\n\nElectoral system\nThere were two voter rolls; the initial plan was for Africans and mixed-race people identifying as African to be on a general roll and for non-Africans and mixed-race people not identifying as African to be on a special roll. All people over the age of 21 who had been in Nyasaland for at least two years were given the vote, except Africans who were not from Nyasland or one of the neighbouring countries (Northern Rhodesia, Portuguese East Africa or Tanganyika). The general roll was to elect 50 members and the special roll five. The special roll created some controversy; the Nyasaland Constitutional Party opposed the inclusion of Asians on the special roll, as they would outnumber the Europeans. In late December the debate shifted to whether the special roll seats should exist at all. Ultimately the decision was made to have a general roll for Africans, Asians and mixed-race people, and a special roll for Europeans.\n\nHowever, as no census had been taken since 1946, there were no reliable estimates of population and the figure had to be extrapolated from the number of taxpayers, with the number of taxpayers (which was limited to men over the age of 25) was doubled and another 25% added to account for tax evaders; the total figure arrived at was roughly 1.5 million. Voter registration took place between 30 December and 19 January 1963, in which 1,871,170 people registered for the general roll and 814 for the special roll. With so few people registering for the special role, Minister for Transport and Communications Colin Cameron campaigned for the abolition of the special roll, writing to every European resident in the country. The final decision of the Secretary of State was to reduce the number of special roll seats to three. Another brief period of registration was allowed between 24 and 29 February for Europeans who had missed out on registering for the special roll. However, the 620 people that registered in this period were added to the general roll. This gave a total of 1,871,790 people registered on the general roll.\n\nCampaign\nDuring a mass meeting on an airfield between Cholo and Mlanje on 15 March, Banda announced that he had chosen 50 candidates to represent the party in the elections, of which 49 were men and one a woman, and that the party would not contest the special roll seats. The Nyasaland Constitutional Party candidates were announced a few days later. Following Banda's announcement, the MCP worked to ensure it would face no opposition in the elections, and in late March, the only party opposed to the MCP, Mbadwa, announced that it would not run.\n\nResults\n\nReferences\n\nNyasaland\n1964 in Malawi\nElections in Malawi\nUncontested elections\nNyasaland\nApril 1964 events in Africa",
"The 2021 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election was held on January 3, 2021, on the opening day of the 117th United States Congress, two months after the 2020 elections for the United States House of Representatives. This was the 127th speaker of the House of Representatives election since the office was created in 1789. \n\nThe incumbent speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, was elected to a fourth (second consecutive) term, defeating Republican Kevin McCarthy 216–209, with two votes going to other individuals. As only 427 representatives in the 435-member House cast a vote (due to vacancies, absentees, or members voting present), 214 votes were necessary in order to win.\n\n\n\nProcess and conventions\nThe speaker of the United States House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The House elects its speaker at the beginning of a new Congress (i.e. , after a general election) or when a speaker dies, resigns or is removed from the position intra-term. Since 1839, the House has elected speakers by roll call vote. Traditionally, each party's caucus or conference selects a candidate for the speakership from among its senior leaders prior to the roll call. Representatives are not restricted to voting for the candidate nominated by their party, but generally do, as the outcome of the election effectively determines which party has the majority and consequently will organize the House. Representatives that choose to vote for someone other than their party's nominated candidate usually vote for another member within the party or vote \"present\".\n\nMoreover, as the Constitution does not explicitly state that the speaker must be an incumbent member of the House, it is permissible for representatives to vote for someone who is not a member of the House at the time, and non-members have received a few votes in various speaker elections over the past several years. Nevertheless, every person elected speaker has been a member.\n\nTo be elected speaker a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast, as opposed to an absolute majority of the full membership of the Housepresently 218 votes, in a House of 435. There have only been a few instances during the past century where a person received a majority of the votes cast, and thus won the election, while failing to obtain a majority of the full membership. It happened most recently in January 2015 (114th Congress), when John Boehner was elected with 216 votes (as opposed to 218). Such a variation in the number of votes necessary to win a given election might arise due to vacancies, absentees, or members being present but not voting. If no candidate wins a majority of the \"votes cast for a person by name,\" then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected. Multiple roll calls have been necessary only 14 times since 1789; and not since 1923 (68th Congress), when a closely divided House needed nine ballots to elect Frederick H. Gillett speaker. Upon winning election the new speaker is immediately sworn in by the Dean of the United States House of Representatives, the chamber's longest-serving member.\n\nDemocratic Party\n\nCandidates\n Nancy Pelosi, incumbent speaker of the House, former Minority Leader, and current representative from California's 12th congressional district.\n\nResults\nOn November 17, 2020, Pelosi was nominated by voice vote without opposition.\n\nRepublican Party\n\nCandidates\n Kevin McCarthy, incumbent House Minority Leader, former House Majority Leader, and current representative from California's 23rd congressional district.\n\nResults \nOn November 17, 2020, McCarthy was nominated by voice vote without opposition.\n\nElection of speaker \nThe election for speaker took place on January 3, 2021, at the start of the 117th Congress. In a break with tradition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all House members-elect did not gather together in the chamber to vote and record their presence, but rather, were summoned to the chambers in seven groups of about 72 persons. Three members-elect were absent from the proceedings, and two seats were vacant at the time. Nancy Pelosi received a narrow majority of the 427 votes cast and was re-elected speaker; three persons answered present when their names were called.\n\nRepresentatives voting for someone other than their party's speaker nominee were:\n Conor Lamb, who voted for Hakeem Jeffries;\n Jared Golden, who voted for U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, who was not a member of the House at the time.\n\nAnswering present were Democrats Mikie Sherrill, Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger. Representatives absent were Democrat Alcee Hastings and Republicans Maria Elvira Salazar and David Valadao.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nSpeaker of the House election\nSpeaker\nSpeaker of the House election\nSpeaker of the House election\nNancy Pelosi\n2021"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;",
"What was the lead character?",
"Om Shanti",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language.",
"What other work are they known for?",
"I don't know.",
"Who was another person cast for a roll?",
"Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party."
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | What was were they approached about? | 6 | What was Rampal approached about? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | true | [
"Fikremariam (unknown - 1937) was an Ethiopian commander and a patriot.\n\nBiography\nFikremariam was from Menz, an Amhara region of Shewa Province.\n\nIn 1930, during Gugsa Welle's Rebellion, Fitawrari Fikremariam fought on the side of Negus Tafari Makonnen. On 31 March, during the Battle of Anchem, Fikremariam commanded the left wing of the Imperial Army. The men in his command were from Wollo Province.\n\nIn 1936, during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Fitawrari Fikremariam commanded the Guard of Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen Tafari in Dessie. In addition, he commanded the Shewan garrison. But, when Emperor Haile Selassie and what was left of the retreating Imperial Army approached Dessie after the Battle of Maychew, they were told that the Eritreans had already occupied the city. In addition, the Emperor was told that, on 14 April, the Crown Prince had fled without a shot being fired.\n\nFrom about May 1936 to about October 1937, during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, Fikremariam fought as an Arbegnoch until his death.\n\nSee also\n Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles\n Ethiopian Order of Battle Second Italo-Abyssinian War\n\nNotes \nFootnotes\n\nCitations\n\nReferences\n \n \n \n\nEthiopian military personnel\nYear of birth uncertain\n1937 deaths",
"The Secret Life of Damian Spinelli is a 2011 novel written by Carolyn Hennesy. The novel is a tie-in to the television soap-opera General Hospital, as the writing and publication was featured in the series.\n\nBackground\nThe writing of The Secret Life of Damian Spinelli was a storyline on General Hospital, during late 2010 and early 2011. The story featured Damian Spinelli, enlisting Diane Miller to help him write a novel based on his private investigator persona. In January 2011, it was announced that the book would be published.\n\nThe book was written by Carolyn Hennesy, who is known for her Pandora book series, and portrays Diane Miller on General Hospital. The book was released on April 5, 2011 which coincided with the series' 48th anniversary. Hennesy said of the book's connection to film noir, \"It's not just a nod: it's a whole interpretive dance. When I was approached to write the book from Damian Spinelli's point of view, I was able to incorporate my intense love of film noir and noir fiction. Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Orson Welles -- you name it! That combines so well with Spinellis' alter ego, which is right out of \"The Third Man\" and \"Key Largo\". That was just a fortuitous blessing.\"\n\nHennesy spoke about being approached to write the novel during an interview with Xfinity, \"About a year and a half ago Jill Farren Phelps approached me and said that all the higher ups at ABC and the publishing house, Hyperion, and Disney and because of the Pandora series they knew that I was already a published author. So they’re the ones who actually approached me, would I like to write a fictionalized account of all the characters in Port Charles from Spinelli’s point of view. I don’t think I actually have the imagination to pitch the idea to them. They came to me and it took off from there.\"\n\nHennesy has talked about what it was like to write the novel, \"At one point I stopped and said, 'I didn't write that.' In the book, I wrote 'cheesy grits'. Believe me, there's a difference. I've eaten my way through Georgia on book tours here, so yes, it was important to get that correct. We write what we know. Thank you, Atlanta! Because I am a published author, it was a tiny stroke of genius to have the actress playing the character write the book too. For months, I walked up to my 'General Hospital' co-workers in the make up room and whispered, 'You know, I'm writing a chapter about you in the book.' I actually walked up to Jane Elliot [who plays wealthy Tracy Quartermaine] and said, 'Would you mind acting out a scene for me as Tracy in an opium den?' She loved it!\"\"\n\nPlot\nThe Secret Life of Damian Spinelli follows the adventures of private investigator, Damian Spinelli, as he attempts to solve several cases around Port Charles.\n\nPublisher's Note\nRoughly one year ago, the following manuscript appeared at our offices in a manila envelope bearing no return address. A note inside simply read \"No one fires me and gets away with it. From the files of Ms. High-and Mighty Diane Miller. Publish it...and blow the lid off Port Charles.\"\n\nReception\nThe Secret Life of Damian Spinelli received primarily mixed reviews from critics. A more positive review noted that, \"Each tale is filled with amusing language and over the top scenarios fans of GH can certainly picture Spinelli getting into but with a Sam Spade-like flair.\n\nThe novel achieved New York Times Best Seller status.\n\nReferences\n\nGeneral Hospital\n2011 American novels\nNovels set in hospitals\nHyperion Books books"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;",
"What was the lead character?",
"Om Shanti",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language.",
"What other work are they known for?",
"I don't know.",
"Who was another person cast for a roll?",
"Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party.",
"What was were they approached about?",
"Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was \"too evil\" for someone like him."
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | Did he ever agree to do the role? | 7 | Did Rampal ever agree to do the role? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | He agreed to do the role. | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | true | [
"\"The Helmsman\" (German: \"Der Steuermann\") is a short story by Franz Kafka, written sometime between 1917 and 1923. The story deals with a man who is deposed from his role as a helmsman and complains that his shipmates refuse to help him regain his rightful position.\n\nPlot summary\nThe story begins with a struggle between the helmsman, who narrates, and a stranger who refuses to accept his position, takes over the helm and drives the narrator away. The helmsman goes to his shipmates to complain and get their help, but, although they agree that he is the true helmsman, they seem to be hypnotized by the stranger, and do nothing to drive him away. When the stranger tells them not to disturb him, they withdraw, leaving the narrator to wonder, \"What kind of people are these? Do they ever think, or do they only shuffle pointlessly over the earth?\"\n\nThe story was not published in Kafka's lifetime. It first appeared in Beschreibung eines Kampfes (Prague: Verlag Heinrich Mercy Sohn, 1936). An English translation by Tania and James Stern was first published in Description of a Struggle (New York: Schocken Books, 1958).\n\nA comic-book adaptation of the story, illustrated by Peter Kuper, is included in Give It Up!.\n\nExternal links\n \n\nShort stories by Franz Kafka",
"A consensus–expectations gap is a gap between what a group of decision-makers are expected to agree on, and what they are actually able to agree on. The expression was first used by Asle Toje in the book The European Union as a small power : after the post-Cold War. The term owes to Christopher Hill's capability–expectations gap between what the European Communities had been talked up to do and what the collective was actually able to deliver. Hill saw the capability–expectations gap as having three primary components, namely, the ability to agree, resource availability and the instruments at its disposal. The 'consensus–expectations gap' focuses on one of Hill's variables: the ability to agree.\n\nReferences\n\nDecision-making\nEuropean Union"
] |
[
"Om Shanti Om",
"Casting",
"Who was cast for a role?",
"Shah Rukh was cast as the lead;",
"What was the lead character?",
"Om Shanti",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language.",
"What other work are they known for?",
"I don't know.",
"Who was another person cast for a roll?",
"Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party.",
"What was were they approached about?",
"Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was \"too evil\" for someone like him.",
"Did he ever agree to do the role?",
"He agreed to do the role."
] | C_68a7ed5781ac4c04aaaa3f72ea29c491_1 | Anyone else cast in an important role? | 8 | Anyone else besides Shah Rukh, Padukone and Rampal cast in an important role? | Om Shanti Om | Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film". Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him." In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan amd Shah Rukh at the latter's New Years Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role. Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Par's (2007) pending editing. Khan hsd wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch. CANNOTANSWER | Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. | Om Shanti Om is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic satirical fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Farah Khan and co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. Spanning three decades, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Om, a junior artist in 1977 who has a crush on a secretly-married superstar, played by Deepika Padukone in her Hindi film debut. Her lover, a producer played by Arjun Rampal, kills her in a fire; Om witnesses this and dies from the injuries sustained from trying to rescue her. Reincarnated as a superstar in 2007, he seeks to avenge his love. The film also starred Shreyas Talpade, Kirron Kher, Nitesh Pandey, Yuvika Chaudhary, Asawari Joshi, Bindu Desai and Javed Sheikh feature in supporting roles, and saw cameos from many Bollywood celebrities in several sequences and songs.
Om Shanti Om was produced and presented by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment on a budget of 30 crore. Farah conceived the film while directing the musical Bombay Dreams (2002), which was based on the Indian film industry. After Shah Rukh rejected the first version of her next film Happy New Year, she was reminded of Om Shanti Om; the film's title derives from a similar titled popular song from the 1980 film Karz. The soundtrack album was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. The background score was performed by Sandeep Chowta. The album received positive reviews and was also commercially successful, becoming the highest-selling album of the year in India.
The film was theatrically released in India on 9 November 2007 during Diwali weekend, Om Shanti Om earned over ₹149 crore worldwide becoming the highest grossing Bollywood film of the year; it received positive reviews, with praise for the performances and the film's soundtrack and narrative. The film won several awards in major Indian film award ceremonies. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, it received a leading 12 nominations, winning for Best Female Debut and Best Special Effects, and also won the National Film Award for Best Production Design.
Plot
1977
Om Prakash "Omi" Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a poor junior film artist living with his mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) and friend Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) in a small Mumbai chawl. He is in love with a popular film actress Shantipriya "Shanti" Kashyap (Deepika Padukone) as he takes small acting roles in Bollywood at the R.C. Studios owned by popular film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). One day, during the shooting of a film, a fire breaks out on the shooting set trapping Shanti but Omi rescues her and they become friends. Days later, Omi ends up overhearing Shanti and Mukesh's conversation and is shocked to discover that they have been married for 2 years but Mukesh refuses to reveal this in public as it will ruin both their careers. Shanti reveals that she is also pregnant with Mukesh's child, leaving Omi heartbroken. One night, Omi comes to the shooting set of an upcoming film Om Shanti Om where Shanti is but he goes from there on overseeing her with Mukesh. However, Mukesh reveals to Shanti that he has decided to burn her in the shooting set as revealing his marriage and her pregnancy will ruin his career. Saying this, he puts the shooting set on fire and locks a horrified Shanti in it. When Omi spots her in the fire, he attempts to go and rescue her but is attacked by Mukesh's guards, leaving him severely injured. He is then thrown out of the shooting set by a big explosion. As it explodes with Shanti in it, Omi staggers on the road and gets hit by a car driven by actor Rajesh Kapoor (Jawed Sheikh) who is taking his pregnant wife Lovely Kapoor (Asavari Joshi) to the hospital as she is under labour. Both Omi and Lovely are hospitalised by Rajesh where Omi dies from his serious injuries while reminiscing about Shanti. However, he is reborn on the same night in the same hospital as Rajesh and Lovely's son Om Kapoor.
2007
Om "OK" Kapoor (Shah Rukh Khan) is a popular film actor in Bollywood who lives a luxurious life and often comes across but ignores Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher) who believes him for her own son. His successful career eventually takes him to the abandoned and ruined R.C. Studios where he experiences unsettling flashbacks of his previous life. Later, when he is nominated as Filmfare Award for Best Actor, he gives the same emotional speech which he had given in his previous life. An elderly Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) watches him on TV and realises that he is lookalike Omi. During a party, OK remembers his previous life after he sees Mukesh "Mike" Mehra. That night, he traces Bela and Pappu to their house and has an emotional reunion with him. The three plan to avenge Shanti's murder by making Mukesh confess his crime and they audition several film actresses to find Shanti's look-alike but in vain. However, Om ends up coming across a junior film artist Sandhya "Sandy" Bansal (Deepika Padukone) who is an exact doppelgänger of Shanti. Sandy promises OK that she will try to help him according to his plan. OK convinces Mukesh to restart the shooting of Om Shanti Om on the same ruined R.C. Studios. Throughout the shooting of the film, OK and Pappu make Sandy dress as Shanti and arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime and make him think that Shanti's ghost is haunting him. However, supernatural events also occur on the shooting set which disturb Mukesh, much to the confusion of OK. During the music launch of Om Shanti Om, OK performs Shanti's life story through a song which shocks Mukesh who, however, discovers that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost as her body bleeds due to a small accident. He attempts to chase her but is knocked unconscious by a falling chandelier. When he regains consciousness, Mukesh is confronted by OK but he tells him that he has discovered that Sandy is not Shanti's ghost and he taunts him that there is no proof of Shanti's murder. Sandy then reaches the scene and reveals that after the fire had burned the shooting set, Mukesh had returned to Shanti who was still alive and breathing but he buried her alive below a chandelier. She tells that Shanti's dead body will be found below the chandelier which will be a proof of her murder to the court. As both OK and Mukesh wonder how Sandy knows this, Mukesh attempts to shoot her to death but OK stops him and attacks him which results in fire breaking out on the shooting set. OK fights against Mukesh but Sandy stops him and tells him that he will die but not at his hands. She then looks at the chandelier and it falls down on Mukesh, killing him. Eventually, OK is shocked when "another Sandy" reaches the scene along with Pappu to help him. As he glances back at the one in front of him, he realises that the "Sandy" who had revealed Shanti's murder proof and had killed Mukesh was actually Shanti's ghost, and she was responsible for the supernatural events occurring on the shooting set. OK waves goodbye to Shanti who tearfully smiles at him and disappears as she finally finds peace. The film ends with all its cast and crew approaching the shooting set of Om Shanti Om and the credits roll.
Cast
Shah Rukh Khan as Om Makhija / Om Kapoor (dual role)
Deepika Padukone as Shanti Kashyap / Sandy Bansal (dual role)
Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra
Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor (Om Kapoor's father)
Asavari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor (Om Kapoor's mother)
Nitesh Pandey as Anwar Sheikh Mohammad (Om Kapoor's assistant)
Bindu Desai as Kamini Arora (Dolly's mother)
Nasser Abdullah as Rajesh Kapoor's secretary
Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly Arora (Om Kapoor's friend)
Shawar Ali as Himself
Lin Laishram as Om Kapoor's friend
Cameo appearance
Amitabh Bachchan as Himself
Anil Kapoor as Himself
Jackie Shroff as Himself
Uday Chopra as Himself
Abhishek Bachchan as Himself
Akshay Kumar as Himself
Ameesha Patel as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Dia Mirza as Om Kapoor's co-actress in a film at Filmfare Awards
Farah Khan as the woman who makes fun of Omi when the show ends
Feroz Khan as Himself
Gauri Khan as Herself
Karan Johar as Himself
Malaika Arora as Herself
Vishal Dadlani as the director of Mohabbat Man, a superhero film
Manikandan Velayutham as the director of Mind It, a parody of action films
Priya Patil as Natasha, heroine of Apahij Pyar
Rakesh Roshan as Himself
Rishi Kapoor as the special host of Filmfare Awards who gives the award to Om Kapoor
Shabana Azmi as Herself
Subhash Ghai as Himself while shooting his iconic film Karz
Yash Chopra as Himself
Special appearance during the "Deewangi Deewangi" song (in order of appearance)
Rani Mukerji
Zayed Khan
Vidya Balan
Jeetendra
Tusshar Kapoor
Priyanka Chopra
Shilpa Shetty
Dharmendra
Shabana Azmi
Urmila Matondkar
Karishma Kapoor
Arbaaz Khan
Malaika Arora Khan
Dino Morea
Amrita Arora
Juhi Chawla
Aftab Shivdasani
Tabu Hashmi
Govinda Ahuja
Mithun Chakraborty
Kajol
Bobby Deol
Preity Zinta
Rekha
Riteish Deshmukh
Salman Khan
Saif Ali Khan
Sanjay Dutt
Lara Dutta
Suniel Shetty
Production
Development
In 2002, Farah Khan worked as a choreographer for the musical Bombay Dreams in London, which she felt presented a "clichéd and outdated version" of the Indian film industry. She thought that the musical would not be successful if released in India. She instead thought of a new story, writing her initial thoughts about the subject on Andrew Lloyd Webber's letterhead while staying in his house. Later in 2006, Farah began to work on her next project, which was tentatively titled Happy New Year. Amid speculations that Shah Rukh Khan would star in Happy New Year, the actor rejected the first draft of the film, upon which Farah's husband and editor Shirish Kunder reminded her of the story she had conceived while in London. Happy New Year, which was to mark Deepika Padukone's Hindi debut, was put on hiatus and revived more than 8 years later under the same title.
Farah completed writing the first script of Om Shanti Om within two weeks. She set the first half in the 1970s as she felt the Hindi films made during that period were much more influential than those made in other periods, particularly the 1980s, which she felt was a period when "the worst movies were made". She also included many references to the 1970s, which were also prevalent in films of that time. She said, "Everything in the first half is about the 70ssuch as the mother who overacts, mouthing clichéd dialogues. Then there are cabarets, badminton and other stuff popular during that era." Shah Rukh's costumes were designed by Karan Johar, while Manish Malhotra designed Padukone's costumes. The rest of the cast had their costumes designed by Sanjeev Mulchadni.
In addition to directing the film, Farah co-wrote the story with Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh. She was also the film's choreographer. Puri wrote the screenplay and dialogues. He completed the writing process in two months and rewrote the film's second half. Puri created the screenplay by writing his natural reaction to the characters as scenarios. He knew that despite being part of a crowd, junior artists do not want to be recognised as such, ruins their chances of landing a leading role in future. This was used in a sequence involving Shah Rukh and Talpade, who play junior artists. Puri blended different genres together in Om Shanti Om, which he felt was challenging. He used his personal memories from childhood for creating the 1970s. Shirish Kunder was the editor, while V. Manikandan was the cinematographer.
Sabu Cyril was the film's production designer. Sabu was first offered the Mani Ratnam-directed Guru (2007) at a time when Om Shanti Om was being planned, but ultimately chosen the latter due to his earlier commitment to Farah for her future project. Farah used two particular dialogues in the film: "When you want something badly, the whole universe conspires to give to you" and "In the end everything will be ok and if its not ok its not the end". These were used as Khan felt that it reflected her philosophy in her life. Farah stated that the film's opening scene was her most favourite in it. In 2008, Puri felt his most favourite dialogue from the ones he wrote would be the Filmfare Awards speech. The film's title derives from the eponymous song from the film Karz (1980). Om is a Hindu mantra; Om Shanti Om roughly translates to "Peace Be With You".
The film opens with the grandeur shot of the most famous songs of Karz that is Om Shanti Om featuring Rishi Kapoor and SRK as junior artist standing in the crowd.
Casting
Shah Rukh was cast as the lead; he gained six packs for a song sequence. He felt Om Shanti Om was a "happy film".
Farah was advised by Malaika Arora to cast Padukone as the female lead, who was suggested by Wendell Roddick, under whom Padukone was working. She was cast without a screen test. Khan felt that she was "a beautiful, classic Indian beauty" who fit the role of an actor of the 1970s. She was excited at the prospect of working with Shah Rukh and said, "I've grown up watching [Shah Rukh] and always admired him so much. To get to work with him ... is quite wonderful. It was also fantastic that Farah showed faith in my talent and cast me opposite him."
In preparation for her role, Padukone watched several films of actresses Helen and Hema Malini to study their body language. Her character was modelled after Malini and nicknamed Dreamy Girl after her the latter's nickname as Dream Girl. Rampal was approached by both Khan and Shah Rukh at the latter's New Year's Eve party. Rampal was initially reluctant to do the role as he felt it was "too evil" for someone like him. With persuasion from Shah Rukh, he agreed. Rampal wore a mustache in the film which was suggested by Shah Rukh. Shreyas Talpade played a supporting role as the best friend of Khan's character. After the release of Iqbal (2005) and completing the filming of Dor, Talpade, who attended the same gym as Khan, was called for a narration of what would be Om Shanti Om. He agreed to do the role.
Kirron Kher, Bindu and Javed Sheikh also appear in the film. 31 Bollywood film actors appeared in cameo appearances for the song "Deewangi Deewangi". Other actors were also supposed to play cameos, including Fardeen Khan, who was arrested at Dubai airport in a drug case. Dev Anand refused as he always played lead roles in his career. Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu didn't appear in the song, despite plans to include them. Amitabh Bachchan refused due to his son's wedding, while Aamir Khan refused due to Taare Zameen Pars (2007) pending editing. Khan had wanted the three Khans to appear together in a film. Rekha, who appears in the song, carried out 2 days of rehearsal for it. All those who appeared for the song received gifts, including a Blackberry phone and a Tag Heuer watch.
Principal photography
Om Shanti Om was made on a budget of ₹40 crore. The first scene to be filmed was one where Talpade's character tells Shah Rukh's character that he will be a hero; Shah Rukh was an hour late for filming. Farah was pregnant with triplets while filming and experienced difficulties while shooting, she would constantly vomit while directing the film. The film was shot entirely in sync sound; Farah dismissed rumours of Padukone's voice being dubbed. In 2015, however, Mona Ghosh Shetty admitted to have dubbed for Padukone in the film. The fake fight scene involving a stuffed tiger was inspired by a similar scene in the film Tarzan 303. Old cars owned by actors Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini were used for filming for authenticity.
A number of references to real life was also filmed, including a scene in which Om saves Shantipriya from a fire, which was a spoof of Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis from a fire on the sets of Mother India (1957). For a shot involving a Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khan stood on the red carpet of an actual Filmfare Award ceremony and requested actors to dictate dialogues as she stated. The song "Deewangi Deewangi" was shot over a period of six days. The song "Dhoom Taana" has digitally altered guest appearances, which included Sunil Dutt from Amrapali (1966), Rajesh Khanna from Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Jeetendra from Jay Vejay (1977). Farah wanted to film Shakira for filming a special appearance had made her commit a few days for the role. Due to the uncertainty of her dates, the idea was scrapped.
In February 2007, a filming schedule was completed in Film City. It was then reported that filming would move outdoors after Shah Rukh completed filming for Kaun Banega Crorepati. In October 2007, Abhishek Bachchan finished filming for his cameo appearance; he shot between 10 and 2 in the night for his screen time of about one and a half minutes. Filming of the last sequence and the end-credit song was done in Film City. Farah continued the tradition of featuring an end-credits song beginning with Main Hoon Na (2004).
Om Shanti Om was produced by Shah Rukh's wife Gauri Khan under their Red Chillies Entertainment banner. While Marching Ants handled the publicity design, Gauri was the presenter. Shyam Kaushal, Amar Shetty and Shah Rukh were the action directors. The film's final reel length was 4013.94 ft (1223.45 m).
Music
Initially, A. R. Rahman was signed in to compose original songs and background score for the film but he opted out after disagreements with T-Series as he wanted them to share the copyrights of music between him and the lyricist. The film score was composed by Sandeep Chowta while the original songs featured in Om Shanti Om were composed by the duo Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. One song was composed by Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. The vocals are provided by KK, Sukhwinder Singh, Marianne, Nisha, Caralisa Monteiro, Shaan, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahul Saxena, Sonu Nigam, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Richa Sharma, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, DJ Aqeel, DJ G, Kiran Karnath, Jackie V, Nikhil Chinapa, DJ Nawed and Zoheb. They intended the soundtrack to be a tribute to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, while appealing to newer audiences at the same time. Trade reports predicted the album to be commercially successful. The soundtrack album of Om Shanti Om was released on 15 August 2007 on CD.
Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo guest composed the title Dhoom Taana. He had stopped composing after the death of his partner Laxmikant, but after Farah Khan requested a song as tribute to the music of the 70s and the 80s, he agreed at the insistence of his wife and daughter. The song was recorded with a 150-member-orchestra and traditional instruments like drums, tabla, dholak and dafli, a trademark of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He used more than 40 different percussion instruments.
In a soundtrack review, Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and opines, "Om Shanti Om is easily one of the most complete scores by Vishal-Shekhar and Javed Akhtar." Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com also gave it four stars out of five, applauding the tracks but criticised the "Dark Side" mix. She concludes her review by writing, "Om Shanti Om is an out-and-out musical that captivates with its roaring polyphony and unabashed drama." Aakash Gandhi of Planet Bollywood gave a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10 and writes, "not only have [Vishal–Shekhar] proven themselves in terms of musical ingenuity and quality, they have shown us the confidence, the poise, and the ability to step up to the plate and hit a grand-slam when they’re called upon to do so." He further gave them a "standing ovation". Writing for AllMusic, Bhaskar Gupta gave the album 4.5 stars out of five and praises the composers, writing, "Vishal-Shekhar finally delivered a soundtrack that could be deemed their signature offering."
Vishal–Shekhar was nominated for the Best Music Director at the 53rd Filmfare Awards, Producers Guild Awards 2008 and Zee Cine Awards 2008, winning for Best Composer at the 2nd Asian Film Awards. Vishal Dadlani was alone nominated for Best Lyrics for "Ajab Si" at the Filmfare and Producers Film Guild award ceremonies. Akhtar was nominated for Best Lyrics at the Filmfare and Zee Cine awards, winning at the 9th IIFA Awards for "Main Agar Kahoon". It was the highest-selling music album of the year in India, with sales of around 2 million units.
Release
Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release. Om Shanti Om set another record for registered pre-advance booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theatres in Delhi a few days before the advance booking was to start. A special screening was conducted for Bollywood actors. Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs. 720–750 million. Baba Films, a production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs. 110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory. As a marketing strategy, Amul advertised Shah Rukh.
Nina Davuluri's talent for Miss America 2014 was a Hindi Film fusion dance choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan and performed to Dhoom Taana. It was the first time Hindi Film ever appeared on the Miss America stage and Davuluri is the first Indian American to win the competition. Om Shanti Om was remade into a Japanese musical titled Oomu Shanti Oumu. A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om written by Mushtaq Sheikh, was released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight into the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.
Controversy
One of the leading actors of the film, Manoj Kumar planned to sue the makers of Om Shanti Om for showing his body double in bad taste. Kumar added, "Are the Mumbai police so stupid that they can't recognise Manoj Kumar and lathicharge him in the '70s when he was a star?". Kumar also alleged that Shahrukh Khan is communal. Later, in a press conference, Shahrukh Khan and director Farah Khan accepted their mistake and apologised for the matter. Farah Khan even offered to cut the scene which Manoj Kumar felt was hurtful, but Kumar refused on grounds that, as Farah had stated, "I [Farah Khan] am like his daughter. He said, 'Betiyaan maafi nahi maangti' (Daughters don't ask for forgiveness). I told him that he could've called me and scolded me." Later, Kumar said that though this incident was hurtful to him, he wishes to forgive, ignore, and move on, saying that he prefers to "see Ram in everyone and ignore the Ravana."
In 2008, before the film's television premiere on Sony TV, Manoj Kumar filed for a stay on the television release, at civil court in Mumbai. On 8 August 2008, he won permanent injunction on the scenes in Om Shanti Om that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on the channel on 10 August 2008. It also ordered that the film could not be shown in any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted.
Plagiarism allegations
On 7 August 2008, before its television release, scriptwriter Ajay Monga moved the Bombay High Court alleging that the basic storyline of the film was lifted from a film script he had emailed to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. According to the petition, "Monga, along with one more writer Hemant Hegde, had registered the script with the Cine Writers Association (CWA) in September 2005. In January 2008, Cine Writers Association (CWA) rejected Monga's appeal at a special Executive Committee meeting. Thereafter, he approached the court to stay the film's screening on television. Though, on 6 August the court rejected Monga's plea for seeking a stay on the television telecast, it directed all the respondents including Shahrukh Khan, Farah Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment, Gauri Khan (director Red Chillies) and film's co-writer Mushtaq Sheikh, to file their say by the next hearing on 29 September 2008. In November 2008, the Film Writers' association sent a communication to Red Chillies and Ajay Monga that it had found similarities in Om Shanti Om and Monga's script. The similarities were more than mere coincidences according to Sooni Taraporewala who chaired a special committee that has investigated the case on behalf of the Film Writers' association.
Another allegation of plagiarism came from Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of late Bimal Roy, who directed Madhumati (1958). She threatened legal action against Red Chillies Entertainment and the producer-director of Om Shanti Om, as she felt that the film's second half was similar to Madhumati, also a rebirth saga.
Reception
Critical response
India
Om Shanti Om was received positively by Indian film critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it four stars out of five and writes, "Om Shanti Om is Bollywood masala in its truest form and also, at its best" but notes, "the second half could've been crisper". Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times gave the film four stars out of five and appreciated the performances, observing how Rampal is "consistently first-rate as the suave villain" while Padukone is "fantastic, so surprisingly assured that you marvel at her poised debut". He notes that "the enterprise belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, who tackles comedy, high drama and action with his signature stylespontaneous and intuitively intelligent. Six-pack or no-packs, he's the entertainer of the year in this valentine to the movies."
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film three and a half stars out of five and writes, "Farah Khan's re-birth saga literally makes an art of retro and paints the seventies pop culture in Andy Warholish strokes". She called it an "unabashed tribute" to Karz. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three and a half stars out of five and applauded the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade. He writes, "Om Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity." He criticised the dialogues and excessive cameos in the film.
Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave the film three stars out of five and writes, "Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment." He compliments the dialogues "which so cleverly incorporates Bollywood's oldest clichés into these characters' everyday parlance." A commentator for Indo-Asian News Service felt that Shah Rukh's acting was repetitive and writes, "He needs to curtail his unwarranted superstar mannerisms even in a total masala film like Om Shanti Om", while complimenting the performances of Padukone, Rampal and Talpade.
Sudish Kamnath of The Hindu stated that the film is "an unabashed celebration of willing suspension of disbelief, calling it a "light-hearted tribute to Hindi cinema the way we know it and love it". He praised the performances of Shah Rukh, Padukone and Talpade, while criticising Rampal and Kher. He also praised the various spoofs, especially the ones directed at Manoj Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Abhishek Bachchan. Writing for SantaBanta.com, Subhash K. Jha gave it one star out of five and criticised the spoofs "which keeps swinging from homage to imitation with infuriating artifice", writing, "The mood is one of patronizing and condescension rather than genuine admiration for an era that's gone with the wind".
Overseas
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Om Shanti Om holds an approval rating of 76%, based on 17 reviews with an average score of 7.21/10. Tajpal Rathore of BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars as well and stated, "Both a homage to and parody of Hindi Films, this cinematic feast delivered straight from the heart of the film industry will have you glued to your seats till the end." Mark Medley of National Post gave 3 stars and stated, "The film is a mess for all the right reasons; elements of comedy, drama, romance, action and the supernatural are packed in. But really, the plot is just a vehicle to get from one song-and-dance number to the next." AOL gave the film 3 out of 5 stars stating, "The movie consists of all the elements that are essentially called the 'navratnas' of Indian cinema – from joy to grief to romance to revenge. And she mixes these well to cook up a potboiler, which is sure to be a runaway hit."
Box office
Om Shanti Om opened across 878 cinemas in 2000 prints worldwide. The film's net gross (after deducting entertainment tax) was in India. The film collected US$2.78 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.6 million in North America and US$3.7 million collectively from the rest of the world, which resulted in total overseas collections of $10,080,000, the 4th largest of all time as of 2010. As a result of these collections, a worldwide gross of was accumulated.
Awards and nominations
Further reading
Footnotes
References
External links
Red Chillies Entertainment films
2007 films
Indian films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about reincarnation
Indian ghost films
Paranormal films
Films directed by Farah Khan
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films about actors
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films whose production designer won the Best Production Design National Film Award
Films about Bollywood
Cultural depictions of actors
Cultural depictions of Rajesh Khanna | true | [
"\"Nothing but Gingerbread Left\" is a science fiction short story by American writer Henry Kuttner. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction in 1943. The story describes a marching song, developed by linguists, that is so \"catchy\" that it preoccupies the mind of anyone who hears it to such a degree that they are unable to think about anything else: an \"earworm\". Written during World War II, it describes the song's effects on German morale, climaxing with Adolf Hitler failing to deliver an important speech about the Eastern Front because he cannot stop thinking about the song. \n\nThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has noted it as an early example of memes in fiction.\n\nReferences\n\nSources \n\nShort stories set in Germany\n1943 short stories\nWorks originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact",
"Ruwida El-Hubti (born 16 April 1989) is an Olympic athlete from Libya. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she competed in the Women's 400 metres. She finished last in her heat with a time of 1:03.57, almost 11 seconds slower than anyone else in the heat, and the slowest of anyone in the competition. However, she did set a national record.\n\nReferences\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nOlympic athletes of Libya\nAthletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics"
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"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press"
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press? | 1 | What does Sheldon Adelson have to do with the Israeli press? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
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People named in the Paradise Papers
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Adelson family | true | [
"Dr. Sheldon Wallace is a fictional character in the ABC drama Private Practice, a spin-off of Grey's Anatomy. He is portrayed by Brian Benben.\n\nHistory\nSheldon's father was a surgeon. He originally wanted to be a surgeon but switched to psychiatry during his intern year.\n\nDr. Sheldon Wallace is a board-certified psychiatrist with extensive training in general adult and adolescent psychotherapy as well as diagnostic evaluation. Dr. Wallace trained at Stanford Medical School but also spent time serving in the National Guard, where he honed his darts skills.\n\nStorylines\n\nSeason 2\nIn season 2 of Private Practice, Sheldon is hired by Charlotte King as the psychiatrist for Pacific Wellcare where he meets and starts up a relationship with fellow psychiatrist Violet Turner. Sheldon initially had problems in his relationship with Violet in the bedroom because he feels inadequate, but he later works them out. When Violet gets pregnant, Sheldon tells her he loves her and proposes to her, despite not knowing who the father is. Violet doesn't answer straight away, and Pete instead tells Violet he should have fought for her and loves her, and she chooses Pete over Sheldon. Ultimately, Pete lets it slip that Violet has chosen him. Sheldon sadly but gracefully steps aside.\n\nSeason 3\nIn Season 3 of Private Practice, Sheldon is among the group blaming himself for what has happened to Violet, and he and Pete get into a fight. Later, Sheldon requests a paternity to test on Violet's son, Lucas, and the tests reveal Pete to be the father and Sheldon once again gracefully backs away.\n\nThroughout the season Sheldon struggles to find his place in the practice and ultimately pursues a relationship with Charlotte who is still in love with Cooper. The two grow even closer but Charlotte's heart is clearly with Cooper. In the season finale he professes his love for Charlotte and is heartbroken when she gets engaged to Cooper.\n\nSeason 4\nIn Season 4 of Private Practice, Sheldon continues to be the resident \"therapist\" to all his friends and colleagues. Amelia Shepherd makes sexual advances on him based on what both Charlotte and Violet have to say about their past sexual experiences with him and they tell Amelia that Sheldon plays hard to get. Early in the season he inadvertently discovers the identity of the man who raped Charlotte; he had interviewed the man, Lee McHenry, the night she was attacked and he had her blood on him. He later confronts McHenry, telling him he knows that McHenry will rape again. He starts an affair with a writer who gave Violet's new book a bad review despite the warning from Cooper that the affair is going to jeopardise his friendship with Violet.\n\nSeason 5\nDuring this season Sheldon finds himself trying to help Pete after his heart attack and Violet after she is reinstated and allowed to practice medicine. The one person he can't help is Amelia, as he is firmly against her helping her friend commit physician-assisted suicide. After Amelia's friend kills herself, Amelia goes on a drug binge and begins using with her boyfriend, and later fiancé. During an intervention, Sheldon constantly tries to reason and talk with Amelia who tells him she will never love him. After Amelia checks into rehab, she and Sheldon talk and visit one another and seem to be on track for resuming their friendship.\n\nSeason 6\n\nSheldon is treating a patient that has thoughts of the sexual nature toward little girls. One night, this man is at the hospital the same night a little girl goes missing. Sheldon immediately thinks it is this man and runs to the room he is in to find him still in there and apologizes right away but the patient does not want to see Sheldon anymore. That same night Sheldon runs into a woman at the vending machine. Her candy got stuck, he tries to hit it loose with no avail, so he puts in money to get it to go out for her.\n\nEventually this patient goes to see Sheldon again, saying he is getting better and has a lady friend named Alyssa. Sheldon thinks it's the little girl that went missing but has no proof. As the sessions go on, things seem to be going wrong with “Alyssa” and Sheldon goes to the cops saying he knows he's breaking protocol but he thinks his patient has the missing girl. The cops say they cannot go on a hunch. Sheldon has another session and confronts him. Then he has cops come to put him in a psychiatric hold saying he threatened to hurt himself. Sheldon then tells the cops that his patient confessed to having the little girl. The cops and Sheldon go to the house and the little girl is indeed in the basement alive.\n\nWhile all that was going on, Sheldon finds out he has prostate cancer. He begins going to radiation every day. The woman from the vending machine, whose name is Miranda, is going to radiation right before him each day as well. They connect instantly but Miranda only wants to exchange pleasantries because she has terminal cancer. Eventually, their connection can't keep them apart and they fall for one another.\n\nOne day Miranda falls and is rushed to the hospital. She has a seizure. Her cancer is getting worse. She signs herself out of the hospital against medical advice. Sheldon is upset at her for this. She tells Sheldon to leave. She says please do this for me and go! He won't so she walks away. He goes to work, talks with Sam and Jake, admits he is madly in love and quits. Sheldon then goes to find Miranda. He tells her he will be with her until the last moment and that he loves her. He says he is not walking away and she asks what they will do with the rest of her life? He says anything since he quit his job. We then see them at an exotic location as they hold hands laying together on the beach.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nABC Bio of Sheldon Wallace\n\nFictional psychiatrists\nPrivate Practice (TV series) characters\nTelevision characters introduced in 2008\nMale characters in television",
"The phrase \"What would Jesus do?\", often abbreviated to WWJD, became popular particularly in the United States in the late 1800s after the widely read book by Charles Sheldon entitled, In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do. The phrase had a resurgence in the US and elsewhere in the 1990s and as a personal motto for adherents of Christianity who used the phrase as a reminder of their belief in a moral imperative to act in a manner that would demonstrate the love of Jesus through the actions of the adherents.\n\nIn popular consciousness, the acronym signifying the question—WWJD—is associated with a type of bracelet or wristband which became a popular accessory for members of Christian youth groups, both Catholic and Protestant, in the 1990s.\n\nHistory\n\nTheological background\n\nThe Roman Catholic Church emphasizes the concept of Imitatio Christi (imitation of Christ), which is summarized well in the English phrase \"What Would Jesus Do?\"\n\nJohn Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, in 1766 postulated the concept of Christian perfection, a moment in the life of a Christian at which the regeneration effectuated by the Holy Spirit results in a \"perfection in love\" which means that at least at that moment one is being motivated wholly by love of God and neighbor, with no taint of sin or ulterior motives in effect. While such Christian perfection is expressed in outward action, it is also the effect of grace. Indeed, Wesley could speak of sanctification by faith as an analogous doctrine to the more widely held belief in justification by faith. Because Christian perfection is also visible in outward good works and a rigorously moral lifestyle, adherents of the Holiness movement assumed that a perfectly moral lifestyle is a consequence (not the cause) of the state of grace and ultimate salvation.\n\nEarlier appearances of the term, 1420s–1891\nCharles Spurgeon, a well-known evangelical Baptist preacher in London, used the phrase \"what would Jesus do\" in quotation marks several times in a sermon he gave on June 28, 1891. In his sermon he cites the source of the phrase as a book written in Latin by Thomas à Kempis between 1418 and 1427, Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ).\n\nThe Rev. A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, wrote both the lyrics and music of a Gospel Hymn \"What Would Jesus Do\" with a copyright date of 1891. It can be found at #669 in Hymns of the Christian Life.\n\n1896 novel\nCharles Sheldon's 1896 book In His Steps was subtitled \"What Would Jesus Do?\" Sheldon's novel grew out of a series of sermons he delivered in his Congregationalist church in Topeka, Kansas. Unlike the previous nuances mentioned above, Sheldon's theology was shaped by a commitment to Christian Socialism. The ethos of Sheldon's approach to the Christian life was expressed in this phrase \"What Would Jesus Do\", with Jesus being a moral example as well as a Saviour figure. Sheldon's ideas coalesced with those that formed into the Social Gospel espoused by Walter Rauschenbusch. Indeed, Rauschenbusch acknowledged that his Social Gospel owed its inspiration directly to Sheldon's novel, and Sheldon himself identified his own theology with the Social Gospel.\n\nDue to a mistake by the original publisher, the copyright for Sheldon's novel was never established and multiple publishers were able to print and sell the novel. This caused the novel to be easily affordable and it sold 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the top 50 bestselling novels ever.\n\nIn this popular novel (it had been translated into 21 languages by 1935), Rev. Henry Maxwell encounters a homeless man who challenges him to take seriously the imitation of Christ. The homeless man has difficulty understanding why, in his view, so many Christians ignore the poor:\n\nI heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night,\n\n\"All for Jesus, all for Jesus,\nAll my being's ransomed powers,\nAll my thoughts, and all my doings,\nAll my days, and all my hours.\"\n\nand I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin.\"\n\nThis leads to many of the novel's characters asking, \"What would Jesus do?\" when faced with decisions of some importance. This has the effect of making the characters embrace Christianity more seriously and to focus on what they see as its core — the life of Christ.\n\nIn 1993, Garrett W. Sheldon (great-grandson of the original author) and Deborah Morris published What Would Jesus Do? : a contemporary retelling of Charles M. Sheldon's classic In His Steps. Garrett Sheldon states that his updated version \"is based on many actual events in the lives of believers.\"\n\nIt is possible that Sheldon was familiar with either Spurgeon or Thomas, or that he was independently inspired.\n\n1990s\nA youth group leader at Calvary Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan, named Janie Tinklenberg, began a grassroots movement to help the teenagers in her group remember the phrase; it spread worldwide in the 1990s among Christian youth, who wore bracelets bearing the initials WWJD. Later, a sequel bracelet was generated with the initials \"FROG,\" to provide an answer to \"WWJD.\" FROG was an acronym for \"Fully Rely On God.\"\n\n2000s\nIn 2005, Garry Wills wrote \"What Jesus Meant\", in which he examined \"What Would Jesus Really Do\" (also a book review in Esquire Magazine).\n\n2010s\nIn April 2010 a film, WWJD, starring Adam Gregory and based on In His Steps by Charles Sheldon, was released on DVD.\nOn March 31, 2015, a sequel film was released WWJD What Would Jesus Do? The Journey Continues. The second film using the moniker WWJD II was The Woodcarver which was released in 2012. It has a similar theme but different characters.\n\nParodies\nThe expression has become a snowclone, sometimes for humorous effect. For example, What Would Jesus Buy?, \"What Would Lincoln Do?\", \"What Would Brian Boitano Do?\", \"What Would Mary Marvel Do?\", \"What Would Johnny Cash Do?\", and \"What would Tintin do?\".\n\nManagement and leadership\n\nThe term \"What Would Jesus Do?\" or \"WWJD\" is also perceived as a fundamental management and leadership principle given Jesus' methodology of going to the marketplace to preach and lead by example. In modern management principles, more academic and professional references are going to the gemba or Management by Walking Around.\n\nSee also\n\nChristian ethics\nChoose the right\nJesusism\nThe Law of Christ\nMinistry of Jesus\nSermon on the Mount\n\nReferences \n\n1990s fads and trends\nCultural depictions of Jesus\nEnglish phrases\nSlogans\nSnowclones\n1890s neologisms"
] |
[
"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press",
"What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press?",
"he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006"
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | Was he successful at the paper? | 2 | Was Sheldon Adleson successful at the Israeli Press? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American newspaper publishers (people)
American billionaires
American casino industry businesspeople
American chairpersons of corporations
American chemical industry businesspeople
American chief executives in the media industry
American chief executives of financial services companies
American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies
American computer businesspeople
American financiers
American hoteliers
American investment advisors
American investors
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
American people of Welsh descent
American political fundraisers
American real estate businesspeople
American transportation businesspeople
American Zionists
Businesspeople from Boston
Businesspeople from Nevada
City College of New York alumni
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from lymphoma
Jewish American philanthropists
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Nevada Republicans
People from Dorchester, Massachusetts
People from the Las Vegas Valley
United States Army soldiers
California Republicans
People named in the Paradise Papers
21st-century American Jews
Adelson family | true | [
"Edward Irvin Scott (known also as \"Irvin\" or \"E.I.\" Scott) was the founder of Scott Paper Company.\n\nHe was born on May 13, 1846, in N. Greenfield, New York, the son of Alexander Hamilton Scott and Sophronia Wood Seymour. He was educated at the District School, Juliet Garner's Select School in West Greenfield and Robb's Boys' Academy at Saratoga Springs, New York. During 1866–67, he studied two terms at Albany State Normal School, and became a school teacher. On Sep. 1, 1867, he joined his brother Thomas Seymour Scott in running a paper commission, which lasted for about 12-years.\n\nOn Aug. 22, 1872, he married Sarah Frances \"Fannie\" Hoyt, the daughter of Rev. Zerah T. Hoyt and Sarah Mariah Foote. They had two children, Arthur Hoyt Scott and Margaret, wife of Owen Moon.\n\nAround 1878, the paper commission failed, and the family lived in Camden, New Jersey,\n\nIrvin and brother Clarence Scott took the remaining proceeds and formed Scott Paper Company. Irvin reportedly borrowed $2,000 from his father-in-law and added the $300 the two brothers had to form the capital stock. Irvin became the first president.\n\nIn 1890, the family moved to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where he was Chief Burgess 1893–97. A large paper plant was established at Chester, Pennsylvania. Scott Paper Company was very successful, largely due to advertising, which stressed the safety and quality of paper tissue. Toilet paper had been considered an \"unmentionable\" product prior to this, and this strategy was instrumental in making Scott Paper Company the leading producer of bathroom tissue in the United States by 1890.\n\nOn Oct 08, 1916, Irvin's wife Fannie died, and he later married Fannie E. (Massey) Anderson, a widow. In 1920, Irvin retired from Scott Paper Company and son Arthur Hoyt Scott became the second president. His son-in-law Owen Moon was briefly the third president, after Arthur died in 1927. Irvin died on Apr 24, 1931 and was interred at Eastlawn Cemetery in Philadelphia.\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\n1846 births\n1931 deaths\nPeople from Greenfield, New York",
"Frank Noel Hales (1878–1952) was a British psychologist and one of the founding members of the British Psychological Society.\n\nCareer\nHales was born in Saumur, France in 1878. \n\nIn 1900, he graduated from the University of Cambridge with BA first class in the Moral Sciences Tripos. His examiners included James Ward, Chair of Mental Philosophy and Logic at Cambridge, G.F. Stout, Reader in Mental Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Carveth Read who was to become the Grote professor of philosophy of mind and logic at University College London. He was awarded the Allen Scholarship in 1902.\n\nOn 3 May 1902, he presented a paper entitled A contribution to the analysis of the process of comparison to the second scientific meeting of the British Psychological Society. The other two speakers at the meeting were James Ward and W.H.R. Rivers. Later that year, on 6 December 1902, he presented a paper entitled The fluctuation of the dream image to another meeting of the society.\n \nIn 1903, the British Psychological Society was formally established. Hales was one of the ten founding members.\n \nHales published a paper entitled Materials for the psycho-genetic theory of comparison in the first volume of the British Journal of Psychology(1904-5). \n \nIn 1907, he emigrated to Canada. He initially lived in Montreal where he attempted to find work as a psychologist. Not being successful, he moved to British Columbia where he became a soybean farmer.\n\nReferences\n\n1878 births\n1952 deaths\nBritish psychologists"
] |
[
"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press",
"What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press?",
"he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006",
"Was he successful at the paper?",
"The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007."
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | Was he the owner of the paper? | 3 | Was Sheldon Adleson the owner of the Israeli press? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | he had co-founded | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American newspaper publishers (people)
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American chemical industry businesspeople
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People named in the Paradise Papers
21st-century American Jews
Adelson family | true | [
"Agym (Stream in English) is a Kyrgyz language biweekly newspaper published in Kyrgyzstan. It is privately owned.\n\nHistory and profile\nAgym, a Kyrgyz language biweekly paper, was established in 2001. The paper is published on Fridays. Bakyt Jamalidinov was the publisher at the initial period. Melis Eshimkanov was the owner of the biweekly. He also served as the editor-in-chief of Agym. Then Begaly Nargozuev became the publisher and owner. The paper was sold to Alexander Kim in February 2009.\n\nAs of 2007 Agym was an opposition paper in the country. It has an independent political leaning.\n\nIn 2009, the approximate circulation of Agym was 10,000 copies. It rose to 15,000 copies in 2011.\n\nSee also\n List of newspapers in Kyrgyzstan\n\nReferences\n\n2001 establishments in Kyrgyzstan\nPublications established in 2001\nNewspapers published in Kyrgyzstan\nKyrgyz-language newspapers\nBiweekly newspapers",
"The Fairview Enterprise is a newspaper based in Fairview, Kansas. It was established in 1888.\n\nHistory\nThe Fairview Enterprise of Fairview, Kansas, was first printed on March 24, 1888. Col S. O. Grosbeck, formerly of Valley Falls, Kansas, was the owner and editor.\n\nThe first edition was a six column, eight page paper and four pages of ready print. When he started the Enterprise, he was not certain it would succeed so he did not invest his money in printing equipment. Instead the paper was printed for several years in Horton, Kansas. The first Enterprise office was just an editorial office and was part of Dr. Young’s office on Main Street. In August 1889 the office moved into another building on Main Street, opposite the Fairview Hotel, which allowed enough room for the growth of the paper. This office was large enough that there was space for the City Council and the Police headquarters to locate in the same office in 1890. It was with the March 14, 1891 issue that The Enterprise was printed in Fairview. Competition for The Enterprise was The Courier from 1893 to 1899. The Courier was published and edited by Charles Calnon. The Courier office burned in 1899 and the paper did not restart.\n\nIn the beginning a year’s subscription was only $1 and for an additional 65 cents you could also get the Topeka paper for a year. Other publications were also used in trying to get more citizens to subscribe such as Toledo Weekly Blade, Deomonest’s Family Magazine and Cosmopolitan Magazine.\n\nAt the time The Enterprise was started Fairview was two years old. The railroad was complete and furnishing incoming and outgoing business for the rapidly developing town. W. E. Moore was mayor; G. O. Grosbeck, Police judge; Thomas Gillan, Willis Scouten, J. F. Joss, W. C. Meyers and Dell McCarthy were councilmen. The town had a hotel, furniture store, dry goods store, hardware, elevator, coal yard, implements, Harness and saddlers business, two grocery stores, post office, meat market, barber shop, etc. and the town had a doctor.\n\nIn 1908 or 1909 Grosbeck sold the paper to Truman Williams. In 1911 J. R. Leonard became owner and in 1913 the paper changed hands three times—F. W. McKinnie, Drew McLaughlin and Clarence Unkefer were editors. In 1914 Charles Buck became owner and he built a building just south of the hotel for the paper office. Later it became the library, and in later years the building was moved away. Mr. Buck edited the paper until 1915 when North Worrell became owner. He was editor, owner and publisher until 1920 when he sold to Charles Ross. He kept it until 1923 when an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. L. A, McNeil bought it. Up to their ownership, type was set by hand. Some type setters were Charley Barnes, who was blind, and Wesley Marker, dwarf son of Ben Marker. The McNeil’s purchased the first linotype in 1927. Harold Parman was a young school teacher here and was interested in the machine, so he learned to operate it, and in 1928 he purchased the paper, and he and his wife, Helen Sawyer Parman, published it together until his death in June 1935. Mrs. Parman continued as owner and publisher until she leased the paper to Leaine Fanning in 1939, and she married Merle Fish and moved to a farm near Powhattan. Leaine bought the paper in 1945. She had been employed on the paper since September in 1935. The third linotype was purchased in time and the press was replaced by the press in use when the paper ceased publication in February 1987 because of illness of the editor. The paper resumed printing in February 1988 with a brand new method of printing—a computer, laserprinter and a copier. Leaine Fanning continued publishing the paper until her death on May 9, 1994. Leaine’s sister Louise Fanning stepped in and became editor and publisher of the paper. Louise printed the paper until her death on February 8, 2009, at which time the paper was taken over by a cousin Patsy (Schmitt) Weaver and her husband Rolland. Rolland died February 14, 2011 and Patsy on November 7, 2014 at which time the paper ceased being printed.\n\nThe paper had been published in the same building since 1931 on Commercial Street, until the death of Louise in 2009, when the building was sold and the paper relocated, at which time the old linotype equipment was donated to a local museum.\n\nA rebirth of The Fairview Enterprise happened in March 2015 when David Floyd Lambertson of Winchester, KS and Larry Gilbert of Kansas City, KS, both having grown up in Fairview, came together to keep the paper alive. Not living in the town, they rely on local volunteers to report the current events to them. They then layout the paper with the help of David's wife, Sacie (Hooper) Lambertson. The paper is then emailed to a printer, who prints the paper on newsprint and delivers it to them, and they in turn take it to the post office and have it mailed out to their subscribers. Subscribers are located from coast to coast. The paper, once a weekly publication is now printed every other week.\n\nReferences\n\nNewspapers published in Kansas"
] |
[
"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press",
"What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press?",
"he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006",
"Was he successful at the paper?",
"The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007.",
"Was he the owner of the paper?",
"he had co-founded"
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | Who also owned the paper? | 4 | Who also owned the Israeli press besides Sheldon Adleson? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American newspaper publishers (people)
American billionaires
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Military personnel from Massachusetts
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People from Dorchester, Massachusetts
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United States Army soldiers
California Republicans
People named in the Paradise Papers
21st-century American Jews
Adelson family | false | [
"The Daily Graphic is a Ghanaian state-owned daily newspaper published in Accra, Ghana.\n\nHistory\nThe paper was established along with the Sunday Mirror in 1950, by Cecil King of the London Daily Mirror Group. With a circulation of 100,000 copies, the Graphic is the most widely read daily newspaper in the country. One journalist in particular, Fredrick Botchway, so gifted in his work had excelled at the paper and was swiftly promoted to Chief Editor in the mid 1950s. The paper has seen many editors replaced over the course of its history, particularly post-independence, after a string of successive military coups that resulted in the sacking editors who opposed the government policies. In 1979 the newspaper was renamed the People's Daily Graphic under Jerry Rawlings for a few years to \"remind the people that it belongs to them\". \n\nBeing a state-owned paper, it regularly covers the government in a favourable light, detailing and encouraging national unity and government policy. In colonial Ghana under British rule, the paper, which was staffed by local Ghanaians, received large government funding from British banks, which led to its high circulation and raising awareness of events to ordinary Ghanaians, more so than Ghanaian-owned papers.\n\nThe paper, owned by the Graphic Communications Group Limited, also prints two weekly entertainment newspapers, namely The Mirror and Graphic Showbiz. Graphic Sports, the most read sports news in Ghana, is also a product of the company. The company also publishes the Junior Graphic, aimed at a younger audience, the Graphic Business, a business and financial paper, the Graphic Advertiser, a free ads paper, and the Nsɛmpa, a regional weekly for the Ashanti Region.\n\nGhana's other state-owned paper is the Ghanaian Times. Graphic Nsempa was discontinued and the company re-launched its News Website Graphic Online in 2012 and it is currently among the top five news websites in the country according to Alexa.\n\nSee also \n Media of Ghana\n List of newspapers in Ghana\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official site\n\nNewspapers published in Ghana\nPublications established in 1950\nMass media in Accra\n1950 establishments in Gold Coast (British colony)\nGhanaian news websites",
"Kul al-Arab (, meaning All Arabs) is an Israeli Arabic-language weekly newspaper, founded in 1987. Based in Nazareth, the paper is Israel's most influential and widely read Arabic-language periodical. It is also distributed in the West Bank. Kul al-Arab has 70 employees and a circulation of 38,000. According to the BBC the paper \"is known primarily as a Christian paper\" but \"is trying to expand its Muslim audience.\" Most of the paper's revenue comes from advertising, and it is sometimes given away for free as a result. For some time the paper was edited by the poet Samih al-Qasim, who remains its honorary editor.\n\nIn 2005, the BBC stated that the paper \"is scathing of Israeli and US policies, but can be equally critical of the Palestinian Authority.\"\n\nThe paper was founded by an advertising agency, al-Bustenai, then-managed by Mussa Hassadiya. As of 2008 Hassadiya owns 40% of the paper, with the rest owned by Fayez and \"a group of Israeli-Arab businessmen.\" For a time Yedioth Ahronoth Group and Legal Tender Initiative each owned 25% of the paper, with Hassadiya and Shtiwi owning the other half. However, the two groups came into conflict, resulting in a court case in 2006 and Yediot and Legal Tender being bought out two years later.\n\nThe paper's publishing company also owns a women's magazine, Lady Kul al-Arab, and a website, al-Arab, which is visited by 45,000 people per day. Kul al-Arab also sponsors an annual Israeli Arab beauty contest with a $10,000 prize.\n\nReferences\n\nArabic-language newspapers published in Israel\nArab Israeli culture\nMass media in Nazareth\nNewspapers established in 1987\nWeekly newspapers published in Israel"
] |
[
"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press",
"What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press?",
"he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006",
"Was he successful at the paper?",
"The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007.",
"Was he the owner of the paper?",
"he had co-founded",
"Who also owned the paper?",
"I don't know."
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | Did he make changes at the paper? | 5 | Did Sheldon Adleson make changes at the Israeli press? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American newspaper publishers (people)
American billionaires
American casino industry businesspeople
American chairpersons of corporations
American chemical industry businesspeople
American chief executives in the media industry
American chief executives of financial services companies
American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies
American computer businesspeople
American financiers
American hoteliers
American investment advisors
American investors
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
American people of Welsh descent
American political fundraisers
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Businesspeople from Boston
Businesspeople from Nevada
City College of New York alumni
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from lymphoma
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Military personnel from Massachusetts
Nevada Republicans
People from Dorchester, Massachusetts
People from the Las Vegas Valley
United States Army soldiers
California Republicans
People named in the Paradise Papers
21st-century American Jews
Adelson family | true | [
"The Madison Times Weekly is a weekly African-American newspaper in Madison in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Civil rights activist Betty Franklin-Hammonds established the paper in April 1991. It was initially a sister publication of the Milwaukee Times, which had bought the Wisconsin Free Press, a Black-focused paper that published sporadically in Madison in the 1980s. Hammonds stated that the paper operated separately within its first few months. Hammonds started the paper as a resource for the under-served African-American community; the paper soon expanded its focus to various minority communities. In 1992 the paper joined with WORT radio, WYOU community television, and the online service DANEnet to create the Neighborhood Network, to cover local news and serve local activists.\n\nFollowing Hammonds' death at age 56 in 1999, her husband David became publisher, and remained majority owner. Jonathan Gramling, a \"longtime friend and associate\" of the Franklin-Hammonds family, took over as editor. Under Gramling's direction, the paper added more full color photography, and increased its event coverage. In 2002, amid a nationwide industry slump, the paper experienced financial challenges, prompting staffing cuts. David described the newspaper as a community-oriented enterprise, rather than a financial investment. The paper's circulation was about 8,500 in 2004.\n\nLocal politician and bureaucrat Ray Allen purchased the paper in 2005. Though Allen stated at the time that he did not plan significant personnel changes, Gramling, who had recently won a human rights award, announced his intention to leave the paper shortly after the acquisition.\n\nAllen sold it to Courier Communications, the parent company of the Milwaukee Courier and WNOV-AM radio, in 2014. The two newspapers had been sharing editorial and advertising content for about a year prior to the sale; at the time of the acquisition, the two papers had a combined circulation of 55,000.\n\nReferences \n\nNewspapers published in Wisconsin\nAfrican-American newspapers\nMadison, Wisconsin",
"Elgin Review is a weekly newspaper serving Elgin, Nebraska and surrounding counties of Antelope, Boone, and Wheeler.\n\nThe paper is owned by Dennis and Lynell Morgan and its circulation is estimated at 1,167 copies.\n\nHistory \nThe Elgin Review was established January 1, 1897 by Mr. McCord and Ernest S. Scofield as a weekly non-partisan publication. Ernest S. Scofield fully took over the paper later in 1897. Records of the Elgin Review before 1906 are somewhat unclear, since no files of the paper were kept before that year.\n\nBenjamin W. McKeen purchased the paper in 1903. Charles H. Stockdale purchased the paper on February 1, 1908. During the 15 years of Stockdale's ownership, the subscription list and influence of the Elgin Review was expanded. There was also various improvements in the plant and equipment. In May 1916, work began on the present brick building that houses the Review. A short time later, the first linotype typesetting machine was installed at the newspaper. This machine did away with much of the arduous \"hand setting\" of type, improved the appearance of the newspaper and allowed Stockdale to provide better service to printing customers. Also under Stockdale's ownership, a cylinder press and folding machine were added to the operation, further streamlining production of the newspaper.\n\nA.C. Gardner moved to Elgin from Albion to take over ownership of the Review on December 1, 1922. He operated the paper through most of the \"Dirty Thirties\" and sold it on December 1, 1936, to F. Valdemar Peterson. Peterson, who was Superintendent of Elgin Public Schools at the time, had served as a contributing editor of the paper for several years. He was Governor of Nebraska from 1947 until 1953.\n \nPeterson published the paper between 1936 and 1946. He became more involved in politics in 1939, serving as the campaign manager for Hugh A. Butler, who was running for Congress. He also served as secretary for Governor Dwight Griswold until 1942, when he left to serve two years in the air service command of the army. Val Peterson sold the paper in 1946 to run for and become Governor of Nebraska. Val Peterson sold the Review to his brother, Fred, on December 1, 1946, and Fred operated the business until October 13, 1947, when he sold to George F. and Leona Voorhies. \nThe Voorhies had the longest tenure at the helm of the Review, operating the paper for 31 years.\n\nOn January 1, 1978, the paper was passed to Jim E. and Julianne K. Dickerson. Operations and printing methods changed greatly during the newspaper's history. One of the biggest changes came when the paper was converted from letterpress to offset production in the early 1970s. The Review was printed each week at Neligh News and Leader central plant, but most other production chores and commercial printing were done in Elgin. The Dickersons added to and updated much of the equipment at the Review. During the 11 years, they installed new typesetting equipment, a complete darkroom system with process camera and a business computer. The front of the building was replaced in November, 1980. Jim Dickerson served as president of the Nebraska Press Association in 1998.\n \nOn April 1, 2007 the paper was purchased by Dennis and Lynell Morgan. The Morgans are both graduates of journalism programs in Nebraska. Dennis from Kearney State College in 1981 and Lynell from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1984. They have been employed in newspaper businesses since the 1980s. When they purchased the paper in 2007, the Morgans updated not only the design of the newspaper to make it more appealing but also changed out the equipment that the paper is designed on. Taking advantage of the most current technology available, the newspaper office operates off of several state-of-the-art computers for both newspaper design and the business side of newspapers. Photos, done by both of the Morgans, are being taken on newer Nikon digital cameras. While the newspaper itself is printed out of town, common business printing and more is done in-house on professional printing equipment, ensuring quality printing. \nThe Elgin Review has also embraced media trends. Highlights from each week's newspaper are available to viewers via the newspapers website, www.elginreview.com, plus the paper routinely posts news briefs on social media sites to give readers news-on-the-go. Subscribers can also receive the Elgin Review in pdf form for those who don't want to wait for the print edition to arrive in the mail. Dennis Morgan served two terms as president of the Nebraska Press Association, in 2014 and 2015.\n\nAwards\n\nReferences\n\nNewspapers published in Nebraska"
] |
[
"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press",
"What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press?",
"he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006",
"Was he successful at the paper?",
"The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007.",
"Was he the owner of the paper?",
"he had co-founded",
"Who also owned the paper?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he make changes at the paper?",
"Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In"
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | Did he own any other papers? | 6 | Did Sheldon Adleson own any other papers besides the Israeli press? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American newspaper publishers (people)
American billionaires
American casino industry businesspeople
American chairpersons of corporations
American chemical industry businesspeople
American chief executives in the media industry
American chief executives of financial services companies
American chief executives of travel and tourism industry companies
American computer businesspeople
American financiers
American hoteliers
American investment advisors
American investors
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
American people of Welsh descent
American political fundraisers
American real estate businesspeople
American transportation businesspeople
American Zionists
Businesspeople from Boston
Businesspeople from Nevada
City College of New York alumni
Deaths from cancer in California
Deaths from lymphoma
Jewish American philanthropists
Military personnel from Massachusetts
Nevada Republicans
People from Dorchester, Massachusetts
People from the Las Vegas Valley
United States Army soldiers
California Republicans
People named in the Paradise Papers
21st-century American Jews
Adelson family | false | [
"Papers is a reference management software for Mac OS X and Windows, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. It is primarily used to organize references and maintain a library of PDF documents and also provides a uniform interface for document repository searches, metadata editing, full screen reading and a variety of ways to import and export documents.\n\nOverview\nPapers was developed by Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis while studying towards their Ph.D.s at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Faced with working with hundreds of digital publications in PDF format, the pair worked on Papers to provide an iTunes-like approach to document management. Papers was originally released as a public preview in February 2007, followed by the full 1.0 version a few months later. A new version of the software was released and put for sale in the third quarter of 2013, along with a new iPhone/iPad app. \nBoth products went under a considerable amount of criticism from new and returning users, who experienced a number of issues, ranging from lost databases and annotations to incompatibility between mobile and desktop apps. Users criticised Mekentosj and Springer, respectively developer and owner of Papers, for putting up for sale a beta version of the software and their slowness in addressing problems that effectively rendered the software unusable.\n\nOn March 16, 2016, ReadCube acquired Papers from Springer Nature for an undisclosed amount.\n\nVersions\n\nMac\nWith the release of Papers2 in March 2011, Papers now also offers full EndNote-style reference citation features. Papers2 allows for users to access their library and insert citations across many different applications, whether in documents, presentations, or in web browsers. Papers offers a familiar user interface and a number of features for collecting, curating, merging and linking articles.\n\nA new version for Mac was released in late 2013: Papers 3. This version introduces a redesigned user interface and dropbox based syncing, which has subsequently being expanded to other cloud-based repositories. \n\nAs of November 1, 2018 Papers 3 is no longer available for sale and will no longer be actively developed. The new version of Papers is being developed by ReadCube.\n\nReadCube Papers has been available since Fall 2019.\n\nWindows\n\nPapers 3 for Windows was first released in 2012 following the success of the Mac application. A new version, now Papers 3 for Windows, was released late July 2014 following the redesign of the Mac and iOS applications earlier. This version streamlines the user experience and the features available from the Mac application. Papers 3 for Windows also unified search to its platform. It supported Dropbox syncing between Mac and iOS devices running Papers 3 as well as Papers Online. The Windows version of Papers 3 has been withdrawn from sale and is no longer available.\n\nReadCube Papers has been available since Fall 2019.\n\nBrowser\nThe online version of Papers runs in any browser, on any operating system. Users can access their library by signing in through their institutional or personal email address. Libraries will automatically sync and have unlimited cloud storage.\n\niPhone and iPad\nVersions of Papers are available for free from the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPad. A version was released with the Papers 3 for Mac launch and features unified search on the iOS app as well. The newest version of Papers is available via the iTunes store. It has the article management features, and in addition to the standard annotation features the new Papers for iOS also features freehand annotations and supports Apple Pencil. Papers for iOS can be synchronized via the ReadCube Papers cloud storage.\n\nAndroid\nVersion of Papers is available for Android users and can be downloaded for free via Google Play. It automatically syncs to the Papers desktop and web applications.\n\nPapers Online (legacy)\nPapers Online is a new set of services released in conjunction with Papers 3 for Windows. It works across most platforms (Mac, iOS, and Windows) and offers users a means of sharing collections of articles. Papers 3 users can create shared collections and access them from a browser on any other device, and share this collection to be accessed by other Papers 3 users as well as individuals who are not currently using Papers 3. This version is no longer available.\n\nFeatures\nAll features are available for Mac/Windows/iOS/Android\n\n Search & Download\n Built-in search engines\n Personalized recommendations\n Related article feeds\n Institutional proxy support\n Web importing via browser\n 1-click PDF downloads\n Advanced search filters\n Organizational Management\n Easy importing tools from your desktop/other reference managers\n Auto article meta-data matching\n Full text library search\n Advanced sorted & filtering\n Manual & smart collections\n #keyword tagging, labels & article ratings\n Enhanced reading and annotating\n Enhanced PDF viewing\n Hyperlinked inline references, high-res figure browsers & auto-fetched supplements\n Advanced article metrics (incl. citations, field & relative citation ratio, and Altmetric)\n Inline and sticky notes, highlighting and drawing tools\n Text to speech tool\n Collaboration\n Up to 5 private shared collections (PDFs/references)\n Collaborate with up to 30 Papers users per collection\n Share references, PDFs, notes, tags and PDF annotations\n Article discussion summary\n Citation Tools - SmartCite\n Insert references from personal / shared libraries or use built-in search engine\n 8000+ citation styles supported. Customize & import your own\n Quick-copy of citations in bibtex, ris\n Export reference list for use in third party citation tools like EndNote and Overleaf\n Supports Word 2016+ and Google Docs\n SmartCite for Citekeys allows writing in other word processors such as Pages, Manuscripts App, and more.\n Cross-platform syncing\n Unlimited cloud storage for your personal library\n Sync your entire library including notes, lists, annotations, and highlights across all of your devices\n Supports Desktop (Mac/PC), mobile (iOS/Android) and Web.\n\nAwards\nPapers won an Apple Design Award#2007 in 2007, for the best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution.\n\nSee also\n Comparison of reference management software for some comparisons with similar packages.\n ReadCube\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nMacOS-only software\nReference management software",
"Statcheck is an R package designed to detect statistical errors in peer-reviewed psychology articles by searching papers for statistical results, redoing the calculations described in each paper, and comparing the two values to see if they match. It takes advantage of the fact that psychological research papers tend to report their results in accordance with the guidelines published by the American Psychological Association (APA). This leads to several disadvantages: it can only detect results reported completely and in exact accordance with the APA's guidelines, and it cannot detect statistics that are only included in tables in the paper. Another limitation is that Statcheck cannot deal with statistical corrections to test statistics, like Greenhouse–Geisser or Bonferroni corrections, which actually make tests more conservative. Some journals have begun piloting Statcheck as part of their peer review process. Statcheck is free software published under the GNU GPL v3.\n\nValidity\nIn 2017, Statcheck's developers published a preprint paper concluding that the program accurately identified statistical errors over 95% of the time. This validity study comprised more than 1,000 hand-checked tests among which 5.00% turned out to be inconsistent. The study found that Statcheck recognized 60% of all statistical tests. A reanalysis of these data found that if the program flagged a test as inconsistent, it was correct in 60.4% of cases. Reversely, if a test was truly inconsistent, Statcheck flagged it in an estimated 51.8% of cases (this estimate included the undetected tests and assumed that they had the same rate of inconsistencies as the detected tests). Overall, Statcheck's accuracy was 95.9%, half a percentage point higher than the chance level of 95.4% expected when all tests are simply taken at face value. Statcheck was conservatively biased (by about one standard deviation) against flagging tests.\n\nMore recent research has used Statcheck on papers published in Canadian psychology journals, finding similar rates of statistical reporting errors as the original authors based on a 30-year sample of such articles. The same study also found many typographical errors in online versions of relatively old papers, and that correcting for these reduced the estimated percent of tests that were erroneously reported.\n\nHistory\nStatcheck was first developed in 2015 by Michele Nuijten of Tilburg University and Sacha Epskamp of the University of Amsterdam. Later that year, Nuijten and her colleagues published a paper using Statcheck on over 30,000 psychology papers and reported that \"half of all published psychology papers...contained at least one p-value that was inconsistent with its test\". The study was subsequently written up favorably in Nature. In 2016, Nuijten and Epskamp both received the Leamer-Rosenthal Prize for Open Social Science from the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences for creating Statcheck.\n\nIn 2016, Tilburg University researcher Chris Hartgerink used Statcheck to scan over 50,000 psychology papers and posted the results to PubPeer; he subsequently published the data he extracted from these papers in an article in the journal Data. Hartgerink told Motherboard that \"We're checking how reliable is the actual science being presented by science\". He also told Vox that he intended to use Statcheck to perform a function similar to a spell checker software program. Hartgerink's action also sent email alerts to every researcher who had authored or co-authored a paper that it had flagged. These flaggings, and their posting on a public forum, proved controversial, prompting the German Psychological Society to issue a statement condemning this use of Statcheck. Psychologist Dorothy V.M. Bishop, who had two of her own papers flagged by Statcheck, criticized the program for publicly flagging many papers (including one of her own) despite not having found any statistical errors in it. Other critics alleged that Statcheck had reported the presence of errors in papers that did not actually contain them, due to the tool's failure to correctly read statistics from certain papers.\n\nJournals that have begun piloting the use of Statcheck as part of their peer review process include Psychological Science, the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The open access publisher PsychOpen has also used it on all papers accepted for publication in their journals since 2017.\n\nSee also\n Abuse of statistics\n Misuse of p-values\n Metascience\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nStatistical software\n2015 software\nFree R (programming language) software\nMetascience"
] |
[
"Sheldon Adelson",
"Israeli press",
"What does Sheldon have to do with the Israeli press?",
"he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006",
"Was he successful at the paper?",
"The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007.",
"Was he the owner of the paper?",
"he had co-founded",
"Who also owned the paper?",
"I don't know.",
"Did he make changes at the paper?",
"Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In",
"Did he own any other papers?",
"I don't know."
] | C_9b801a80b50444c1a8a750e63403406c_1 | What did people think regarding him in charge of the paper? | 7 | What did people think regarding Shedon Adleson being in charge of the Israeli Press?? | Sheldon Adelson | In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016 Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, it is owned by a relative of his. According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010. In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with coverage of him on Israeli Channel 10, which alleged that Adelson had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate. CANNOTANSWER | had been correct and appropriate. | Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, and the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited, which operates The Venetian Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He owned the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, the Israeli weekly newspaper Makor Rishon, and the American daily newspaper the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Adelson created the Adelson Foundation in 2007, a private charity focusing on healthcare and support of Israel and the Jewish people. He was a major contributor to Republican Party candidates and was often dubbed a "kingmaker" due to the size and frequency of his donations. He and his wife Miriam Adelson were Donald Trump's largest donors, providing the largest donation to Trump's 2016 campaign, his presidential inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign. He was also a major backer of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In September 2020, Adelson was listed by Forbes as having a fortune of billion, making him the 28th-richest person in the world and 19th in the Forbes 400.
Early life
Adelson was born on August 4, 1933, and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, the son of Sarah (née Tonkin) and Arthur Adelson. He was Jewish. His father's family was of Ukrainian Jewish and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry. His mother immigrated from England, and Adelson said that his grandfather was a Welsh coal miner. His father was a taxi driver, and his mother ran a knitting shop.
He began his business career at the age of 12 when he borrowed $200 from his uncle () and purchased a license to sell newspapers in Boston. In 1948, at the age of 15, he borrowed $10,000 () from his uncle to start a candy vending-machine business. He attended the City College of New York, but did not graduate. He attended trade school in a failed attempt to become a court reporter, then joined the army.
After being discharged from the army, he established a business selling toiletry kits, then started another business, De-Ice-It, which marketed a chemical spray that cleared ice from windshields. In the 1960s, he started a charter tour business. He soon became a millionaire, although by his thirties he had built and lost his fortune twice. Over the course of his business career, Adelson created almost 50 businesses, making him a serial entrepreneur.
Business career
COMDEX
In the late 1970s, Adelson and his partners developed the COMDEX trade shows for the computer industry, beginning in 1979. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world through much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold the Interface Group Show Division, including the COMDEX shows, to SoftBank Group of Japan for $862 million; Adelson's share was over $500 million.
Sands Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
In 1988, Adelson purchased the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $110 million (approximately ). The next year, he and his partners built the Sands Expo and Convention Center, then the only privately owned and operated convention center in the U.S.
In 1991, while honeymooning in Venice with his second wife, Miriam, Adelson came up with the idea for a mega-resort hotel. He razed the Sands and spent $1.5 billion to construct The Venetian, a Venice-themed resort hotel and casino, which opened on May 3, 1999.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
In the late 2000s, Adelson and the company built a casino resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is one of five stand-alone casinos that were awarded a slots license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in 2006. The casino opened May 22, 2009.
In 2010, during the Great Recession, Adelson told The Wall Street Journal "If it were today, we probably wouldn't have started it."
Macau
Adelson led a project to bring Las Vegas Sands casinos to Macau. The Sands Macao became China's first Las Vegas-style casino when it opened in May 2004. He recovered his initial $265-million investment in one year and, because he owned 69% of the stock, he increased his wealth when he took the stock public in December 2004. Following the opening of the Sands Macao, Adelson's personal wealth multiplied more than fourteen times.
In August 2007, Adelson opened the $2.4 billion Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on Cotai and announced that he planned to create a massive, concentrated resort area he called the Cotai Strip, after its Las Vegas counterpart. Adelson said that he planned to open more hotels under brands such as Four Seasons, Sheraton, and St. Regis. His Las Vegas Sands planned to invest $12 billion and build 20,000 hotel rooms on the Cotai Strip by 2010.
Adelson's company was reportedly under federal investigation over alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act relating to payments made to a Macau lawyer. In 2015, Sands agreed to pay a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which included no admission of wrongdoing.
Marina Bay, Singapore
In May 2006, Adelson's Las Vegas Sands was awarded a hotly contested license to construct a casino resort in Marina Bay, Singapore. The new casino, Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2010 at a rumored cost of $5.5 billion.
In 2010, when it opened, at a total cost of S$8 billion including land cost, the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Complex of Singapore was the most expensive building in the world, ranking over the new development of World Trade Towers in Manhattan of New York and the Burj Khalifa of Dubai.
MBS Singapore includes stores at "The Shoppes", an ultraluxury indoor Venetian canal-lined exclusive shopping belt with tenants such as Ferrari, Chanel, the Theatre of Marina Bay and Convention Center for Sands Live concert series, multiple swimming pools, a rooftop infinity pool, night clubs in Maison pavilions on newly constructed mini islands, and 2,500 luxury hotel rooms.
Other activities
Israeli press
In 2007, Adelson made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Israeli newspaper Maariv. When this attempt failed, he proceeded with parallel plans to publish a free daily newspaper to compete with Israeli, a newspaper he had co-founded in 2006 but had left. The first edition of the new newspaper, Israel Hayom, was published on July 30, 2007. On March 31, 2014, Adelson received the go-ahead from a Jerusalem court to purchase Maariv and the conservative newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2016, Adelson's attorney announced that he does not own Israel Hayom, but that it is owned by a relative of his.
According to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey published in July 2011, Israel Hayom, which unlike all other Israeli newspapers is distributed for free, became the number-one daily newspaper (on weekdays) four years after its inception. This survey found that Israel Hayom had a 39.3% weekday readership exposure, Yedioth Ahronoth 37%, Maariv 12.1%, and Haaretz 5.8%. The Yedioth Ahronoth weekend edition was still leading with a 44.3% readership exposure, compared to 31% for the Israel Hayom weekend edition, 14.9% for Maariv, and 6.8% for Haaretz. This trend was already observed by a TGI survey in July 2010.
In 2011, the Israeli press said that Adelson was unhappy with the coverage on Israeli Channel 10 alleging he had acquired a casino license in Las Vegas inappropriately through political connections. The channel apologized after Adelson threatened a lawsuit. This led to the resignations of the news chief, Reudor Benziman; the news editor, Ruti Yuval; and the news anchor, Guy Zohar, who objected to the apology. After two months of deliberations, the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio ruled that although there were some flaws in the manner in which the apology had been conducted, the decision to apologize had been correct and appropriate.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
In December 2015, Adelson purchased the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. The purchase was made through a limited liability company called News + Media Capital Group LLC and his involvement with the deal was initially kept secret. A week after the purchase was announced, three Review-Journal reporters revealed that the deal had been orchestrated by Adelson's son-in-law Patrick Dumont on Adelson's behalf. Commentators described the $140 million paid for the paper as "lavish" and as a dramatic overpayment, and speculated that the move was a power play to further Adelson's business or political agendas.
Within a few weeks the paper's editor stepped down in a "voluntary buyout". In January 2016, a set of editorial principles were drawn up and publicized to ensure the newspaper's independence and to deal with possible conflicts of interest involving Adelson's ownership. In February Craig Moon, a veteran of the Gannett organization, was announced as the new publisher and promptly withdrew those principles from publication. He also began to personally review, edit, and sometimes kill stories about an Adelson-promoted proposal for a new Las Vegas football stadium. In the months since, reporters say that stories about Adelson, and particularly about an ongoing lawsuit involving his business dealings in Macau, have been heavily edited by top management.
Many reporters and editors left the newspaper citing "curtailed editorial freedom, murky business dealings and unethical managers." All three reporters who originally broke the story about Adelson's ownership have left. Longtime columnist John L. Smith, who had often written about Adelson and had been unsuccessfully sued for libel by him, resigned after he was told he could no longer write anything about Adelson.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the first major newspaper nationwide to endorse Trump in 2016.
U.S. policy on Iran
In a panel discussion at Yeshiva University on October 22, 2013, Adelson said that the United States must get tougher on the issue of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. He said: "You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say 'OK, let it go' and so there's an atomic weapon goes over, ballistic missiles in the middle of the desert that doesn't hurt a soul, maybe a couple of rattlesnakes and scorpions or whatever". He explained that, after a show of force and a threat to also drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran, the U.S. should then say: if "You [Iran] want to be peaceful, just reverse it all and we will guarantee that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes." Adelson's spokesman told reporters that Adelson "was obviously not speaking literally" about using an atomic bomb in the desert, and that he was "using hyperbole to make a point that ... actions speak louder than words".
DeLay controversy
During the Suen trial, Bill Weidner, the president of Adelson's Las Vegas Sands company, testified about a telephone conversation between Adelson and his friend then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) about a bill proposed by Representative Tom Lantos (D) that would have prevented the U.S. Olympic Committee from voting in favor of the Chinese bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. A few hours later, DeLay called back and told Adelson he could tell the mayor of Beijing "this bill will never see the light of day". The resolution did not pass. Adelson testified in court that the demise of the resolution "resulted from the press of other legislation, [not from] a deliberate move by DeLay to help his benefactor."
Cannabis
Fighting cannabis legalization was a personal passion of Adelson, whose son Mitchell died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Mitchell used cocaine and heroin from an early age.
Adelson believed cannabis is a gateway drug. Andy Abboud, vice president of Las Vegas Sands, has stated that "Pro-marijuana folks have awakened a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson".
Israeli-American Council
At the November 2017 conference of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), Adelson declared that the organization should become primarily a political lobbying group on Israel-related issues. In contrast to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which supports a two-state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians, Adelson charted a course for IAC to oppose both of these positions; Adelson himself opposed a two-state solution. Israeli journalist Chemi Shalev said that IAC had not intended to become a political pressure group and that Adelson had "hijacked" it for his "hard-right agenda".
Internet gambling
Adelson fought against internet-based gambling in his later life. Despite the legalization, and acceptance from many Las Vegas Casino CEOs, Adelson poured money into candidates wanting to overturn state legislation that legalizes online gambling. In early 2015, Adelson publicly backed a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation, named the Restore America's Wire Act, has been met with mixed reviews by the Republican Party.
Honors
Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, were presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution on March 25, 2008.
Adelson received the Chairman's Award from the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Las Vegas, for his efforts to advance free market principles in Nevada.
In 2014, Adelson was named to CNBC's list of 200 people who have transformed business over the last 25 years.
Involvement in politics
According to The New Yorker, Adelson began making major contributions to the Republican National Committee following clashes with labor unions at his Las Vegas properties.
The New Yorker article also quoted Shelley Berkley, a Nevada Democratic Party congresswoman, with whom Adelson had a long feud. She worked for him in the 1990s as vice-president of legal and governmental affairs, and said Adelson told her that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats". The Boston Globe said that Adelson "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". Berkley is further quoted in The New Yorker article as saying that Adelson "seeks to dominate politics and public policy through the raw power of money".
In February 2012, Adelson told Forbes magazine that he was "against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money. I have my own philosophy and I'm not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don't want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I'm proud of what I do and I'm not looking to escape recognition."
In 2005, Adelson and his wife each contributed $250,000 to the second inauguration of George W. Bush. President George W. Bush appointed the Adelsons to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.
Adelson was the principal financial backer of Freedom's Watch, a now-defunct political advocacy group founded to counter the influence of George Soros and Democratic-leaning lobby groups such as MoveOn.org. "Almost all" of the $30 million Freedom's Watch spent on the 2008 elections came from Adelson.
In 2010, Adelson donated $1 million to American Solutions for Winning the Future, a political action committee (PAC) supporting Republican former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In December 2011, during Gingrich's bid for the U.S. presidency, Adelson spoke favorably of controversial remarks Gingrich had made about Palestinians, saying "read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians, and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people." Adelson donated to U.S. Senate and House of Representatives candidates.
During the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Adelson first supported Newt Gingrich and then the eventual nominee Mitt Romney. Altogether he spent $92 million supporting losing candidates during the 2012 United States presidential election cycle.
On January 7, 2012, Adelson bolstered Gingrich's then-faltering campaign with a $5-million donation to the pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future. By the next day, the super PAC had reserved more than $3.4 million in advertising time in the South Carolina primary, which included production and distribution of a half-hour movie that portrayed Gingrich's political rival Mitt Romney as a "predatory corporate raider". On January 23, Adelson's wife, Miriam, contributed an additional $5 million to the same organization with instructions to use it to advance a "pro-Newt message". Adelson told Forbes that he was willing to donate as much as $100 million to Gingrich. He also donated $5 million to the right-leaning super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund and over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
In June 2012, Adelson donated $10 million to the pro-Romney PAC Restore Our Future. In July, Adelson attended a Romney fundraiser held in Jerusalem. Adelson joined Woody Johnson, John Rakolta, Paul Singer, and several dozen other contributors on the trip. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, as of July Adelson had given Republicans more than $30 million for the 2012 election cycle.
Romney believed that the People's Republic of China should have been pressured to drop its presumptively low fixed exchange rate policy; according to Bloomberg, Adelson would have benefitted financially in U.S. dollar terms through his interest in Chinese casinos if the Chinese yuan were to have appreciated.
Early in 2014, Adelson donated $2.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, the political committee trying to defeat Florida's Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative which would legalize medical cannabis in that state. Later in 2014, Adelson donated an additional $1.5 million to the No On 2 campaign. He believed that cannabis is a gateway drug.
According to a 2014 Washington Post report, Adelson's strategy for the 2016 United States presidential election was to support a mainstream candidate capable of winning the presidency. In March 2014 Adelson was set to hold one-on-one chats with possible candidates Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and John Kasich during the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition held at Adelson's hotel and casino The Venetian Las Vegas. During the December 2015 Republican debate held at that same venue, Adelson held one-on-one meetings with several of the candidates prior to the start of the debate, including front runner Donald Trump. The bidding to become Adelson's favorite, and ultimately receive tens of millions in financial support, was informally called "The Adelson Primary". On May 13, 2016, he endorsed Trump for president, and pledged as much as $100 million to support his campaign. Adelson was later described as a Trump partisan.
In October 2016, Adelson donated one million dollars to the campaign against Massachusetts ballot question 4 the Massachusetts Legalization, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative which legalized marijuana for personal use. Adelson also donated $1,500,000 towards the unsuccessful effort to thwart the 2016 Florida medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative.
Adelson sat out the 2016 Republican primaries, with some early indicators at the beginning of 2016 interpreted as showing that Adelson favored Trump. In May 2016, explaining his reasons for officially endorsing Donald Trump's presidential bid, Adelson cited the importance of CEO experience in a presidential nominee.
For the 2018 United States elections, Adelson donated approximately $113 million to the Republican Party through various conservative political action committees.
On January 31, 2019, ABC News reported that Adelson and his wife Miriam had contributed $500,000 to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up in 2018 to assist aides of President Trump under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The contributions are the Trust's largest to date.
It was estimated Adelson would donate $200 million to Trump and the GOP for the 2020 election cycle. Given a call to Adelson by Trump in early August complaining that Adelson had not done enough for him, there was speculation that the amount of a donation could be affected.<ref>Isenstadt, Alex, Trump antagonizes GOP megadonor Adelson in heated phone call , Politico, August 8, 2020</ref> On October 15, 2020, Adelson gave $75 million to a Trump PAC, in a late push for reelection. In the second half of October 2020, Adelson and his wife gave a further $35 million to three super-PACs supporting the Republican Party and Trump's re-election. PACs to which the Adelsons donated in the 2020 cycle included Preserve America and the Senate Leadership Fund.
Donations
On September 23, 2016, Adelson announced a $25 million donation to Trump's presidential campaign, as part of a $65 million donation to the Republican electoral campaign for 2016. This rendered Adelson by far the biggest donor in either party (Republicans or Democrats) in the 2016 election cycle. It also makes him by far the largest donor to Donald Trump's White House bid. Adelson was the largest donor to Trump's inaugural celebrations, with a $5 million donation to the celebrations.
According to federal records, from 2010 through 2020, Adelson and his wife donated more than $500 million to the Republican party campaigns and super PACs.
Since 2007, the Adelson Family Foundation has made contributions totaling $140 million to Birthright Israel, which finances Jewish youth trips to Israel. He also donated $5 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2014. Adelson donated over $25 million to The Adelson Educational Campus in Las Vegas to build a high school. In 2006, Adelson contributed $25 million to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
Adelson also funded the private, Boston-based Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. This foundation initiated the Adelson Program in Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (APNRR) with $7.5 million donated to collaborating researchers at 10 universities.
Personal life
Marriages
In the 1970s, Sheldon Adelson lived in Massachusetts with his wife, Sandra, and her three children, Mitchell, Gary, and Shelley, whom Sheldon adopted when they were young. The couple divorced in 1988.
Adelson met Miriam Farbstein Ochshorn, a medical doctor, on a blind date the following year; they married in 1991. She was previously married to a Tel Aviv physician, Dr. Ariel Ochshorn, with whom she had two daughters. Miriam "Miri" Farbstein was born in Mandatory Palestine in 1945, to parents that fled Poland before the Holocaust and settled in the city of Haifa. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Medical School, she went on to become the chief internist in an emergency room at Tel Aviv's Rokach (Hadassah) Hospital. In 1993, she founded a substance abuse center and research clinic there, and in 2000, the couple opened the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Research Clinic in Las Vegas.
Litigation
A June 2008 profile in The New Yorker detailed several controversies involving Adelson. In 2008 Richard Suen, a Hong Kong businessman who had helped Adelson make connections with leading Chinese officials in order to obtain the Macau license, took Adelson to court in Las Vegas alleging he had reneged on his agreement to allow Suen to profit from the venture. Suen won a $43.8 million judgement; in November 2010, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to the lower court for further consideration. In the 2013 retrial, the jury awarded Suen a verdict for $70 million. The judge added another $31.6 million in interest, bringing the total judgment against Adelson to $101.6 million. Adelson was in the process of appealing again. Adelson faced another trial over claims by three alleged "middlemen" in the deal who are suing for at least $450 million.
In February 2013, the Las Vegas Sands, in a regulatory filing, acknowledged that it had likely violated federal law that prohibits the bribing of foreign officials. Allegedly, Chinese officials were bribed to allow Adelson to build his Macau casino.
Adelson successfully sued the London Daily Mail for libel in 2008. The newspaper had accused him of pursuing "despicable business practices" and having "habitually and corruptly bought political favour". Adelson won the libel case, which was described as "a grave slur on Mr Adelson's personal integrity and business reputation," and he won a judgment of approximately £4 million, which he said he would donate to London's Royal Marsden Hospital.
In August 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), after being threatened with a libel suit, apologized and withdrew two blog posts that claimed Adelson had donated "Chinese prostitution money" to Republicans. Another organization, the National Jewish Democratic Council, posted on their website that Adelson "personally approved" of prostitution at his Macau resorts. Adelson sued for libel, but a federal judge dismissed the suit in September 2013, ordering Adelson to pay the NJDC's legal fees.
Wealth
In 2007, Adelson's estimated wealth was $26.5 billion, making him the third-richest person in the United States according to Forbes. and $26 billion for 2008.
In 2008, the share prices of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. plunged. In November 2008, Las Vegas Sands Corp. announced it might default on bonds that it had outstanding, signaling the potential bankruptcy of the concern. Adelson lost $4 billion in 2008, more than any other American billionaire.Sheldon Adelson , daylife.com; accessed September 16, 2015. In 2009, his net worth had declined from approximately $30 billion to $2 billion, a drop of 93%. He told ABC News "So I lost $25 billion. I started out with zero ...[there is] no such thing as fear, not to an entrepreneur. Concern, yes. Fear, no". In the Forbes 2009 world billionaires list, Adelson's ranking dropped to No. 178 with a net worth of $3.4 billion, but by 2011, after his business had recovered, he was ranked as the world's 16th-richest man with a net worth of $23.3 billion.
In 2013, Adelson earned a top ranking on Forbes Annual "Biggest Winner" List, his dramatic growth a result of the success of his casinos in Macau and Singapore, adding an estimated $15 billion to his net worth during the year. In 2013, Adelson was worth $37.2 billion according to Forbes'', and as of December 2014, his net worth was $30.4 billion.
Adelson owned a fleet of private jets through Las Vegas Sands. On January 2, 2017, Adelson's Airbus A340-500 jet set a record for the Ben Gurion International Airport by making the longest flight ever leaving the airport by flying nonstop to Honolulu, Hawaii, by way of the Arctic Ocean.
Illness and death
In 2001, Adelson was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, which restricted his ability to stand and walk.
On February 28, 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that Adelson was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The news was disclosed after a Sands attorney claimed Adelson was too weak to sit for a deposition in a court case involving Richard Suen. Sands spokesman Ron Reese said the side effects of Adelson's medical treatment had "restricted his availability to travel or keep regular office hours” but had not “prevented him from fulfilling his duties as chairman and CEO” of Las Vegas Sands.
On January 11, 2021, Adelson died at his home in Malibu, California, at the age of 87, after long-term illnesses.
On January 14, 2021, Adelson's body arrived in Israel. His coffin was draped in U.S. and Israeli flags and was on display at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to pay his respects. Adelson was laid to rest, the next day, in a small private ceremony on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
See also
List of people and organizations named in the Paradise Papers
References
External links
Campaign contributions in 2012 to outside spending groups at Center for Responsive Politics
1933 births
2021 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American newspaper publishers (people)
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American chemical industry businesspeople
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People named in the Paradise Papers
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Adelson family | true | [
"The Paper of Montgomery County is a daily newspaper in Montgomery County, Indiana. Its first issue was dated November 24, 2004; The Paper currently publishes Monday-Saturday, and is delivered to subscribers through the U.S. Postal Service. In 2005, The Paper acquired The Weekly of West Central Indiana. On Tuesdays, the publication is free of charge and circulated more widely, under a joint \"The Paper/Weekly\" flag.\n\nThe Paper was conceived by Gaildene Hamilton, who for many years served as editor of the Journal Review, the county's other daily newspaper. Hamilton did not get to see the first issue go to press; she died suddenly in July 2004.\n\nThe Paper is owned by a group of 10 local business people, including publisher Tim Timmons.\n \n\"The Paper of Montgomery County Indiana is a daily newspaper devoted to promoting the people and events of Montgomery County,\" according to the mission statement on its website. The Paper also partners with Indianapolis television station WTHR for news-gathering.\n\nSee also\nList of newspapers in Indiana\n\nExternal links\nThe Paper of Montgomery County\nIndiana Newspaper Abandons Home Delivery Service, Will Use U.S. Mail \n\nNewspapers published in Indiana",
"The Pennsylvania Report is an independent bi-weekly subscription-based political newspaper published in Pennsylvania. It is \"widely read by the state's political junkies.\" It was founded in 1985 by David Buffington, a former public relations worker for the Pennsylvania Government.\n\nIt provides confidential reports on \"personalities, events and trends\" within the politics of Pennsylvania. Annual features include \"The PA Report 100,\" profiling 100 individuals the editors think are \"most likely to have an impact on government and politics\" in Pennsylvania that year, and \"The Political Stock Exchange,\" ranking the relative value of political personalities to their cause. The annual \"Legislative All Star Team\" provides a tongue-in-cheek baseball team composed of legislators.\n\nFeatures and exclusive interviews in the Pennsylvania Report frequently appear in other publications, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia City Paper.\n\nFormer editor David Buffington is frequently quoted regarding issues of Pennsylvania politics.\n\nThe results of a Pennsylvania Report poll regarding the 1994 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election was reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In an article about freshman legislator Shawn Flaherty, the Pittsburgh City Paper noted that he had been dubbed \"Rookie of the Year\" by the Pennsylvania Report.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nPennsylvania Report Issues\n\nNewspapers published in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania\nPublications established in 1985\nAmerican political websites\nPolitics of Pennsylvania\n1985 establishments in Pennsylvania"
] |
[
"Blink-182",
"Lineup change, California, and future (2015-present)"
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | When did the lineup change | 1 | When did the Blink-182 lineup change | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | true | [
"Rockwave Festival is a rock festival that takes place in Malakasa, Greece, near Athens. It is one of the most famous music festivals in Greece. The festival's history begins in 1996, but its popularity has spread since 2004. The festival's location was constantly being changed until 2004, when event park TerraVibe Park, located in Attica, became the permanent venue of the festival.\n\n2022 lineup\n\n2018 lineup\n\n2017 lineup\n\n2016 lineup\n\n2015 lineup\n\n2014 lineup\n\n2013 lineup\n\n2012 lineup\n\n2011 lineup\n\n2010 lineup\n\n2009 lineup\n\n2008 lineup\nMonday 31 March was the day when Didi Music-Big Star Promotion Ltd (music concert organizer), announced the names of the artists that would perform at Rockwave Festival 2008. Along with the names they introduced the changes in the festival's whole structure. \nThe festival is now divided in two stages, \"Terra\" stage and \"Vibe\" stage (that comes by the name of the event park \"TerraVibe\"). They also abolished the division of the \"Terra\" concert area into gates PL1 and PL2, lowered the high price of the tickets and retained the special area that is on the side of the field, where there is more comfort, as there are places to sit.\n\n2007 lineup\nWhen the band names were first announced, Stone Sour were included in the third day of the festival. Although the band cancelled a few of their dates in their European tour, My Dying Bride filled up their spot in the third day.\n\n2006 lineup\nW.A.S.P. were to play on the third day but did not perform due to health issues of Blackie Lawless.\n\n2005 lineup\n\n2004 lineup\nRunning Wild did not perform and were replaced by Gamma Ray. Muse were also to perform on the fourth day of the festival but cancelled and were replaced by Mogwai.\n\n2001 lineup\nThe festival took place in the Athens Olympic Velodrome (Athens Olympic Sports Complex) from 1 to 3 July.\nThe second day of the festival was cancelled by the Greek authorities, due to reasons of safety.\n\n2000 lineup\nThe festival took place in Tritsis Park in Ilion, Athens.\nIron Maiden cancelled their show at the third day, due to Janick Gers' accident at a previous show. The Flaming Lips also cancelled their show on the first day.\n\n1999 lineup\nThe festival took place in Agios Kosmas, Athens.\n\n1998 lineup\nThe festival took place in Freattyda, Piraeus.\n\n1997 lineup\nThe festival took place in Rizoupoli Stadium, now called Georgios Kamaras Stadium.\n\n1996 lineup\nThe first festival was called \"Rock of Gods\" and took place in the Dock 3 of the Piraeus harbour. \nMotörhead was included in the first day of the festival, but cancelled and Saxon filled up their spot. Foo Fighters were to play on the third day of the festival, but Dave Grohl broke his arm at a previous show and Violent Femmes took their place.\n\nExternal links\nRockwave Festival official Website (in Greek)\nTerra Vibe the festival hosting area\nDidi Music-Big Star Promotion Official Website (in Greek)\n\nRock festivals in Greece\nHeavy metal festivals\nMusic festivals in Greece\nMusic festivals established in 1996\nTourist attractions in Attica\nEvents in Attica\nElectronic music festivals in Greece\n1996 establishments in Greece\nSummer events in Greece",
"Opal Butterfly was an English psychedelic rock band from Oxfordshire, that was active between 1968 and 1970. Although the band itself did not gain widespread success, the musicians did go on to conduct successful musical careers. The band featured Simon King (drums) and for a short time, Lemmy, who later joined Hawkwind. Further members were Robert \"Robbie\" Milne (lead guitar), Allan Love (lead vocals), Richard Bardey (bass), and Tommy Doherty (rhythm guitar). The band released three official singles of the heavy psychedelic rock style before disbanding.\n\nHistory\nBefore becoming Opal Butterfly, the group was known as Cardboard Heaven They were formed in 1967 in Oxfordshire. Their original lineup consisted of Roger Warner (bass) Robbie Milne (lead guitar) 17-year-old Simon King (drums) Alan Cobb (keyboards) and vocals shared by Stuart Thornhill and Denny Sutcliffe. Locally, they performed at clubs and dance halls with a repertoire of R&B and blues standards. Even though the group garnered a considerable following, Simon King would leave the group to form Opal Butterfly.\n\nOpal Butterfly \nLater in the year Simon King formed his new band and recruited Milne on Guitar. The remaining lineup were associates of the two and included Allan Love (vocals) Richard Bardey (bass) Tom Doherty (guitar) Regarding the name, Doherty stated \"Butterfly by itself was a bit dull, so we thought of something more colorful\".\n\nThe group began recording demos and received the interest of CBS Records. These included covers of \"I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)\" and \"Wind Up Toys\", both tracks by The Electric Prunes.\nIn 1968, the band released their first official recording \"Beautiful Beige\"/\"Speak Up\" which was described as a solid piece of harmonial psychedelic pop, but made no impactful gains. The group's most notable recordings came in 1969 with an organ-backed remake of The Who composition \"Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand\" with the B-side being \"My Gration Or?\". Despite radio play, the single only gained them local support and the band would revamp its lineup and change labels to Polydor. Most notably, the band acquired Lemmy Kilmister.\nKilmister met the band at a shop called The Chelsea Drug Store located in the Kings Rd Chelsea. He started a friendship with King who then asked him to join, and Kilmister would be a member until the group's decision to kick him a few months later. With the new label, the new lineup released a single, \"Groupie Girl\"/\"The Gigging Song\". For this final effort, the band returned to its roots as the songs were more blues influenced in nature. However, the single caused a slight uproar when the cover featured a nude woman and radio stations refused to play the single. Throughout 1969 into 1970 the band initiated a tour in Britain for sets of 90 minutes. They appeared in the Derek Ford film, Groupie Girl (1970), as \"Sweaty Betty\". Lemmy did not contribute to any recordings or the film. One last line-up change was formed but did not change the band's fortunes and they broke up in 1970. Kilmister and King would cooperate once again in Hawkwind.\n\nIn the meantime, Milne formed another Opal Butterfly line-up with replacement musicians, namely Ray Owen (vocals) David O'List (guitar), Stan Decker (bass) and Mike Burchett (drums) but this line-up only lasted a short while. Doherty and King formed their own version of Opal Butterfly and were not too pleased of Milne forming his own version, so in 1969 Milne joined the 'New Look Soul Band' who were later to become Fine China.\n\nDiscography\n? - \"I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)\" (Mantz, Tucker) b/w \"Wind-Up Toys\" (demo) \n1968 - \"Beautiful Beige\" b/w \"Speak Up\" (CBS single)\n1968 - \"Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand\" (Townshend) b/w \"My Gration Or?\" (single)\n1969 - \"Groupie Girl\" b/w \"The Gigging Song\" (Polydor single)\n1970 - Groupie Girl (soundtrack album, featured the two single tracks) Polydor 2383 031\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nStevelitchfield.com\nBiography\nGroupie Girl album cover\n\nMusical groups established in 1967\nMusical groups disestablished in 1970\nEnglish psychedelic rock music groups\nMusical groups from London"
] |
[
"Blink-182",
"Lineup change, California, and future (2015-present)",
"When did the lineup change",
"Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to \"fill in\""
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | HOw long was Skiba with them | 2 | How long was Skiba with Blink-182? | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | true | [
"Demos is the first full-length album by Alkaline Trio singer/guitarist Matt Skiba. It is composed of demos that Skiba has recorded into his computer. Skiba released the project on Asian Man Records, which was Alkaline Trio's label for their first two full-length albums, Goddamnit and Maybe I'll Catch Fire. Four of the songs from this release, namely \"Angel of Deaf,\" \"Haven't You,\" \"How The Hell Did We Get Here,\" and \"Nausea (Cruel and Unusual),\" were later rerecorded and released on Babylon, Skiba's first album with his band The Sekrets. On that release, however, \"Nausea (Cruel and Unusual)\" underwent lyrical alterations and was renamed \"Olivia.\"\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs written and performed by Matt Skiba.\n\nReferences\n\n2010 debut albums\nDemo albums\nMatt Skiba albums",
"Prevent This Tragedy is a song by American rock band, Alkaline Trio, released on their 2005 album, Crimson. The song was written by Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano, and Derek Grant.\n\nBackground \n\"Prevent This Tragedy\" was written about the West Memphis Three; a group of teenagers convicted of murdering three children in 1993. The case became highly controversial due to all three juveniles being found guilty with what the general public believed to be a severe lack of evidence against them.\n\nMany members of the music community showed their support over the years to have the West Memphis Three released from prison. Alkaline Trio in particular became heavily involved with a yearly awareness day for the three, while guitarist, Matt Skiba, corresponded with Damien Echols, the only one of the three men who had been sentenced to death row, in an effort to save his life. Skiba also stated that they had also been a major influence on not only writing Crimson, but the majority of the band's activities for over a decade.\"That was something that we, and myself in particular, were driven and influenced by. Especially Damien’s situation, because he was facing the death sentence. He was on his third and last appeal, and then they were going to kill him. It was a personal statement about someone who was facing imminent death as a young person.” - Matt Skiba\n\nReception \nCritics have praised \"Prevent This Tragedy\" for helping to spread awareness for the case of the West Memphis Three. Mala Mortensa of Alternative Press praised the song's narrative, and noted how much more emotional it is now that all three men have been released from prison, but have yet to be fully exonerated.\n\nPersonnel \nPersonnel per Crimson booklet.\n\nAlkaline Trio\n\n Matt Skiba – guitars, lead vocals, songwriting\n Dan Andriano – bass, backing vocals, songwriting\n Derek Grant – drums, backing vocals, songwriting\n\nAdditional musicians\n\n Warren Fitzgerald – additional string arrangements\n\nReferences \n\nAlkaline Trio songs\n2005 songs\nSongs written by Matt Skiba\nSongs written by Dan Andriano\nSongs written by Derek Grant (drummer)"
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"Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to \"fill in\"",
"HOw long was Skiba with them",
"Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role."
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | Have they done any tours with him? | 3 | Have Blink-182 done any tours with Skiba? | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | true | [
"Riding on the success of their previous two tours, Elton John and Billy Joel once again hit the stadiums in 1998. The production had previously only toured the United States and Canada, but this time they visited Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Europe, avoiding any North American cities.\n\nOn 6 June, Joel pulled out of a concert at Wembley Stadium in London, England due to illness. John performed the show without him, playing several of Joel's songs. The same happened in Zurich, Switzerland at Letzigrund Stadium on 30 June; this was the last night of the 1998 tour.\n\nJoel stated in 2012 that he would no longer tour with John because it restricts his setlists.\n\nTour dates\n\nSetlists\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Information Site with Tour Dates\n\n1998 concert tours\nBilly Joel concert tours\nCo-headlining concert tours\nElton John concert tours",
"Armentarius (died 584) was a Jewish moneylender, active in Francia under the Merovingian dynasty. He was murdered in Tours, causing a controversy over who was responsible. The main source about him is Gregory of Tours. He should probably not be confused with the similarly named Armentarius, the archiatrus (chief physician) of Tours, who is mentioned treating Gregory in 573.\n\nMurder \n\nArmentarius was a Jew. His role as a moneylender can be deduced by his activities. He is recorded lending money to Eunomius and Iniuriosus. He would be paid by a portion of the public taxes (propter tributa publica, loaned against the public taxes). Eunomius was the Count of Tours (comes), Iniuriosus was his vicarius (deputy).\n\nArmentarius arrived in Tours to collect payment. He was accompanied \"by a man of his own religion and two Christians\". The first was obviously a fellow Jew. It is unclear if the other two were business partners of Armentarius or merely his bodyguards. The two leaders of Tours invited Armentarius into their dwelling, promising payment and gifts. Armentarius and Iniuriosus shared dinner, then the visitor left.\n\nWhat followed is uncertain. Armentarius was found murdered, his money and papers stolen. Servants of Iniuriosus were accused of the murder, implicating their master. Gregory suggests the tribune Medardus () as an alternative suspect, since the latter was also a client of the victim.\n\nIniuriosus denied any involvement in the murder. He swore a legal oath to that effect. The family of Armentarius demanded that Childebert II (r. 575–595) should decide on the case. Iniuriosus visited the royal court, presumably at Metz, for his hearing. He waited three days for his accusers to appear. Since Armentarius' relatives never appeared at court, the case was dismissed. Iniuriosus returned home with no further incident.\n\nInterpretation \nJonathan Elukin examined the case as part of the \"difficult ... to characterize ... Jewish experience in Merovingian society\". The narrative suggests a few things about the role of Armentarius in Merovingian society. He could travel freely, suggesting a right to freedom of movement. He seems to have had a long-established financial relationship with the authorities of Tours. His clients inviting him into their homes and even sharing a meal with him is not mentioned by Gregory as extraordinary. For Armentarius this suggests that his relations with Frankish leaders were \"casual and routine\". For Jews in general it suggests they could socialize with the Christians.\n\nAnother point of interest is the ability of Armentarius' family to bring the case to the monarch. Elukin deduces that this access to the monarch could mean they had \"real influence\". That Iniuriosus escaped, does not necessarily mean his accusers were \"powerless or abused\". They might have decided against pressing the case. Elukin suggests that they could have been thwarted by \"the lack of evidence\" on who was responsible.\n\nElukin also calls attention to some elements missing from the narrative. There is no sense that the story has a moral, a conveyed message. There is no criticism of the victim as greedy or devious. Typical stereotypes of Jews are absent, with Gregory reporting the case in an \"understated and straightforward manner\". He barely calls attention to the Jewish identity of the victim. The narrative is argued to be part of a longstanding theme of Gregory's history: \"the lawlesness and mystery of Frankish society\".\n\nReferences\n\nSources \n\n \n\n584 deaths\nPeople murdered in France\n6th-century Frankish Jews\nMedieval murder victims\nYear of birth unknown\n6th-century businesspeople"
] |
[
"Blink-182",
"Lineup change, California, and future (2015-present)",
"When did the lineup change",
"Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to \"fill in\"",
"HOw long was Skiba with them",
"Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role.",
"Have they done any tours with him?",
"The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016,"
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | How popular was the album | 4 | How popular was the album California? | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | true | [
"How Much for Happy is Canadian actress and singer-songwriter Cassie Steele's debut album. How Much for Happy was released in Canada on March 15, 2005, and in the US on April 26, 2005. The album was sold on iTunes in the US for a few months, but after having an argument with Rob'N'Steal Productions about the distribution of How Much for Happy, the album was removed from iTunes, yet was still available on Amazon.com. Physically, the album is now out of print in the US, but it was put back on iTunes. Steele wrote 12 out of the 13 tracks on her debut album. The thirteenth was a remake of the popular song by Jimi Hendrix, \"Hey Joe\".\n\nSales\nThe album was certified gold in Canada, selling more than 25,000 copies.\n\nSingles\nTwo singles, \"Blue Bird\" and \"Famous\", were released off of the album. A music video for \"Blue Bird\" was released as well, which featured Cassie recording the single along with photos of her.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Not Yours Truly\"\n\"Famous\"\n\"Fantasy\"\n\"Blue Bird\"\n\"Jaded\"\n\"Rock Your Bones\"\n\"Drink Me Dry\"\n\"Crimson Tears\"\n\"Broken (How Much for Happy)\"\n\"Empty Eyes\"\n\"A Sinner's Prayer\"\n\"Love Cost\"\n\"Hey Joe\"\n Unreleased track: \"Things That God Cannot Explain\"\n\n2005 debut albums\nCassie Steele albums",
"How the West Was Won may refer to:\n How the West Was Won (film), a 1962 American Western film\n How the West Was Won (TV series), a 1970s television series loosely based on the film\n How the West Was Won (Bing Crosby album) (1959)\n How the West Was Won (Led Zeppelin album) (2003)\n How the West Was Won (Peter Perrett album) (2017)\n How the West Was Won, a 2002 album by Luni Coleone\n \"How the West Was Won\", a 1987 song by Laibach from Opus Dei\n \"How the West Was Won\", a 1996 song by the Romo band Plastic Fantastic\n\nSee also\n How the West Was Fun, a 1994 TV movie starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen\n How the West Was One (disambiguation)\n \"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us\", a 1997 song by R.E.M."
] |
[
"Blink-182",
"Lineup change, California, and future (2015-present)",
"When did the lineup change",
"Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to \"fill in\"",
"HOw long was Skiba with them",
"Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role.",
"Have they done any tours with him?",
"The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016,",
"How popular was the album",
"California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards."
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | Have they ever won a grammy | 5 | Have Blink-182 ever won a grammy? | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | false | [
"The American pop group the Carpenters, featuring siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter have received several awards and nominations, both in their active career and posthumously.\n\nThroughout the 1970s, Karen and Richard were nominated numerous times for Grammy Awards. Richard Carpenter was also nominated for a Grammy Award for their instrumental song, \"Flat Baroque\". They won three Grammy Awards, and had two songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.\n\nAmerican Music Awards\n\nGrammy Awards\n\n|\n\nReferences\n\nAwards\nCarpenters",
"Throughout the history of the Grammy Awards, many significant records have been set. This page only includes the competitive awards which have been won by various artists. This does not include the various special awards that are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences such as Lifetime Achievement Awards, Trustees Awards, Technical Awards or Legend Awards. The page however does include other non-performance related Grammys (known as the Craft & Production Fields) that may have been presented to the artist(s).\n\nAwards\n\nMost Grammys won\n\nThe record for the most Grammy Awards won in a lifetime is held by Georg Solti, a Hungarian-British conductor who was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for twenty-two years (1969-1991). He won 31 competitive Grammy Awards out of 74 nominations and was also awarded the first Grammy Trustees Award in 1967 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.\n\nMost Grammys won by a male artist\nGeorg Solti has won 31 Grammy Awards.\n\nMost Grammys won by a female artist\n\nAs a solo artist, collaborator, and songwriter, Beyoncé has won 28 Grammy Awards.\n\nMost Grammys won by a group\n\nU2 holds the record for most Grammy Awards won by a group. They have won 22 awards.\n\nMost Grammys won by a producer\n\nQuincy Jones with 28 awards holds the record for most Grammy Awards won by a producer (and eleven of those were awarded for production duties. Jones also received Grammys as an arranger and a performing artist). Some producers have also won awards as engineers, mixers and/or mastering engineers.\n\nMost Grammys won by a rapper \n\nJay-Z, with 23 awards, has won more Grammy Awards than any other rapper. Kanye West is second with 22 Grammy Awards, while Lauryn Hill is the most awarded female rapper, with 8 Grammy Awards.\n\nMost Grammys won by an engineer or mixer \nAl Schmitt, with 20 awards, has won more Grammy Awards than any other engineer or mixer. Serban Ghenea is second with 18 Grammy Awards.\n\nYoungest winners\n\nThe Peasall Sisters are the youngest Grammy winners, when they were credited artists on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which won Album of the Year in 2002. Blue Ivy Carter is the youngest individually credited winner. She was 9 years old when she won her first award in 2021, after she was credited on her mother Beyoncé's song \"Brown Skin Girl\", released in 2019. LeAnn Rimes is the youngest individual winner. She was 14 years old when she won her first two awards in 1997. She was also the first Country artist to win the Best New Artist Grammy.\n\nYoungest artists to win Album of the Year\n\nBillie Eilish is the youngest artist to win Album of the Year as a lead. She was 18 years old, while winning for her album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2020.\n\nYoungest artists to win Record of the Year\n\nAt 18 years of age, Billie Eilish became the youngest artist to win Record of the Year when she won for “Bad Guy” in 2020.\n\nYoungest artist to win Song of the Year\n\nAt 17 years of age, Lorde became the youngest artist to win Song of the Year when she won for “Royals” in 2014.\n\nYoungest artist to win Best New Artist\n\nAt 14 years of age, LeAnn Rimes became the youngest Best New Artist winner when she won in 1997.\n\nOldest winners\n\nPinetop Perkins is the oldest person to win a Grammy. In 2011 he was awarded with Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined At The Hip, at 97 years of age.\n\nNote: Sources vary on the birth year of Elizabeth Cotten, with some stating it as 1893, while others say 1895. The above information credits it as 1895. With either year, Cotten is the oldest female Grammy winner.\n\nMost honored albums\nSantana's Supernatural and U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb hold the record for most honoured album having won nine awards. Supernatural won nine awards in 2000 and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb won three awards in 2005 and won a further six in 2006 giving it a total of nine awards.\n\nMost Album of the Year wins\n\nThe record for most Album of the Year wins is four. Two engineer/mixers and one mastering engineer have won the award four times;\n \n Serban Ghenea, engineer/mixer — 1989 (2016), 25 (2017), 24K Magic (2018), Folklore (2021)\n John Hanes, engineer/mixer — 1989 (2016), 25 (2017), 24K Magic (2018), Folklore (2021)\n Tom Coyne, mastering engineer — 21 (2012), 1989 (2016), 25 (2017), 24K Magic (2018)\n\nFour recording artists, four record producers, two engineer/mixers and one mastering engineers have won the award three times;\n\n Frank Sinatra, artist — Come Dance with Me! (1960), September of My Years (1966), A Man and His Music (1967)\n Stevie Wonder, artist — Innervisions (1974), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1975), Songs in the Key of Life (1977)\n Paul Simon, artist — Bridge over Troubled Water (1971), Still Crazy After All These Years (1976), Graceland (1987)\n Taylor Swift, artist — Fearless (2010), 1989 (2016), Folklore (2021)\n David Foster, producer — Unforgettable... with Love (1992), The Bodyguard - Original Soundtrack Album (1994), Falling into You (1997)\n Phil Ramone, producer — Still Crazy After All These Years (1976), 52nd Street (1980), Genius Loves Company (2005)\n Daniel Lanois, producer — The Joshua Tree (1988), Time Out of Mind (1998), How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2006)\n Ryan Tedder, producer — 21 (2012), 1989 (2016), 25 (2017)\n Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer — O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Soundtrack (2002), Raising Sand (2009), 25 (2017)\n Tom Elmhirst, engineer/mixer — 21 (2012), Morning Phase (2015), 25 (2017)\n Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer — Babel (2013), Random Access Memories (2014), Morning Phase (2015)\n\nMost Record of the Year wins\nThe record for most Record of the Year wins is four. One mastering engineer has won the award four consecutive times;\n\n Tom Coyne, mastering engineer — “Stay with Me (Darkchild Version)” (2015), “Uptown Funk” (2016), “Hello” (2017), “24K Magic” (2018)\n\nOne recording artist and one engineer/mixer have won the award three times;\n\n Paul Simon, artist — “Mrs. Robinson” (1969), “Bridge over Troubled Water” (1971), “Graceland” (1988)\n Tom Elmhirst, engineer/mixer — “Rehab” (2008), “Rolling in the Deep” (2012), “Hello” (2017)\n\nMost Song of the Year wins\n\nThe record for the most Song of the Year wins is two. Six songwriters have won in this category twice;\n \n Henry Mancini - “Moon River” (1962), “Days of Wine and Roses” (1964)\n Johnny Mercer - “Moon River” (1962), “Days of Wine and Roses” (1964) \n James Horner - “Somewhere Out There” (1988), “My Heart Will Go On” (1999) \n Will Jennings - “Tears in Heaven” (1993), “My Heart Will Go On” (1999) \n U2 - “Beautiful Day” (2001), “Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own” (2006)\n Adele - \"Rolling in the Deep” (2012), “Hello” (2017)\n\nMost Grammys won for consecutive studio albums\nAlison Krauss and Union Station, Beyoncé (including Everything Is Love), Pat Metheny (along with the Pat Metheny Group), and The Manhattan Transfer have won seven consecutive awards for seven consecutive studio albums.\n\nMost consecutive Grammys won for the same category\n\nArtists who have won all four General Field awards\n\nThere have been only three artists who have won all four General Field awards: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.\n\nIn 1981, Christopher Cross became the first artist to win all four awards, as well as the first act to win them all in a single year.\n\nIn 2009, Adele won Best New Artist, earned three other awards in both 2012 and 2017. She was the second artist to win all four accolades throughout her career, and the first to do so on separate occasions.\n\nIn 2020, Billie Eilish became the third musician to win all four awards, and first female artist to win them during a single ceremony.\n\nSingle ceremony\n\nMost Grammys won in one night\nThe record for most Grammys won in one night is eight. Michael Jackson won eight in 1984 and Santana tied Jackson's record in 2000.\n\nMost Grammys won by a male artist in one night\n\nThe record for most Grammys won by a male artist in one night is eight. Michael Jackson won eight in 1984.\n\nMost Grammys won by a female artist in one night\n\nThe record for most Grammys won by a female artist in one night is six. Beyoncé and Adele each won six in 2010 and 2012, respectively.\n\nMost Grammys won by a group in one night\n\nThe record for most Grammys won by a group artist in one night is eight. Santana won eight in 2000.\n\nMost Grammys won by a record producer in one night\n\nThe record for most awards won by a producer in one night is six. The record was set by Quincy Jones who won six awards in 1991, including Album of the Year, Best Arrangement On An Instrumental, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s), Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group, as well as Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his own studio album Back on the Block.\n\nFinneas O'Connell tied the record in 2020, winning Producer of the Year, Non-Classical and five additional awards, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and Best Pop Vocal Album for his contribution on Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.\n\nMost Grammys won by an engineer or mixer in one night\n\nThe most Grammys won by an engineer or mixer in one night is six. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in 2017, Tom Elmhirst won Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Rock Album, Best Alternative Music Album, as well as Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for his work on Adele's 25, Cage the Elephant's Tell Me I'm Pretty, and David Bowie's Blackstar respectively.\n\nArtists who have won all four General Field Awards at a single ceremony\n\nChristopher Cross (1981) and Billie Eilish (2020) are the only artists who have received all four General Field awards in one night.\n\nArtists who have won Album, Record, and Song of the Year in one night\n\nThe three biggest Grammy Awards are Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Eight artists have won all three in one night. Adele is the first and only artist in Grammy history to accomplish this feat twice.\n\nMost Grammys won by an album in one night\n\nThe most awards awarded to an album in one night is nine. At the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000 Santana's Supernatural was awarded nine awards. It won Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, Best Rock Instrumental Performance, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and Best Rock Album.\n\nMost posthumous Grammys won in one night\n\n \nRay Charles holds the record for most posthumous awards won in one night. He was awarded five Grammy Awards at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in 2005, including both Record of the Year and Album of the Year.\n\nNominations\n\nMost Grammy nominations\n\nJay-Z holds the record for the most Grammy nominations with 83.\n\nMost nominations in one night\n\nMichael Jackson and Babyface hold the record for most Grammy nominations in one night with 12 nominations.\n\nMost nominations without winning\n\nWith 18 nominations, Zubin Mehta has received the most Grammy nominations without winning.\n\nMost nominations in one night without winning\n\nThe record for most Grammy nominations without a win in one night is 9, held by Paul McCartney. The record was set in 1966.\n\nGrammy nominations in the most fields\n\nArtists who had been nominated for all four General Field awards in one night\n\nOnly thirteen artists have been nominated for all four General Field awards in one night. Lizzo is the oldest person to be nominated for all four awards in one night, at 31 years old; while the youngest person to be nominated is Billie Eilish at 17 years old. Both were nominated in 2020, making it the first time that two artists were nominated for all four awards in one night. In 1968, Bobbie Gentry became the first person and first female artist to be nominated for all four awards, followed by Christopher Cross in 1981 and Fun. in 2013, becoming the first male artist and first group to be nominated, respectively. In addition, Finneas O'Connell was nominated for all four General Field awards in 2022, but was nominated as a producer or songwriter in three of the four categories.\n\nYoungest nominees\nLeah Peasall of The Peasall Sisters is the youngest ever Grammy nominee (and winner) as one of the credited artists on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Soundtrack in 2002. Deleon Richards is the youngest performer to receive an individual nomination, for Best Soul/Gospel performance.\n\nSee also\n\nLatin Grammy Award records\nList of Academy Award records\nList of people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial Grammy Awards website\n\nRecords\nRecords (superlatives)"
] |
[
"Blink-182",
"Lineup change, California, and future (2015-present)",
"When did the lineup change",
"Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to \"fill in\"",
"HOw long was Skiba with them",
"Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role.",
"Have they done any tours with him?",
"The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016,",
"How popular was the album",
"California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards.",
"Have they ever won a grammy",
"I don't know."
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | what plans do they have for the future | 6 | What plans do Blink-182 have for the future? | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | false | [
"Operational planning (OP) is the process of planning strategic goals and objectives to technical goals and objectives. It describes milestones, conditions for success and explains how, or what portion of, a strategic plan will be put into operation during a given operational period, in the case of commercial application, a fiscal year or another given budgetary term. An operational plan is the basis for and justification of an annual operating budget request. Therefore, a five-year strategic plan would typically require five operational plans funded by five operating budgets.\n\nOperational plans should establish the activities and budgets for each part of the organization for the next 1–3 years. They link the strategic plan with the activities the organization will deliver and the resources required to deliver them.\n\nAn operational plan draws directly from agency and program strategic plans to describe agency and program missions and goals, program objectives, and program activities. Like a strategic plan, an operational plan addresses four questions:\n\nWhere are we now?\nWhere do we want to be?\nHow do we get there?\nHow do we measure our progress?\n\nThe operations plan is both the first and the last step in preparing an operating budget request. As the first step, the operations plan provides a plan for resource allocation; as the last step, the OP may be modified to reflect policy decisions or financial changes made during the budget development process.\n\nOperational plans should be prepared by the people who will be involved in implementation. There is often a need for significant cross-departmental dialogue as plans created by one part of the organization inevitably have implications for other parts.\n\nOperational plans should contain:\n\nclear objectives of them\nactivities to be delivered \nquality standards \ndesired outcomes \nstaffing and resource requirements \nimplementation timetables \na process for monitoring progress\n\nSee also\n Integrated business planning\n\nReferences\n\nBusiness planning\nBusiness terms\nBusiness process",
"\"Wait and See\" is a song by Christian contemporary-alternative rock musician Brandon Heath from his second studio album, What If We. It was released sometime in early 2009, as the second single from the album.\n\nBackground \nThis song was produced by Dan Muckala.\n\nBrandon Heath told Kevin Davis of New Release Tuesday that the background for the song is the following:\n\nComposition \n\"Wait and See\" was written by Brandon Heath, which he said the song comes from Jeremiah 29:11, and the verse is about \"For I know the plans I have for you,\" declares the LORD, \"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.\"\n\nRelease \nThe song \"Wait and See\" was digitally released as the second single from What If We in early 2009.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nReferences \n\n2009 singles\nBrandon Heath songs\nSongs written by Brandon Heath\nSong recordings produced by Dan Muckala\n2008 songs"
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"HOw long was Skiba with them",
"Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role.",
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"California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards.",
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"what plans do they have for the future",
"The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas."
] | C_cc55fd216c60441ab0c43fb74a602db1_0 | When does that start | 7 | When does a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort start? | Blink-182 | Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus. Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California--essentially a double album including songs left off the original album--was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic. Recently, the band has taken time off and are preparing to record their eighth studio album. "Somehow, Blink has had this resurgence like we never expected," Hoppus told Kerrang! in July 2017. "I count myself lucky to have been [playing in the band] as long as I have." The band signed a 16-date residency deal with the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. CANNOTANSWER | The shows, known as "Kings of the Weekend," will take place on select weekends beginning May 26, 2018. The last show is on November 17, 2018. | Blink-182 (stylized in all lowercase) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992. Their current lineup consists of guitarist/vocalist Matt Skiba, bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has diversified throughout their career, their musical style blends catchy pop melodies with fast-paced punk rock. Their lyrics center on relationships, adolescent frustration, and maturity—or lack thereof. The group emerged from a suburban, Southern California skate-punk scene and gained notoriety for high-energy live shows and irreverent humor.
After years of independent recording and touring, including stints on the Warped Tour, the group signed to MCA Records. Their biggest albums, Enema of the State (1999) and Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001), saw international success. Songs like "All the Small Things", "Dammit", "I Miss You", and "What's My Age Again?" became hit singles and MTV staples. Later efforts, including an untitled album (2003), marked stylistic shifts. DeLonge quit the group twice, both times a decade apart; since 2015, the band has included musician Matt Skiba, with whom they have continued to record and tour. Their most recent album, Nine, saw release in 2019.
Blink-182 is widely considered to be one of the most prominent and influential rock acts of the late twentieth century. Their straightforward approach and simple arrangements, which helped initiate pop-punk's mainstream rise, made them popular among generations of listeners. Worldwide, the group has sold 50 million albums, and have moved 13 million copies in the U.S.
History
Formation and initial years (1992–1994)
Blink-182 was formed in Poway, California, a suburb north of San Diego, in August 1992. Guitarist Tom DeLonge was expelled from Poway High for being inebriated at a basketball game, and was forced to attend another school, Rancho Bernardo High School, for one semester. There, he performed at a Battle of the Bands competition, where he was introduced to drummer Scott Raynor. He also befriended Kerry Key, who was also interested in punk rock music. Key was dating Anne Hoppus, sister of bassist Mark Hoppus, who had recently moved from Ridgecrest, California, to work at a record store and attend college. Both Hoppus and DeLonge grew up listening to punk rock music, with both particularly enamored by the Descendents. Southern California had a large punk population in the early 1990s, aided by an active surfing, skating, and snowboarding scene. In contrast to East Coast punk music, the West Coast wave of groups typically introduced more melodic aspects to the group's music. "New York is gloomy, dark and cold. It makes different music. The Californian middle-class suburbs have nothing to be that bummed about," said DeLonge.
Anne introduced her brother to DeLonge on August 1, 1992. The pair instantly connected and played for hours in DeLonge's garage, exchanging lyrics and co-writing songs—one of which became fan favorite "Carousel". Hoppus, hoping to impress DeLonge, fell from a lamppost in front of DeLonge's home and cracked his ankles, putting him in crutches for three weeks. The trio began to practice together in Raynor's bedroom, spending time writing music, seeing movies and punk concerts, and playing practical jokes. The trio first operated under a variety of names, including Duck Tape and Figure 8, until DeLonge rechristened the band "Blink". Hoppus' girlfriend of the time was annoyed by his constant attention to the band, and demanded he make a choice between the band and her, which resulted in Hoppus leaving the band not long after its formation. Shortly thereafter, DeLonge and Raynor borrowed a four-track recorder from friend and collaborator Cam Jones and were preparing to record a demo tape, with Jones on bass. Hoppus promptly broke up with his girlfriend and returned to the band. Flyswatter—a combination of original songs and punk covers—was recorded in Raynor's bedroom in May 1993.
The band began booking shows, and were on stage nearly every weekend, even at Elks Lodges and YMCA centers. DeLonge called clubs constantly in San Diego asking for a spot to play, as well as local high schools, convincing them that Blink was a "motivational band with a strong antidrug message" in hopes to play at an assembly or lunch. San Diego at this time was "hardly a hotbed of [musical] activity", according to journalist Joe Shooman, but the band's popularity grew as did punk rock concurrently in the mainstream. They quickly became part of a circuit that also included bands such as Ten Foot Pole and Unwritten Law, and Blink soon found its way onto the bill as the opening band for acts performing at Soma, a local all-ages venue. "The biggest dreams we ever had when we started was to [headline] a show at Soma," Hoppus said later. Meanwhile, Hoppus' manager at the record store, Patrick Secor, fronted the group money to properly record another demo at a local studio Doubletime. The result was Buddha (1994), which the members of the band viewed as the band's first legitimate release. That year, however, Raynor's family relocated to Reno, Nevada, and he was briefly replaced by musician Mike Krull. The band saved money and began flying Raynor out to shows, and he eventually moved back and in with Hoppus in mid-1995. During that time, the band would record its first album, first music video, and develop a larger following.
Early releases and touring (1995–1998)
The heart of the local independent music scene was Cargo Records, which offered to sign the band on a "trial basis," with help from O, guitarist for local punk band Fluf, and Brahm Goodis, a friend of the band whose father was president of the label. Hoppus was the only member to sign the contract, as DeLonge was at work at the time and Raynor was still a minor. The band recorded their debut album—Cheshire Cat, released in February 1995—in three days at Westbeach Recorders in Los Angeles, fueled by both new songs and re-recordings of songs from previous demos. "M+M's", the band's first single, garnered local radio airplay from 91X, and Cargo offered the band a small budget to film a music video for it. Meanwhile, the record also drew the attention of Irish band Blink. Unwilling to engage in a legal battle, the band agreed to change their name. Cargo gave the band a week, but the trio put off the decision for more than two afterward. Eventually, Cargo called the trio, demanding that they "change the name or [we'll] change it for you," after which the band decided on a random number, 182.
The band soon hired a manager, Rick DeVoe, who had worked with larger bands such as NOFX, Pennywise and The Offspring. In addition, the group drew the attention of Rick and Jean Bonde of the Tahoe booking agency, who were responsible for "spreading the name of the band far and wide." In late 1995, the trio embarked on their first national tour, promoting the surf video GoodTimes with Unwritten Law, Sprung Monkey and 7 Seconds. GoodTimes was directed by filmmaker Taylor Steele, who was a friend of DeVoe. In preparation for the trek, the band members purchased their own tour van, which they nicknamed the Millennium Falcon. The GoodTimes tour extended outside the States with a leg in Australia; the trio were financially unable to go, but Pennywise's members paid for their plane tickets. Fletcher Dragge, guitarist of Pennywise, believed in the band strongly. He demanded that Kevin Lyman, founder of the traveling rock-based Warped Tour, sign the band for its 1996 iteration, predicting they would become "gigantic." That year, the band toured heavily, with several domestic shows on and off the Warped Tour, trips to Canada and Japan, and more Australian dates. Australia were particularly receptive to the band and their humorous stage antics, which gained the band a reputation but also made them ostracized and considered a joke.
By March 1996, the trio began to accumulate a genuine buzz among major labels, resulting in a bidding war between Interscope, MCA and Epitaph. MCA promised the group complete artistic freedom and ultimately signed the band, but Raynor held a great affinity for Epitaph and began to feel half-invested in the band when they chose MCA. The group, discouraged by Cargo's lack of distribution and faith in the group, held no qualms about signing to a major label but were fiercely criticized in the punk community. After nonstop touring, the trio began recording their follow-up LP, Dude Ranch, over the period of a month in late 1996 with producer Mark Trombino. The record saw release the following June, and the band headed out on the 1997 Warped Tour. "Dammit", the album's second single, received heavy airplay on modern rock stations. Dude Ranch shipped gold by 1998, but an exhaustive touring schedule brought tensions among the trio. Raynor had been drinking heavily to offset personal issues, and he was fired by DeLonge and Hoppus in mid-1998 despite agreeing to attend rehab and quit drinking. Travis Barker, drummer for tour-mate The Aquabats, filled in for Raynor, learning the 20-song setlist in 45 minutes before the first show. By July, he joined the band full-time and later that year, the band entered the studio with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their third album.
Mainstream breakthrough and continued success (1999–2004)
With the release of the group's third album Enema of the State in June 1999, Blink-182 was catapulted to stardom and became the biggest pop-punk act of the era. Three singles were released from the record—"What's My Age Again?", "All the Small Things", and "Adam's Song"—which became major radio hits. "All the Small Things" became a number-one hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and also became a crossover hit, peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The band's relationship with MTV cemented their status as video stars; all three singles became staples on the network and TRL mainstays. Enema of the State was an enormous commercial success, although the band was criticized as synthesized, manufactured pop only remotely resembling punk, and pigeonholed as a joke act due to the puerile slant of their singles and associated videos. The album has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and had a considerable effect on pop punk music, inspiring a "second wave" of the genre and numerous acolytes.
Following that success, as well as their first arena tour and cameo appearances in film and TV (American Pie), the band recorded their fourth album, the comically titled Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001). It became their first number one album in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and spawned the singles "The Rock Show", "Stay Together for the Kids" and "First Date". Jerry Finn returned to produce the record and was a key architect of the "polished" pop punk sound; according to journalist James Montgomery, writing for MTV News, the veteran engineer "served as an invaluable member of the Blink team: part adviser, part impartial observer, he helped smooth out tensions and hone their multiplatinum sound." Recording sessions were sometimes contentious, as DeLonge strove for heavier-sounding guitar riffs. With time off from touring, he felt a desire to broaden his musical palette, and channeled his chronic back pain and resulting frustration into Box Car Racer (2002), an LP that emulates his post-hardcore influences, such as Fugazi and Refused. He invited Barker to record drums for the project, in order to refrain from hiring a studio musician. Box Car Racer rapidly evolved into a side project for the duo, launching the singles "I Feel So" and "There Is", in addition to two national tours throughout 2002. Though DeLonge claimed Hoppus was not intentionally left out, Hoppus felt betrayed, and the event created great division within the trio for some time and was an unresolved tension at the forefront of the band's later hiatus. In the meantime, Barker also parlayed his love of hip-hop into the rap rock outfit Transplants, a collaboration with Rancid's Tim Armstrong.
The band regrouped in 2003 to record its fifth studio album, infusing experimentalist elements into its usual pop punk sound, inspired by lifestyle changes (the band members all became fathers before the album was released) and side projects. Blink-182 was released in November 2003 through Geffen Records, which absorbed sister label MCA earlier that year. The worldwide touring schedule, which saw the band travel to Japan and Australia, also found the three performing for troops stationed in the Persian Gulf during the first year of the Iraq War. Critics generally complimented the new, more "mature" direction taken for the album and its lead singles "Feeling This" and "I Miss You" charted high, with the latter becoming the group's second number one hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Fans, however, were split by the new direction, and tensions within the band—stemming from the grueling schedule and DeLonge's desire to spend more time with his family—started to become evident.
Hiatus, side projects, and Barker's plane crash (2005–2008)
In February 2005, Geffen issued a press statement announcing the band's "indefinite hiatus." The band had broken up after members' arguments regarding their future and recording process. DeLonge felt increasingly conflicted both about his creative freedom within the group and the toll touring was taking on his family life. He eventually expressed his desire to take a half-year respite from touring in order to spend more time with family. Hoppus and Barker were dismayed by his decision, which they felt was an overly long break. Rehearsals for a benefit concert grew contentious, rooted in the trio's increasing bitterness toward one another. DeLonge considered his bandmates' priorities "mad, mad different," coming to the conclusion that the trio had simply grown apart as they aged, had families, and reached fame. The breakdown in communication led to heated exchanges, resulting in his exit from the group.
DeLonge briefly disappeared from public eye, making no appearances, granting no interviews and remaining silent until September 2005, when he announced his new project, Angels & Airwaves, promising "the greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation." He later revealed he was addicted to painkillers at the time for his chronic back pain, noting that his grandiose statements seemed outlandish. The group released two albums in 2006 and 2007: the RIAA gold-certified We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. In the interim, Hoppus and Barker also continued playing music together in +44. +44's debut, When Your Heart Stops Beating, was released in 2006 but stalled commercially and received mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Barker starred in the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers with his then-wife, former Miss USA Shanna Moakler. The couple's later split, reconciliation and subsequent breakup made them tabloid favorites. Barker also launched a shoe line and worked on hip-hop remixs, as well as with the Transplants and TRV$DJAM, a collaboration with friend Adam Goldstein (DJ AM). During the hiatus, Hoppus shifted his attention to hosting a podcast and producing albums (most notably Commit This to Memory by former tour-mate Motion City Soundtrack).
The band members did not speak from their breakup until 2008. That August, former producer Jerry Finn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died. The following month, Barker and Goldstein were involved in a plane crash that killed four people, leaving them the only two survivors. Barker sustained second and third degree burns and developed posttraumatic stress disorder, and the accident resulted in sixteen surgeries and multiple blood transfusions. Goldstein's injuries were less severe, but the following year, he died from a drug overdose. Hoppus was alerted about Barker's accident by a phone call in the middle of the night and jumped on the next flight to the burn center. DeLonge quickly reached out to his former bandmate, mailing him a letter and photograph. The trio eventually met up in the hospital, laying the grounds for what was going to be the band's reunion. Eventually, an arrangement was made for the trio to meet up at Hoppus and Barker's Los Angeles studio in October 2008. The three opened up, discussing the events of the hiatus and their break-up, and DeLonge was the first to approach the subject of reuniting. Hoppus remembered: "I remember [Tom] said, 'So, what do you guys think? Where are your heads at?' And I said, 'I think we should continue with what we've been doing for the past 17 years. I think we should get back on the road and back in the studio and do what we love doing.
Reunion years (2009–2014)
For the first time in nearly five years, the band appeared on stage together as presenters at the February 2009 Grammy Awards, and announced their reunion. The trio embarked on a reunion tour of North America from July to October 2009, with a European trek following from August to September 2010. Barker, suffering from a fear of flying after his accident, traveled via bus domestically and by an ocean liner for overseas dates. The recording process for Neighborhoods, the band's sixth studio album, was stalled by its studio autonomy, tours, managers, and personal projects. DeLonge recorded at his studio in San Diego while Hoppus and Barker recorded in Los Angeles—an extension of their strained communication. The self-produced album—their first without Jerry Finn since Enema of the State—was released in September 2011 and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. Its singles—"Up All Night" and "After Midnight"—only attracted modest chart success, and label Interscope was reportedly disappointed with album sales.
The band continued to tour in the early 2010s, "despite growing evidence of remaining friction" between the members, according to AllMusic biographer John Bush. They headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour in North America in 2011 with My Chemical Romance, and launched a 20th Anniversary Tour the next year. For that tour, the band played in Europe twice, North America, and Australia; drummer Brooks Wackerman filled-in for Barker, as he was not yet ready to fly. Additionally, the trio pursued a tenth anniversary celebration of Blink-182 with a series of shows, and played the Reading and Leeds Festivals; it was the band's fourth appearance at the festival and second headlining slot. The band also parted ways with longtime label Interscope, self-releasing their next project, Dogs Eating Dogs, an EP. DeLonge's final performance with the group was at the Wine Amplified Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11, 2014.
The reunion of the band has been characterized as dysfunctional by both Barker and DeLonge. Hoppus commented on this era of the band in a later interview: "Everything was always very contentious. There was always just a strange vibe. [...] I knew there was something wrong." In his memoir, Can I Say, Barker claims DeLonge's behavior on tour was "introverted" until "money started coming in," after which "he'd get excited about Blink." He states DeLonge abruptly quit sometime in mid-2014, and rejoined the following day. The group planned to begin writing their seventh album in January 2015, which had continually seen delays. "I'd do interviews and I just felt awful for fans because they were promised albums for years and we couldn't do it," Barker later said. A record deal was finalized and sessions were booked before DeLonge's manager informed the band he intended to spend more time on "non-musical activities" and indefinitely depart the group. In his own statement, DeLonge remarked that he "Never planned on quitting, [I] just find it hard as hell to commit." After these events, Barker summarized the band's reunion: "Why Blink even got back together in the first place is questionable."
Lineup change and recent years (2015–present)
Hoppus and Barker decided to continue on without DeLonge, and enlisted Alkaline Trio vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba to "fill in" for three shows in March 2015. Hoppus and Skiba had been wanting to work together musically for several years, so he was the first and only person considered for the role. After legal battles with DeLonge were worked out, Skiba joined Blink-182 as an official member and began preparations for new music. Initially, it was not made clear behind DeLonge departure until Barker revealed in 2019 that the guitarist wanted to pursue his company To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences full-time, which is devoted to investigating UFOs. DeLonge said "from every ounce of my being" that he was meant to do this.
The resulting album, California, was produced by John Feldmann. He was the group's first new producer since longtime collaborator Jerry Finn. California was recorded between January and March 2016. The band, as well as Feldmann, would regularly spend "18 hours" in the studio a day, aiming to start and complete multiple songs in that timeframe. "We all wanted to write the best record that we could [...] It does feel like a new beginning. It feels like when we used to tour and sleep in the van because that's all we wanted to do is play rock music," said Hoppus.
Upon its July 2016 release, California became the band's second number-one album on the Billboard 200, and first in 15 years; it also reached the top for the first time in the United Kingdom. Its lead single, "Bored to Death", became the group's first number one single in 12 years. The band supported the album with a large headlining tour across North America between July and October 2016, and a European leg in June and July 2017. A deluxe edition of California—essentially a double album including songs left off the original album—was issued in 2017. California earned the band their first nomination for Best Rock Album at the Grammy Awards. Critical reviews of the album, however, were mixed; many considered Feldmann's input and the throwback nature of the songs as formulaic.
The trio moved from independent service BMG to major-label Columbia for their eighth studio effort, Nine (2019). While Nine builds upon their partnership with Feldmann, it also utilizes additional outside producers and songwriters. Musically, the LP augments the band's pop punk sound with hip hop-inspired programming, as well as electronics. In the interim, the trio embarked on a celebratory tour marking the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough effort, Enema of the State. In recent years, each member has explored side projects as well. Skiba returned to Alkaline Trio for their ninth album, Is This Thing Cursed? (2018), while Hoppus formed Simple Creatures, an electropop outfit with All Time Low frontman Alex Gaskarth, with whom he released two EPs throughout 2019. Lastly, Barker has focused his energies in collaborating with rappers Lil Nas X, Machine Gun Kelly, and XXXTentacion, among others. Blink have also worked with several artists, jointly issuing singles with XXXTentacion, Lil Wayne, Goody Grace, Steve Aoki, Powfu, Oliver Tree, and the Chainsmokers. That same year, The New York Times Magazine listed Blink-182 among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
On August 7, 2020, the band released a new single titled "Quarantine", which was recorded without Skiba's involvement due to lack of a home recording studio. Later in the same month,
Hoppus stated that the band was working on a new EP scheduled for release in 2021, in addition to announcing a song with Juice Wrld — neither have been released at the moment. Though Barker had confirmed a 2021 release, the year ended without one.
On June 23, 2021, Hoppus confirmed that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had been receiving treatment in secret for the last three months. After his cancer diagnosis, it was reported by sources that Hoppus had met with DeLonge and Barker together at his home to discuss old problems, personal issues, and Hoppus' cancer diagnosis. Hoppus was declared cancer-free later that year, but would continue screening every six months.
Musical style, lyrical themes, and influences
Blink-182's musical style is mainly considered pop punk, a genre that combines influences of pop music with traditional punk rock. Throughout the band's career, though their sound has diversified, a large component of the band's music favors fast tempos, catchy melodies, prominent electric guitar with distortion, and power chord changes. Earlier albums by the band have also been tagged with the label skate punk, owing to the skater subculture that was important to their youth. In addition, the band has also been classified under the umbrella of alternative rock as a whole. The band have claimed punk rock group the Descendents to be their greatest influence on a number of occasions. They have also named the Beatles, the Ramones, the Beach Boys, the Cure, Depeche Mode, U2, Stiff Little Fingers, All, Dinosaur Jr., NOFX, Bad Religion, Refused, Fugazi, Screeching Weasel, The Vandals, the Queers, and Jimmy Eat World as inspirations.
Common lyrical themes for the band involve relationships, suburbia, toilet humor, and teen angst. Hoppus and DeLonge, and later Skiba, split songwriting duty, and much of their lyrics tend toward autobiography. According to Nitsuh Abebe, of New York, the band's biggest recurring topic is maturity—"more specifically, their lack of it, their attitude toward their lack of it, or their eventual wide-eyed exploration of it". One of the band's biggest singles, "What's My Age Again?", specifically addresses the Peter Pan syndrome, while "Dammit", the band's first mainstream hit single, contains the hook "Well, I guess this is growing up." Albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket near-exclusively deal in toilet humor and teen-centered lyrics, leading Rolling Stone to dub it a concept album chronicling adolescence. For Hoppus, these themes were not exclusively adolescent: "The things that happen to you in high school are the same things that happen your entire life. You can fall in love at sixty; you can get rejected at eighty." Mid-career albums, such as Neighborhoods (2011), explore darker territory, such as depression and loss. More recent efforts, like California (2016), aim for universality but also focus on miscommunication and loss of identity.
Musically, the band's sound has progressed throughout their 25-year career. Tom DeLonge's guitar style, which trades solos for riffs, is often down-stroked and power-chord heavy, with large amounts of palm muting. His later work guitar work heavily delves into effects, exploring ambience and delay prominently. Many Blink songs center on the I–V–vi–IV progression. As a bassist, Hoppus is known for his well-defined midrange tone. Since the band is a trio, he approaches his role as a combination of being a rhythm guitarist and bassist. Early albums, such as Cheshire Cat (1995) and Dude Ranch (1997), were recorded with original drummer Scott Raynor, and consist of fast-paced, double-time songs. Drummer Travis Barker diversified the band's sound rhythmically when he joined in 1998. Throughout their discography, Barker's drumming references myriad musical genres, including Afro-Cuban music, bossa nova, reggae, and hip hop. Barker grew up playing in marching band, and it still influences his drum fills and kit setup.
Blink-182 were considered more radio-friendly than their predecessors. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that the band "[took] punk's already playful core and [gave] it a shiny, accessible polish." Luke Lewis, writing for Total Guitar in 2003, summarized it aptly: "They wrote catchy songs, radio stations played them." The band's biggest hit, "All the Small Things", was written partially because DeLonge figured the label might want a song for radio. "It was obvious from the beginning it would fit that format," he told Lewis. "There's nothing wrong with that. We don't want obstacles between us and our audience." However, the band's conventional appeal, as well as partnerships with MTV, boardsport companies, and clothing brands, led to accusations that they were betraying the independent spirit of punk rock. DeLonge commented on the band's mainstream appeal in an interview in 2014:
Legacy
Blink-182 was one of the most popular rock bands at the turn of the millennium, and spearheaded the second wave of pop punk and its journey into the mainstream. The glossy production instantly set Blink-182 apart from the other crossover punk acts of the era, such as Green Day. Its third LP Enema of the State catapulted the band to stardom, creating what New York Abebe described as a "blanket immersion among America's twenty-some million teenagers." At the band's commercial peak, albums such as Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and Enema sold over 14 and 15 million copies worldwide, respectively. According to Kelefa Sanneh of The New Yorker, Blink-182 "spawned more imitators than any American rock band since Nirvana. Their seeming ordinariness convinced a generation of goofy punks that maybe they, too, could turn out deceptively simple songs as well constructed as anything on the pop chart. And their prankish camaraderie made fans feel like members of their extended social circle." Most Blink-182 songs are fairly straightforward and easy to play on guitar, making them perfect practice for beginner musicians. Lewis of Total Guitar notes that this was key in influencing a generation of kids to "pick up the guitar and form bands of their own."
Despite this, the band never received particularly glowing reviews, with many reviewers dismissing them as a joke. British publication NME was particularly critical of the trio, with reviewer Steven Wells begging them to "fuck right off," comparing them to "that sanitised, castrated, shrink-wrapped 'new wave' crap that the major US record companies pumped out circa 1981 in their belated attempt to jump on the 'punk' bandwagon." Nevertheless, subsequent reviews of the band's discography have been more positive. Andy Greenwald of Blender wrote, "the quick transformation from nudists to near geniuses is down-right astonishing." James Montgomery of MTV said that "despite their maturation, Blink never took themselves particularly seriously, which was another reason they were so accessible." A new generation of rock fans found the Blink sound "hugely influential," according to Nicole Frehsée of Rolling Stone. Sanneh concurred: in his 2021 book Major Labels, he calls the band a "generational touchstone", arguing their sound and humor aged gracefully.
In 2011, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times asserted that "no punk band of the 1990s has been more influential than Blink-182," stating that even as the band receded after their initial 2005 split, "its sound and style could be heard in the muscular pop punk of Fall Out Boy or in the current wave of high-gloss Warped Tour punk bands, like All Time Low and The Maine." Montgomery concurs: "...without them, there'd be no Fall Out Boy, no Paramore, or no Fueled by Ramen Records." Maria Sherman of The Village Voice took this a step further, writing "Apart from the sound, Blink's ideology has been popularized [...] their presence is everywhere." "When it comes to having inestimable influence, Blink-182 might well be contemporary punk's version of the Beatles", wrote Scott Heisel in a 2009 Alternative Press cover story on the band. The same magazine later ranked Blink the fourth of the "30 Most Influential Bands of the Past 30 Years," just behind Radiohead, Fugazi, and Nirvana. Bands such as Panic! at the Disco and All Time Low originated covering Blink-182 songs, while You Me at Six, and 5 Seconds of Summer have also named the band as influences. "Anyone in our genre would be lying if they said they weren't influenced by Blink-182," said Joel Madden of Good Charlotte. The band's influence extends beyond pop-punk groups as well: the band has been cited as an influence by Avril Lavigne, Best Coast, DIIV, FIDLAR, Grimes,
Male Bonding, Neck Deep, Mumford & Sons, A Day To Remember, Owl City, Charly Bliss, Tucker Beathard, Joyce Manor, Wavves, and the Chainsmokers; the latter even mentioned the band in the lyrics of their number-one hit song "Closer".
Band members
Current members
Mark Hoppus – bass guitar, vocals
Travis Barker – drums, percussion
Matt Skiba – guitars, vocals
Former members
Scott Raynor – drums
Tom DeLonge – guitars, vocals
Former touring musicians
Cam Jones – bass guitar
Mike Krull – drums
Byron McMackin – drums
Josh Freese – drums
Damon DeLaPaz – drums
Brooks Wackerman – drums
Timeline
Discography
Cheshire Cat (1995)
Dude Ranch (1997)
Enema of the State (1999)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001)
Blink-182 (2003)
Neighborhoods (2011)
California (2016)
Nine (2019)
Awards and nominations
References
Bibliography
External links
Alternative rock groups from California
American musical trios
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Kerrang! Awards winners
MCA Records artists
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Musical groups disestablished in 2005
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
People from Poway, California
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California
Skate punk groups | false | [
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"Stephen Roche",
"Post-1987 career"
] | C_a59624a4e106478d946df5dd7b47d398_0 | what was the significance of his post 1987 career | 1 | what was the significance of Stephen Roche's post 1987 career | Stephen Roche | At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers. The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris-Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee. There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Criterium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut. In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for Carrera Jeans-Vagabond but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France. Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon. CANNOTANSWER | The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. | Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first was Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins. All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.
Early life and amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".
He also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris–Ezy road race and finished 14th overall in the Sealink International stage race which was won by Bob Downs. However, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride in Moscow, where he finished 45th. However, on return to France, August to October saw Roche win 19 races. That led to a contract with the Peugeot professional cycling team for 1981.
Professional career
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris–Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris–Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Étoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.
In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Étoile des Espoirs and Paris–Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.
In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Vélo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris–Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.
In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris–Nice and third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault.
Chronic knee injury
In 1986 at a six-day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at speed and damaged his right knee. This destroyed his 1986 season at new team with little to show other than second in a stage of the Giro. Roche finished the 1986 Tour de France 48th, 1h 32m behind Greg LeMond, a Tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.
The injury and then associated back problems recurred throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche abandoned after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and a series of operations appeared to only address direct or consequential symptoms of the core injury. Later non-surgical intervention under Dr.Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich made some difference but the injury required constant care.
By the end of his career Roche was unable to compete at his best because of back problem which led to a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th, riding for Claudio Chiappucci).
1987 Triple Crown
In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season. In the spring, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris–Nice. He also finished second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the closest he got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic. He blamed it on tactical naiveté and "riding like an amateur".
In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and became the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the time trial downhill on the Poggio into San Remo and stage 22, a individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is remembered for the stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders, broke away alone early and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his teammate Roberto Visentini, who had been previously leading the classification. His behaviour in the stage gained him the tifosi's hatred. It was said the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him was his domestique Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited Panasonic riders and old ACBB teammates Robert Millar and Australian Phil Anderson to protect him with Schepers on the Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolada Massacre").
Roche finished the Giro exhausted but favourite for the Tour de France. Following Bernard Hinault's retirement, Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with Greg LeMond injured following an accidental shooting while hunting, the 1987 Tour was open. It was also one of the most mountainous since the war, with 25 stages. Roche won the individual time trial stage 10 to Futuroscope and came second on stage 19.
On stage 21, crossing the Galibier and Madeleine and finishing at La Plagne, Roche attacked early, was away for several hours but was caught on the last climb. His nearest rival Pedro Delgado then attacked. Despite being almost one-and-a-half minutes in arrears midway up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to 4 seconds. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").
The yellow jersey (worn by the leader of the general classification) changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by 40 seconds, which was at the time the second-narrowest margin (in 1968 Jan Janssen had beaten Herman Van Springel by 38 seconds; two years after Roche's victory, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. He was also the only Irishman to win the Tour de France. Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey joined Roche on the podium on the Champs-Élysées.
Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling. Roche arrived with insufficient training although he worked during the 23-lap, undulating terrain for his teammate Sean Kelly and escaped in the race-winning break only while covering for his countryman. With Moreno Argentin in the following group, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for a sprint, Roche attacked from the finish and crossed the line with metres to spare.
Victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was assured.
Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly to finish second behind Kelly.
Post-1987 career
At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers.
The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris–Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.
There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Critérium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut.
In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.
Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon.
Doping
In May 1990, Paul Kimmage – a former professional and teammate of Roche at Fagor, as well as a fellow Dubliner – published an account of life in the peloton. His book Rough Ride exposed drug use apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about Roche. Despite this, publication resulted in a threat of litigation from Roche.
It was reported in the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, in January 2000 that Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara involved with administering erythropoietin (EPO) to riders on the Carrera team with which Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche denied the allegations. This was further reported in The Irish Times several days later, Roche again denying EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the investigation into sports doctors including Conconi. This official judicial investigation unequivocally found that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.
Files from part of the investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva again alleged that Roche had taken EPO during 1993 but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.
Personal life
Roche lives in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in Majorca, by taking part in race organisations and working as a commentator on cycling events for Eurosport.
He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One son, Nicolas Roche, was a professional until his retirement in 2021, and was the 2009 and 2016 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Stephen's brother Lawrence Roche was also a professional cyclist who completed his only Tour de France in 1991. They were teammates on the Tonton Tapis–GB team.
Roche's nephew Dan Martin is also a professional cyclist with Israel Start-Up Nation, and was the 2008 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Roche completed the 2008 ING New York Marathon in a time of 4:21:09.
Advertisements
Roche featured in a well-known Irish television advert for Galtee cheese in 1987, shortly after winning the Tour De France.
Career achievements
Major results
Main Source
Amateur
1978
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1st Isle of Man - Manx Viking Trophy
1979
1st Irish National Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships
1st Overall Rás Tailteann
1st Stages 2 & 9a
1980
1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
1st GP de France (ITT)
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
2nd Overall Route de France
2nd Paris-Mantes
2nd Grand Prix des Nations (amateurs)
3rd Paris – Ezy Source
Professional
1981
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Corse
1st Stage 2
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Prologue
1st Stage 4b
1st Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 (ITT) Tour de l'Avenir
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
2nd GP Monaco
3rd Critérium des As
3rd GP de Cannes
1982
2nd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
1983
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Paris–Bourges
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Overall Route du Sud
3rd GP Ouest–France
1984
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Nice – Alassio
1st Subida a Arrate
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6
2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
3rd Overall Critérium International
3rd Grand Prix des Nations
1985
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
1st Stage 1a
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Prologue & Stage 9 (ITT)
Tour of Ireland
1st Stages 3b & 4a
1st Bol d'or des Monédières
1st Critérium Loudéac
1st Critérium Les Ormes
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18a
3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1986
2nd Cronostaffetta (TTT)
7th Trofeo Baracchi
1987
1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 10 (ITT)
1st Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 1b (ITT), 3 (TTT) & 22 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stages 5a & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
1st Stage 7b (ITT) Paris–Nice
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Critérium Dublin
1st Critérium Kortenhoef
1st Critérium Aalsmeer
2nd Overall Tour of Ireland
2nd Overall Critérium International
2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1989
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stage 5b (ITT)
1st Stage 3a (ITT) Four Days of Dunkirk
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Critérium International
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
1990
1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Critérium Calais
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1991
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Critérium Brioude
1992
2nd Giro del Piemonte
2nd Critérium Vouneuil-sous-Biard
3rd Bol d'or des Monédières
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
1993
1st Critérium Chateau-Chinon-Ville
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
General classification results timeline
References
Further reading
External links
Official Tour de France results for Stephen Roche
Stephen Roche's Cycling Camp in Majorca
Stephen Roche's Charity Cycling Race
Irish male cyclists
Tour de France winners
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Irish Giro d'Italia stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
Olympic cyclists of Ireland
Cyclists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from County Dublin
1959 births
Living people
Cycling announcers
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish expatriates in France
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
People from Dundrum, Dublin
Super Prestige Pernod winners | true | [
"Jean-Pierre Maurin (14 February 1822 – 16 March 1894) was a French violinist and pedagogue.\n\nCareer \nMaurin was a student of Baillot and Habeneck at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1875 he succeeded to the post of Jean-Delphin Alard as a professor of violin at the same institution. Contemporary sources attest to the significance of his performance activities:...the cofounder of the Society for the Last Quartets of Beethoven... [he] and his string quartet contributed significantly to the growing understanding in Paris of Beethoven's late works. Richard Wagner, a severe critic, heard the Maurin Quartet in 1861 in Paris and described the performance as \"most perfect.\"The most famous of his pupils was Lucien Capet, who was to become the leader of the Capet Quartet and the teacher of Ivan Galamian.\n\nReferences \n\n1822 births\n1894 deaths\nMusicians from Avignon\n19th-century French male classical violinists\nConservatoire de Paris alumni\nConservatoire de Paris faculty",
"The 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was in session from 1987 to 1992. It held seven plenary sessions. It was preceded by the 12th Central Committee and succeeded by the 14th Central Committee. It elected the 13th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in 1987.\n\nList of members\nIn stroke order of surnames:\n\nChronology\n1st Plenary Session\nDate: November 2, 1987\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: Zhao Ziyang was elected General Secretary. 18-member Politburo, 5-member Politburo Standing Committee and 5-member Secretariat were elected. Deng Xiaoping was re-elected Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Chen Yun replaced him as Chairman of the Central Advisory Commission. Jiang Zemin was elected to the Politburo for the first time.\n2nd Plenary Session\nDate: March 15–19, 1988\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: List of candidates for top State posts to be submitted to the 7th National People's Congress and the 7th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were adopted.\n3rd Plenary Session\nDate: September 26–30, 1988\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: A program on the reform of prices and wages was taken, urging the State Council to put inflation under strict control.\n4th Plenary Session\nDate: June 23–24, 1989\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: The meeting was held after the suppression of the Tian'anmen Square protests. Li Peng delivered a report strongly criticizing Zhao Ziyang for his attitude during the \"anti-party, anti-socialist turmoil\": he was accused of \"passive attitude toward the Four Cardinal Principles\" and the \"oppose bourgeois liberalization policy\", and neglecting \"party building, the spiritual civilization construction and ideological and political work\". He was thus removed from his capacities of General Secretary, Politburo Standing Committee member, Politburo member and Central Military Commission first vice-chairman, with Jiang Zemin filling his posts as General Secretary and Politburo Standing Committee member.\n5th Plenary Session\nDate: November 6–9, 1989\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: Deng Xiaoping resigned as Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Jiang Zemin took over the post. Yang Shangkun was appointed CMC first vice-chairman.\n6th Plenary Session\nDate: March 9–12, 1990\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: In the official communique, the economic reform was exalted, but the growth of \"bureaucracy, subjectivism, formalisticism, passivity and corruption\" was denounced as well. \n7th Plenary Session\nDate: December 25–30, 1990\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: A decision on the \"Program of the National Economy and Society Development Decade\" and guidelines for the 8th Five-Year Plan were adopted.\n8th Plenary Session\nDate: November 25–29, 1991\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: A decision to enforce family household management of land was taken, in order to secure a bigger output of grain production.\n9th Plenary Session\nDate: October 5–9, 1992\nLocation: Beijing\nSignificance: Preparations for the Party's 14th National Congress were made. The critical assessment on Zhao Ziyang remained unchanged and so he was not listed as a candidate for the 14th Central Committee.\n\nExternal links\n 13th Central Committee of the CCP, People's Daily Online.\n\nCentral Committee of the Chinese Communist Party\n1987 establishments in China\n1992 disestablishments in China"
] |
[
"Stephen Roche",
"Post-1987 career",
"what was the significance of his post 1987 career",
"The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline."
] | C_a59624a4e106478d946df5dd7b47d398_0 | did he recover from his knee injury? | 2 | did Stephen Roche recover from his knee injury? | Stephen Roche | At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers. The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris-Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee. There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Criterium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut. In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for Carrera Jeans-Vagabond but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France. Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon. CANNOTANSWER | During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee. | Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first was Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins. All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.
Early life and amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".
He also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris–Ezy road race and finished 14th overall in the Sealink International stage race which was won by Bob Downs. However, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride in Moscow, where he finished 45th. However, on return to France, August to October saw Roche win 19 races. That led to a contract with the Peugeot professional cycling team for 1981.
Professional career
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris–Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris–Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Étoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.
In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Étoile des Espoirs and Paris–Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.
In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Vélo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris–Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.
In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris–Nice and third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault.
Chronic knee injury
In 1986 at a six-day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at speed and damaged his right knee. This destroyed his 1986 season at new team with little to show other than second in a stage of the Giro. Roche finished the 1986 Tour de France 48th, 1h 32m behind Greg LeMond, a Tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.
The injury and then associated back problems recurred throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche abandoned after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and a series of operations appeared to only address direct or consequential symptoms of the core injury. Later non-surgical intervention under Dr.Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich made some difference but the injury required constant care.
By the end of his career Roche was unable to compete at his best because of back problem which led to a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th, riding for Claudio Chiappucci).
1987 Triple Crown
In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season. In the spring, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris–Nice. He also finished second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the closest he got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic. He blamed it on tactical naiveté and "riding like an amateur".
In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and became the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the time trial downhill on the Poggio into San Remo and stage 22, a individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is remembered for the stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders, broke away alone early and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his teammate Roberto Visentini, who had been previously leading the classification. His behaviour in the stage gained him the tifosi's hatred. It was said the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him was his domestique Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited Panasonic riders and old ACBB teammates Robert Millar and Australian Phil Anderson to protect him with Schepers on the Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolada Massacre").
Roche finished the Giro exhausted but favourite for the Tour de France. Following Bernard Hinault's retirement, Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with Greg LeMond injured following an accidental shooting while hunting, the 1987 Tour was open. It was also one of the most mountainous since the war, with 25 stages. Roche won the individual time trial stage 10 to Futuroscope and came second on stage 19.
On stage 21, crossing the Galibier and Madeleine and finishing at La Plagne, Roche attacked early, was away for several hours but was caught on the last climb. His nearest rival Pedro Delgado then attacked. Despite being almost one-and-a-half minutes in arrears midway up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to 4 seconds. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").
The yellow jersey (worn by the leader of the general classification) changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by 40 seconds, which was at the time the second-narrowest margin (in 1968 Jan Janssen had beaten Herman Van Springel by 38 seconds; two years after Roche's victory, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. He was also the only Irishman to win the Tour de France. Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey joined Roche on the podium on the Champs-Élysées.
Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling. Roche arrived with insufficient training although he worked during the 23-lap, undulating terrain for his teammate Sean Kelly and escaped in the race-winning break only while covering for his countryman. With Moreno Argentin in the following group, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for a sprint, Roche attacked from the finish and crossed the line with metres to spare.
Victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was assured.
Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly to finish second behind Kelly.
Post-1987 career
At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers.
The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris–Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.
There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Critérium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut.
In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.
Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon.
Doping
In May 1990, Paul Kimmage – a former professional and teammate of Roche at Fagor, as well as a fellow Dubliner – published an account of life in the peloton. His book Rough Ride exposed drug use apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about Roche. Despite this, publication resulted in a threat of litigation from Roche.
It was reported in the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, in January 2000 that Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara involved with administering erythropoietin (EPO) to riders on the Carrera team with which Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche denied the allegations. This was further reported in The Irish Times several days later, Roche again denying EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the investigation into sports doctors including Conconi. This official judicial investigation unequivocally found that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.
Files from part of the investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva again alleged that Roche had taken EPO during 1993 but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.
Personal life
Roche lives in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in Majorca, by taking part in race organisations and working as a commentator on cycling events for Eurosport.
He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One son, Nicolas Roche, was a professional until his retirement in 2021, and was the 2009 and 2016 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Stephen's brother Lawrence Roche was also a professional cyclist who completed his only Tour de France in 1991. They were teammates on the Tonton Tapis–GB team.
Roche's nephew Dan Martin is also a professional cyclist with Israel Start-Up Nation, and was the 2008 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Roche completed the 2008 ING New York Marathon in a time of 4:21:09.
Advertisements
Roche featured in a well-known Irish television advert for Galtee cheese in 1987, shortly after winning the Tour De France.
Career achievements
Major results
Main Source
Amateur
1978
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1st Isle of Man - Manx Viking Trophy
1979
1st Irish National Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships
1st Overall Rás Tailteann
1st Stages 2 & 9a
1980
1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
1st GP de France (ITT)
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
2nd Overall Route de France
2nd Paris-Mantes
2nd Grand Prix des Nations (amateurs)
3rd Paris – Ezy Source
Professional
1981
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Corse
1st Stage 2
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Prologue
1st Stage 4b
1st Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 (ITT) Tour de l'Avenir
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
2nd GP Monaco
3rd Critérium des As
3rd GP de Cannes
1982
2nd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
1983
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Paris–Bourges
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Overall Route du Sud
3rd GP Ouest–France
1984
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Nice – Alassio
1st Subida a Arrate
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6
2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
3rd Overall Critérium International
3rd Grand Prix des Nations
1985
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
1st Stage 1a
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Prologue & Stage 9 (ITT)
Tour of Ireland
1st Stages 3b & 4a
1st Bol d'or des Monédières
1st Critérium Loudéac
1st Critérium Les Ormes
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18a
3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1986
2nd Cronostaffetta (TTT)
7th Trofeo Baracchi
1987
1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 10 (ITT)
1st Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 1b (ITT), 3 (TTT) & 22 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stages 5a & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
1st Stage 7b (ITT) Paris–Nice
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Critérium Dublin
1st Critérium Kortenhoef
1st Critérium Aalsmeer
2nd Overall Tour of Ireland
2nd Overall Critérium International
2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1989
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stage 5b (ITT)
1st Stage 3a (ITT) Four Days of Dunkirk
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Critérium International
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
1990
1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Critérium Calais
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1991
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Critérium Brioude
1992
2nd Giro del Piemonte
2nd Critérium Vouneuil-sous-Biard
3rd Bol d'or des Monédières
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
1993
1st Critérium Chateau-Chinon-Ville
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
General classification results timeline
References
Further reading
External links
Official Tour de France results for Stephen Roche
Stephen Roche's Cycling Camp in Majorca
Stephen Roche's Charity Cycling Race
Irish male cyclists
Tour de France winners
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Irish Giro d'Italia stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
Olympic cyclists of Ireland
Cyclists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from County Dublin
1959 births
Living people
Cycling announcers
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish expatriates in France
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
People from Dundrum, Dublin
Super Prestige Pernod winners | true | [
"Diego Ramírez Deschamps (born October 4, 1981) is a Mexican former footballer and manager who last coached the Mexico under-20 national team. He is the son of former footballer and manager Jesús Ramírez.\n\nCareer\nRamírez began his career with Atlante, debuting on February 5, 2000 in a 4-0 loss to Puebla.\n\nHe was sent to Monterrey at the beginning of the Aperura 2006 tournament, but failed to see enough action. Ramírez returned to Atlante in 2008, however he suffered a knee injury during his time with Monterrey from which he could not fully recover, which ultimately forced him to retire from football.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Ascenso MX Profile\n\n1981 births\nLiving people\nLiga MX players\nAtlante F.C. footballers\nC.F. Monterrey players\nAssociation football defenders\nFootballers from Mexico City\nMexican footballers\nMexican people of French descent",
"Roberto Laiseka Jaio (born 17 June 1969) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He retired in 2006, after 13 seasons as a professional with the team, after he could not recover from a knee injury suffered in the 2006 Giro d'Italia.\n\nMajor results \n\n1999\n 1st Subida al Txitxarro\n 1st Stage 18 Vuelta a España\n2000\n 6th Overall Vuelta a España\n1st Stage 11\n2001\n 1st Stage 14 Tour de France\n2004\n 2nd Overall Euskal Bizikleta\n1st Stage 5\n 3rd Overall Volta a Catalunya\n2005\n 1st Stage 11 Vuelta a España\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Roberto Laiseka Palmarès by urtekaria.com \n\nSpanish Tour de France stage winners\nCyclists from the Basque Country (autonomous community)\nSpanish male cyclists\n1969 births\nLiving people\nSpanish Vuelta a España stage winners\nPeople from Guernica\nSportspeople from Biscay"
] |
[
"Stephen Roche",
"Post-1987 career",
"what was the significance of his post 1987 career",
"The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline.",
"did he recover from his knee injury?",
"During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee."
] | C_a59624a4e106478d946df5dd7b47d398_0 | did he change his career post 1987 | 3 | Did Stephen Roche change his career post 1987? | Stephen Roche | At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers. The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris-Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee. There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Criterium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut. In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for Carrera Jeans-Vagabond but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France. Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first was Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins. All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.
Early life and amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".
He also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris–Ezy road race and finished 14th overall in the Sealink International stage race which was won by Bob Downs. However, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride in Moscow, where he finished 45th. However, on return to France, August to October saw Roche win 19 races. That led to a contract with the Peugeot professional cycling team for 1981.
Professional career
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris–Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris–Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Étoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.
In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Étoile des Espoirs and Paris–Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.
In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Vélo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris–Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.
In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris–Nice and third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault.
Chronic knee injury
In 1986 at a six-day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at speed and damaged his right knee. This destroyed his 1986 season at new team with little to show other than second in a stage of the Giro. Roche finished the 1986 Tour de France 48th, 1h 32m behind Greg LeMond, a Tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.
The injury and then associated back problems recurred throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche abandoned after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and a series of operations appeared to only address direct or consequential symptoms of the core injury. Later non-surgical intervention under Dr.Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich made some difference but the injury required constant care.
By the end of his career Roche was unable to compete at his best because of back problem which led to a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th, riding for Claudio Chiappucci).
1987 Triple Crown
In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season. In the spring, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris–Nice. He also finished second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the closest he got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic. He blamed it on tactical naiveté and "riding like an amateur".
In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and became the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the time trial downhill on the Poggio into San Remo and stage 22, a individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is remembered for the stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders, broke away alone early and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his teammate Roberto Visentini, who had been previously leading the classification. His behaviour in the stage gained him the tifosi's hatred. It was said the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him was his domestique Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited Panasonic riders and old ACBB teammates Robert Millar and Australian Phil Anderson to protect him with Schepers on the Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolada Massacre").
Roche finished the Giro exhausted but favourite for the Tour de France. Following Bernard Hinault's retirement, Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with Greg LeMond injured following an accidental shooting while hunting, the 1987 Tour was open. It was also one of the most mountainous since the war, with 25 stages. Roche won the individual time trial stage 10 to Futuroscope and came second on stage 19.
On stage 21, crossing the Galibier and Madeleine and finishing at La Plagne, Roche attacked early, was away for several hours but was caught on the last climb. His nearest rival Pedro Delgado then attacked. Despite being almost one-and-a-half minutes in arrears midway up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to 4 seconds. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").
The yellow jersey (worn by the leader of the general classification) changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by 40 seconds, which was at the time the second-narrowest margin (in 1968 Jan Janssen had beaten Herman Van Springel by 38 seconds; two years after Roche's victory, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. He was also the only Irishman to win the Tour de France. Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey joined Roche on the podium on the Champs-Élysées.
Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling. Roche arrived with insufficient training although he worked during the 23-lap, undulating terrain for his teammate Sean Kelly and escaped in the race-winning break only while covering for his countryman. With Moreno Argentin in the following group, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for a sprint, Roche attacked from the finish and crossed the line with metres to spare.
Victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was assured.
Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly to finish second behind Kelly.
Post-1987 career
At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers.
The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris–Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.
There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Critérium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut.
In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.
Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon.
Doping
In May 1990, Paul Kimmage – a former professional and teammate of Roche at Fagor, as well as a fellow Dubliner – published an account of life in the peloton. His book Rough Ride exposed drug use apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about Roche. Despite this, publication resulted in a threat of litigation from Roche.
It was reported in the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, in January 2000 that Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara involved with administering erythropoietin (EPO) to riders on the Carrera team with which Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche denied the allegations. This was further reported in The Irish Times several days later, Roche again denying EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the investigation into sports doctors including Conconi. This official judicial investigation unequivocally found that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.
Files from part of the investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva again alleged that Roche had taken EPO during 1993 but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.
Personal life
Roche lives in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in Majorca, by taking part in race organisations and working as a commentator on cycling events for Eurosport.
He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One son, Nicolas Roche, was a professional until his retirement in 2021, and was the 2009 and 2016 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Stephen's brother Lawrence Roche was also a professional cyclist who completed his only Tour de France in 1991. They were teammates on the Tonton Tapis–GB team.
Roche's nephew Dan Martin is also a professional cyclist with Israel Start-Up Nation, and was the 2008 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Roche completed the 2008 ING New York Marathon in a time of 4:21:09.
Advertisements
Roche featured in a well-known Irish television advert for Galtee cheese in 1987, shortly after winning the Tour De France.
Career achievements
Major results
Main Source
Amateur
1978
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1st Isle of Man - Manx Viking Trophy
1979
1st Irish National Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships
1st Overall Rás Tailteann
1st Stages 2 & 9a
1980
1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
1st GP de France (ITT)
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
2nd Overall Route de France
2nd Paris-Mantes
2nd Grand Prix des Nations (amateurs)
3rd Paris – Ezy Source
Professional
1981
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Corse
1st Stage 2
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Prologue
1st Stage 4b
1st Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 (ITT) Tour de l'Avenir
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
2nd GP Monaco
3rd Critérium des As
3rd GP de Cannes
1982
2nd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
1983
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Paris–Bourges
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Overall Route du Sud
3rd GP Ouest–France
1984
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Nice – Alassio
1st Subida a Arrate
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6
2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
3rd Overall Critérium International
3rd Grand Prix des Nations
1985
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
1st Stage 1a
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Prologue & Stage 9 (ITT)
Tour of Ireland
1st Stages 3b & 4a
1st Bol d'or des Monédières
1st Critérium Loudéac
1st Critérium Les Ormes
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18a
3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1986
2nd Cronostaffetta (TTT)
7th Trofeo Baracchi
1987
1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 10 (ITT)
1st Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 1b (ITT), 3 (TTT) & 22 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stages 5a & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
1st Stage 7b (ITT) Paris–Nice
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Critérium Dublin
1st Critérium Kortenhoef
1st Critérium Aalsmeer
2nd Overall Tour of Ireland
2nd Overall Critérium International
2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1989
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stage 5b (ITT)
1st Stage 3a (ITT) Four Days of Dunkirk
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Critérium International
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
1990
1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Critérium Calais
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1991
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Critérium Brioude
1992
2nd Giro del Piemonte
2nd Critérium Vouneuil-sous-Biard
3rd Bol d'or des Monédières
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
1993
1st Critérium Chateau-Chinon-Ville
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
General classification results timeline
References
Further reading
External links
Official Tour de France results for Stephen Roche
Stephen Roche's Cycling Camp in Majorca
Stephen Roche's Charity Cycling Race
Irish male cyclists
Tour de France winners
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Irish Giro d'Italia stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
Olympic cyclists of Ireland
Cyclists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from County Dublin
1959 births
Living people
Cycling announcers
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish expatriates in France
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
People from Dundrum, Dublin
Super Prestige Pernod winners | false | [
"Lewis Stevenson (born 30 July 1989) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles and Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).\n\nCareer\n\nWest Coast\nStevenson was drafted in the 1st round (12th overall) of the 2007 AFL Rookie Draft by West Coast. He did not play a game in his first two seasons on the roster, but was retained for a third year, following a change in the rookie list rules to allow this.\n\nHe played 10 senior WAFL games in 2008 and 20 in 2009.\n\nStevenson made his AFL debut in round 5, 2010 against Sydney, after being elevated to the senior list. He played 10 games in 2010, but did not manage to play a senior game in 2011 or 2012.\n\nPort Adelaide\nDuring the 2012 trade week, Stevenson was traded to Port Adelaide. He made his debut for Port Adelaide in Round 1, 2013 against Melbourne. He was delisted at the end of the 2014 season.\n\nPost-AFL\n\nStevenson played for Sydney Uni in the 2015 NEAFL season and was named in the competition's Team of the Year.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nClaremont Football Club players\nAustralian rules footballers from Western Australia\nPeople educated at Trinity College, Perth\nPort Adelaide Football Club players\nPort Adelaide Football Club players (all competitions)\nWest Coast Eagles players\nSydney University Australian National Football Club players",
"Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar was sworn in as 1st Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner(after Telangana separation) on 1 April 2016 by governor Narasimhan. He belongs to 1982 batch of Indian Administrative Service. He served as Special Chief Secretary to Governor before this. He also worked as Executive Officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams(TTD) and as the Principal Secretary of Finance.\n\nEducation \nHe earned B.A(History), LLB(Law) degrees and did his post graduation in Economics.\n\nCareer \nHe was selected to Indian Administrative Service in 1982. His first job was as a Sub collector in 1984. He served in different departments in various roles over his long career. He worked as the Special Chief Secretary to Governor until 31 March 2016 and was appointed as the State Election Commissioner for Andhra Pradesh by Chandra Babu Naidu. He also worked as the Executive Officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams(TTD) and as the Principal Secretary of Finance.\n\nAppointment as Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner \n\nAfter his retirement, he was appointed as Andhra Pradesh State Election Commissioner on 1 April 2016. In 2020 March, after the first phase of nominations for MPTC/ZPTC elections were completed, he paused Elections to local bodies due to Covid 2019 as a measure of public health. As the state government did not like this step, it took steps to change the duration for the office of SEC to three years from five years and also changed the eligible person as retired high court judge. Thus he was removed from his post mid term and Justice Kanagaraj was appointed as the new SEC. Nimmagadda filed a court case against these actions in High court and the High court cancelled state government order and restored his position as SEC (subject to Supreme court orders). Thus he became the third State Election commissioner on July 31, 2020. During run up to 2021 Andhra Pradesh local elections, Ramesh formed a team, comprising a Secretary to State Election Commission, K. Kanna Babu, IAS as well as a Special Officer N. Sanjay, IPS.\n\nCitations\n\nSee this also \n Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission\n Andhra Pradesh Government\n\nLiving people\nIndian Administrative Service officers\nState Election Commissioners of India\n1956 births"
] |
[
"Stephen Roche",
"Post-1987 career",
"what was the significance of his post 1987 career",
"The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline.",
"did he recover from his knee injury?",
"During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.",
"did he change his career post 1987",
"I don't know."
] | C_a59624a4e106478d946df5dd7b47d398_0 | any interesting information about his post 1987 career? | 4 | Is there any interesting information about Stephen Roche's post 1987 career? | Stephen Roche | At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers. The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris-Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee. There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Criterium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut. In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for Carrera Jeans-Vagabond but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France. Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon. CANNOTANSWER | Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. | Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first was Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins. All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.
Early life and amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".
He also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris–Ezy road race and finished 14th overall in the Sealink International stage race which was won by Bob Downs. However, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride in Moscow, where he finished 45th. However, on return to France, August to October saw Roche win 19 races. That led to a contract with the Peugeot professional cycling team for 1981.
Professional career
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris–Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris–Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Étoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.
In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Étoile des Espoirs and Paris–Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.
In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Vélo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris–Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.
In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris–Nice and third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault.
Chronic knee injury
In 1986 at a six-day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at speed and damaged his right knee. This destroyed his 1986 season at new team with little to show other than second in a stage of the Giro. Roche finished the 1986 Tour de France 48th, 1h 32m behind Greg LeMond, a Tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.
The injury and then associated back problems recurred throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche abandoned after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and a series of operations appeared to only address direct or consequential symptoms of the core injury. Later non-surgical intervention under Dr.Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich made some difference but the injury required constant care.
By the end of his career Roche was unable to compete at his best because of back problem which led to a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th, riding for Claudio Chiappucci).
1987 Triple Crown
In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season. In the spring, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris–Nice. He also finished second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the closest he got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic. He blamed it on tactical naiveté and "riding like an amateur".
In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and became the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the time trial downhill on the Poggio into San Remo and stage 22, a individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is remembered for the stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders, broke away alone early and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his teammate Roberto Visentini, who had been previously leading the classification. His behaviour in the stage gained him the tifosi's hatred. It was said the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him was his domestique Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited Panasonic riders and old ACBB teammates Robert Millar and Australian Phil Anderson to protect him with Schepers on the Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolada Massacre").
Roche finished the Giro exhausted but favourite for the Tour de France. Following Bernard Hinault's retirement, Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with Greg LeMond injured following an accidental shooting while hunting, the 1987 Tour was open. It was also one of the most mountainous since the war, with 25 stages. Roche won the individual time trial stage 10 to Futuroscope and came second on stage 19.
On stage 21, crossing the Galibier and Madeleine and finishing at La Plagne, Roche attacked early, was away for several hours but was caught on the last climb. His nearest rival Pedro Delgado then attacked. Despite being almost one-and-a-half minutes in arrears midway up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to 4 seconds. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").
The yellow jersey (worn by the leader of the general classification) changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by 40 seconds, which was at the time the second-narrowest margin (in 1968 Jan Janssen had beaten Herman Van Springel by 38 seconds; two years after Roche's victory, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. He was also the only Irishman to win the Tour de France. Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey joined Roche on the podium on the Champs-Élysées.
Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling. Roche arrived with insufficient training although he worked during the 23-lap, undulating terrain for his teammate Sean Kelly and escaped in the race-winning break only while covering for his countryman. With Moreno Argentin in the following group, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for a sprint, Roche attacked from the finish and crossed the line with metres to spare.
Victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was assured.
Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly to finish second behind Kelly.
Post-1987 career
At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers.
The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris–Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.
There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Critérium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut.
In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.
Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon.
Doping
In May 1990, Paul Kimmage – a former professional and teammate of Roche at Fagor, as well as a fellow Dubliner – published an account of life in the peloton. His book Rough Ride exposed drug use apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about Roche. Despite this, publication resulted in a threat of litigation from Roche.
It was reported in the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, in January 2000 that Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara involved with administering erythropoietin (EPO) to riders on the Carrera team with which Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche denied the allegations. This was further reported in The Irish Times several days later, Roche again denying EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the investigation into sports doctors including Conconi. This official judicial investigation unequivocally found that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.
Files from part of the investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva again alleged that Roche had taken EPO during 1993 but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.
Personal life
Roche lives in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in Majorca, by taking part in race organisations and working as a commentator on cycling events for Eurosport.
He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One son, Nicolas Roche, was a professional until his retirement in 2021, and was the 2009 and 2016 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Stephen's brother Lawrence Roche was also a professional cyclist who completed his only Tour de France in 1991. They were teammates on the Tonton Tapis–GB team.
Roche's nephew Dan Martin is also a professional cyclist with Israel Start-Up Nation, and was the 2008 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Roche completed the 2008 ING New York Marathon in a time of 4:21:09.
Advertisements
Roche featured in a well-known Irish television advert for Galtee cheese in 1987, shortly after winning the Tour De France.
Career achievements
Major results
Main Source
Amateur
1978
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1st Isle of Man - Manx Viking Trophy
1979
1st Irish National Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships
1st Overall Rás Tailteann
1st Stages 2 & 9a
1980
1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
1st GP de France (ITT)
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
2nd Overall Route de France
2nd Paris-Mantes
2nd Grand Prix des Nations (amateurs)
3rd Paris – Ezy Source
Professional
1981
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Corse
1st Stage 2
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Prologue
1st Stage 4b
1st Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 (ITT) Tour de l'Avenir
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
2nd GP Monaco
3rd Critérium des As
3rd GP de Cannes
1982
2nd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
1983
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Paris–Bourges
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Overall Route du Sud
3rd GP Ouest–France
1984
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Nice – Alassio
1st Subida a Arrate
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6
2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
3rd Overall Critérium International
3rd Grand Prix des Nations
1985
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
1st Stage 1a
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Prologue & Stage 9 (ITT)
Tour of Ireland
1st Stages 3b & 4a
1st Bol d'or des Monédières
1st Critérium Loudéac
1st Critérium Les Ormes
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18a
3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1986
2nd Cronostaffetta (TTT)
7th Trofeo Baracchi
1987
1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 10 (ITT)
1st Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 1b (ITT), 3 (TTT) & 22 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stages 5a & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
1st Stage 7b (ITT) Paris–Nice
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Critérium Dublin
1st Critérium Kortenhoef
1st Critérium Aalsmeer
2nd Overall Tour of Ireland
2nd Overall Critérium International
2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1989
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stage 5b (ITT)
1st Stage 3a (ITT) Four Days of Dunkirk
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Critérium International
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
1990
1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Critérium Calais
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1991
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Critérium Brioude
1992
2nd Giro del Piemonte
2nd Critérium Vouneuil-sous-Biard
3rd Bol d'or des Monédières
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
1993
1st Critérium Chateau-Chinon-Ville
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
General classification results timeline
References
Further reading
External links
Official Tour de France results for Stephen Roche
Stephen Roche's Cycling Camp in Majorca
Stephen Roche's Charity Cycling Race
Irish male cyclists
Tour de France winners
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Irish Giro d'Italia stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
Olympic cyclists of Ireland
Cyclists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from County Dublin
1959 births
Living people
Cycling announcers
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish expatriates in France
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
People from Dundrum, Dublin
Super Prestige Pernod winners | true | [
"0x80 is a hacker interviewed by Brian Krebs of The Washington Post about his lucrative business in running \"botnets\", or networks of remotely controlled personal computers without the owner's consent. The article in the 2006 February Washington Post detailed 0x80's earnings of around $6,800 a month infecting controlled personal computers with adware and spyware in exchange for a per-computer commission.\n\nLeaked data \n\n0x80 agreed to be interviewed for the Post article under the condition that he'd not be identified by name or home town.\n\nAfter a link to the article on Slashdot, a reader used the IPTC information encoded into the image to learn that Roland, Oklahoma had been entered as the picture's location. The Washington Post removed all of the images from their site and commented \"As you know we take our obligations with sources very seriously and I don't want to comment about any speculation about sources\" in response to an interview question asking \"Are you aware that the Post failed to scrub the metadata from the images used in this article, leaving information about your town?\" (question text edited by The Washington Post to remove a specific referenced town name).\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n Washington Post article\n Slashdot comments exposing image metadata\n Post blog about victims of 0x80 hacking\n\nBotnets\nComputer criminals\nHackers\nUnidentified criminals",
"Yes, Chef is chef Marcus Samuelsson's 2012 memoir written with journalist Veronica Chambers.\n\nPublished by Random House, Yes, Chef describes Samuelsson's early years in Ethiopia, adoption and childhood in Sweden and then culinary career, concluding with a chapter on his restaurant in Harlem, Red Rooster. In the Washington Post, Robin Shulman called the book as \"a sensitive and compelling account of his rise and his extraordinary life...searching for his place in the world through food.\" Reviewing Yes, Chef for The New York Times, Dwight Garner wrote, \"What lifts this book beyond being merely the plainly told story of an interesting life is Mr. Samuelsson’s filigreed yet often pointed observations about why so few black chefs have risen to the top of the culinary world.\"\n\nYes, Chef was a New York Times best-seller and won the 2013 James Beard Award for Writing and Literature.\n\nReferences\n\nMemoirs\n2012 books\nBooks about food and drink\nBooks about Ethiopia\nBooks about Sweden\nBooks about the United States"
] |
[
"Stephen Roche",
"Post-1987 career",
"what was the significance of his post 1987 career",
"The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline.",
"did he recover from his knee injury?",
"During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.",
"did he change his career post 1987",
"I don't know.",
"any interesting information about his post 1987 career?",
"Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth."
] | C_a59624a4e106478d946df5dd7b47d398_0 | did he do any other tour? | 5 | Did Stephen Roche do any tour other than the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland? | Stephen Roche | At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers. The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris-Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee. There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Criterium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut. In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for Carrera Jeans-Vagabond but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France. Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon. CANNOTANSWER | A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France. | Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia general classification, plus the World road race championship, the first was Eddy Merckx. Roche's rise coincided with that of fellow Irishman Sean Kelly.
Although one of the finest cyclists of his generation and admired for his pedalling style, he struggled with knee injuries and never contended in the Grand Tours post-1987. He had 58 professional career wins. All of these wins still stand, despite Roche having been accused by an Italian judge of taking EPO in the later part of his career.
Early life and amateur career
On completion of his apprenticeship as a machinist in a Dublin dairy and following a successful amateur career in Ireland with the "Orwell Wheelers" club coached by Noel O'Neill of Dundrum (which included winning the Irish Junior Championship in 1977 and the Rás Tailteann in 1979), Roche joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt amateur team in Paris to prepare for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Soon after his arrival Roche won the amateur Paris–Roubaix, escaping with Dirk Demol and sprinting to victory on the track at Roubaix. Roche was told by his directeur sportif that if he did not win he "would be sent home to Ireland that day".
He also finished on the podium at the early-season Paris–Ezy road race and finished 14th overall in the Sealink International stage race which was won by Bob Downs. However, a knee injury caused by a poorly fitted shoe plate led to a disappointing ride in Moscow, where he finished 45th. However, on return to France, August to October saw Roche win 19 races. That led to a contract with the Peugeot professional cycling team for 1981.
Professional career
Roche scored his first professional victory by beating Bernard Hinault in the Tour of Corsica. Less than a month later he won Paris–Nice (where he became the first, and still the only, new pro to win Paris–Nice) despite illness following the descent from Mont Ventoux and finished his debut season with victories in the Tour de Corse, Circuit d'Indre-et-Loire and Étoile des Espoirs races with a second place behind Hinault in the Grand Prix des Nations. In total, his debut yielded 10 victories.
In 1982 his best performance was second in the Amstel Gold Race behind Jan Raas, but his rise continued in 1983 with victories in the Tour de Romandie, Grand Prix de Wallonie, Étoile des Espoirs and Paris–Bourges. In the 1983 Tour de France, Roche finished 13th and he finished the 1983 season with a bronze medal in the world cycling championship at Alterheim in Zurich.
In 1984, riding for La Redoute following contractual wrangles with Peugeot (the settlement of which led Roche to sport Peugeot shorts for two years before winning a court action against Vélo Club de Paris Peugeot) he repeated his Tour de Romandie win, won Nice-Alassio, Subida a Arrate and was second in Paris–Nice. He finished 25th in that year's Tour de France.
In 1985, Roche won the Critérium International, the Route du Sud and came second in Paris–Nice and third in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. In the 1985 Tour de France Roche won stage 18 to the Aubisque and finished on the podium in 3rd position, 4 minutes and 29 seconds behind winner Bernard Hinault.
Chronic knee injury
In 1986 at a six-day event with UK professional Tony Doyle at Paris-Bercy, Roche crashed at speed and damaged his right knee. This destroyed his 1986 season at new team with little to show other than second in a stage of the Giro. Roche finished the 1986 Tour de France 48th, 1h 32m behind Greg LeMond, a Tour that Roche described as like "entering a dark tunnel" of pain.
The injury and then associated back problems recurred throughout his career (for example in the 1989 Tour Roche abandoned after banging the problem knee on his handlebars) and a series of operations appeared to only address direct or consequential symptoms of the core injury. Later non-surgical intervention under Dr.Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt in Munich made some difference but the injury required constant care.
By the end of his career Roche was unable to compete at his best because of back problem which led to a loss of power in the left leg. In retirement he described riding the 1993 Tour de France "just for fun". He finished 13th, riding for Claudio Chiappucci).
1987 Triple Crown
In 1987, Roche had a tremendous season. In the spring, he won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, taking a third victory in the Tour de Romandie and fourth place plus a stage win in Paris–Nice. He also finished second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the closest he got to winning a professional 'Monument' Classic. He blamed it on tactical naiveté and "riding like an amateur".
In the Giro d'Italia, Roche took three stage wins (including a team win with in the team time trial) en route to overall victory and became the first Giro victor from outside mainland Europe. Roche's stage wins that year in the Giro were stage 1b, the time trial downhill on the Poggio into San Remo and stage 22, a individual time trial into St. Vincent. Despite his stage wins, the race is remembered for the stage from Lido di Jesolo to Sappada, where Roche, contravening team orders, broke away alone early and despite being caught late in the race, had the strength to go with the counterattack and take the pink jersey from his teammate Roberto Visentini, who had been previously leading the classification. His behaviour in the stage gained him the tifosi's hatred. It was said the only member of his team that Roche could rely on not to ride against him was his domestique Eddy Schepers, although Roche recruited Panasonic riders and old ACBB teammates Robert Millar and Australian Phil Anderson to protect him with Schepers on the Marmolada climb (a day known as the "Marmolada Massacre").
Roche finished the Giro exhausted but favourite for the Tour de France. Following Bernard Hinault's retirement, Laurent Fignon's choppy form and with Greg LeMond injured following an accidental shooting while hunting, the 1987 Tour was open. It was also one of the most mountainous since the war, with 25 stages. Roche won the individual time trial stage 10 to Futuroscope and came second on stage 19.
On stage 21, crossing the Galibier and Madeleine and finishing at La Plagne, Roche attacked early, was away for several hours but was caught on the last climb. His nearest rival Pedro Delgado then attacked. Despite being almost one-and-a-half minutes in arrears midway up the last climb, Roche pulled the deficit back to 4 seconds. Roche collapsed and lost consciousness and was given oxygen. When asked when revived if he was okay, he replied "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").
The yellow jersey (worn by the leader of the general classification) changed hands several times with Charly Mottet, Roche, Jean François Bernard and Delgado all wearing it before Roche used the final time trial to overturn a half-minute gap and win the Tour by 40 seconds, which was at the time the second-narrowest margin (in 1968 Jan Janssen had beaten Herman Van Springel by 38 seconds; two years after Roche's victory, Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds). Roche became only the fifth cyclist in history to win the Tour and the Giro in the same year. He was also the only Irishman to win the Tour de France. Irish Taoiseach Charles Haughey joined Roche on the podium on the Champs-Élysées.
Later that year, with victory at the World road race championship in Villach in Austria, Roche became only the second to win the Triple Crown of Cycling. Roche arrived with insufficient training although he worked during the 23-lap, undulating terrain for his teammate Sean Kelly and escaped in the race-winning break only while covering for his countryman. With Moreno Argentin in the following group, Kelly did not chase and as the break slowed and jostling for position began for a sprint, Roche attacked from the finish and crossed the line with metres to spare.
Victory in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition was assured.
Roche was given the freedom of Dublin in late September 1987. Several days later the 1987 edition of the Nissan Classic began and Roche rode strongly to finish second behind Kelly.
Post-1987 career
At the close of 1987, Roche moved to Fagor MBK, bringing English riders Sean Yates and Malcolm Elliot, 1984 Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Robert Millar and domestique Eddy Schepers. The team was criticised for containing too many English speakers.
The 1988 season began badly with a recurrence of the knee injury and Roche began a gradual decline. In 1989 he again took second in Paris–Nice (making four second places) and the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme. Roche finished the 1989 Giro d'Italia ninth behind Laurent Fignon. During the 1989 Tour de France, Roche withdrew due to his knee.
There were problems with his team in and he changed again. In 1990, racing for Histor Sigma, he won the Four Days of Dunkirk and 1991 riding for Roger De Vlaeminck's TonTon Tapis brought victories in the Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme and Critérium International. In the 1991 Tour de France, Roche missed the start for his team's Team time trial and was forced to withdraw due to controversially missing the time cut.
In the Grand Tours, he was ninth in the 1989 Giro, and won a stage of the 1992 Tour de France in appalling conditions into La Bourboule (again racing for but now in support of Claudio Chiappucci) and en route to a final ninth place. Riding the last edition of the Nissan Classic Tour of Ireland, Roche was in many breaks but finished fifth. A year later, he was again ninth in the 1993 Giro d'Italia and 13th in the 1993 Tour de France.
Roche retired at the end of an anonymous 1993 which yielded a single win, in the post-Tour de France criterium at Chateau Chinon.
Doping
In May 1990, Paul Kimmage – a former professional and teammate of Roche at Fagor, as well as a fellow Dubliner – published an account of life in the peloton. His book Rough Ride exposed drug use apparently endemic in the peloton but spoke in fawning terms about Roche. Despite this, publication resulted in a threat of litigation from Roche.
It was reported in the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, in January 2000 that Francesco Conconi, a professor at the University of Ferrara involved with administering erythropoietin (EPO) to riders on the Carrera team with which Roche had some of his best years, had provided riders including Roche with EPO. Roche denied the allegations. This was further reported in The Irish Times several days later, Roche again denying EPO. In March 2000 the Italian judge Franca Oliva published a report detailing the investigation into sports doctors including Conconi. This official judicial investigation unequivocally found that Roche was administered EPO in 1993, his last year in the peloton.
Files from part of the investigation allegedly detail a number of aliases for Roche including Rocchi, Rossi, Rocca, Roncati, Righi and Rossini. In 2004 Judge Oliva again alleged that Roche had taken EPO during 1993 but due to the statute of limitations, neither Roche nor his teammates at Carrera would be prosecuted.
Personal life
Roche lives in Antibes on the Côte d'Azur. Roche remained involved in the sport by founding cycling camps in Majorca, by taking part in race organisations and working as a commentator on cycling events for Eurosport.
He has four children with his former wife Lydia; the couple divorced in 2004. One son, Nicolas Roche, was a professional until his retirement in 2021, and was the 2009 and 2016 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Stephen's brother Lawrence Roche was also a professional cyclist who completed his only Tour de France in 1991. They were teammates on the Tonton Tapis–GB team.
Roche's nephew Dan Martin is also a professional cyclist with Israel Start-Up Nation, and was the 2008 Irish National Road Race Champion.
Roche completed the 2008 ING New York Marathon in a time of 4:21:09.
Advertisements
Roche featured in a well-known Irish television advert for Galtee cheese in 1987, shortly after winning the Tour De France.
Career achievements
Major results
Main Source
Amateur
1978
1st Road race, National Junior Road Championships
1st Isle of Man - Manx Viking Trophy
1979
1st Irish National Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships
1st Overall Rás Tailteann
1st Stages 2 & 9a
1980
1st Paris–Roubaix Espoirs
1st GP de France (ITT)
2nd Road race, National Road Championships
2nd Overall Route de France
2nd Paris-Mantes
2nd Grand Prix des Nations (amateurs)
3rd Paris – Ezy Source
Professional
1981
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Corse
1st Stage 2
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Prologue
1st Stage 4b
1st Overall Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
1st Stage 3
1st Stage 7 (ITT) Tour de l'Avenir
2nd Grand Prix des Nations
2nd GP Monaco
3rd Critérium des As
3rd GP de Cannes
1982
2nd Amstel Gold Race
3rd Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
3rd Trofeo Baracchi
1983
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Overall Étoile des Espoirs
1st Paris–Bourges
1st Grand Prix de Wallonie
2nd Tour du Haut Var
3rd Road race, UCI Road World Championships
3rd Overall Route du Sud
3rd GP Ouest–France
1984
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Nice – Alassio
1st Subida a Arrate
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 6
2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
3rd Overall Critérium International
3rd Grand Prix des Nations
1985
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour Midi-Pyrénées
1st Stage 1a
Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
1st Prologue & Stage 9 (ITT)
Tour of Ireland
1st Stages 3b & 4a
1st Bol d'or des Monédières
1st Critérium Loudéac
1st Critérium Les Ormes
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 18a
3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen
3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1986
2nd Cronostaffetta (TTT)
7th Trofeo Baracchi
1987
1st Road race, UCI Road World Championships
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 2 (TTT) & 10 (ITT)
1st Overall Giro d'Italia
1st Combination classification
1st Stages 1b (ITT), 3 (TTT) & 22 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Stages 5a & 5b (ITT)
1st Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
1st Stage 4 (ITT)
1st Stage 7b (ITT) Paris–Nice
1st Overall Super Prestige Pernod International
1st Critérium Dublin
1st Critérium Kortenhoef
1st Critérium Aalsmeer
2nd Overall Tour of Ireland
2nd Overall Critérium International
2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
1989
1st Overall Tour of the Basque Country
1st Stage 5b (ITT)
1st Stage 3a (ITT) Four Days of Dunkirk
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1st Stage 7b (ITT)
3rd Overall Critérium International
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
1990
1st Overall Four Days of Dunkirk
1st Critérium Calais
2nd Overall Paris–Nice
1991
1st Overall Critérium International
1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme
1st Critérium Brioude
1992
2nd Giro del Piemonte
2nd Critérium Vouneuil-sous-Biard
3rd Bol d'or des Monédières
9th Overall Tour de France
1st Stage 16
1993
1st Critérium Chateau-Chinon-Ville
9th Overall Giro d'Italia
General classification results timeline
References
Further reading
External links
Official Tour de France results for Stephen Roche
Stephen Roche's Cycling Camp in Majorca
Stephen Roche's Charity Cycling Race
Irish male cyclists
Tour de France winners
Irish Tour de France stage winners
Giro d'Italia winners
Irish Giro d'Italia stage winners
UCI Road World Champions (elite men)
Olympic cyclists of Ireland
Cyclists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Doping cases in cycling
Sportspeople from County Dublin
1959 births
Living people
Cycling announcers
Alumni of Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish expatriates in France
RTÉ Sports Person of the Year winners
People from Dundrum, Dublin
Super Prestige Pernod winners | true | [
"Lewis Roberts (born 2 July 1985) is an English professional snooker player. He became a professional in 2008, however he did not retain his place on the tour at the end of the 2008–09 season.\n\nCareer\n\nBorn in 1985, Roberts played in the Pontin's International Open Series (known as PIOS) in the 2000s, hoping to earn a place on the professional main tour. He was able to do this in 2008, but his first season was without any success; he won only three matches – 4–3 over Barry Pinches in the Masters qualifying event, 5–2 over Vincent Muldoon in the China Open and 10–8 over Aditya Mehta in the World Championship.\n\nIn his other nine matches, Roberts lost 1–5 to Wayne Cooper, Atthasit Mahitthi, Rod Lawler and Mark Joyce, 8–9 to Mahitthi in the 2008 UK Championship and 7–10 to Paul Davies in the World Championship, but never failed to win a frame in any tournament.\n\nRoberts was ranked 86th at the conclusion of the season, and was therefore relegated from the professional tour in 2009.\n\nHe attempted to regain his place by playing in the PIOS events during the 2009/2010 season, but won only one match, in Event 3. He compiled his first competitive century break, a 126, against Jamie Jones in Event 7, but lost the match 1–4 and did not enter a tournament thereafter.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n World Snooker.com \n Profile on Pro Snooker Blog\n\nLiving people\nEnglish snooker players\n1985 births",
"Dicky Thompson (born June 13, 1957) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.\n\nThompson joined the Nationwide Tour in 1990. He won the Ben Hogan Baton Rouge Open and the Ben Hogan Elizabethtown Open en route to an 8th-place finish on the money list which earned him his PGA Tour card for 1991. He did not perform well enough on his rookie year on Tour to retain his card but got his Tour card for 1992 through qualifying school. After another poor year on the PGA Tour, he took a hiatus until earning his PGA Tour card for 1995 through qualifying school. He did not do well enough to retain his card but did record his best finish on the PGA Tour of his career, finishing in a tie for fourth at the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic. He took another hiatus from Tour and rejoined the Nationwide Tour in 1999 where he recorded five top-10 finishes. He played on the Nationwide Tour again in 2000, his last season on Tour.\n\nThompson played on the NGA Hooters Tour in 1989, 1994 and from 1996 to 1999. He won six tournaments during that time.\n\nProfessional wins (10)\n\nBen Hogan Tour wins (2)\n\nBen Hogan Tour playoff record (1–0)\n\nOther wins (8)\n1998 Georgia Open\n1999 Georgia Open\n6 wins on the NGA Hooters Tour\n\nResults in major championships\n\nCUT = missed the half-way cut\nNote: Thompson never played in the Masters Tournament or the PGA Championship.\n\nSee also\n1990 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n1991 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n1994 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican male golfers\nGeorgia Bulldogs men's golfers\nPGA Tour golfers\nGolfers from Atlanta\n1957 births\nLiving people"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History"
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | What is the history of women in Syria? | 1 | What is the history of women in Syria? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | true | [
"Al-Qubaysiat, or Al-Qubaisiat (القبيسيات), is an Islamic women's organisation established in the early 1960s, based in Damascus-Syria, founded and led by Sheykha Munira al-Qubaysi in Syria.\n\nThe Qubaysi group is for women only and is an active part of Syria's Islamic revivalist movement. The group calls for an apolitical Islam. It aims at teaching Syrian young women and girls the Quran, al-Hadith (الحديث النبوي), Tafsir and Islamic values and traditions. It organizes religious lessons in homes and has been instrumental in spreading religious sentiment among young women. Since its early days, the movement has operated semi-openly until it was recognized by Syrian state under Bashar al-Asad government in 2003 and was allowed to openly operate its activities from official mosques.\n\nHistory\nThe activities of the Qubaysiat women started in the early 1960. Munira al-Qubaysi منيرة القبيسي the founder of group, is a certified school teacher in natural sciences. After graduation she was appointed as a teacher in various schools in Damascus. Her position as a school teacher enabled her to combine her education work with Islamic preaching. These preaching activities were the reason for her imprisonment a couple of time during the early 1960s. After Hama massacre of 1982 the group was forced to clandestinely carry out its preaching activities until 2003. The group has greatly benefited from the change in the Syrian government's policies towards Islamic revival in the Syrian society. First, Bashar al-Assad removed the law that forbids girls to wear hijab at public schools, then he recognized al-Qubaysiat and called them to openly carry out their activities in public mosques.\n\nIdeology\n\nThere is controversy surrounding the ideology of the group. Some claim that the group is influenced by the Sufi ideology of the Kuftariya Naqshbandiya order. The basis for this assumption is the fact that Munira al-Qubaysi herself was a discipline of Sheykh Ahmad Kuftaro. Also, the nature of the group's work has a Sufi characteristic; it calls for elevating religious and moral consciousness of society by stimulating individual's ethical habits and behavior. The other assumption is that al-Qubaysiat ideology is influenced by Baathism since some members of their groups are sisters and daughters of the Baath Party. This assumption is rather strong since the Group assumed Baathi posts after the 2011 Revolution.\n\nOrganization\n\nLike all Sufi orders, the group has a hierarchical organization. Women are distributed among various ranks within the organization. A rank of a member of the group is known by the color of her Hijab. Members of the group are often identified by their distinctive style of dress, a hijab tied with a large knot under the chin, buttoned overcoats coming down the mid-shin level. White hijab is worn by newly recruited members or members with a low degree of commitment to the group's activities. Light blue hijab is worn by members who have been upgraded and are in the middle rank. Besides working of recruiting new girls to the group, members of this rank are entitled with organizational and educational tasks. Organizational tasks range between organizing events and arranging meeting places. Educational tasks are mainly about reciting the Quran and the Sunna with young members of the group. Dark blue hijab is given for active and senior members; these members are entrusted with the task of teaching and preaching more sophisticated texts such as Fiqh, Shareea laws.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Islamic Revival in Syria Is Led by Women, New York Times 29 August 2006\n \"القبيسيات\" حركة إسلامية نسائية غامضة عضواتها يزدن عن 70 ألفا, Alarabiya, 1 November 2010\n https://www.nytimes.com/ref/world/middleeast/29syria.html, Islamic Revival in Syria Is Led by Women, New York Times, \n Islamic Revival Led by Women Tests Syria's Secular Identity, 3 September 2006\n http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2013/04/25/rise-of-syrian-sisterhood/g187, The Rise of the Systerhoods, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Sada, 25 April 2013\nLine Khatib, Islamic Revival in Syria, The rise and fall of Ba'this secularism.\n\nIslam in Syria\nSufism in Asia",
"Najah Al-Attar (; born 10 January 1933) is the Vice President of Syria, in office since 2006. She is the first Arab woman to have held the post. Previously she was Minister of Culture from 1976 to 2000.\n\nEarly life and education\nAttar was born on 10 January 1933 and raised in Damascus as a member of a Sunni Muslim family. Her father was among the first Arab nationalist leaders who took part in the 1925-1927 Syrian revolt against the French Mandate of Syria. She studied at the University of Damascus, graduating in 1954, and obtained a PhD in Arabic literature from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom in 1958. She also received a number of certificates then in international relations and in literary and art criticism.\n\nCareer\nAttar is an accomplished translator and started teaching in high schools within Damascus after her return from Scotland, then worked in the Department of Translation of the Syrian Ministry of Culture. In 1976, she was appointed as Minister of Culture, serving in that post until 2000. On 23 March 2006, she was appointed as Vice President.\n\nPolitical alignment\nAlthough Attar is Vice President and served as a long-term minister in Syria, a state largely controlled by the secular Ba'ath Party, her brother, Issam al-Attar, is the leader of the Damascus faction of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and has lived in exile in Aachen, West Germany since the 1970s, which saw a government persecution of various Islamist political movements.\n\nReferences\n\n1933 births\nLiving people\nDamascus University alumni\nAlumni of the University of Edinburgh\nVice presidents of Syria\nSyrian ministers of culture\nArab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region politicians\nSyrian Sunni Muslims\nWomen government ministers of Syria\n20th-century Syrian women politicians\n21st-century Syrian women politicians\n21st-century Syrian politicians\nWomen vice presidents"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name."
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | Did anybody join the organisation later on? | 2 | Did anybody join Noor al-Fayha, the city's first women's organization later on? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | true | [
"\"Anybody (Movin' On)\" is a song recorded by German band Masterboy and was released in September 1995, as the second single from their fourth album, Generation of Love. It achieved success in several countries, particularly in Finland, where it peaked at number 8, and in Austria, Belgium and France, where it peaked within the top-20. The song was also a top-30 hit in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. On the Eurochart Hot 100, it reached a respectable number 37. Outside Europe, it was a huge hit in Israel, peaking at number 5.\n\nCritical reception\nRoss Jones from The Guardian wrote, \"It's made in Germany, it's got a bouncy bassline, you can virtually smell the dry ice whooshing over its keyboards, and it asks you to \"Shake your body to the groove\" in a steely voice.\" Music Week rated the song three out of five, adding, \"German house-poppers Masterboy hope to repeat their European successes in the Uk with this slice of infectious dancefloor fodder, though the Europop bubble does seem to have burst.\"\n\nMusic video\nThe music video for \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" was directed by German film director Gregor Schnitzler.\n\nTrack listings\n CD maxi \n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Friends Radio Edit) - 3:52\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Midnight Radio Edit) - 3:25\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Friends Mix) - 6:35\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Midnight Mix) - 5:30\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Midnight Mix-Rapless Version) - 5:30\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Instrumental) - 6:35\n\t\t\t\t\n CD maxi - Remixes\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Felix J. Gauder Radio RMX) - 4:07\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Felix J. Gauder Radio Rapless RMX) - 3:49\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Felix J. Gauder RMX) - 6:23\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (La Casa Di Tokapi RMX) - 5:26\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Felix J. Gauder Rapless RMX) - 5:53\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Tokapi's Club Dub) - 5:20\n \"Anybody (Movin' On)\" (Neon Rave RMX)\t- 5:08\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1996 singles\n1996 songs\nMasterboy songs\nPolydor Records singles",
"The Republic of Zakopane (or Commonwealth of Zakopane; ) refers to an area in Galicia centered on the city of Zakopane that created its own parliament (\"National Organisation\") on October 13, 1918. The parliament's principal goal was to join an independent state of Poland. On October 30, the Organisation officially declared its independence from Austria-Hungary and, two days later, made itself a \"National Council\". This was eventually disestablished on November 16 when the Polish Liquidation Committee took control of Galicia.\n\nThe Republic's only president was the Polish writer Stefan Żeromski.\n\nSee also\nGoralenvolk\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nZakopane\nFormer Slavic countries\nStates and territories established in 1918\nStates and territories disestablished in 1918\nZakopane"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),"
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | What challenge did the organisation face? | 3 | What challenge did the General Union of Syrian Women face? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | false | [
"SOARA (Situation, Objective, Action, Results, Aftermath) is a job interview technique developed by Hagymas Laszlo, Professor of Language at the University of Munich, and Alexander Botos, Chief Curator at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. It is similar to the Situation, Task, Action, Result technique. In many interviews, SOARA is used as a structure for clarifying information relating to a recent challenge.\n\nDetails\n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation you found yourself in.\n Objective: What did you have to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what were the alternatives.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives.\n Aftermath: What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since?\n\nJob interview",
"The twelfth season of the Syfy reality television series Face Off (Styled as Face Off: Divide & Conquer) premiered on June 13, 2017. This season divides contestants into two competing FX shops. Each week the teams designate one competitor the foreperson, who designates group tasks, coordinates the project, and represents the team to the judges. At the end of each challenge, the most successful artist from the winning team is declared the challenge winner, and the least successful artist from the losing team is eliminated.\n\nContestants\nSource:\n\nContestant progress\n\n The contestant was a member of Twisted Six Effects Shop.\n The contestant was a member of Ethereal Effects Shop.\n The contestant competed individually.\n\n The contestant won Face Off.\n The contestant was a runner-up.\n The contestant won a Spotlight Challenge.\n The contestant was part of a team that won a Spotlight Challenge.\n The contestant was in the top in the Spotlight Challenge.\n The contestant was declared one of the best in the Spotlight Challenge but was not in the running for the win.\n The contestant was in the bottom in the Spotlight Challenge.\n The contestant was a teammate of the eliminated contestant in the Spotlight Challenge.\n The contestant was eliminated.\n‡ The contestant was the Foreperson for their shop this challenge.\n\nRecurring people\n McKenzie Westmore - Host\n Michael Westmore - Mentor\n\nJudges\n Ve Neill\n Glenn Hetrick\n Neville Page\n\nEpisodes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Face Off at Syfy.com\n\nFace Off (TV series)\n2017 American television seasons"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),",
"What challenge did the organisation face?",
"Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged."
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | Did the organisation stop or get stopped? | 4 | Did the General Union of Syrian Women stop or get stopped? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | false | [
"Wakker Dier is a Dutch animal welfare organisation. Wakker Dier is Dutch for \"Awake animal\". Its main purpose is putting an end to factory farming. Wakker Dier was founded in 1998 and fused with the organisation Lekker Dier in 2001, but the name didn't change. Marianne Thieme was the foundation's president from 2004 to 2006. Wakker Dier has had several successful campaigns, most notably the one against battery cages (since 2003 super markets stopped selling eggs from chickens raised there) and the one against the castrating of conscious pigs (Hema and Unox have said they will stop selling meat from unanaesthetised pigs by 2009).\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWebsite Wakker Dier \n\nOrganizations established in 1998\nAnimal welfare organisations based in the Netherlands",
"Stop the World is the second and last album from the Austin, Texas-based punk rock band Riddlin' Kids. It was released on October 19, 2004 under the Sony label. The release of this album was the last output from the Riddlin' Kids. The band stopped touring less than a year after the album's release. The song Stop The World was used in the video game MX vs. ATV Unleashed.\n\nTrack listing\nNever Live It Down - 3:32\nGet To It - 3:14\nStop The World - 3:15\nApology - 3:34\nPromise You Anything - 3:16\nTalk Of The Town - 2:32\nI Want You To Know - 3:45\nI Hate You - 3:40\nRevenge - 3:59\nTurn Around - 2:37\nShip Jumper - 2:58\nJust Another Day - 3:06\n\nReferences\n\n2004 albums\nRiddlin' Kids albums\nColumbia Records albums"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),",
"What challenge did the organisation face?",
"Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged.",
"Did the organisation stop or get stopped?",
"Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands."
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | Which other notable names were mentioned int he history? | 5 | Besides Naziq al-Abid, which other notable names were mentioned in the history? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | Bashar Al-Assad. | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | true | [
"In the programming language C++, unordered associative containers are a group of class templates in the C++ Standard Library that implement hash table variants. Being templates, they can be used to store arbitrary elements, such as integers or custom classes. The following containers are defined in the current revision of the C++ standard: unordered_set, unordered_map, unordered_multiset, unordered_multimap. Each of these containers differ only on constraints placed on their elements.\n\nThe unordered associative containers are similar to the associative containers in the C++ Standard Library but have different constraints. As their name implies, the elements in the unordered associative containers are not ordered. This is due to the use of hashing to store objects. The containers can still be iterated through like a regular associative container.\n\nHistory\n\nThe first widely used implementation of hash tables in the C++ language was hash_map, hash_set, hash_multimap, hash_multiset class templates of the Silicon Graphics (SGI) Standard Template Library (STL). Due to their usefulness, they were later included in several other implementations of the C++ Standard Library (e.g., the GNU Compiler Collection's (GCC) libstdc++ and the Visual C++ (MSVC) standard library).\n\nThe hash_* class templates were proposed into C++ Technical Report 1 (C++ TR1) and were accepted under names unordered_*. Later, they were incorporated into the C++11 revision of the C++ standard. An implementation is also available in the Boost C++ Libraries as <boost/unordered_map.hpp>.\n\nOverview of functions\n\nThe containers are defined in headers named after the names of the containers, e.g., unordered_set is defined in header <unordered_set>. All containers satisfy the requirements of the Container concept, which means they have begin(), end(), size(), max_size(), empty(), and swap() methods.\n\nUsage example\n#include <iostream>\n#include <string>\n#include <unordered_map>\n \nint main()\n{\n std::unordered_map<std::string, int> months;\n months[\"january\"] = 31;\n months[\"february\"] = 28;\n months[\"march\"] = 31;\n months[\"april\"] = 30;\n months[\"may\"] = 31;\n months[\"june\"] = 30;\n months[\"july\"] = 31;\n months[\"august\"] = 31;\n months[\"september\"] = 30;\n months[\"october\"] = 31;\n months[\"november\"] = 30;\n months[\"december\"] = 31;\n std::cout << \"september -> \" << months[\"september\"] << std::endl;\n std::cout << \"april -> \" << months[\"april\"] << std::endl;\n std::cout << \"december -> \" << months[\"december\"] << std::endl;\n std::cout << \"february -> \" << months[\"february\"] << std::endl;\n return 0;\n}\n\nCustom hash functions\nTo use custom objects in std::unordered_map, a custom hash function must be defined. This function takes a const reference to the custom type and returns a size_t\n#include <unordered_map>\n \nstruct X{int i,j,k;};\n\nstruct hash_X{\n size_t operator()(const X &x) const{\n return std::hash<int>()(x.i) ^ std::hash<int>()(x.j) ^ std::hash<int>()(x.k);\n }\n};\n\nThe user defined function can be used as is in std::unordered_map, by passing it as a template parameter \n std::unordered_map<X,int,hash_X> my_map;\n\nOr can be set as the default hash function by specializing the std::hash function\nnamespace std {\n template <>\n class hash<X>{\n public :\n size_t operator()(const X &x ) const{\n return hash<int>()(x.i) ^ hash<int>()(x.j) ^ hash<int>()(x.k);\n }\n };\n}\n\n//...\n std::unordered_map<X,int> my_map;\n\nReferences\n\nArticles with example C++ code\nC++ Standard Library",
"The domain name int is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word international, characterizing its use for international organizations and treaty-related purposes. The first use of this domain was by NATO, which had previously been assigned the top-level domain nato.\n\nAccording to Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) policy, based on RFC 1591, the sTLD int is reserved for international treaty-based organizations, United Nations agencies, and organizations or entities having observer status at the UN. int is considered to have the strictest application policies of all TLDs, as it implies that the holder is a subject of international law. For this reason, the application procedure requires the applicant to provide evidence that it is indeed treaty-based by providing a United Nations treaty registration number and that it has independent legal status.\n\nDelegations\n, the domain int consists of 166 subdomain delegations.\n\nThe subdomain eu.int was used by the European Union–affiliated institutions. However, the aforementioned institutions' domain names switched to the TLD eu on May 9, 2006 (Europe Day). All previous eu.int addresses continued to be accessible for a transitional period of at least one year. , the European Central Bank continues to use ecb.int in addition to ecb.eu and ecb.europa.eu, and the .int domain is still sometimes used for email addresses.\n\nThe Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) saw its initial application for a domain name under int rejected on the grounds that the convention did not explicitly create an entity subject of international law. However, POPS appealed to the IANA Reconsideration Committee and obtained its domain (pops.int) on the grounds that other conventions lacking such specific language had nevertheless obtained a registration. The IANA granted the domain after the committee determined that (1) the organization was chartered by a treaty that was very likely to enter into force, and (2) despite lacking a legal track record, it met \"the requirement for independent international legal personality.\" This grant was subject to the provision that the status of eligibility be renewed if the treaty had not entered into force within four years of the registration.\n\nAdditionally, the domain int was historically also used for Internet infrastructure databases. The name space arpa had been slated to be moved into int, but in 2000 the Internet Architecture Board recommended that no new infrastructure databases should be added to int and that arpa retain its function. The only remaining technical role of int was for reverse translation of IPv6 addresses in the zone ip6.int. This zone was officially removed on 6 June 2006 in favor of ip6.arpa, also administered by IANA.\n\nGrandfathered delegations\nSeveral domains under int were granted prior to the application of the strict guidelines. World YMCA is an example of the loose guidelines applied in the early 1990s. IANA has not withdrawn the existing assignment from YMCA and other organisations such as The Phone Company (which has however not been available since 2011) who do not meet the current criteria.\n\nSee also\n Generic top-level domain\n List of organizations with .int domain names\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Delegation Record for .INT, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)\n IANA—Intergovernmental Treaty (.INT) Domains\n\nComputer-related introductions in 1988\nInternet Assigned Numbers Authority\nSponsored top-level domains\n\nsv:Toppdomän#Generiska toppdomäner"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),",
"What challenge did the organisation face?",
"Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged.",
"Did the organisation stop or get stopped?",
"Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands.",
"Which other notable names were mentioned int he history?",
"Bashar Al-Assad."
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | What was his role in the history? | 6 | What was Bashar Al-Assad's role in the history? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | false | [
"EdgeWork was a small press magazine published by Atlas Games starting in 1994 that was devoted to the role-playing game Over the Edge.\n\nPublication history\nEdgeWork was a fanzine for the surreal role-playing game Over the Edge. It was first published in 1994, and lasted for four issues. The last issue also appeared in 1994.\n\nReception\nIn the May 1994 edition of Dragon (Issue #205), Rick Swan reviewed the first issue, and admitted \"I’m a sucker for fanzines. What they lack in polish, they usually make up in spunk, and EdgeWork, devoted to the eccentric Over the Edge game, is no exception.\" He concluded, \"EdgeWork may have the editorial budget of a school newspaper, but for OTE enthusiasts, it’s more essential than the New York Times.\"\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct magazines published in the United States\nHobby magazines published in the United States\nMagazines established in 1994\nMagazines disestablished in 1994\nRole-playing game magazines",
"Ernest Lee Thomas (born March 26, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Roger \"Raj\" Thomas on the 1970s ABC sitcom What's Happening!!, and its 1980s syndicated sequel, What's Happening Now!!, and for his recurring role as Mr. Omar on Everybody Hates Chris.\n\nEarly career and What's Happening!!\n\nThomas was born in Gary, Indiana, and began his professional acting career as a Broadway actor, appearing in the 1974 revival production of Love for Love and in the 1975 revival of The Member of the Wedding. Both shows starred actress Glenn Close. Shortly after he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a TV/film actor. In the fall of 1975 he received a role on an episode of The Jeffersons. It was during the taping of the show that he learned of an audition for a sitcom loosely based on the 1975 film Cooley High. Thomas auditioned, won the lead role, and filmed the television pilot, which tested poorly. The concept was quickly reworked into a more light-hearted approach to the source material, and became known as Central Avenue, before settling on the title What's Happening!!. Thomas was the only cast member retained from the pilot, and took the lead role of Roger \"Raj\" Thomas. The new \"summer series\" became a ratings hit, and was expanded to a full series, airing from 1976 to 1979.\n\nDuring the show's run, Thomas was involved in other film and TV projects including Baretta, The Brady Bunch Hour and the film A Piece of the Action starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. During the first season of What's Happening!!, Thomas was one of the final two actors to be considered for the lead role of Kunta Kinte in the breakthrough miniseries Roots, which eventually went to LeVar Burton. Thomas would go on to play the smaller role of Kailuba in the miniseries.\n\nWhat's Happening Now!! and later career\nAfter a six-year hiatus from TV and film acting, Ernest resumed his role as Roger \"Raj\" Thomas in the sequel What's Happening Now!! The show aired in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1988.\n\nSince the show's cancellation Thomas has guest starred on a number of popular TV dramas and sitcoms including In the Heat of the Night, (which co-starred his TV wife Anne-Marie Johnson, from What's Happening Now!!), The Parent 'Hood, Martin (which starred his What's Happening Now!! co-star Martin Lawrence), Soul Food, The Steve Harvey Show, All About the Andersons and more recently Just Jordan. He has also appeared in a number of films, including a supporting role in Malcolm X and a cameo in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. He later had a recurring role as funeral director, Mr. Omar, on the TV sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. He had an uncredited guest spot as Ernest T \"Bass\" on the TV show Are We There Yet? It was titled, \"The Satchel Paige Episode\" and had him playing a Flavor Flav type personality.\n\nIn 2012, Thomas was cast in rocker/horror movie director Rob Zombie's 2012 film The Lords of Salem. In 2016, he was in a comedic body horror short film called Earworm.\n\nHe has an eye condition called amblyopia.\n\nFilmography\n1976-1979: What's Happening!! (TV Series) - Roger 'Raj' Thomas\n1977: A Piece of the Action - John\n1985-1988: What's Happening Now!! (TV Series) - Roger 'Raj' Thomas\n1991: Kiss and Be Killed - Det. Ross\n1992: Malcolm X - Sidney\n2003: The Watermelon Heist - Jailer\n2003: Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star - Ernest Thomas\n2005-2009: Everybody Hates Chris (TV Series) - Mr. Omar / Funeral Director / Radical Man\n2007: Paroled - Royce Henderson\n2009: Funny People - Yo Teach Principal\n2012: The Lords of Salem - Chip McDonald (Frankenstein and the Witchhunter) (uncredited)\n2013: The Pastor and Mrs. Jones - Pastor\n2014: Basketball Girlfriend - Lenny\n2014: Revenge - Neville\n2014: The Slimbones - Uncle AB\n2015: Mega Shark vs. Kolossus - Admiral Titus Jackson\n2015: Chocolate City - Diner Manager\n2016: '79 Parts - Priore\n2016: Stop Bullying Now: Live from the Big House - Himself\n2016 - Earworm (short)\n2017: Chocolate City: Vegas Strip - Mr. Williams\n2017: The Gods - Olympus\n2017: Two Wolves - Olivier\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1949 births\nLiving people\nMale actors from Indiana\nAmerican male film actors\nAmerican male stage actors\nAmerican male television actors\nAfrican-American male actors\n20th-century American male actors\n21st-century American male actors\nPeople from Gary, Indiana\n20th-century African-American people\n21st-century African-American people"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),",
"What challenge did the organisation face?",
"Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged.",
"Did the organisation stop or get stopped?",
"Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands.",
"Which other notable names were mentioned int he history?",
"Bashar Al-Assad.",
"What was his role in the history?",
"In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family."
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | Was the conflict stopped? | 7 | Was the 2011 conflict emerging throughout Syria stopped? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | false | [
"Tskhinvali Railway station was a railway terminal in the capital of South Ossetia — Tskhinvali.\n\nHistory\nUntil 1991 the station was to end the 33-kilometer line of the Transcaucasian Railway from the station in Gori. Currently, rail service is not available, the building is used as a bus station.\n\nThe railway Gori, Georgia—Tskhinvali was opened on 8 June 1940. At that moment Tskhinvali was called Stalinir.\n\nIn 1991 the railway was stopped because of the Georgian–Ossetian conflict. \n\nIn 1992 the station building was destroyed by the Georgian army and rebuilt only in 2002.\n\nIn 2004 Georgian Government wanted to reopen the railway for passengers and goods, but after Saakashvili became president, the plans were forgotten.\n\nNow the station is used as the main bus station of the town.\n\nReferences\n\nRailway stations in Georgia (country)\nBuildings and structures in Tskhinvali\nRailway stations opened in 1940\nRailway stations closed in 1991",
"The 2001-02 Azerbaijan Top League was contested by twelve clubs. In the 2nd round of the Championship, the championship was suspended due to the conflict between the clubs and the AFFA and clubs were not allowed to the European club tournaments.\n\nThe clubs, which had stopped racing, continued their championship with the initiative of the Organizing Committee. But that part of the history, like the \"alternative championship,\" remained unofficially. Because AFFA, UEFA and FIFA did not recognize these results.\n\nTeams\n\nStadia and locations\n\nFirst round\n\nLeague table\n\nResults\n\nSecond round\n\nChampionship group\n\nResults\n\nRelegation group\n\nResults\n\nSeason statistics\n\nTop scorers\n\nReferences\n\nAzerbaijan 2001-02 RSSSF\n\nAzerbaijan Premier League seasons\nAzer\n1"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),",
"What challenge did the organisation face?",
"Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged.",
"Did the organisation stop or get stopped?",
"Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands.",
"Which other notable names were mentioned int he history?",
"Bashar Al-Assad.",
"What was his role in the history?",
"In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family.",
"Was the conflict stopped?",
"Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women."
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | What ended the story of the conflict? | 8 | What ended the story of the 2011 conflict 2001 throughout Syria? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | The military came in with tanks and were making various threats | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | false | [
"A log line or logline is a brief (usually one-sentence) summary of a television program, film, or book that states the central conflict of the story, often providing both a synopsis of the story's plot, and an emotional \"hook\" to stimulate interest. A one-sentence program summary in TV Guide is a log line. \"A log line is a single sentence describing your entire story,\" however, \"it is not a straight summary of the project. It goes to the heart of what a project is about in one or two sentences, defining the theme of the project...and suggest[ing] a bigger meaning.\" \"A logline is a one-sentence summary of the story's main conflict. It is not a statement of theme but rather a premise.\"\n\n\"A logline...helps content creators simply and easily sell their work in a single sentence, because the emphasis is on what makes their property unique...the logline provides the content creator with a concise way to focus on the three main anchors of their writing,\" the protagonist, the protagonist's wants (goal(s) or desire(s)), and what is at stake (risks).\n\nElements\n\nNarrative elements often referenced in a logline include the setting, protagonist, antagonist, inciting incident, and a conflict and a goal (the conflict's resolution). Change, such as character growth, and action should be suggested. A log line should contain four facts: \"the main character, what the main character wants,\" the villain(s) or obstacle(s), \"standing in the way,\" and, \"the unique aspect(s) of the story.\"\n\nExamples\n\nSee also \n High concept\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nTelevision terminology\nFilm and video terminology",
"Leucophrye is also the mythical ancient name for the island of Tenedos, see Tenes.\n\nIn Greek mythology, Leucophrye was the daughter of Mandrolytus, a resident (possibly the ruler) of a city in Asia Minor.\n\nMythology \nLeucippus, son of Xanthius, was chosen by the oracle as leader of a colony, one of ten sent out of Pherae by Admetus (sending out such colonies was a common practice to avoid overpopulation). In search for a new place to settle, he was involved in a military conflict with the native city of Mandrolytus, and besieged it. Leucophrye fell in love with Leucippus and betrayed the city to him. It is not known whether Leucippus answered her feelings and what her further destiny was. Leucophrye's story is similar to those of Comaetho, Scylla (princess) and Pisidice of Methymna, all of which ended tragically for the heroines.\n\nNote\n\nReference \n Parthenius, Love Romances. Transl. by S. Gaselee (1916) at Classical E-text\n\nWomen in Greek mythology\n\nCharacters in Greek mythology"
] |
[
"Women in Syria",
"History",
"What is the history of women in Syria?",
"1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name.",
"Did anybody join the organisation later on?",
"In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW),",
"What challenge did the organisation face?",
"Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged.",
"Did the organisation stop or get stopped?",
"Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands.",
"Which other notable names were mentioned int he history?",
"Bashar Al-Assad.",
"What was his role in the history?",
"In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family.",
"Was the conflict stopped?",
"Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women.",
"What ended the story of the conflict?",
"The military came in with tanks and were making various threats"
] | C_86032edaa18549ff92e85a8f4e7eefe4_1 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 9 | Aside from Naziq al-Abid starting the Noor al-Fayha, are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | Women in Syria | In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1963 the Ba'th Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women. In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria. Women in Syria have also been integral in acts of nonviolence in response to the Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Assad. In 2011, conflict was emerging throughout Syria due to the long reign of the Assad family. Throughout the 40 year reign, outbreaks of both nonviolent and violent acts emerged. Assad reacted to these actions by increasing arrests and the killings of Syrian men and women. In response to Assad's increasing arrests and killings, Syrian women and children gathered together. The women and children rallied together and marched to the main highway where they blocked the roadway. This act of nonviolence lead to civilians and military not being able to get where they were going to. This did not make the military very happy. The military came in with tanks and were making various threats towards the protesters but that did not scare them off. Later that day over one hundred Syrian prisoners were released. This was significant because the power women and children had through their nonviolent protest. Their issue of wanting their husbands and sons released from prison was understood by Syrian officials and they knew in order to get the women and children to leave would need to fulfill their demands. CANNOTANSWER | in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran | Women in Syria constitute 49.4% of Syria's population, and are active participants not only in everyday life, but also in the socio-political fields.
History
In the 20th century a movement for women's rights developed in Syria, made up largely of upper-class, educated women. In 1919, Naziq al-Abid founded Noor al-Fayha (Light of Damascus), the city's first women's organization, alongside an affiliated publication of the same name. She was made an honorary general of the Syrian Army after fighting in the Battle of Maysaloun, and in 1922 she founded the Syrian Red Crescent. In 1928 Lebanese-Syrian feminist Nazira Zain al-Din, one of the first people to critically reinterpret the Quran from a feminist perspective, published a book condemning the practice of veiling or hijab, arguing that Islam requires women to be treated equally with men. In 1930, the First Eastern Women's Congress was hosted in Damascus.
In 1963 the Ba'ath Party took power in Syria, and pledged full equality between women and men as well as full workforce participation for women.
In 1967 Syrian women formed a quasi-governmental organization called the General Union of Syrian Women (GUSW), a coalition of women's welfare societies, educational associations, and voluntary councils intended to achieve equal opportunity for women in Syria.
The year 2011 marked the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, where many civilians have fallen victim to attacks targeted at hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. Extremist rebel groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, have enforced strict policies restricting freedoms of women in territories they control.
After the outbreak of civil war, some Syrian women have joined all-female brigade units in the Syrian Arab Army, the Democratic Union Party, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, taking on roles such as snipers, frontline units, or police.
Legal rights
While Syria has developed some fairly secular features during independence in the second half of the 20th century, personal status law is still based on Sharia and applied by Sharia Courts. Syria has a dual legal system which includes both secular and religious courts. Marriage contracts are between the groom and the bride's father, and Syrian law does not recognize the concept of marital rape.
Syrian women are legally allowed to participate in everyday life, although they are not guaranteed a spot in being part of political, social, cultural and economic categories. The legal marriage for females in Syria is seventeen years old and eighteen for males. Women are technically allowed to have a say in what the agreements are between them and the groom. Although, since this contract has to be signed by the groom and the male guardian of the bride, her wishes are rarely met. On the other hand, of marriage, the divorce laws are unique in Syria. Women are in fact allowed to file for divorce except it is a long drawn out process and she must get consent from her husband. There are some circumstances in which the woman can apply for a divorce through the judicial system. In order to do this, she must prove that her husband has abused her or neglected his other duties as a husband. If a man wants to divorce a woman, all he has to do is go to court and orally demand a divorce three times, then the court will order him a divorce.
Education
The early schooling in Syria starts at six years old and ends at the age of eighteen. In Syrian universities, women and men attend the same classes. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the female population in schools dramatically increased. This increase included the early school years, along with the upper-level schools such as universities and higher education. Although the number of women has increased, there are still ninety five women to every one hundred men. Although many women start going to school, the dropout rate for women is much higher than for men.
The literacy rate for women is 74.2 percent and 91 percent for men. The rate of females over 25 with secondary education is 29.0 percent.
Politics
In Syria, women in Syria were first allowed to vote and received universal suffrage in 1953. In the 1950s, Thuraya Al-Hafez ran for Parliament, but was not elected. By 1971, women held four out of the 173 seats.
The current president of Syria is a male. There are also two vice presidents (including female vice president Najah al-Attar since 2006), a prime minister and a cabinet. As of 2012, in the national parliament men held 88% of the seats while women held 12%. The Syrian Parliament was previously led by female Speaker Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the first woman to have held that position.
President Assad's political and media adviser is Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic, between 2003 and 2008, and she has been described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world.
Of the civil society representatives among the 150 members of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which was assembled in 2019 by the Syria Envoy of the United Nations, Syrian women comprise around 30%. Several renowned Syrian women, such as academic Bassma Kodmani, Sabah Hallak of the Syrian Women's League, the law professor Amal Yazji or the judge Iman Shahoud, sit on the committee's influential 'Small' or Drafting Body.
Role in economy and in the military
In 1989 the Syrian government passed a law requiring factories and public institutions to provide on-site childcare.
However, women's involvement in the workforce is low; according to World Bank, as of 2014, women made up 16.4% of the labor force.
Women are not conscripted in the military, but may serve voluntarily. The female militias of Syria are trained to fight for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. A video was found dating back to the 1980s with female soldiers showing their pride and protectiveness toward Assad's father. "Because women are rarely involved in the armed side of the revolution, they are much less likely to get stopped, searched, or hassled at government checkpoints. This has proved crucial in distributing humanitarian aid throughout Syria."
Women's health
Between 2010 and 2015, the average life expectancy at birth for women in Syria is 77.7 years, compared with 74.5 years for men.
Impact of the conflict on Syria's women
Since the conflict erupted in 2011, women in Syria, namely in conflict zones, have been facing violence, sexual assault, forced displacement, detension, domestic violence, child marriage and other violations of their rights.
During the years of conflict, insecurity and the economic collapse significantly increased the vulnerability of women and girls. In addition, many girls were left without schooling or access to healthcare services. The enrolment rate for primary education was 61% in 2013, with 61.1% of the total number being female, while for secondary education, the rate was 44% in 2013 - 43.8% for female.
In 2015, the United Nations gathered evidence of systematic sexual assault of women and girls by combatants in Syria, and this was escalated by the Islamic State (ISIL) and other terrorist organizations.
Crime against women
Honor killings
Honor killings take place in Syria in situations where women are deemed to have brought shame to the family, affecting the family's 'reputation' in the community. Some estimates suggest that more than 200 honor killings occur every year in Syria.
Forced and child marriage
The conflict in Syria has led to an increase in child marriages. The harsh living conditions, the insecurity, and the fear of rape, have led families to force their daughters into early marriages.
As a result of early marriage, many girls in Syria are forbidden from completing their studies because when a girl is married she is only expected to be a good wife and a good mother as well. Child marriage can influence physical and mental health badly. Physical damage can be related to child bearing specially for women under 18 years old and the possibility for not being able to give birth later in life, and in extreme cases it can lead to death. Psychological factors can be defined as difficulties in interacting with the husband or not having enough awareness about marriage life and its responsibilities.
Domestic Violence
A study covering the low-income women in Aleppo, an area where domestic abuse is more likely due to the tribal nature of the area, shows that physical abuse (battering at least 3 times in the last year) was found in 23% of the investigated women in 2003, 26% amongst married women. Regular abuse (battering at least once weekly) was found in 3.3% of married women, with no regular abused reported by non-married women. The prevalence of physical abuse amongst country residents was 44.3% compared to 18.8% amongst city residents. In most cases (87.4%) the abuse was inflicted by the husband, and in 9.5% of cases, the abuse was inflicted by more than one person. Correlates of physical abuse were women's education, religion, age, marital status, economic status, mental distress, smoking and residence.
Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava
With the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish populated area in Northern Syria has gained de facto autonomy as the Federation of Northern Syria - Rojava, with the leading political actor being the progressive Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish women have several armed and non-armed organizations in Rojava, and enhancing women's rights is a major focus of the political and societal agenda. Kurdish female fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) played a key role during the Siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, and their achievements have attracted international attention as a rare example of strong female achievement in a region in which women are heavily repressed.
The civil laws of Syria are valid in Rojava, as far as they do not conflict with the Constitution of Rojava. One notable example for amendment is personal status law, in Syria still Sharia-based, where Rojava introduced civil law and proclaims absolute equality of women under the law and a ban on forced marriage as well as polygamy was introduced, while underage marriage was outlawed as well. For the first time in Syrian history, civil marriage is being allowed and promoted, a significant move towards a secular open society and intermarriage between people of different religious backgrounds.
The legal efforts to reduce cases of underage marriage, polygamy and honor killings are underpinned by comprehensive public awareness campaigns. In every town and village, a women's house is established. These are community centers run by women, providing services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of harm. These services include counseling, family mediation, legal support, and coordinating safe houses for women and children. Classes on economic independence and social empowerment programs are also held at women's houses.
All administrative organs in Rojava are required to have male and female co-chairs, and forty percent of the members of any governing body in Rojava must be female. An estimated 25 percent of the Asayish police force of the Rojava cantons are women, and joining the Asayish is described in international media as a huge act of personal and societal liberation from an extremely patriarchical background, for ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab women alike.
The PYD's political agenda of "trying to break the honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women" is controversial in conservative quarters of society.
Notable women
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, Speaker of the People's Council of Syria (since 2016).
Asya Abdullah is the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party in Rojava.
Asma al-Assad, the First Lady of Syria and the wife of the current President Assad
Najah al-Attar, Vice President of Syria (since 2006).
Randa Kassis, President of The Astana Platform of the Syrian opposition.
Suheir Atassi, Vice President of the opposition government.
Samar Al Dayyoub, literary critic and writer
Khawla Dunia, opposition activist and poet
Îlham Ehmed is co-chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council.
Hêvî Îbrahîm is the prime minister of Afrin Canton.
Samira Khalil, dissident
Ulfat Idilbi, best-selling Arabic-language novelist.
Assala Nasri is a musical artist
Souad Nawfal, opposition activist and schoolteacher.
Rasha Omran, poet
Bouthaina Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad's political adviser and previous Minister of Expatriates
Muna Wassef, theater, television, and film actress.
Hediya Yousef is an ex-guerilla and co-chairwoman of the executive committee of the Federation of Northern Syria – Rojava.
Razan Zaitouneh, human rights lawyer and activist.
References
External links
Survey: Discrimination against Women in Syrian Society (I/II). Awareness of Women Rights and Freedoms, The Day After Association, August 2017
Survey: Discrimination Against Women in Syrian Society (II/II): Perception of Domestic Violence, The Day After Association, August 2017
Asian women | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Michael Anthony (musician)",
"(1996-2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects"
] | C_b8963d0ceaad442a8b3b9fca3128604f_0 | What projects did Michael Anthony do with Van Halen? | 1 | What projects did Michael Anthony do with Van Halen? | Michael Anthony (musician) | As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. He continued working with the band. These rumors persisted until his final departure after the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar. Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band, as is always the case for Van Halen albums. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 2000 and 2001. Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion. In interviews, Eddie and Alex Van Halen suggested they were jamming and writing/recording new material during this time period but appeared to be working without Anthony. Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar tour, both Michael Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together. In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the "supergroup" Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Sammy Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo," which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole," were later released on the 2008 Sammy Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion. CANNOTANSWER | Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. | Michael Anthony Sobolewski (born June 20, 1954) is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist. Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. In addition to his music career, he markets a line of hot sauces named Mad Anthony and related products. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.
Early years
Anthony got his interest in music from his father, who played trumpet. Anthony began by playing trumpet.
Anthony was partly raised in Chicago. The family moved to California twice in Anthony's early years, settling in 1966 in Arcadia, California (Arcadia being located next to Pasadena, where Alex and Edward Van Halen, with whom Anthony would later play in the band Van Halen, were raised). Anthony attended Dana Junior High School, in Arcadia, California, from 1967 to 1969. Anthony was in the marching band at the school. He ran track in junior high and also showed promise in baseball, as a catcher, but by the time he started high school he had ceased doing athletics to concentrate on music.
Anthony graduated from Arcadia High in 1972.
Music career
(1967–1974) Early musical endeavors
Anthony took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his other friends already played guitar or drums. Anthony's friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar. Eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modelled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream, but also admired Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. His first band was called Poverty's Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, and Snake. Although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed.
Snake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat, along with some original songs. They played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers' band Mammoth. Snake once opened for Mammoth during a show at Pasadena High School. Mammoth's PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snake's PA.
While attending Pasadena City College, majoring in music, Anthony met Eddie Van Halen, who also took classes there. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth and the Van Halens auditioned Anthony as a replacement. Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had heard the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band. One story claims that he first consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano, who advised Anthony to join up with the guitar prodigy and his brother. However, according to Anthony's web site, he immediately accepted. This has become the accepted version of events.
Anthony had planned to attend college in Santa Barbara after he graduated from Pasadena City College, but instead he dropped out of PCC just before he earned enough credits for a degree so that he could devote all his time to Van Halen.
(1974–1996) Van Halen
In 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen, dropping the name Mammoth when they discovered another local band using that moniker. After successfully navigating the Los Angeles & West Hollywood club scene and a 29 track demo produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros. in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 10, 1978. Anthony was a 20% member (manager Noel Monk being the 5th) of all debts and profits, including merchandise, until midway through the 1984 tour, when tensions rose to the point that Roth and the Van Halen brothers insisted that he sign away all future songwriting credit and royalties, retroactive with the current 1984 LP. Noel Monk later wrote of the event, "If I were Mike, I would have told them to 'fuck off' and not played that night, to show them my worth. Instead Mike didn't say a word and signed away millions of dollars, as the three stood over him, lying on the floor."
The band released a total of ten studio albums from 1978 - 1995, a live album in 1993, as well as two greatest hits compilations during Anthony's tenure with the band.
Anthony produced a 1988 demo for his brother (Robert Lee Sobolewski) Bobby Leigh's band Asylum Suite, which was formed in 1984 and featured singer Michael Thomas Fiore.
(1996–2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects
As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. Anthony continued working with the band although the rumors persisted until his actual departure following the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar.
Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on three songs, with Eddie playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 1996, 2000 and 2001 (with the latter resulting in early versions of A Different Kind of Truth tracks). Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion.
Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's Roth/Hagar tour (otherwise known as the "Sans Halen" or "Sam and Dave" tour), both Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together.
In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the supergroup Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo", which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole", were later released on the 2008 Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion.
(2003–2005) Van Halen reunion
Initially when Eddie and Alex asked Hagar to rejoin at the end of 2003 for a 2004 tour, the plan was to not invite Anthony back. Hagar, however, refused to perform if Anthony did not rejoin, and Anthony agreed to play but on a reduced royalties contract. The contract drawn up was for the duration of the tour only.
In 2004, Van Halen released the compilation album The Best of Both Worlds which included three new songs. Anthony did not participate in the writing of nor did he play bass on the new songs and was not credited on the album for the new material, although he did sing backup vocals on all of them.
Anthony now states in media interviews that he has not spoken to the Van Halen brothers since the 2004 tour, except to Alex at the funeral of Van Halen drum tech Greg Emerson. He has also speculated that since the brothers were not pleased with Hagar's commercial ventures such as the Cabo Wabo product line, their similar displeasure with Anthony's hot sauce brand may have caused the rift that ultimately separated Hagar and Anthony from the band.
(2006–present) Departure from Van Halen and formation of Chickenfoot
Anthony spent the summer of 2006 touring as a member of the Other Half during a segment of the Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas tour. The Other Half featured Anthony and Hagar performing classic Van Halen songs from both the Roth and Hagar periods.
On September 8, 2006, Eddie Van Halen announced that his son Wolfgang was replacing Anthony as Van Halen's bass player. On February 2, 2007, Van Halen announced that they were reuniting for a tour with original vocalist David Lee Roth. Their tour began on September 27, 2007. Anthony commented that he heard about his replacement "on the Internet" and added, "I'm a little miffed that they're calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that's one thing, but to me this is not a reunion." At the tour press conference David Lee Roth stated, "This is not a reunion, this is a revision."
Anthony joined Hagar on live national television on February 25, 2007, during a pre-race performance for the California NASCAR race on Fox television. Anthony jumped onstage and joined Hagar during a performance of "I Can't Drive 55."
Anthony and Hagar were the only members, former or current, to appear at Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Eddie Van Halen was in rehab at the time, and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth declined to appear.
Anthony is a founding member, bassist and backing vocalist for the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. The band released their first studio album in Europe on June 5, 2009, followed by the North American release on June 9. Chickenfoot released their sophomore effort, Chickenfoot III, on September 27, 2011.
Anthony is a member of Sammy Hagar and the Circle, a supergroup that formed in 2014 and features Hagar as well as guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.
Personal life
Anthony met Sue Hendry when both attended Arcadia High School. They married in 1981. They have two daughters: Elisha (born 1985) and Taylor (born 1992). Anthony and his family reside in Newport Beach, California. He can be seen during televised car shows, often being interviewed regarding his love and knowledge for classic motorcycles and cars.
Anthony mostly stayed on the sidelines of the rockstar "party hard" lifestyle, though he was often seen and photographed with a cigarette and a Jack Daniel's (whiskey logo) bass guitar.
Discography
with Van Halen
Van Halen (1978)
Van Halen II (1979)
Women and Children First (1980)
Fair Warning (1981)
Diver Down (1982)
1984 (1984)
5150 (1986)
OU812 (1988)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Balance (1995)
Van Halen III (1998)
with Chickenfoot
Chickenfoot (2009)
Chickenfoot III (2011)
with the Circle
Space Between (2019)
Lockdown 2020 (2021)
Commercial ventures
Anthony maintains a personal website titled "Mad Anthony's Cafe" where he markets and sells a number of signature products including hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and hot mustard. His line of commercial foods is the result of a collaboration with a San Diego, California restaurant noted for its hot sauces. His hot sauce brand, "Mad Anthony," has been noted on local news segments and on the Food Network for being "high-end" due to the quality of its ingredients and manufacturing process. The site also provides information on Anthony's Schecter Guitar Research bass guitar series. Chickenfoot bandmate Sammy Hagar carries the bassist's hot sauces at his Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill locations.
References
References
External links
Official Web site
Van Halen Store
Van Halen News Desk
People from the San Gabriel Valley
Planet Us members
1954 births
American heavy metal bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Living people
Van Halen members
Chickenfoot members
American people of Polish descent
American rock bass guitarists
Pasadena City College alumni
20th-century American bass guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Sammy Hagar and the Circle members | true | [
"The Van Halen Tour 2004 was a North American concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. It was the band's first tour since 1998 and saw the return of lead singer Sammy Hagar, who left the band in 1996 after tensions with lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen.\n\nTensions between Hagar and Eddie Van Halen were rekindled during the rehearsals before the tour even started and continued until the last show. The 2004 tour marked the last time that Hagar would ever perform with Van Halen. Some points of contention between the two included Eddie's increased struggles with substance abuse and Sammy Hagar’s promotion of his personal Cabo Wabo tequila brand. The tour also signaled the declining relationship of bassist Michael Anthony with Eddie and Alex Van Halen. During the 2004 tour, Anthony was forced to lose his licensing rights to the band and to take a pay cut due to tensions with the Van Halen brothers.\n\nWhile commercially successful, the tour generally received poor reviews from critics, with some alleging that the Eddie was sloppy, unfocused, and past their prime. The tour’s legacy has been similarly poor as well, especially regarding the off-stage developments involving Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony. Nick Deriso of Ultimate Classic Rock called the tour “disastrous.\"\n\nBackground \nThe 2004 tour was the first time that Van Halen had played together since 1998, with then lead singer Gary Cherone. In 2004, Van Halen reunited with Sammy Hagar, their second lead vocalist from 1985–1996, who had split with the band due to tensions with Eddie Van Halen. Hagar claimed that the 1996 split resulted from disagreements over recording new tracks for the movie Twister, after he was exhausted from touring in support of the band’s album Balance. According to Hagar, he was then informed that the songs the band had recorded would be released without his vocals and were not going to be used for the Twister soundtrack, but for a greatest-hits album, which Hagar opposed. However, Eddie Van Halen claimed that the tensions with Hagar stemmed from the singer’s decision to produce his own “solo best-of set,” which increased tensions when Hagar then refused to partake in the Van Halen greatest hits release. Van Halen turned to David Lee Roth, the band’s first lead singer, to replace Hagar as the band's lead singer.\n\nThe 2004 reunion tour resulted after Sammy Hagar decided to call drummer Alex Van Halen in 2003 and “hit it off like old times.\" After Hagar then called lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen, the band was once again reunited.\n\nOriginally, the band planned to release a full-length album, titled The Best of Both Worlds, which would have featured the instrumentals from the aborted second album with Gary Cherone, with Hagar on vocals. This plan was abandoned because Eddie Van Halen was only able to complete three of the tracks. They decided to release a new compilation double album featuring three new songs, which was to be followed by a reunion tour. The new songs were \"It's About Time\", \"Up for Breakfast\" and \"Learning to See\". Initially, 28 dates were announced, but the tour was extended to 80 across five months.\n\nMichael Anthony originally thought that the tour would expand to Europe, Japan, and South America, but the idea was abandoned because of Hagar's feud with Eddie Van Halen.\n\nControversies \nHagar’s reunion with the band, and relationship with Eddie Van Halen, began well. In August 2004, Hagar said that he and Eddie Van Halen were going to “Pretend like it [the feud] never happened. We’re going to rise above it.” In an early review of the tour, Hagar was described as “undeniably delighted to be back together” with Van Halen. However, Hagar and Van Halen’s feelings of good ended up being short-lived.\n\nHagar accused Eddie of drinking too much, despite Eddie's denials: \"It was horrible to know a person that was in that kind of shape.\" In his memoir, Hagar wrote that during the tour Van Halen was “unkempt, hunched over, frighteningly skinny” and “drinking wine straight out of a bottle.\" Van Halen was reported to have collapsed during the tour as well, in addition to playing poorly due to his struggles with substance abuse. Eddie Van Halen said that he was “an alcoholic” and that in 2004 he became a “very angry drunk,” although he claimed that Hagar’s memoir was “definitely embellished.\"\n\nAnother point of contention during the tour was Sammy Hagar’s promotion of his Cabo Wabo tequila brand, to the displeasure of Eddie Van Halen. Bassist Michael Anthony said that “he [Eddie Van Halen] was never happy about that, the whole Cabo Wabo thing.” Anthony claimed that Sammy independently contracted with arenas to sell the tequila, which “would create some tension onstage and offstage.\" Hagar claims he was told by the Van Halen brothers, before the tour, that he would not be allowed to promote his Cabo Wabo tequila, so he purposefully “got a Cabo Wabo tattoo” on his arm and “wore short sleeves.\"\n\nThe tour also caused controversy with Michael Anthony, the band's longtime bassist (performing with them until 2000 when they went on hiatus, but still officially a member in 2004). Anthony was hired as a touring musician rather than a 'real' member of the band, resulting in being paid a reduced commission. Initially, the Van Halen brothers did not want him on the tour at all, but Sammy Hagar refused to tour without him.\n\nThe tour also resulted in a legal dispute between Van Halen and the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles had contracted Van Halen to perform a September 2 concert at Oriole Park at Camden Yards for $1.5 million, in addition to 80 percent of ticket and merchandise revenues. However, the Orioles later canceled this deal, causing Van Halen to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, suing for at least $2 million. Van Halen argued that they lost potential revenue in the Baltimore area from a non-compete clause and that they had to rearrange the 2004 tour for the show that the Orioles’ reneged on.\n\nReception \nAccording to Pollstar, the tour grossed $54.3 million, making it the sixth highest grossing tour of 2004. Pollstar reports that the tour had an average ticket price of $99.12 and sold 1,054,238 tickets over 83 shows. However, according to Billboard Boxscore, the tour grossed nearly $40 million.\n\nCritical reception for the tour was generally negative, with some reviews alleging that the tour was a watered-down version of the band’s past versions. Jason Bracelin, of the Houston Press, wrote that “In their prime, the guys in Van Halen were as sticky, sweaty, and accident-prone as the best keggers. Now, they’re hard-rock parental units approaching their fifties, and so are many of their fans.\" Kyle Munson, of The Des Moines Register, wrote that Van Halen sounded “sloppy” and alleged that Hagar seemed more focused with signing autographs than singing. However, Doug Fox, after a performance in Salt Lake City, wrote that the future of Van Halen “seems to be on firmer ground as well with the return of Hagar.\"\n\nLegacy \nOverall, the tour’s long term reputation has been similarly poor, being described as both “Disastrous” by Nick Deriso of Ultimate Classic Rock and “Ill-Fated” by Andy Greene of Rolling Stone. The tour also is notable for its lasting damage on the relationship between lead singer Sammy Hagar and lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Sammy Hagar, in his memoir, wrote that after the 2004 tour, his relationship with Eddie Van Halen was “irretrievably broken.\" By the end of the tour, Anthony and Hagar reportedly used “different jets, different hotels, different limos, different security details\" from the Van Halen brothers.\n\nThe tour also signaled the declining relationship between bassist Michael Anthony and the band. Allegedly, Alex and Eddie Van Halen did not want to tour with Anthony, while Hagar insisted upon his presence in the band. Anthony ended up being forced to relinquish his Van Halen licensing rights in addition to a pay cut. Anthony claims he accepted the deal because he thought it may have been the last time the band would ever perform together. In 2006, Eddie Van Halen fired Anthony from the band and replaced him with his son, Wolfgang Van Halen.\n\nSetlist\nTypical Setlist\n\n \"Jump\"\n \"Runaround\"\n \"Humans Being\"\n \"Up for Breakfast\"\n Bass solo\n \"Somebody Get Me a Doctor\"\n \"Poundcake\"\n \"It's About Time\"\n Drum solo\n \"Top of the World\"\n \"Unchained\"\n \"Why Can't This Be Love\"\n \"Eagles Fly\"\n \"Deeper Kinda Love\"\n \"Learning to See\"\n \"Best of Both Worlds\"\n Guitar solo\n \"Dreams\"\n \"Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love\"\n \"Right Now\"\n \"You Really Got Me\"\n \"Panama\"\n \"When It's Love\"\n \"Runnin' with the Devil\" (occasionally with Michael Anthony on vocals)\n \"The Seventh Seal\" (occasionally)\n \"Finish What Ya Started\" (occasionally)\n\nPersonnel\nSammy Hagar – lead vocals, guitar\nEddie Van Halen – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals\nWolfgang Van Halen - rhythm guitar (during \"316\")\nMichael Anthony – bass guitar, backing vocals\nAlex Van Halen – drums, percussion\n\nTour dates\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Van-Halen.com – The official Van Halen website\n Van Halen NewsDesk\n\nVan Halen concert tours\n2004 concert tours",
"\"Love Walks In\" is a song by American Rock band Van Halen released as the third single from the band's seventh studio album, 5150 (1986). It was the first song the band wrote with vocalist Sammy Hagar. It peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, and reached number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.\n\nBackground\nTo quote Hagar:\n\nHagar wrote the lyrics on the spot and sang it live with a hand-held mic.\n\nCharts\n\nPersonnel \n Sammy Hagar — lead vocals, lead guitar (live version)\n Eddie Van Halen — guitar, keyboards, backing vocals\n Michael Anthony — bass guitar, backing vocals\n Alex Van Halen — drums\n\nReferences\n\nVan Halen songs\n1986 songs\n1986 singles\nSongs written by Sammy Hagar\nSongs written by Michael Anthony (musician)\nSongs written by Eddie Van Halen\nSongs written by Alex Van Halen\nSongs about extraterrestrial life\nSynth-pop songs\nWarner Records singles"
] |
[
"Michael Anthony (musician)",
"(1996-2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects",
"What projects did Michael Anthony do with Van Halen?",
"Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums."
] | C_b8963d0ceaad442a8b3b9fca3128604f_0 | What was the first album he recorded with Van Halen? | 2 | What was the first album Michael Anthony recorded with Van Halen? | Michael Anthony (musician) | As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. He continued working with the band. These rumors persisted until his final departure after the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar. Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band, as is always the case for Van Halen albums. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 2000 and 2001. Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion. In interviews, Eddie and Alex Van Halen suggested they were jamming and writing/recording new material during this time period but appeared to be working without Anthony. Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar tour, both Michael Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together. In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the "supergroup" Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Sammy Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo," which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole," were later released on the 2008 Sammy Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Michael Anthony Sobolewski (born June 20, 1954) is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist. Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. In addition to his music career, he markets a line of hot sauces named Mad Anthony and related products. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.
Early years
Anthony got his interest in music from his father, who played trumpet. Anthony began by playing trumpet.
Anthony was partly raised in Chicago. The family moved to California twice in Anthony's early years, settling in 1966 in Arcadia, California (Arcadia being located next to Pasadena, where Alex and Edward Van Halen, with whom Anthony would later play in the band Van Halen, were raised). Anthony attended Dana Junior High School, in Arcadia, California, from 1967 to 1969. Anthony was in the marching band at the school. He ran track in junior high and also showed promise in baseball, as a catcher, but by the time he started high school he had ceased doing athletics to concentrate on music.
Anthony graduated from Arcadia High in 1972.
Music career
(1967–1974) Early musical endeavors
Anthony took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his other friends already played guitar or drums. Anthony's friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar. Eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modelled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream, but also admired Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. His first band was called Poverty's Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, and Snake. Although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed.
Snake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat, along with some original songs. They played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers' band Mammoth. Snake once opened for Mammoth during a show at Pasadena High School. Mammoth's PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snake's PA.
While attending Pasadena City College, majoring in music, Anthony met Eddie Van Halen, who also took classes there. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth and the Van Halens auditioned Anthony as a replacement. Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had heard the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band. One story claims that he first consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano, who advised Anthony to join up with the guitar prodigy and his brother. However, according to Anthony's web site, he immediately accepted. This has become the accepted version of events.
Anthony had planned to attend college in Santa Barbara after he graduated from Pasadena City College, but instead he dropped out of PCC just before he earned enough credits for a degree so that he could devote all his time to Van Halen.
(1974–1996) Van Halen
In 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen, dropping the name Mammoth when they discovered another local band using that moniker. After successfully navigating the Los Angeles & West Hollywood club scene and a 29 track demo produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros. in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 10, 1978. Anthony was a 20% member (manager Noel Monk being the 5th) of all debts and profits, including merchandise, until midway through the 1984 tour, when tensions rose to the point that Roth and the Van Halen brothers insisted that he sign away all future songwriting credit and royalties, retroactive with the current 1984 LP. Noel Monk later wrote of the event, "If I were Mike, I would have told them to 'fuck off' and not played that night, to show them my worth. Instead Mike didn't say a word and signed away millions of dollars, as the three stood over him, lying on the floor."
The band released a total of ten studio albums from 1978 - 1995, a live album in 1993, as well as two greatest hits compilations during Anthony's tenure with the band.
Anthony produced a 1988 demo for his brother (Robert Lee Sobolewski) Bobby Leigh's band Asylum Suite, which was formed in 1984 and featured singer Michael Thomas Fiore.
(1996–2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects
As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. Anthony continued working with the band although the rumors persisted until his actual departure following the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar.
Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on three songs, with Eddie playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 1996, 2000 and 2001 (with the latter resulting in early versions of A Different Kind of Truth tracks). Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion.
Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's Roth/Hagar tour (otherwise known as the "Sans Halen" or "Sam and Dave" tour), both Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together.
In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the supergroup Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo", which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole", were later released on the 2008 Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion.
(2003–2005) Van Halen reunion
Initially when Eddie and Alex asked Hagar to rejoin at the end of 2003 for a 2004 tour, the plan was to not invite Anthony back. Hagar, however, refused to perform if Anthony did not rejoin, and Anthony agreed to play but on a reduced royalties contract. The contract drawn up was for the duration of the tour only.
In 2004, Van Halen released the compilation album The Best of Both Worlds which included three new songs. Anthony did not participate in the writing of nor did he play bass on the new songs and was not credited on the album for the new material, although he did sing backup vocals on all of them.
Anthony now states in media interviews that he has not spoken to the Van Halen brothers since the 2004 tour, except to Alex at the funeral of Van Halen drum tech Greg Emerson. He has also speculated that since the brothers were not pleased with Hagar's commercial ventures such as the Cabo Wabo product line, their similar displeasure with Anthony's hot sauce brand may have caused the rift that ultimately separated Hagar and Anthony from the band.
(2006–present) Departure from Van Halen and formation of Chickenfoot
Anthony spent the summer of 2006 touring as a member of the Other Half during a segment of the Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas tour. The Other Half featured Anthony and Hagar performing classic Van Halen songs from both the Roth and Hagar periods.
On September 8, 2006, Eddie Van Halen announced that his son Wolfgang was replacing Anthony as Van Halen's bass player. On February 2, 2007, Van Halen announced that they were reuniting for a tour with original vocalist David Lee Roth. Their tour began on September 27, 2007. Anthony commented that he heard about his replacement "on the Internet" and added, "I'm a little miffed that they're calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that's one thing, but to me this is not a reunion." At the tour press conference David Lee Roth stated, "This is not a reunion, this is a revision."
Anthony joined Hagar on live national television on February 25, 2007, during a pre-race performance for the California NASCAR race on Fox television. Anthony jumped onstage and joined Hagar during a performance of "I Can't Drive 55."
Anthony and Hagar were the only members, former or current, to appear at Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Eddie Van Halen was in rehab at the time, and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth declined to appear.
Anthony is a founding member, bassist and backing vocalist for the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. The band released their first studio album in Europe on June 5, 2009, followed by the North American release on June 9. Chickenfoot released their sophomore effort, Chickenfoot III, on September 27, 2011.
Anthony is a member of Sammy Hagar and the Circle, a supergroup that formed in 2014 and features Hagar as well as guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.
Personal life
Anthony met Sue Hendry when both attended Arcadia High School. They married in 1981. They have two daughters: Elisha (born 1985) and Taylor (born 1992). Anthony and his family reside in Newport Beach, California. He can be seen during televised car shows, often being interviewed regarding his love and knowledge for classic motorcycles and cars.
Anthony mostly stayed on the sidelines of the rockstar "party hard" lifestyle, though he was often seen and photographed with a cigarette and a Jack Daniel's (whiskey logo) bass guitar.
Discography
with Van Halen
Van Halen (1978)
Van Halen II (1979)
Women and Children First (1980)
Fair Warning (1981)
Diver Down (1982)
1984 (1984)
5150 (1986)
OU812 (1988)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Balance (1995)
Van Halen III (1998)
with Chickenfoot
Chickenfoot (2009)
Chickenfoot III (2011)
with the Circle
Space Between (2019)
Lockdown 2020 (2021)
Commercial ventures
Anthony maintains a personal website titled "Mad Anthony's Cafe" where he markets and sells a number of signature products including hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and hot mustard. His line of commercial foods is the result of a collaboration with a San Diego, California restaurant noted for its hot sauces. His hot sauce brand, "Mad Anthony," has been noted on local news segments and on the Food Network for being "high-end" due to the quality of its ingredients and manufacturing process. The site also provides information on Anthony's Schecter Guitar Research bass guitar series. Chickenfoot bandmate Sammy Hagar carries the bassist's hot sauces at his Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill locations.
References
References
External links
Official Web site
Van Halen Store
Van Halen News Desk
People from the San Gabriel Valley
Planet Us members
1954 births
American heavy metal bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Living people
Van Halen members
Chickenfoot members
American people of Polish descent
American rock bass guitarists
Pasadena City College alumni
20th-century American bass guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Sammy Hagar and the Circle members | false | [
"Van Halen III is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on March 17, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Mike Post and Eddie Van Halen, it was the band's first studio album in three years after Balance (1995), the band's only studio album to feature Extreme lead vocalist Gary Cherone, and the last to feature bassist Michael Anthony before he was replaced in the band by Eddie's son Wolfgang in 2006. However, Anthony only plays bass on three songs on the album, while the rest of the bass parts are played by Eddie Van Halen. Work on a follow-up album with Cherone commenced in 1999, but never advanced past a few demos.\n\nVan Halen III was the band's last studio album for fourteen years until they returned in 2012 with A Different Kind of Truth, released by Interscope Records. Clocking in at over 65 minutes, Van Halen III is their longest album.\n\nProduction\nThe album's title refers to Van Halen's third recorded line-up, and to the band's first two album titles, Van Halen and Van Halen II. None of its material is featured on The Best of Both Worlds, the band's 2004 compilation.\n\nAs a producer, Eddie brought his friend Mike Post. The album's final track, \"How Many Say I\", was an unusual acoustic piano ballad featuring Eddie on lead vocals, and Cherone on backing vocals: Eddie declared he was forced into singing, and added harmonies so he would not perform alone.\n\nVan Halen III is also known for its minimal use of Michael Anthony on bass guitar. Anthony only played bass on \"Without You\", \"One I Want\" & \"Fire In The Hole\"; Eddie Van Halen recorded bass for the rest of the album tracks that feature bass. After Michael Anthony's departure from Van Halen, he confirmed that Eddie Van Halen dictated to him how to play bass on this record. \n\nAnthony also said by the time of making this album, Eddie was playing the bass more as well as drums. \"I don't know if Eddie was basically making a solo record, which is what Van Halen III seemed like to me.\" A track entitled \"That's Why I Love You\" was dropped at the last minute in favor of \"Josephina\", with \"Fire in the Hole\" featuring on the Lethal Weapon 4 film soundtrack.\n\n\"I would have preferred to tour with them and then put out a record,\" Cherone told KNAC. \"It would have been a better idea to establish myself first and then hit the studio with the band… There were some great ideas and some little gems but it was not a great record. I had fun but at times it was like being a stranger in a strange land.\"\n\nThe album cover is a still picture from stock footage of Frank \"Cannonball\" Richards, a vaudeville and sideshow performer known for his act of getting shot in the gut with a cannonball.\n\nCommercial performance\nVan Halen III debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 4, with 191,000 copies sold. The album's only significant radio hit was \"Without You\", which reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the March 7, 1998 issue of Billboard, and remained there for six weeks. Other songs receiving airplay on rock radio were \"Fire in the Hole\" and \"One I Want\".\n\nCritical reception\n\nReception for Van Halen III was mostly mixed to negative. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic stated the album, \"suffers from the same problems as Hagar-era Van Halen – limp riffs, weak melodies, and plodding, colorless rhythms.\" Entertainment Weekly gave it a B grade rating, saying, \"judging from the renewed intensity of Eddie’s guitar playing throughout much of III, having a merely competent, relatively ego-free singer seems to have reinvigorated his muse\" but goes on to say \"How Many Say I\", a song Eddie sang lead vocals on was, \"cringeworthy\" and \"unintentionally hilarious\". Greg Kot from Rolling Stone gave it 2 stars out of 5 noting, \"Cherone sounds disconcertingly like Hagar, full of spleen-busting bluster and incapable of understatement\", and \"When the band plays it heavy, it mires itself in a Seventies tar pit, with only the chorus of \"Without You\" achieving any sort of pop resonance.\" Kot compliments Eddie's vocals saying, \"'How Many Say I' finds the guitarist singing in a disarmingly appealing, nicotine-stained voice over a moody piano melody.\" Billboard reviewer Paul Verna summed up III as \"a wasted opportunity to breathe life into a now-tired formula\".\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs credited to Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Gary Cherone and Alex Van Halen.\n\nPersonnel\n\nVan Halen\nGary Cherone – lead vocals (tracks 2-9 and 11), backing vocals (track 12)\nEddie Van Halen – guitars, bass (tracks 4–6, 8, 9 and 11), keyboards, drums, electric sitar (tracks 1 and 10), backing vocals, lead vocals (track 12), production, engineering\nMichael Anthony – bass (tracks 2, 3 and 7), backing vocals\nAlex Van Halen – drums, percussion\n\nAdditional personnel\nMike Post – piano on \"Neworld\", production\n\nProduction\nFlorian Ammon – programming\nDan Chavkin – photography\nIan Dye – programming\nThe Edward – mixing, mastering\nErwin Musper – engineers\nRobbes – mixing, mastering\nEd Rogers – programming\nF. Scott Schafer – coloring\nEddy Schreyer – mastering\nStine Schyberg – art direction\nPaul Wight – programming\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nSingles\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n1998 albums\nVan Halen albums\nWarner Records albums\nAlbums produced by Mike Post",
"Best Of – Volume I is the first greatest hits album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on October 22, 1996.\n\nThe album does not contain any songs from the band's 1982 album Diver Down. Best Of – Volume I also features \"Humans Being\", the band's contribution to the Twister soundtrack. The two newly recorded songs, \"Can't Get This Stuff No More\" and \"Me Wise Magic\", at the end of the album are with original lead vocalist David Lee Roth. These two songs were released as singles to promote this compilation. They are also the last songs recorded by the original Van Halen lineup of Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Roth and Michael Anthony. The Van Halen brothers would not record again with Roth until the album A Different Kind of Truth, released in 2012. Anthony has not played with Van Halen since the band's 2004 tour.\n\nInitial pressings of the album contained an alternate edit of \"Runnin' with the Devil\" where the verses, chorus and solos were arranged in a different order than that of the original album version. It was reported that this was accidental and subsequent pressings have replaced this version with the one found on Van Halen. However, some radio stations still play this erroneous version of the song.\n\nThe album itself, while not controversial, sparked a great deal of in-band controversy because of the personnel issues surrounding the band at the time. Sammy Hagar, who by this time had been a member of Van Halen for eleven years, equal to the amount of time as the previous lead vocalist, David Lee Roth, left the band in June 1996 due to a number of unclear circumstances. Some sources reported that Hagar was dissatisfied with the decision to issue a \"greatest hits\" collection, and was instead more inclined to do an entirely new album of new material. In either case, it was announced that Hagar had left the band and they began working with David Lee Roth on new material for inclusion on the disc. This was not to last, as Roth and Eddie Van Halen clashed publicly and the band once again was without a lead singer, before hiring Gary Cherone. All songs except \"Humans Being\", \"Can't Get This Stuff No More\", and \"Me Wise Magic\" are included on the band's subsequent greatest hits album The Best of Both Worlds (2004).\n\nDespite the aforementioned friction, the album went on to win Metal Edge magazine's 1996 Readers' Choice Award for \"Best Hits or Compilation Album\". Hagar shares the accolade with Roth, since the album features material from both singers. Also, the song \"Humans Being\" (featured on both the album and the Twister film soundtrack) was voted \"Best Song from a Movie Soundtrack\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nVan Halen\n\nDavid Lee Roth – lead vocals (tracks 2–8, 16 & 17)\nSammy Hagar - lead vocals (tracks 9–15)\nEddie Van Halen - lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals\nMichael Anthony - bass, backing vocals\nAlex Van Halen – drums, percussion\n\nProduction \n\nGlen Ballard – producer (tracks 16, 17)\nBruce Fairbairn – producer (tracks 14, 15)\nAndy Johns – producer (tracks 12, 13)\nMick Jones – producer (tracks 9, 10)\nDon Landee – engineer (tracks 1–11), producer (tracks 9–11)\nErwin Musper – engineer (track 15)\nTed Templeman – producer (tracks 1–8, 12, 13)\nVan Halen – producer (tracks 9–13)\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\nVan Halen compilation albums\n1996 greatest hits albums\nAlbums produced by Andy Johns\nAlbums produced by Bruce Fairbairn\nAlbums produced by Donn Landee\nAlbums produced by Glen Ballard\nAlbums produced by Mick Jones (Foreigner)\nAlbums produced by Ted Templeman\nWarner Records compilation albums\nAlbums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders"
] |
[
"Michael Anthony (musician)",
"(1996-2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects",
"What projects did Michael Anthony do with Van Halen?",
"Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums.",
"What was the first album he recorded with Van Halen?",
"I don't know."
] | C_b8963d0ceaad442a8b3b9fca3128604f_0 | Why did he have less involvement with Van Halen III? | 3 | Why did Michael Anthony have less involvement with Van Halen III? | Michael Anthony (musician) | As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. He continued working with the band. These rumors persisted until his final departure after the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar. Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band, as is always the case for Van Halen albums. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 2000 and 2001. Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion. In interviews, Eddie and Alex Van Halen suggested they were jamming and writing/recording new material during this time period but appeared to be working without Anthony. Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar tour, both Michael Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together. In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the "supergroup" Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Sammy Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo," which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole," were later released on the 2008 Sammy Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion. CANNOTANSWER | albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder. | Michael Anthony Sobolewski (born June 20, 1954) is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist. Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. In addition to his music career, he markets a line of hot sauces named Mad Anthony and related products. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.
Early years
Anthony got his interest in music from his father, who played trumpet. Anthony began by playing trumpet.
Anthony was partly raised in Chicago. The family moved to California twice in Anthony's early years, settling in 1966 in Arcadia, California (Arcadia being located next to Pasadena, where Alex and Edward Van Halen, with whom Anthony would later play in the band Van Halen, were raised). Anthony attended Dana Junior High School, in Arcadia, California, from 1967 to 1969. Anthony was in the marching band at the school. He ran track in junior high and also showed promise in baseball, as a catcher, but by the time he started high school he had ceased doing athletics to concentrate on music.
Anthony graduated from Arcadia High in 1972.
Music career
(1967–1974) Early musical endeavors
Anthony took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his other friends already played guitar or drums. Anthony's friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar. Eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modelled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream, but also admired Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. His first band was called Poverty's Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, and Snake. Although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed.
Snake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat, along with some original songs. They played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers' band Mammoth. Snake once opened for Mammoth during a show at Pasadena High School. Mammoth's PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snake's PA.
While attending Pasadena City College, majoring in music, Anthony met Eddie Van Halen, who also took classes there. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth and the Van Halens auditioned Anthony as a replacement. Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had heard the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band. One story claims that he first consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano, who advised Anthony to join up with the guitar prodigy and his brother. However, according to Anthony's web site, he immediately accepted. This has become the accepted version of events.
Anthony had planned to attend college in Santa Barbara after he graduated from Pasadena City College, but instead he dropped out of PCC just before he earned enough credits for a degree so that he could devote all his time to Van Halen.
(1974–1996) Van Halen
In 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen, dropping the name Mammoth when they discovered another local band using that moniker. After successfully navigating the Los Angeles & West Hollywood club scene and a 29 track demo produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros. in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 10, 1978. Anthony was a 20% member (manager Noel Monk being the 5th) of all debts and profits, including merchandise, until midway through the 1984 tour, when tensions rose to the point that Roth and the Van Halen brothers insisted that he sign away all future songwriting credit and royalties, retroactive with the current 1984 LP. Noel Monk later wrote of the event, "If I were Mike, I would have told them to 'fuck off' and not played that night, to show them my worth. Instead Mike didn't say a word and signed away millions of dollars, as the three stood over him, lying on the floor."
The band released a total of ten studio albums from 1978 - 1995, a live album in 1993, as well as two greatest hits compilations during Anthony's tenure with the band.
Anthony produced a 1988 demo for his brother (Robert Lee Sobolewski) Bobby Leigh's band Asylum Suite, which was formed in 1984 and featured singer Michael Thomas Fiore.
(1996–2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects
As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. Anthony continued working with the band although the rumors persisted until his actual departure following the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar.
Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on three songs, with Eddie playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 1996, 2000 and 2001 (with the latter resulting in early versions of A Different Kind of Truth tracks). Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion.
Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's Roth/Hagar tour (otherwise known as the "Sans Halen" or "Sam and Dave" tour), both Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together.
In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the supergroup Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo", which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole", were later released on the 2008 Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion.
(2003–2005) Van Halen reunion
Initially when Eddie and Alex asked Hagar to rejoin at the end of 2003 for a 2004 tour, the plan was to not invite Anthony back. Hagar, however, refused to perform if Anthony did not rejoin, and Anthony agreed to play but on a reduced royalties contract. The contract drawn up was for the duration of the tour only.
In 2004, Van Halen released the compilation album The Best of Both Worlds which included three new songs. Anthony did not participate in the writing of nor did he play bass on the new songs and was not credited on the album for the new material, although he did sing backup vocals on all of them.
Anthony now states in media interviews that he has not spoken to the Van Halen brothers since the 2004 tour, except to Alex at the funeral of Van Halen drum tech Greg Emerson. He has also speculated that since the brothers were not pleased with Hagar's commercial ventures such as the Cabo Wabo product line, their similar displeasure with Anthony's hot sauce brand may have caused the rift that ultimately separated Hagar and Anthony from the band.
(2006–present) Departure from Van Halen and formation of Chickenfoot
Anthony spent the summer of 2006 touring as a member of the Other Half during a segment of the Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas tour. The Other Half featured Anthony and Hagar performing classic Van Halen songs from both the Roth and Hagar periods.
On September 8, 2006, Eddie Van Halen announced that his son Wolfgang was replacing Anthony as Van Halen's bass player. On February 2, 2007, Van Halen announced that they were reuniting for a tour with original vocalist David Lee Roth. Their tour began on September 27, 2007. Anthony commented that he heard about his replacement "on the Internet" and added, "I'm a little miffed that they're calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that's one thing, but to me this is not a reunion." At the tour press conference David Lee Roth stated, "This is not a reunion, this is a revision."
Anthony joined Hagar on live national television on February 25, 2007, during a pre-race performance for the California NASCAR race on Fox television. Anthony jumped onstage and joined Hagar during a performance of "I Can't Drive 55."
Anthony and Hagar were the only members, former or current, to appear at Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Eddie Van Halen was in rehab at the time, and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth declined to appear.
Anthony is a founding member, bassist and backing vocalist for the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. The band released their first studio album in Europe on June 5, 2009, followed by the North American release on June 9. Chickenfoot released their sophomore effort, Chickenfoot III, on September 27, 2011.
Anthony is a member of Sammy Hagar and the Circle, a supergroup that formed in 2014 and features Hagar as well as guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.
Personal life
Anthony met Sue Hendry when both attended Arcadia High School. They married in 1981. They have two daughters: Elisha (born 1985) and Taylor (born 1992). Anthony and his family reside in Newport Beach, California. He can be seen during televised car shows, often being interviewed regarding his love and knowledge for classic motorcycles and cars.
Anthony mostly stayed on the sidelines of the rockstar "party hard" lifestyle, though he was often seen and photographed with a cigarette and a Jack Daniel's (whiskey logo) bass guitar.
Discography
with Van Halen
Van Halen (1978)
Van Halen II (1979)
Women and Children First (1980)
Fair Warning (1981)
Diver Down (1982)
1984 (1984)
5150 (1986)
OU812 (1988)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Balance (1995)
Van Halen III (1998)
with Chickenfoot
Chickenfoot (2009)
Chickenfoot III (2011)
with the Circle
Space Between (2019)
Lockdown 2020 (2021)
Commercial ventures
Anthony maintains a personal website titled "Mad Anthony's Cafe" where he markets and sells a number of signature products including hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and hot mustard. His line of commercial foods is the result of a collaboration with a San Diego, California restaurant noted for its hot sauces. His hot sauce brand, "Mad Anthony," has been noted on local news segments and on the Food Network for being "high-end" due to the quality of its ingredients and manufacturing process. The site also provides information on Anthony's Schecter Guitar Research bass guitar series. Chickenfoot bandmate Sammy Hagar carries the bassist's hot sauces at his Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill locations.
References
References
External links
Official Web site
Van Halen Store
Van Halen News Desk
People from the San Gabriel Valley
Planet Us members
1954 births
American heavy metal bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Living people
Van Halen members
Chickenfoot members
American people of Polish descent
American rock bass guitarists
Pasadena City College alumni
20th-century American bass guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Sammy Hagar and the Circle members | false | [
"Van Halen III is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on March 17, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Mike Post and Eddie Van Halen, it was the band's first studio album in three years after Balance (1995), the band's only studio album to feature Extreme lead vocalist Gary Cherone, and the last to feature bassist Michael Anthony before he was replaced in the band by Eddie's son Wolfgang in 2006. However, Anthony only plays bass on three songs on the album, while the rest of the bass parts are played by Eddie Van Halen. Work on a follow-up album with Cherone commenced in 1999, but never advanced past a few demos.\n\nVan Halen III was the band's last studio album for fourteen years until they returned in 2012 with A Different Kind of Truth, released by Interscope Records. Clocking in at over 65 minutes, Van Halen III is their longest album.\n\nProduction\nThe album's title refers to Van Halen's third recorded line-up, and to the band's first two album titles, Van Halen and Van Halen II. None of its material is featured on The Best of Both Worlds, the band's 2004 compilation.\n\nAs a producer, Eddie brought his friend Mike Post. The album's final track, \"How Many Say I\", was an unusual acoustic piano ballad featuring Eddie on lead vocals, and Cherone on backing vocals: Eddie declared he was forced into singing, and added harmonies so he would not perform alone.\n\nVan Halen III is also known for its minimal use of Michael Anthony on bass guitar. Anthony only played bass on \"Without You\", \"One I Want\" & \"Fire In The Hole\"; Eddie Van Halen recorded bass for the rest of the album tracks that feature bass. After Michael Anthony's departure from Van Halen, he confirmed that Eddie Van Halen dictated to him how to play bass on this record. \n\nAnthony also said by the time of making this album, Eddie was playing the bass more as well as drums. \"I don't know if Eddie was basically making a solo record, which is what Van Halen III seemed like to me.\" A track entitled \"That's Why I Love You\" was dropped at the last minute in favor of \"Josephina\", with \"Fire in the Hole\" featuring on the Lethal Weapon 4 film soundtrack.\n\n\"I would have preferred to tour with them and then put out a record,\" Cherone told KNAC. \"It would have been a better idea to establish myself first and then hit the studio with the band… There were some great ideas and some little gems but it was not a great record. I had fun but at times it was like being a stranger in a strange land.\"\n\nThe album cover is a still picture from stock footage of Frank \"Cannonball\" Richards, a vaudeville and sideshow performer known for his act of getting shot in the gut with a cannonball.\n\nCommercial performance\nVan Halen III debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 4, with 191,000 copies sold. The album's only significant radio hit was \"Without You\", which reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the March 7, 1998 issue of Billboard, and remained there for six weeks. Other songs receiving airplay on rock radio were \"Fire in the Hole\" and \"One I Want\".\n\nCritical reception\n\nReception for Van Halen III was mostly mixed to negative. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic stated the album, \"suffers from the same problems as Hagar-era Van Halen – limp riffs, weak melodies, and plodding, colorless rhythms.\" Entertainment Weekly gave it a B grade rating, saying, \"judging from the renewed intensity of Eddie’s guitar playing throughout much of III, having a merely competent, relatively ego-free singer seems to have reinvigorated his muse\" but goes on to say \"How Many Say I\", a song Eddie sang lead vocals on was, \"cringeworthy\" and \"unintentionally hilarious\". Greg Kot from Rolling Stone gave it 2 stars out of 5 noting, \"Cherone sounds disconcertingly like Hagar, full of spleen-busting bluster and incapable of understatement\", and \"When the band plays it heavy, it mires itself in a Seventies tar pit, with only the chorus of \"Without You\" achieving any sort of pop resonance.\" Kot compliments Eddie's vocals saying, \"'How Many Say I' finds the guitarist singing in a disarmingly appealing, nicotine-stained voice over a moody piano melody.\" Billboard reviewer Paul Verna summed up III as \"a wasted opportunity to breathe life into a now-tired formula\".\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs credited to Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony, Gary Cherone and Alex Van Halen.\n\nPersonnel\n\nVan Halen\nGary Cherone – lead vocals (tracks 2-9 and 11), backing vocals (track 12)\nEddie Van Halen – guitars, bass (tracks 4–6, 8, 9 and 11), keyboards, drums, electric sitar (tracks 1 and 10), backing vocals, lead vocals (track 12), production, engineering\nMichael Anthony – bass (tracks 2, 3 and 7), backing vocals\nAlex Van Halen – drums, percussion\n\nAdditional personnel\nMike Post – piano on \"Neworld\", production\n\nProduction\nFlorian Ammon – programming\nDan Chavkin – photography\nIan Dye – programming\nThe Edward – mixing, mastering\nErwin Musper – engineers\nRobbes – mixing, mastering\nEd Rogers – programming\nF. Scott Schafer – coloring\nEddy Schreyer – mastering\nStine Schyberg – art direction\nPaul Wight – programming\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nSingles\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\n1998 albums\nVan Halen albums\nWarner Records albums\nAlbums produced by Mike Post",
"Michael Anthony Sobolewski (born June 20, 1954) is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist. Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. In addition to his music career, he markets a line of hot sauces named Mad Anthony and related products. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.\n\nEarly years \nAnthony got his interest in music from his father, who played trumpet. Anthony began by playing trumpet.\n\nAnthony was partly raised in Chicago. The family moved to California twice in Anthony's early years, settling in 1966 in Arcadia, California (Arcadia being located next to Pasadena, where Alex and Edward Van Halen, with whom Anthony would later play in the band Van Halen, were raised). Anthony attended Dana Junior High School, in Arcadia, California, from 1967 to 1969. Anthony was in the marching band at the school. He ran track in junior high and also showed promise in baseball, as a catcher, but by the time he started high school he had ceased doing athletics to concentrate on music.\n\nAnthony graduated from Arcadia High in 1972.\n\nMusic career\n\n(1967–1974) Early musical endeavors \n\nAnthony took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his other friends already played guitar or drums. Anthony's friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar. Eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modelled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream, but also admired Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. His first band was called Poverty's Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, and Snake. Although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed.\n\nSnake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat, along with some original songs. They played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers' band Mammoth. Snake once opened for Mammoth during a show at Pasadena High School. Mammoth's PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snake's PA.\n\nWhile attending Pasadena City College, majoring in music, Anthony met Eddie Van Halen, who also took classes there. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth and the Van Halens auditioned Anthony as a replacement. Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had heard the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band. One story claims that he first consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano, who advised Anthony to join up with the guitar prodigy and his brother. However, according to Anthony's web site, he immediately accepted. This has become the accepted version of events.\n\nAnthony had planned to attend college in Santa Barbara after he graduated from Pasadena City College, but instead he dropped out of PCC just before he earned enough credits for a degree so that he could devote all his time to Van Halen.\n\n(1974–1996) Van Halen \n\nIn 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen, dropping the name Mammoth when they discovered another local band using that moniker. After successfully navigating the Los Angeles & West Hollywood club scene and a 29 track demo produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros. in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 10, 1978. Anthony was a 20% member (manager Noel Monk being the 5th) of all debts and profits, including merchandise, until midway through the 1984 tour, when tensions rose to the point that Roth and the Van Halen brothers insisted that he sign away all future songwriting credit and royalties, retroactive with the current 1984 LP. Noel Monk later wrote of the event, \"If I were Mike, I would have told them to 'fuck off' and not played that night, to show them my worth. Instead Mike didn't say a word and signed away millions of dollars, as the three stood over him, lying on the floor.\"\n\nThe band released a total of ten studio albums from 1978 - 1995, a live album in 1993, as well as two greatest hits compilations during Anthony's tenure with the band.\n\nAnthony produced a 1988 demo for his brother (Robert Lee Sobolewski) Bobby Leigh's band Asylum Suite, which was formed in 1984 and featured singer Michael Thomas Fiore.\n\n(1996–2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects \n\nAs early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. Anthony continued working with the band although the rumors persisted until his actual departure following the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar.\n\nAnthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on three songs, with Eddie playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 1996, 2000 and 2001 (with the latter resulting in early versions of A Different Kind of Truth tracks). Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion.\n\nAnthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's Roth/Hagar tour (otherwise known as the \"Sans Halen\" or \"Sam and Dave\" tour), both Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together.\n\nIn 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the supergroup Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including \"Psycho Vertigo\", which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, \"Peephole\", were later released on the 2008 Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion.\n\n(2003–2005) Van Halen reunion \nInitially when Eddie and Alex asked Hagar to rejoin at the end of 2003 for a 2004 tour, the plan was to not invite Anthony back. Hagar, however, refused to perform if Anthony did not rejoin, and Anthony agreed to play but on a reduced royalties contract. The contract drawn up was for the duration of the tour only.\n\nIn 2004, Van Halen released the compilation album The Best of Both Worlds which included three new songs. Anthony did not participate in the writing of nor did he play bass on the new songs and was not credited on the album for the new material, although he did sing backup vocals on all of them.\n\nAnthony now states in media interviews that he has not spoken to the Van Halen brothers since the 2004 tour, except to Alex at the funeral of Van Halen drum tech Greg Emerson. He has also speculated that since the brothers were not pleased with Hagar's commercial ventures such as the Cabo Wabo product line, their similar displeasure with Anthony's hot sauce brand may have caused the rift that ultimately separated Hagar and Anthony from the band.\n\n(2006–present) Departure from Van Halen and formation of Chickenfoot \nAnthony spent the summer of 2006 touring as a member of the Other Half during a segment of the Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas tour. The Other Half featured Anthony and Hagar performing classic Van Halen songs from both the Roth and Hagar periods.\n\nOn September 8, 2006, Eddie Van Halen announced that his son Wolfgang was replacing Anthony as Van Halen's bass player. On February 2, 2007, Van Halen announced that they were reuniting for a tour with original vocalist David Lee Roth. Their tour began on September 27, 2007. Anthony commented that he heard about his replacement \"on the Internet\" and added, \"I'm a little miffed that they're calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that's one thing, but to me this is not a reunion.\" At the tour press conference David Lee Roth stated, \"This is not a reunion, this is a revision.\"\n\nAnthony joined Hagar on live national television on February 25, 2007, during a pre-race performance for the California NASCAR race on Fox television. Anthony jumped onstage and joined Hagar during a performance of \"I Can't Drive 55.\"\n\nAnthony and Hagar were the only members, former or current, to appear at Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Eddie Van Halen was in rehab at the time, and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth declined to appear.\n\nAnthony is a founding member, bassist and backing vocalist for the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. The band released their first studio album in Europe on June 5, 2009, followed by the North American release on June 9. Chickenfoot released their sophomore effort, Chickenfoot III, on September 27, 2011.\n\nAnthony is a member of Sammy Hagar and the Circle, a supergroup that formed in 2014 and features Hagar as well as guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.\n\nPersonal life\nAnthony met Sue Hendry when both attended Arcadia High School. They married in 1981. They have two daughters: Elisha (born 1985) and Taylor (born 1992). Anthony and his family reside in Newport Beach, California. He can be seen during televised car shows, often being interviewed regarding his love and knowledge for classic motorcycles and cars.\n\nAnthony mostly stayed on the sidelines of the rockstar \"party hard\" lifestyle, though he was often seen and photographed with a cigarette and a Jack Daniel's (whiskey logo) bass guitar.\n\nDiscography\n\nwith Van Halen\nVan Halen (1978)\nVan Halen II (1979)\nWomen and Children First (1980)\nFair Warning (1981)\nDiver Down (1982)\n1984 (1984)\n5150 (1986)\nOU812 (1988)\nFor Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)\nBalance (1995)\nVan Halen III (1998)\n\nwith Chickenfoot\nChickenfoot (2009)\nChickenfoot III (2011)\n\nwith the Circle\nSpace Between (2019)\n Lockdown 2020 (2021)\n\nCommercial ventures\nAnthony maintains a personal website titled \"Mad Anthony's Cafe\" where he markets and sells a number of signature products including hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and hot mustard. His line of commercial foods is the result of a collaboration with a San Diego, California restaurant noted for its hot sauces. His hot sauce brand, \"Mad Anthony,\" has been noted on local news segments and on the Food Network for being \"high-end\" due to the quality of its ingredients and manufacturing process. The site also provides information on Anthony's Schecter Guitar Research bass guitar series. Chickenfoot bandmate Sammy Hagar carries the bassist's hot sauces at his Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill locations.\n\nReferences\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial Web site\nVan Halen Store\nVan Halen News Desk\n\nPeople from the San Gabriel Valley\nPlanet Us members\n1954 births\nAmerican heavy metal bass guitarists\nAmerican male bass guitarists\nLiving people\nVan Halen members\nChickenfoot members\nAmerican people of Polish descent\nAmerican rock bass guitarists\nPasadena City College alumni\n20th-century American bass guitarists\n21st-century American guitarists\nSammy Hagar and the Circle members"
] |
[
"Michael Anthony (musician)",
"(1996-2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects",
"What projects did Michael Anthony do with Van Halen?",
"Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums.",
"What was the first album he recorded with Van Halen?",
"I don't know.",
"Why did he have less involvement with Van Halen III?",
"albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder."
] | C_b8963d0ceaad442a8b3b9fca3128604f_0 | Did he go on tour with van Halen? | 4 | Did Michael Anthony go on tour with van Halen? | Michael Anthony (musician) | As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. He continued working with the band. These rumors persisted until his final departure after the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar. Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band, as is always the case for Van Halen albums. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 2000 and 2001. Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion. In interviews, Eddie and Alex Van Halen suggested they were jamming and writing/recording new material during this time period but appeared to be working without Anthony. Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar tour, both Michael Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together. In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the "supergroup" Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Sammy Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo," which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole," were later released on the 2008 Sammy Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion. CANNOTANSWER | Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, | Michael Anthony Sobolewski (born June 20, 1954) is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist. Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. In addition to his music career, he markets a line of hot sauces named Mad Anthony and related products. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.
Early years
Anthony got his interest in music from his father, who played trumpet. Anthony began by playing trumpet.
Anthony was partly raised in Chicago. The family moved to California twice in Anthony's early years, settling in 1966 in Arcadia, California (Arcadia being located next to Pasadena, where Alex and Edward Van Halen, with whom Anthony would later play in the band Van Halen, were raised). Anthony attended Dana Junior High School, in Arcadia, California, from 1967 to 1969. Anthony was in the marching band at the school. He ran track in junior high and also showed promise in baseball, as a catcher, but by the time he started high school he had ceased doing athletics to concentrate on music.
Anthony graduated from Arcadia High in 1972.
Music career
(1967–1974) Early musical endeavors
Anthony took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his other friends already played guitar or drums. Anthony's friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar. Eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modelled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream, but also admired Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. His first band was called Poverty's Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, and Snake. Although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed.
Snake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat, along with some original songs. They played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers' band Mammoth. Snake once opened for Mammoth during a show at Pasadena High School. Mammoth's PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snake's PA.
While attending Pasadena City College, majoring in music, Anthony met Eddie Van Halen, who also took classes there. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth and the Van Halens auditioned Anthony as a replacement. Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had heard the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band. One story claims that he first consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano, who advised Anthony to join up with the guitar prodigy and his brother. However, according to Anthony's web site, he immediately accepted. This has become the accepted version of events.
Anthony had planned to attend college in Santa Barbara after he graduated from Pasadena City College, but instead he dropped out of PCC just before he earned enough credits for a degree so that he could devote all his time to Van Halen.
(1974–1996) Van Halen
In 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen, dropping the name Mammoth when they discovered another local band using that moniker. After successfully navigating the Los Angeles & West Hollywood club scene and a 29 track demo produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros. in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 10, 1978. Anthony was a 20% member (manager Noel Monk being the 5th) of all debts and profits, including merchandise, until midway through the 1984 tour, when tensions rose to the point that Roth and the Van Halen brothers insisted that he sign away all future songwriting credit and royalties, retroactive with the current 1984 LP. Noel Monk later wrote of the event, "If I were Mike, I would have told them to 'fuck off' and not played that night, to show them my worth. Instead Mike didn't say a word and signed away millions of dollars, as the three stood over him, lying on the floor."
The band released a total of ten studio albums from 1978 - 1995, a live album in 1993, as well as two greatest hits compilations during Anthony's tenure with the band.
Anthony produced a 1988 demo for his brother (Robert Lee Sobolewski) Bobby Leigh's band Asylum Suite, which was formed in 1984 and featured singer Michael Thomas Fiore.
(1996–2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects
As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. Anthony continued working with the band although the rumors persisted until his actual departure following the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar.
Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on three songs, with Eddie playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 1996, 2000 and 2001 (with the latter resulting in early versions of A Different Kind of Truth tracks). Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion.
Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's Roth/Hagar tour (otherwise known as the "Sans Halen" or "Sam and Dave" tour), both Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together.
In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the supergroup Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo", which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole", were later released on the 2008 Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion.
(2003–2005) Van Halen reunion
Initially when Eddie and Alex asked Hagar to rejoin at the end of 2003 for a 2004 tour, the plan was to not invite Anthony back. Hagar, however, refused to perform if Anthony did not rejoin, and Anthony agreed to play but on a reduced royalties contract. The contract drawn up was for the duration of the tour only.
In 2004, Van Halen released the compilation album The Best of Both Worlds which included three new songs. Anthony did not participate in the writing of nor did he play bass on the new songs and was not credited on the album for the new material, although he did sing backup vocals on all of them.
Anthony now states in media interviews that he has not spoken to the Van Halen brothers since the 2004 tour, except to Alex at the funeral of Van Halen drum tech Greg Emerson. He has also speculated that since the brothers were not pleased with Hagar's commercial ventures such as the Cabo Wabo product line, their similar displeasure with Anthony's hot sauce brand may have caused the rift that ultimately separated Hagar and Anthony from the band.
(2006–present) Departure from Van Halen and formation of Chickenfoot
Anthony spent the summer of 2006 touring as a member of the Other Half during a segment of the Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas tour. The Other Half featured Anthony and Hagar performing classic Van Halen songs from both the Roth and Hagar periods.
On September 8, 2006, Eddie Van Halen announced that his son Wolfgang was replacing Anthony as Van Halen's bass player. On February 2, 2007, Van Halen announced that they were reuniting for a tour with original vocalist David Lee Roth. Their tour began on September 27, 2007. Anthony commented that he heard about his replacement "on the Internet" and added, "I'm a little miffed that they're calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that's one thing, but to me this is not a reunion." At the tour press conference David Lee Roth stated, "This is not a reunion, this is a revision."
Anthony joined Hagar on live national television on February 25, 2007, during a pre-race performance for the California NASCAR race on Fox television. Anthony jumped onstage and joined Hagar during a performance of "I Can't Drive 55."
Anthony and Hagar were the only members, former or current, to appear at Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Eddie Van Halen was in rehab at the time, and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth declined to appear.
Anthony is a founding member, bassist and backing vocalist for the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. The band released their first studio album in Europe on June 5, 2009, followed by the North American release on June 9. Chickenfoot released their sophomore effort, Chickenfoot III, on September 27, 2011.
Anthony is a member of Sammy Hagar and the Circle, a supergroup that formed in 2014 and features Hagar as well as guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.
Personal life
Anthony met Sue Hendry when both attended Arcadia High School. They married in 1981. They have two daughters: Elisha (born 1985) and Taylor (born 1992). Anthony and his family reside in Newport Beach, California. He can be seen during televised car shows, often being interviewed regarding his love and knowledge for classic motorcycles and cars.
Anthony mostly stayed on the sidelines of the rockstar "party hard" lifestyle, though he was often seen and photographed with a cigarette and a Jack Daniel's (whiskey logo) bass guitar.
Discography
with Van Halen
Van Halen (1978)
Van Halen II (1979)
Women and Children First (1980)
Fair Warning (1981)
Diver Down (1982)
1984 (1984)
5150 (1986)
OU812 (1988)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Balance (1995)
Van Halen III (1998)
with Chickenfoot
Chickenfoot (2009)
Chickenfoot III (2011)
with the Circle
Space Between (2019)
Lockdown 2020 (2021)
Commercial ventures
Anthony maintains a personal website titled "Mad Anthony's Cafe" where he markets and sells a number of signature products including hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and hot mustard. His line of commercial foods is the result of a collaboration with a San Diego, California restaurant noted for its hot sauces. His hot sauce brand, "Mad Anthony," has been noted on local news segments and on the Food Network for being "high-end" due to the quality of its ingredients and manufacturing process. The site also provides information on Anthony's Schecter Guitar Research bass guitar series. Chickenfoot bandmate Sammy Hagar carries the bassist's hot sauces at his Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill locations.
References
References
External links
Official Web site
Van Halen Store
Van Halen News Desk
People from the San Gabriel Valley
Planet Us members
1954 births
American heavy metal bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Living people
Van Halen members
Chickenfoot members
American people of Polish descent
American rock bass guitarists
Pasadena City College alumni
20th-century American bass guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Sammy Hagar and the Circle members | true | [
"Van Halen 2007–2008 Tour was a North American concert tour occurring in the fall of 2007 and winter and spring of 2008 for hard rock band Van Halen. It was Van Halen's first tour since 2004 (which itself was the band's only tour since 1998), and the first one with original singer David Lee Roth since he left the band in 1985. Roth was with the band from 1974 to 1985, when the band rose to prominence.\n\nThe tour was originally going to be a fifty date summer tour in 2007. When rescheduled, it was announced as a twenty-five date tour in Winter 2007. Gradually, dates were added, bringing it up to forty dates. In November 2007, the band announced an extension of the tour into 2008, eventually adding thirty-four new dates to the tour, bringing the total up to seventy-four, ending in April . Ultimately, the tour was then re-branded as the \"Van Halen 2007–2008 North American Tour\". A number of dates were postponed in early March, due to a reported illness Eddie Van Halen appeared to be suffering from.\n\nHistory\nA Van Halen tour with Roth was rumoured for months beforehand, and there had been discussions about a reunion with him for years (in part fueled by Roth's first public attempt at a reunion with Van Halen going wrong) but with no success. \"Ed and Al hated that guy,\" noted Sammy Hagar. \"Really hated him. I would never have believed they'd get back together.\" Three times in 2000–2001, Roth entered the 5150 studio (Eddie Van Halen's personal recording studio) with the Van Halen brothers to jam.\n\nAn angle to the tour was that Eddie Van Halen's 16-year-old son Wolfgang Van Halen was the new bassist; the first time any slot other than the vocalist had changed since 1974. This offended many fans because original bassist Michael Anthony was not asked to be a part of this reunion. Wolfgang was a mere 17 years old at the time. However the tour sold well, selling out several dates. Initially 25 dates across the USA/Canada were announced, but 50 more were added due to the demand.\n\nThe tour started on September 27, 2007 and finished on July 3, 2008 with a total of 76 dates. The band's last tour, with Sammy Hagar in 2004 (against which this tour was compared directly), was originally set to be 50 dates and was extended to 80.\n\nKy-Mani Marley, son of reggae artist Bob Marley, opened each show bar the final two during the first three legs of the tour. R&B singer Ryan Shaw announced that, beginning on February 22, he would be the opening act for the remainder of the tour. Shaw began to tour with the band starting with the Las Vegas show on April 19.\n\nThe tour was officially named the \"Van Halen Fall 2007 Tour\" during early announcements. A \"Merry Christmas\" message on the Van Halen website referred to the \"2007 tour\", with no new title given for the 2008 leg. The website merely stated, \"As Van Halen readies for a much needed holiday break, it's back on the road in 2008 to continue the tour.\" Extra dates were added repeatedly, and all postponed dates were made up for at later stages, with no information on if the \"2007 tour\" actually had a scheduled ending.\n\nUltimately, the tour grossed over $93 million, the band's most profitable to date.\n\nSetlist\n\n\"You Really Got Me\" (The Kinks cover)\n\"I'm the One\"\n\"Runnin' with the Devil\"\n\"Romeo Delight\"\n\"Somebody Get Me a Doctor\"\n\"Beautiful Girls\"\n\"Dance the Night Away\"\n\"Atomic Punk\"\n\"Everybody Wants Some!!\"\n\"So This Is Love?\"\n\"Mean Street\"\n\"Oh, Pretty Woman\" (Roy Orbison cover)\nAlex Van Halen drum solo\n\"Unchained\"\n\"I'll Wait\"\n\"And the Cradle Will Rock...\"\n\"Hot for Teacher\"\n\"Little Dreamer\"\n\"Little Guitars\"\n\"Jamie's Cryin'\"\n\"Ice Cream Man\" (John Brim cover)\n\"Panama\"\nEddie Van Halen guitar solo\" [and \"Eruption\", \"Spanish Fly\", \"Cathedral\", \"Women in Love...\" (Intro), and \"316\"]\n\"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love\"\n\"1984\" and \"Jump\" [Encore]\n\nInformation\n \"Little Guitars\" (Dropped from the setlist after the second leg.)\n\nPersonnel\nVan Halen\nDavid Lee Roth – lead vocals\nEddie Van Halen – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals\nWolfgang Van Halen – bass guitar, backing vocals\nAlex Van Halen – drums, percussion\n\nSupport acts\nKy-Mani Marley\nThe Tragically Hip\nPassafire\nRyan Shaw\n\nTour dates\n\n David Lee Roth's first show with Van Halen since September 2, 1984.\n Private BlackBerry Limited show.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Van-Halen.com – The official Van Halen website\n Van Halen NewsDesk\n\nVan Halen concert tours\n2007 concert tours\n2008 concert tours\nReunion concert tours",
"The Van Halen Tour 2004 was a North American concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen. It was the band's first tour since 1998 and saw the return of lead singer Sammy Hagar, who left the band in 1996 after tensions with lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen.\n\nTensions between Hagar and Eddie Van Halen were rekindled during the rehearsals before the tour even started and continued until the last show. The 2004 tour marked the last time that Hagar would ever perform with Van Halen. Some points of contention between the two included Eddie's increased struggles with substance abuse and Sammy Hagar’s promotion of his personal Cabo Wabo tequila brand. The tour also signaled the declining relationship of bassist Michael Anthony with Eddie and Alex Van Halen. During the 2004 tour, Anthony was forced to lose his licensing rights to the band and to take a pay cut due to tensions with the Van Halen brothers.\n\nWhile commercially successful, the tour generally received poor reviews from critics, with some alleging that the Eddie was sloppy, unfocused, and past their prime. The tour’s legacy has been similarly poor as well, especially regarding the off-stage developments involving Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony. Nick Deriso of Ultimate Classic Rock called the tour “disastrous.\"\n\nBackground \nThe 2004 tour was the first time that Van Halen had played together since 1998, with then lead singer Gary Cherone. In 2004, Van Halen reunited with Sammy Hagar, their second lead vocalist from 1985–1996, who had split with the band due to tensions with Eddie Van Halen. Hagar claimed that the 1996 split resulted from disagreements over recording new tracks for the movie Twister, after he was exhausted from touring in support of the band’s album Balance. According to Hagar, he was then informed that the songs the band had recorded would be released without his vocals and were not going to be used for the Twister soundtrack, but for a greatest-hits album, which Hagar opposed. However, Eddie Van Halen claimed that the tensions with Hagar stemmed from the singer’s decision to produce his own “solo best-of set,” which increased tensions when Hagar then refused to partake in the Van Halen greatest hits release. Van Halen turned to David Lee Roth, the band’s first lead singer, to replace Hagar as the band's lead singer.\n\nThe 2004 reunion tour resulted after Sammy Hagar decided to call drummer Alex Van Halen in 2003 and “hit it off like old times.\" After Hagar then called lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen, the band was once again reunited.\n\nOriginally, the band planned to release a full-length album, titled The Best of Both Worlds, which would have featured the instrumentals from the aborted second album with Gary Cherone, with Hagar on vocals. This plan was abandoned because Eddie Van Halen was only able to complete three of the tracks. They decided to release a new compilation double album featuring three new songs, which was to be followed by a reunion tour. The new songs were \"It's About Time\", \"Up for Breakfast\" and \"Learning to See\". Initially, 28 dates were announced, but the tour was extended to 80 across five months.\n\nMichael Anthony originally thought that the tour would expand to Europe, Japan, and South America, but the idea was abandoned because of Hagar's feud with Eddie Van Halen.\n\nControversies \nHagar’s reunion with the band, and relationship with Eddie Van Halen, began well. In August 2004, Hagar said that he and Eddie Van Halen were going to “Pretend like it [the feud] never happened. We’re going to rise above it.” In an early review of the tour, Hagar was described as “undeniably delighted to be back together” with Van Halen. However, Hagar and Van Halen’s feelings of good ended up being short-lived.\n\nHagar accused Eddie of drinking too much, despite Eddie's denials: \"It was horrible to know a person that was in that kind of shape.\" In his memoir, Hagar wrote that during the tour Van Halen was “unkempt, hunched over, frighteningly skinny” and “drinking wine straight out of a bottle.\" Van Halen was reported to have collapsed during the tour as well, in addition to playing poorly due to his struggles with substance abuse. Eddie Van Halen said that he was “an alcoholic” and that in 2004 he became a “very angry drunk,” although he claimed that Hagar’s memoir was “definitely embellished.\"\n\nAnother point of contention during the tour was Sammy Hagar’s promotion of his Cabo Wabo tequila brand, to the displeasure of Eddie Van Halen. Bassist Michael Anthony said that “he [Eddie Van Halen] was never happy about that, the whole Cabo Wabo thing.” Anthony claimed that Sammy independently contracted with arenas to sell the tequila, which “would create some tension onstage and offstage.\" Hagar claims he was told by the Van Halen brothers, before the tour, that he would not be allowed to promote his Cabo Wabo tequila, so he purposefully “got a Cabo Wabo tattoo” on his arm and “wore short sleeves.\"\n\nThe tour also caused controversy with Michael Anthony, the band's longtime bassist (performing with them until 2000 when they went on hiatus, but still officially a member in 2004). Anthony was hired as a touring musician rather than a 'real' member of the band, resulting in being paid a reduced commission. Initially, the Van Halen brothers did not want him on the tour at all, but Sammy Hagar refused to tour without him.\n\nThe tour also resulted in a legal dispute between Van Halen and the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles had contracted Van Halen to perform a September 2 concert at Oriole Park at Camden Yards for $1.5 million, in addition to 80 percent of ticket and merchandise revenues. However, the Orioles later canceled this deal, causing Van Halen to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, suing for at least $2 million. Van Halen argued that they lost potential revenue in the Baltimore area from a non-compete clause and that they had to rearrange the 2004 tour for the show that the Orioles’ reneged on.\n\nReception \nAccording to Pollstar, the tour grossed $54.3 million, making it the sixth highest grossing tour of 2004. Pollstar reports that the tour had an average ticket price of $99.12 and sold 1,054,238 tickets over 83 shows. However, according to Billboard Boxscore, the tour grossed nearly $40 million.\n\nCritical reception for the tour was generally negative, with some reviews alleging that the tour was a watered-down version of the band’s past versions. Jason Bracelin, of the Houston Press, wrote that “In their prime, the guys in Van Halen were as sticky, sweaty, and accident-prone as the best keggers. Now, they’re hard-rock parental units approaching their fifties, and so are many of their fans.\" Kyle Munson, of The Des Moines Register, wrote that Van Halen sounded “sloppy” and alleged that Hagar seemed more focused with signing autographs than singing. However, Doug Fox, after a performance in Salt Lake City, wrote that the future of Van Halen “seems to be on firmer ground as well with the return of Hagar.\"\n\nLegacy \nOverall, the tour’s long term reputation has been similarly poor, being described as both “Disastrous” by Nick Deriso of Ultimate Classic Rock and “Ill-Fated” by Andy Greene of Rolling Stone. The tour also is notable for its lasting damage on the relationship between lead singer Sammy Hagar and lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Sammy Hagar, in his memoir, wrote that after the 2004 tour, his relationship with Eddie Van Halen was “irretrievably broken.\" By the end of the tour, Anthony and Hagar reportedly used “different jets, different hotels, different limos, different security details\" from the Van Halen brothers.\n\nThe tour also signaled the declining relationship between bassist Michael Anthony and the band. Allegedly, Alex and Eddie Van Halen did not want to tour with Anthony, while Hagar insisted upon his presence in the band. Anthony ended up being forced to relinquish his Van Halen licensing rights in addition to a pay cut. Anthony claims he accepted the deal because he thought it may have been the last time the band would ever perform together. In 2006, Eddie Van Halen fired Anthony from the band and replaced him with his son, Wolfgang Van Halen.\n\nSetlist\nTypical Setlist\n\n \"Jump\"\n \"Runaround\"\n \"Humans Being\"\n \"Up for Breakfast\"\n Bass solo\n \"Somebody Get Me a Doctor\"\n \"Poundcake\"\n \"It's About Time\"\n Drum solo\n \"Top of the World\"\n \"Unchained\"\n \"Why Can't This Be Love\"\n \"Eagles Fly\"\n \"Deeper Kinda Love\"\n \"Learning to See\"\n \"Best of Both Worlds\"\n Guitar solo\n \"Dreams\"\n \"Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love\"\n \"Right Now\"\n \"You Really Got Me\"\n \"Panama\"\n \"When It's Love\"\n \"Runnin' with the Devil\" (occasionally with Michael Anthony on vocals)\n \"The Seventh Seal\" (occasionally)\n \"Finish What Ya Started\" (occasionally)\n\nPersonnel\nSammy Hagar – lead vocals, guitar\nEddie Van Halen – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals\nWolfgang Van Halen - rhythm guitar (during \"316\")\nMichael Anthony – bass guitar, backing vocals\nAlex Van Halen – drums, percussion\n\nTour dates\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Van-Halen.com – The official Van Halen website\n Van Halen NewsDesk\n\nVan Halen concert tours\n2004 concert tours"
] |
[
"Michael Anthony (musician)",
"(1996-2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects",
"What projects did Michael Anthony do with Van Halen?",
"Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums.",
"What was the first album he recorded with Van Halen?",
"I don't know.",
"Why did he have less involvement with Van Halen III?",
"albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder.",
"Did he go on tour with van Halen?",
"Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour,"
] | C_b8963d0ceaad442a8b3b9fca3128604f_0 | Was he able to go on any other tours? | 5 | Was Michael Anthony able to go on any other tours besides the ones with van Halen? | Michael Anthony (musician) | As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. He continued working with the band. These rumors persisted until his final departure after the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar. Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on only three songs, with Eddie Van Halen playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band, as is always the case for Van Halen albums. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 2000 and 2001. Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion. In interviews, Eddie and Alex Van Halen suggested they were jamming and writing/recording new material during this time period but appeared to be working without Anthony. Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's David Lee Roth/Sammy Hagar tour, both Michael Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together. In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the "supergroup" Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Sammy Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo," which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole," were later released on the 2008 Sammy Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion. CANNOTANSWER | He participated in the band's three reunion efforts | Michael Anthony Sobolewski (born June 20, 1954) is an American musician who was the bassist and backing vocalist for the hard rock band Van Halen from 1974 to 2006. He performed on Van Halen's first 11 albums and was their longest-tenured bassist. Following his 2006 departure, Anthony has collaborated with fellow former Van Halen bandmate Sammy Hagar for the supergroups Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle. In addition to his music career, he markets a line of hot sauces named Mad Anthony and related products. Anthony was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.
Early years
Anthony got his interest in music from his father, who played trumpet. Anthony began by playing trumpet.
Anthony was partly raised in Chicago. The family moved to California twice in Anthony's early years, settling in 1966 in Arcadia, California (Arcadia being located next to Pasadena, where Alex and Edward Van Halen, with whom Anthony would later play in the band Van Halen, were raised). Anthony attended Dana Junior High School, in Arcadia, California, from 1967 to 1969. Anthony was in the marching band at the school. He ran track in junior high and also showed promise in baseball, as a catcher, but by the time he started high school he had ceased doing athletics to concentrate on music.
Anthony graduated from Arcadia High in 1972.
Music career
(1967–1974) Early musical endeavors
Anthony took an interest in guitar as a teenager, but picked up the bass instead since most of his other friends already played guitar or drums. Anthony's friend Mike Hershey gave him a Fender Mustang electric guitar that Anthony converted by removing the two highest strings and playing it as a bass guitar. Eventually, his father bought him a Victoria copy of a Fender Precision Bass and a Gibson amplifier. Anthony mostly modelled his bass playing after Jack Bruce of Cream, but also admired Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Harvey Brooks of Electric Flag. His first band was called Poverty's Children. Other bands he played in included Black Opal, Balls, and Snake. Although Anthony is naturally left-handed, he plays right-handed.
Snake, a three-piece group featuring Anthony on lead vocals and bass guitar, was the last band in which Anthony played before joining Van Halen. Snake played covers of ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foghat, along with some original songs. They played several of the same types of gigs as did the Van Halen brothers' band Mammoth. Snake once opened for Mammoth during a show at Pasadena High School. Mammoth's PA failed that night, so Anthony lent them Snake's PA.
While attending Pasadena City College, majoring in music, Anthony met Eddie Van Halen, who also took classes there. During this time, bass player Mark Stone parted ways with Mammoth and the Van Halens auditioned Anthony as a replacement. Anthony was impressed by their skill during subsequent jam sessions even though he had heard the brothers play before. After the session, the Van Halen brothers asked Anthony to join their band. One story claims that he first consulted Snake guitarist Tony Caggiano, who advised Anthony to join up with the guitar prodigy and his brother. However, according to Anthony's web site, he immediately accepted. This has become the accepted version of events.
Anthony had planned to attend college in Santa Barbara after he graduated from Pasadena City College, but instead he dropped out of PCC just before he earned enough credits for a degree so that he could devote all his time to Van Halen.
(1974–1996) Van Halen
In 1974, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Anthony became known as Van Halen, dropping the name Mammoth when they discovered another local band using that moniker. After successfully navigating the Los Angeles & West Hollywood club scene and a 29 track demo produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros. in 1977 and released their self-titled debut album on February 10, 1978. Anthony was a 20% member (manager Noel Monk being the 5th) of all debts and profits, including merchandise, until midway through the 1984 tour, when tensions rose to the point that Roth and the Van Halen brothers insisted that he sign away all future songwriting credit and royalties, retroactive with the current 1984 LP. Noel Monk later wrote of the event, "If I were Mike, I would have told them to 'fuck off' and not played that night, to show them my worth. Instead Mike didn't say a word and signed away millions of dollars, as the three stood over him, lying on the floor."
The band released a total of ten studio albums from 1978 - 1995, a live album in 1993, as well as two greatest hits compilations during Anthony's tenure with the band.
Anthony produced a 1988 demo for his brother (Robert Lee Sobolewski) Bobby Leigh's band Asylum Suite, which was formed in 1984 and featured singer Michael Thomas Fiore.
(1996–2003) Diminishing role with Van Halen and side projects
As early as 1996, rumors periodically surfaced that Anthony had been fired from Van Halen, despite claims to the contrary. Anthony continued working with the band although the rumors persisted until his actual departure following the 2004 reunion tour with Hagar.
Anthony's involvement in recording the 1998 album Van Halen III was dramatically less than previous albums. Anthony played bass on three songs, with Eddie playing the bass parts for the remainder. Anthony is credited as a songwriter for the album along with the rest of the band. Anthony performed with the band for the 1998 tour, and was credited on messages from the band thereafter. He participated in the band's three reunion efforts with David Lee Roth in 1996, 2000 and 2001 (with the latter resulting in early versions of A Different Kind of Truth tracks). Anthony's name was also credited in a few band newsletters and appeared in band interviews during this time. Sometime after this, Anthony disappeared from public view until the 2004 reunion.
Anthony began periodic appearances with Sammy Hagar during his solo tours. He usually played as part of both the Waboritas and Los Tres Gusanos, two of Hagar's bands. During 2002's Roth/Hagar tour (otherwise known as the "Sans Halen" or "Sam and Dave" tour), both Anthony and ex-Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone made guest appearances at concerts, sometimes together.
In 2002, Anthony, Hagar, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, and Joe Satriani formed the supergroup Planet Us and Anthony began making more frequent performances at Hagar concerts. Planet Us recorded two songs, including "Psycho Vertigo", which was intended for the original Spider-Man soundtrack but ultimately did not make the album. That and the other Planet Us song written for the band, "Peephole", were later released on the 2008 Hagar solo album Cosmic Universal Fashion.
(2003–2005) Van Halen reunion
Initially when Eddie and Alex asked Hagar to rejoin at the end of 2003 for a 2004 tour, the plan was to not invite Anthony back. Hagar, however, refused to perform if Anthony did not rejoin, and Anthony agreed to play but on a reduced royalties contract. The contract drawn up was for the duration of the tour only.
In 2004, Van Halen released the compilation album The Best of Both Worlds which included three new songs. Anthony did not participate in the writing of nor did he play bass on the new songs and was not credited on the album for the new material, although he did sing backup vocals on all of them.
Anthony now states in media interviews that he has not spoken to the Van Halen brothers since the 2004 tour, except to Alex at the funeral of Van Halen drum tech Greg Emerson. He has also speculated that since the brothers were not pleased with Hagar's commercial ventures such as the Cabo Wabo product line, their similar displeasure with Anthony's hot sauce brand may have caused the rift that ultimately separated Hagar and Anthony from the band.
(2006–present) Departure from Van Halen and formation of Chickenfoot
Anthony spent the summer of 2006 touring as a member of the Other Half during a segment of the Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas tour. The Other Half featured Anthony and Hagar performing classic Van Halen songs from both the Roth and Hagar periods.
On September 8, 2006, Eddie Van Halen announced that his son Wolfgang was replacing Anthony as Van Halen's bass player. On February 2, 2007, Van Halen announced that they were reuniting for a tour with original vocalist David Lee Roth. Their tour began on September 27, 2007. Anthony commented that he heard about his replacement "on the Internet" and added, "I'm a little miffed that they're calling it a Van Halen reunion. If I was dead and they needed someone to play, that's one thing, but to me this is not a reunion." At the tour press conference David Lee Roth stated, "This is not a reunion, this is a revision."
Anthony joined Hagar on live national television on February 25, 2007, during a pre-race performance for the California NASCAR race on Fox television. Anthony jumped onstage and joined Hagar during a performance of "I Can't Drive 55."
Anthony and Hagar were the only members, former or current, to appear at Van Halen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 12, 2007. Eddie Van Halen was in rehab at the time, and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth declined to appear.
Anthony is a founding member, bassist and backing vocalist for the band Chickenfoot with Sammy Hagar, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. The band released their first studio album in Europe on June 5, 2009, followed by the North American release on June 9. Chickenfoot released their sophomore effort, Chickenfoot III, on September 27, 2011.
Anthony is a member of Sammy Hagar and the Circle, a supergroup that formed in 2014 and features Hagar as well as guitarist Vic Johnson and drummer Jason Bonham.
Personal life
Anthony met Sue Hendry when both attended Arcadia High School. They married in 1981. They have two daughters: Elisha (born 1985) and Taylor (born 1992). Anthony and his family reside in Newport Beach, California. He can be seen during televised car shows, often being interviewed regarding his love and knowledge for classic motorcycles and cars.
Anthony mostly stayed on the sidelines of the rockstar "party hard" lifestyle, though he was often seen and photographed with a cigarette and a Jack Daniel's (whiskey logo) bass guitar.
Discography
with Van Halen
Van Halen (1978)
Van Halen II (1979)
Women and Children First (1980)
Fair Warning (1981)
Diver Down (1982)
1984 (1984)
5150 (1986)
OU812 (1988)
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Balance (1995)
Van Halen III (1998)
with Chickenfoot
Chickenfoot (2009)
Chickenfoot III (2011)
with the Circle
Space Between (2019)
Lockdown 2020 (2021)
Commercial ventures
Anthony maintains a personal website titled "Mad Anthony's Cafe" where he markets and sells a number of signature products including hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and hot mustard. His line of commercial foods is the result of a collaboration with a San Diego, California restaurant noted for its hot sauces. His hot sauce brand, "Mad Anthony," has been noted on local news segments and on the Food Network for being "high-end" due to the quality of its ingredients and manufacturing process. The site also provides information on Anthony's Schecter Guitar Research bass guitar series. Chickenfoot bandmate Sammy Hagar carries the bassist's hot sauces at his Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill locations.
References
References
External links
Official Web site
Van Halen Store
Van Halen News Desk
People from the San Gabriel Valley
Planet Us members
1954 births
American heavy metal bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Living people
Van Halen members
Chickenfoot members
American people of Polish descent
American rock bass guitarists
Pasadena City College alumni
20th-century American bass guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
Sammy Hagar and the Circle members | true | [
"The Bigger Than Life Tour was a co- headlining tour by American rock bands, Daughtry and 3 Doors Down. The tour supported Daughtry's third studio album, Break the Spell, and 3 Doors Down's The Greatest Hits album.\n\nBackground\nThe tour was announced on October 8, 2012. Chris Daughtry said, \"It's an honor to be able to go on the road with 3 Doors Down. We are excited to give fans an energetic rock show every night sharing songs from both our catalogs...we can't wait to hit the road to share it with our fans.\" The second leg of the tour was announced on December 10, 2012, and the third leg on April 23, 2013.\n\nOpening acts\nP.O.D. \nAranda \nHalestorm \nBad Seed Rising\n\nSet list\n\nTour dates\n\nFestivals and other miscellaneous performances\nThis concert is a part of Innsbrook After Hours.\nThis concert is a part of Freedom Fest at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse\n\nBox office score date\n\nReferences\n\n2012 concert tours\n2013 concert tours\nCo-headlining concert tours\nDaughtry (band) concert tours\n3 Doors Down",
"star-crossed:unveiled was the seventh concert tour by American singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves in support of her fifth studio album, star-crossed (2021). It began on January 19, 2022, in Saint Paul, Minnesota and concluded in Los Angeles, California on February 20, 2022, comprising of 14 arena shows. King Princess and MUNA served as opening acts.\n\nBackground\nThe tour was announced on August 30, 2021, ahead of the release of star-crossed.\n\nThe show in Toronto, initially scheduled for January 24, 2022, was postponed to February 25, 2022 due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. The new show date was to be limited to 50% capacity based on regulations in Ontario. On February 25, Kacey and Scotiabank Arena announced the shows cancellation, as vital production elements were not able to arrive at the venue in time due to inclement weather.\n\nSetlist\nThis set list is from the concert on January 19, 2022, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is not intended to represent all shows from the tour.\n\n \"Star-Crossed\"\n \"Good Wife\"\n \"Cherry Blossom\n \"Simple Times\"\n \"Breadwinner\"\n \"Golden Hour\"\n \"Butterflies\"\n \"Lonely Weekend\"\n \"Space Cowboy\"\n \"High Horse\"\n \"Camera Roll\"\n \"Hookup Scene\"\n \"Merry Go 'Round\"\n \"No Scrubs\"\n \"Justified\"\n \"There Is a Light\"\n \"Gracias a la Vida\" \nEncore\n \"Slow Burn\"\n \"Rainbow\"\n\nShows\n\nCancelled shows\n\nReferences\n\n2022 concert tours\nConcert tours of Canada\nConcert tours of North America\nConcert tours of the United States"
] |
[
"Lindsay Lohan",
"Personal life"
] | C_7160bcbf54934a3c96b56cfec91cd7cd_0 | What are some controversys Lohan has been involved with? | 1 | What are some controversies Lindsay Lohan has been involved with? | Lindsay Lohan | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. Video surveillance of the burglary recorded at Lohan's home played a large role in breaking the case. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Lohan offered her services to Barack Obama's Democratic election effort, but was declined. In a blog post, Lohan criticized the media and then Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for not focusing on policy, and attacked Palin's positions on homosexuality, birth control and abortion. Lohan had previously expressed an interest in going to Iraq, during the Iraq War in 2006, on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Lohan supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, something that prompted ABC News to call her a "political turncoat". Only weeks later, she tweeted words supportive of Obama. Speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said that she was not a lesbian. When asked if she was bisexual in 2008, she responded "Maybe. Yeah," adding, "I don't want to classify myself." However, in a 2013 interview, she said, "I know I'm straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. ... I think I was looking for something different." In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, whom she worked with on several films, on Instagram and saying that his wife Georgina Chapman should stay with him. Weinstein had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. CANNOTANSWER | In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, | Lindsay Dee Lohan (; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. Born and raised in New York City, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera Another World at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap (1998). The film's success led to appearances in the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002), and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy sleeper hit Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol. After starring in the sports comedy film Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Lohan quickly became the subject of intense media coverage due to a series of personal struggles and legal troubles, as well as a number of stints in rehabilitation facilities due to substance abuse. This period saw her lose several roles and had significantly impacted her career and public image negatively. Thereafter, she appeared in films, such as A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Just My Luck (2006), Bobby (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012), and The Canyons (2013).
Lohan then appeared on various television shows, including the docu-series Lindsay (2014), the British comedy series Sick Note (2018), the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019), and the musical competition show The Masked Singer Australia (2019) in which she served as a judge. She also made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014–2015).
Lohan rose to prominence in the music industry under Casablanca Records, releasing two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Lohan dabbled in fashion, beginning a line of her own titled 6126 and briefly serving as artistic advisor for Emanuel Ungaro in 2009. Since 2016, she has opened several nightclubs and resorts in Greece.
Early life
Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx borough of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina, and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with Lohan in The Parent Trap, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage, and she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan is a natural redhead.
Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when Lindsay was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Career
1989–1999: Career beginnings
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney. At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
2000–2003: Success with Disney films
Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was once again met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, , it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002. Lohan landed the role as the daughter in Disney's remake, Freaky Friday, also that month, which required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. Lohan recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film. The song peaked at number 18 on Radio Disney's Top 30. Lohan announced that the song was separate from her singing career since many teen idols such as Hilary Duff and Raven-Symoné were expanding their careers from acting to singing. In 2003, Lohan recorded four songs that were released for the soundtrack to Lohan's film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, including a Radio Disney hit, "Drama Queen (That Girl)."
She had begun working with Diane Warren and Randy Jackson, who were going to help write and produce her album. Diane Warren wrote the song "I Decide" for Lohan, which was originally going to be on her album. When Lohan decided not to collaborate with Warren and Jackson, "I Decide" was instead released on the soundtrack to the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and on to Radio Disney.
2004–2006: Status as teen idol and music releases
Lohan began writing the tracks on her album in April 2004. "I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to," Lohan said. "I'm just trying to feel it out and see where it goes. I'm playing guitar and
I also love to dance, so [the music will be] somewhere along the lines of hip-hop and rock."
Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released in the United States on December 7, 2004. The album was the first high-seller from Casablanca Records in several years, selling 1,000,000 units in the United States. The album received mostly negative reviews, with critics commenting that Lohan "isn't a bad singer, but not an extraordinary singer either." In the United States, the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 261,762 copies in its first week. In Germany the album debuted at number 53 and took four weeks to complete its chart run. The first two singles from Speak, "Rumors" and "Over", were both successes, with "Over" topping the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, where it stayed for three weeks. The song also did well internationally in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Rumors" peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and also did well in Australia and Germany, where it reached number 14. The music video for "Rumors" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Both songs received heavy airplay on MTV's Total Request Live. The final single, "First", was released to help promote Lohan's film, Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song earned small success in Australia and Germany. Lohan promoted the album by performing the songs in a number of live appearances. A tour of Taiwan was planned, but later scrapped.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media. Following the film, which was scripted by former "Not Ready for Prime Time Actress" Tina Fey and featured several other veterans of Saturday Night Lives "Not Ready for Prime Time Company", Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards and in 2006 she hosted the 2006 World Music Awards. Lohan returned to Disney in 2005, starring in the comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide, but it received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, based on the series of dolls.
Lohan's second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in December 2005. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was eventually certified Gold. Lohan co-wrote most of the songs on the album, which received a mixed critical response. Slant Magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." Lohan herself directed the music video for the album's only single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)", which features her sister Aliana Lohan. The video is a dramatization of the pain Lohan said her family suffered at the hands of her father. It was her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 57.
2006–2008: Interruptions and mature film roles
Lohan's next widely released film, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 and, according to Variety, earned her over $7 million. The opening weekend box office takings of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak" according to Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, based on humorist Garrison Keillor's works, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny.'" Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera." The Emilio Estevez ensemble drama Bobby, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman, played by Jared Leto, on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule was released. In the film, Lohan portrays an out-of-control teenager whose mother (Felicity Huffman) brings her to the house of her own estranged mother (Jane Fonda). Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism." During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional." He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and said that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.'" In 2007, Lohan was cast in the film Poor Things, which she ultimately lost.
In early January 2007, production on the film I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. While Lohan was in rehab, she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better." Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in April 2007, shortly before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then."
In the wake of her second DUI arrest, Lohan withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which she had been due to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a psychological horror-thriller in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered in July 2007 to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million." It earned Lohan dual Golden Raspberry awards for Worst Actress, with Lohan coming first and second, tying with herself. Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable, citing possible issues with securing insurance.
2008–2011: Continued delays
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. In the comedy Labor Pains, Lohan plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant. During the shoot, Lohan's manager worked with the paparazzi to encourage the media to show her work, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009, "a setback for the star" according to Variety. The premiere received 2.1 million viewers, "better-than-average" for the channel according to E! Online. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote that "this is not a triumphant return of a prodigal child star. ... [Labor Pains] never shakes free of the heavy baggage Ms. Lohan brings to the role." Lohan was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth-season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.
Lohan narrated and presented the British television documentary Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, about human trafficking in India. It was filmed during a week in India in December 2009, and transmitted on BBC Three in April 2010. The BBC was criticized for having hired Lohan, and while reviewers called the documentary compelling, they also found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting. Lohan said: "I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film." In April 2010, Lohan was let go from the film The Other Side where she had been set to star, with the director saying she was "not bankable."
Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album, tentatively titled Spirit in the Dark, in late 2007. In May 2008, the single "Bossy" was released onto digital outlets, and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
The song was meant to serve as the lead single from the album. Later that year, Lohan said that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.
In June 2010, Lohan was the subject of a fashion shoot in the photographer docu-series Double Exposure on Bravo. Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation film Machete opened in September 2010. In the film, Lohan's character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance, and later dons a nun's habit while toting a machine gun. Its critical reviews were mixed. The Washington Post described her character as "a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image." Premiere.com said she was "terrible" while Variety called it "her best work in some time." Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements, Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie. Lohan filmed a sketch where she is dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Inappropriate Comedy in 2010. The film had issues finding a distributor and was not released until 2013, when it was met with poor box office and critical reception. Lohan appeared on the October 2010 cover of Vanity Fair. She told the magazine: "I want my career back" and "I know that I'm a damn good actress."
2012–2017: Television work and stage debut
Lohan had not appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2006, when she hosted the show for the fourth time in March 2012. Her appearance received mixed to negative reviews. Critics appreciated the self-deprecating references to her personal troubles, but also commented that she largely played a supporting role. The episode had the second highest ratings of the season with 7.4 million viewers. In May 2012, Lohan appeared briefly, as a celebrity judge, on the television series Glee, in the episode "Nationals." Lohan stars as a surfer in the art film First Point by artist Richard Phillips. It debuted at Art Basel in June 2012 and features a score by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk. Comments from critics on Lohan's work were mixed. Lohan starred as Elizabeth Taylor in the biographical made-for-TV movie Liz & Dick, which premiered on the Lifetime cable channel in November 2012. Reviews of Lohan's performance were largely, but not unanimously, negative. The Hollywood Reporter said she was "woeful" while Variety called her "adequate." Entertainment Weekly described the premiere ratings of 3.5 millions as "a little soft." During the production, paramedics were called to Lohan's hotel room, treating her for exhaustion and dehydration. In April 2013, the horror comedy Scary Movie 5 was released, where Lohan appears as herself alongside Charlie Sheen in the opening sketch. While the movie itself was panned by critics, a few reviewers found Lohan's and Sheen's to be one of the better scenes. Lohan also guest-starred as herself in an April 2013 episode of Sheen's comedy series Anger Management.
In August 2013, just days after Lohan left rehab, The Canyons was released, an independent erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. It was made on a low budget, most of which was gathered through online fund raiser Kickstarter. Lohan received $100 a day and a share of the profits, and she was also credited as a co-producer. The New York Times Magazine described Lohan as difficult to work with, and the shoot as fraught with conflict between Lohan and Schrader. Lohan and her co-star, adult-film actor James Deen, portray an actress and a producer in a volatile relationship. Reviews for the film were generally poor, but several critics praised Lohan's performance. The New Yorker said she was "overwrought and unfocused" while Variety called her "very affecting" and Salon described her as "almost incandescent." The same month Lohan filled in for Chelsea Handler as host of the cable talk show Chelsea Lately. She received mostly positive reviews for her appearance and the show garnered its best ratings of the year.
The 8-part docu-series Lindsay was transmitted in March and April 2014 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network. The series followed Lohan's life and work as she moved to New York City after leaving rehab. In the final episode, Lohan said that she had had a miscarriage which had interrupted filming of the series. The premiere had 693,000 viewers, described as "so-so" by The Hollywood Reporter. The ratings then slipped and the finale only had 406,000 viewers. New York Daily News called the series "surprisingly routine", Variety described it as boring, while Liz Smith said it was "compelling" and "usually painful to watch." In December 2013, Lohan introduced Miley Cyrus before her set at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In April 2014, Lohan guest-starred in an episode of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Around this time, Lohan had also announced and began promoting a film she was set to star in titled Inconceivable, which was never produced for unknown reasons.
Lohan made her stage debut in October 2014, starring in the London West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satire about the movie business. She portrayed Karen, the secretary of a Hollywood executive, in a role originally played by Madonna. Reviews of Lohan's performance were mixed, with the Associated Press describing critical reception overall as "lukewarm." The Stage said she was "out of her league" while The Times wrote that she "can act a bit" and The Guardian said she "holds the stage with ease."
In 2015, the English band Duran Duran announced that Lohan was featured on the song "Danceophobia" from their fourteenth studio album, Paper Gods.
2018–present: Return to music and acting comeback
In June 2015, Lohan filmed the supernatural thriller, Among the Shadows. The film saw a series of delays with its release and was eventually listed for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2018. It was released on March 5, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.
In October 2016, Lohan opened her first nightclub, in collaboration with her ex-business partner Dennis Papageorgiou, named "Lohan Nightclub", in Athens, Greece.
In July 2018, the second season of Sick Note —in which Lohan has a recurring role— premiered on Sky One. In May 2018, she opened a resort on the Greek island Mykonos called "Lohan Beach House Mykonos" and later her second resort in Ialisos Beach, Rhodes, called "Lohan Beach House Rhodes." In July 2018, People magazine revealed that Lohan had signed on to star in an MTV reality series, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club focusing on the Mykonos Beach House and her career and business ventures. The series premiered on January 8, 2019, on MTV. The show was canceled after one season. As of June 2019, the beach club is no longer open in Mykonos.
In July 2019, it was announced that Lohan will be one of the panelists on the Australian edition of Masked Singer. It was announced on October 10 that Lohan will return for season two of The Masked Singer. On July 7, 2020, it was revealed that Lohan would be unable to return to the judging panel in the second season, as she could not travel from Dubai to Melbourne because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions. She was replaced for season 2 by new panelist, comedian Urzila Carlson.
In June 2019, Page Six reported that Lohan had re-signed with Casablanca Records to record and release her third studio album, along with "a couple of soundtracks." In July, Lohan confirmed signing a joint deal with Casablanca and Republic Records. In August 2019, a snippet of a song titled "Xanax" was premiered by radio host Kris Fade on Virgin Radio Dubai. Lohan then teased her song again in late-December, announcing in January that her first album in 15 years would be released at the end of February.
On April 1, 2020, Lohan announced her album's lead single, "Back to Me." The song was released on April 3 and received positive reviews from critics.
Lohan has announced several upcoming films including one titled Frame, which she is set to star in, as well an untitled film based on the book Honeymoon, which Lohan is writing the script for. During her appearance on CNN's 2019 New Year's Eve special, Lohan announced she would be coming back to the United States for a Hollywood comeback. Lohan also announced that she is managing her younger sister Ali's music career.
In March 2021, Lohan auctioned a single called Lullaby. In May 2021, Netflix announced that Lohan was set to star in Falling for Christmas, a Christmas romantic comedy about a woman who suffers amnesia following a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. The film began filming in November 2021, and is to be directed and co-written by Janeen Damian, with a release date set for late 2022.
Other ventures
Fashion and modeling
Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign. She was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring–Summer 2009 campaign. Lohan has a long-lasting fascination with Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during The Parent Trap shoot. In the 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York magazine, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity, saying that the photo shoot was "an honor." The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it disturbing, saying "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... [and] the photographs bear none of Monroe's fragility."
In 2008, Lohan launched a clothes line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). The line started with leggings, before expanding to a full collection, covering 280 pieces . In January 2009, Lohan appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway. In September 2009, Lohan became an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. A collection by designer Estrella Archs with Lohan as adviser was presented in October, receiving a "disastrous" reception, according to Entertainment Weekly and New York. Lohan left the company in March 2010. Lohan appeared in the January–February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine, in a shoot inspired by a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of the magazine. Editor Hugh Hefner said Lohan's issue was "breaking sales records."
In early 2018, Lohan announced plans on developing a makeup brand separate from her fashion brand and stated that it was still in its early stages of development.
Apps
In December 2014, the free-to-play video game app Lindsay Lohan's The Price of Fame was released for the iOS and Android operating systems. Polygon said it was "funny, trashy and surprisingly self-aware" while Vulture called it "a crappy knockoff of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
In June 2017, Lohan announced she was starting a lifestyle site called Preemium, which subscribers could access for $2.99 a month.
In October 2021, Lohan announced that she would be hosting a podcast through Studio 71.
Personal life
Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, Hard Rock Cafe heir Harry Morton in 2006, and DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008 and 2009. In April 2009, following her breakup with Ronson, Lohan appeared in a dating video spoof on the comedy website Funny or Die. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media. In 2016, Lohan was engaged to London-based Russian millionaire Egor Tarabasov, owner of the real estate agency Home House Estates and son of Dmitry Tarabasov. They reportedly split up in mid-2017, with Lohan accusing Tarabasov of abuse and him accusing her of stealing £24,000 worth of his belongings. On November 28, 2021, Lohan announced her engagement to financier Bader Shammas after three years of dating.
Lohan spoke about her turbulent childhood in 2007, the same year her parents finalized their divorce: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family ... I was put between my mother and father a lot." Despite the conflicts, Lohan spoke very fondly of her family. However, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 she admitted that she had cut off contact with her father, describing his behavior as unpredictable and hard to deal with.
Filmography
After beginning her acting career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Lohan, at age 11, made her film debut in Disney's successful remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Freaky Friday (2003) remains her highest-grossing film, while Mean Girls (2004), both a critical and commercial success, became a cult classic. Her career faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the late 2000s and early 2010s, but she has still appeared in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 5 music videos. Her films include:
Discography
Speak (2004)
A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lindsay Lohan
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
References
Notes
Cited works
External links
1986 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from New York (state)
American child actresses
American child singers
American documentary filmmakers
American expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American people convicted of theft
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Child pop musicians
Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School alumni
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Lohan family
Motown artists
People from Cold Spring Harbor, New York
People from Merrick, New York
People from the Bronx
Singers from New York (state)
Universal Records artists
Women documentary filmmakers | false | [
"Michael John Lohan (; born April 25, 1960) is an American television personality, best known as the father of actress Lindsay Lohan.\n\nEarly life\nMichael Lohan is the oldest of four children born to Marilyn (née Desiderio) and Richard Lohan. He has Irish and Italian ancestry.\n\nCareer\nAt age 20, Lohan became a Wall Street trader on the floor of the commodity exchange.\n\nAs of 2021, Lohan co-hosts a weekly radio show covering topics of addiction recovery on KPRC 950 AM in Houston, Texas.\n\nPersonal life \nLohan married Dina, a former singer and dancer, on November 2, 1985. Dina and Michael Lohan have four children: daughters Lindsay (born July 2, 1986) and Aliana (born December 22, 1993), and sons Michael, Jr. (born 1987) and Dakota \"Cody\" (born June 16, 1996). The parents separated when their daughter Lindsay was three, and later reunited. Dina filed for divorce on January 18, 2005. In August 2007, the former couple announced a final divorce settlement had been reached, with the divorce scheduled to be finalized three months later. Dina was granted custody of their two youngest children, Ali and Cody.\n\nOn June 30, 2008, Lohan submitted a DNA sample for a paternity test after a Montana massage therapist, Kristi Kaufmann Horn, stated she was intimately involved with Michael in 1995 while he was separated from Dina, and fathered her daughter, Ashley Horn. The paternity results were revealed as positive during his appearance on Trisha where Lohan reunited with Kaufmann while meeting Horn for the first time.\n\nLohan and former tabloid reporter Kate Major became engaged over Easter weekend in 2010. They later broke up, but their continued relationship, which was marked by conflict, was depicted in the fifth season of the VH1 reality TV series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which documented Lohan's rehabilitation for alcoholism, which he said began in 1982. Lohan says that although he had not done cocaine in six years at this point (a \"culture\" to which he says he succumbed while working on Wall Street), \"Drinking always led to coke. Always.\" He also discussed how he was affected by the verbal abuse and alcoholism of his father, who had recently died of stomach cancer.\n\nIt was also revealed on Celebrity Rehab that Lohan had been diagnosed with left main cardiac disease. Although Lohan had previously had a blockage in his right coronary artery, the blockage at his left main coronary artery placed Lohan at high risk for a cardiac event, and required him to avoid stress and anger.\n\nIn 2011, Lohan lived in West Hollywood, California. As of February 2014, Lohan lived in Boca Raton, Florida with his wife Kate, whom he married in October 2014, and their sons, Landon Major Lohan (born January 30, 2013) and Logan Michael Lohan (born December 31, 2014). Prior to moving to Boca Raton, he lived in Fort Lauderdale and at the Tahitian Inn in Tampa.\n\nLohan and his wife lost custody of both their children in November 2015. In December 2015, Kate filed for legal separation from Lohan.\n\nLegal issues\nIn 1990, Lohan was investigated for insider trading and convicted of criminal contempt of court. He was sentenced to three years in jail in Nassau County, and was released in 1993 on five years' probation. During this time, his daughter Lindsay had started modeling for the Ford Models agency and was starring in commercials, and by the time of his release in 1993, she was at the pinnacle of her career.\n\nIn 1997, Lohan was arrested when he violated his probation after flying to Napa, California to visit Lindsay, who had been hospitalized for an asthma attack that occurred during the filming of The Parent Trap. He subsequently served a year in prison.\n\nAfter Lindsay became a movie star, tensions arose in the family. This conflict came to a head when Dina's youngest brother, Matt Sullivan, got into a fistfight outside Lohan's Long Island home, during a May 23, 2004 first communion party for their son Dakota. Lohan was charged with attempted assault and, while awaiting sentencing, was involved in a car accident that led to his being charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. While in prison, he took up singing and songwriting, as well as correspondence courses for Teen Challenge, a faith-based sobriety program. Michael and Dina Lohan separated again later that year. Lohan was later arrested on June 29 after allegedly leaving a Long Island hotel where he had rented several suites without paying his $3,800 bill, and faced assault charges in Manhattan for allegedly swearing at a sanitation worker and punching the worker in the face after the worker's truck blocked his car. On January 19, 2005, Dina's spokesperson confirmed that she had filed for divorce.\n\nLohan was released from prison in March 2007 after serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in the Collins Correctional Facility. He subsequently took up residence in a Teen Challenge center in West Babylon, New York, and underwent training to become a minister, though to be ordained requires his parole to end.\n\nHe subsequently worked as an actor and counselor with the Long Island Teen Challenge rehabilitation program. He has also been involved in various television proposals, including the Michael Lohan Reality Project, a 2007 series produced by Frozen Pictures, which followed his life, work and efforts to reconnect with his daughter and family.\n\nOn October 25, 2011, Lohan was arrested in a suspected domestic violence incident in Tampa, Florida, involving his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Kate Major. Lohan was released from custody on $5,000 bail and ordered to have no further contact with Major. On October 27, 2011, he was again in police custody after contacting Major by phone. After being subsequently released from a Tampa hospital October 28, 2011, and taken to Falkenburg Road Jail, Lohan was denied bail the next day.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\nAll television appearances are of self.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1960 births\nAmerican people of Irish descent\nAmerican stock traders\nLiving people\nLohan family\nPlace of birth missing (living people)\nAmerican people of Italian descent\nAmerican television personalities",
"Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey is a 2010 British documentary film directed and produced by Maninderpal Sahota. It is presented and narrated by American actress Lindsay Lohan. In the hour long documentary, Lohan talks to victims of human trafficking in Delhi, Kolkata and a village in West Bengal. She also talks to a former trafficker, parents of trafficked children and visits the Sanlaap women's and children's shelter in Kolkata. The documentary was filmed in India over a period of a week in December 2009. Lohan became involved in the project after meeting Sahota at a social event and expressing an interest in participating.\n\nLindsay Lohan's Indian Journey received extensive negative media coverage since its inception. The BBC were heavily criticized for hiring Lohan despite her then recent widely publicized drink-driving conviction and \"party lifestyle\". BBC said they chose Lohan to attract an audience that might otherwise not watch. Indian non-governmental organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, criticized Lohan for a Twitter post where she appeared to take credit for one of their raids, something BBC said was a misinterpretation. The media coverage did not translate to high ratings. In its original broadcast on BBC Three on 1 April 2010, it was viewed by 224,000 households, a 0.9% share of the audience. Critics complimented the documentary for being well researched and compelling, but found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting.\n\nSynopsis \nIn Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, Lohan meets and interviews victims of human trafficking in Delhi, Kolkata and a village in West Bengal. They talk about the exploitation and abuse they have experienced, describing sexual slavery, physical abuse and difficulties in bringing their traffickers to justice. She also talks to a former trafficker and parents of trafficked children. One trafficked boy says that he can not go back home because his mother is ill. A mother who trafficked her daughter describes how her family did not have enough food, and how even though they never received the promised payments for her daughter's work, at least she was fed.\n\nLohan visits the Sanlaap centre, a women's and children's shelter in Kolkata. The centre offers dance therapy as part of their treatment and a group of girls perform a dance they have rehearsed. She talks to girls who had been held at a brothel and they describe being raped and drugged. The director of the Sanlaap centre describes how Lohan taking an interest in trafficking might inspire other young people to get involved in counteracting exploitation. Bharti Ali, director of the Non-governmental organization Centre for Child Rights, criticizes the government for not prioritizing child protection. Returning home, Lohan and the film crew are chased by paparazzi photographers at the airport. Two months later, Lohan is in London, England talking to Kate Redman, from Save the Children UK, who describes how one of the issues with government intervention is that only sex and drug trafficking is illegal. She also advocates raising awareness of the issues with trafficking.\n\nProduction \n\nLohan spent a week in December 2009 in India filming Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey with a BBC crew consisting of four people. Lohan became involved in the documentary after meeting Sahota at a social event and expressing her interest in doing it. Sahota stated that he was under the impression that Lohan chose to participate in the documentary \"as a result of working in an adult world since she was ten, she feels childhood is precious, and when you lose one you can never replace those years\". He also stated that the people they met in rural India were not previously familiar with Lohan.\n\nOn the second day of filming the documentary, Lohan posted a message on her Twitter account stating: \"Over 40 children saved so far... Within one day's work\". Indian non-governmental organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said she had not been part of the raid mentioned and threatened legal action over the post. BBC said Lohan was \"misinterpreted\" and that \"she was merely referring to a raid that happened connected to child trafficking\". A few days later Lohan posted again on Twitter praising the work of Bachpan Bachao Andolan. She was originally scheduled to be present for the raid, but due to rescheduling arrived in the country too late. Lohan had also been scheduled to interview a representative for UNICEF for the documentary, but failed to show up. The BBC failed to ensure that Lohan had a proper work visa, which might lead to her being added to an immigration blacklist in India. Of her experience working on the film, Lohan said: \"[t]he strength of the young boys and girls I met has been truly humbling\" and \"I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film\".\n\nReception \n\nAccording to John Plunkett of The Guardian: \"Few BBC3 programmes have generated quite so much media attention in such a short space of time. But the controversy generated by Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey ... was not quite matched by its ratings\". In its original broadcast on BBC Three on Thursday, 1 April 2010, the documentary was viewed by 224,000 households. It had a 0.9% share of the audience between 9pm and 10pm.\n\nCritics complimented Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey for being well researched and compelling, but they also found Lohan's presence to be odd. In her Lost in Showbiz column in The Guardian, Marina Hyde repeatedly criticized the documentary, in particular the choice to include Lohan, since its inception. She mentions Lohan's then recent conviction for \"drink-driving and drug possession\", describing her as a \"trainwreck star\" with a \"[career] ... in foreclosure\" and goes on to question if BBC was doing \"image-laundering services\" and whether the decision to hire Lohan was \"symptomatic of a wider cultural malaise\". Salon.com's Mary Elizabeth Williams likewise criticized BBC3's decision to have Lohan, whom she called a \"disaster-prone starlet\", front the programme, though she also said that \"an effort that raises awareness of a global epidemic – even one that employs a crazy hot chick – is still an effort.\"\n\nAmelia Gentleman of The Guardian described Lohan as \"better known for what is euphemistically termed a party lifestyle\" and said that while her participation did bring publicity to the project, the attention was uniformly negative and about her person, not the issues. Of the documentary she said that \"the material is potent and persuasive\", but that Lohan was a \"constant, distracting presence\". Sam Wollaston of The Guardian wrote a satirical, mocking letter ostensibly from the point of view of Lohan: \"Some of these kids are sent to work when they're so young. Which I can relate to because I started out working as a child model aged three, and got into movies when I was 11. I can, like, so totally understand where these people are coming from\".\n\nAndrew Billen of The Times described the documentary as \"a crash-course sentimental education\" and \"a rush job\". He said that rather than highlight the crime of trafficking, \"the spotlight was effectively turned on Lohan and under it she wilted\". In a review in The Times, Caitlin Moran wrote that the juxtaposition of Lohan with the human suffering of trafficking made for \"an odd, disconcerting programme\". Alice-Azania Jarvis of The Independent found the documentary \"very well put-together, very thoroughly researched, and very compelling\" and she said that the inclusion of Lohan was \"definitely not a terrible choice. Just a very, very odd one.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n\n2010 television films\n2010 films\nBritish television films\nBritish films\nEnglish-language films\nBBC television documentaries\nLindsay Lohan\nDocumentary films about women in India\nDocumentary films about prostitution in India\nHuman trafficking in India\nFilms about child prostitution\nDocumentary films about slavery\n2010 documentary films\nWomen in Delhi"
] |
[
"Lindsay Lohan",
"Personal life",
"What are some controversys Lohan has been involved with?",
"In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein,"
] | C_7160bcbf54934a3c96b56cfec91cd7cd_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 2 | Besides Lindsay Lohan defending Harvey Weinstein, are there any other interesting aspects about Lindsay Lohan, Personal life? | Lindsay Lohan | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. Video surveillance of the burglary recorded at Lohan's home played a large role in breaking the case. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Lohan offered her services to Barack Obama's Democratic election effort, but was declined. In a blog post, Lohan criticized the media and then Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for not focusing on policy, and attacked Palin's positions on homosexuality, birth control and abortion. Lohan had previously expressed an interest in going to Iraq, during the Iraq War in 2006, on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Lohan supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, something that prompted ABC News to call her a "political turncoat". Only weeks later, she tweeted words supportive of Obama. Speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said that she was not a lesbian. When asked if she was bisexual in 2008, she responded "Maybe. Yeah," adding, "I don't want to classify myself." However, in a 2013 interview, she said, "I know I'm straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. ... I think I was looking for something different." In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, whom she worked with on several films, on Instagram and saying that his wife Georgina Chapman should stay with him. Weinstein had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. CANNOTANSWER | In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. | Lindsay Dee Lohan (; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. Born and raised in New York City, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera Another World at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap (1998). The film's success led to appearances in the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002), and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy sleeper hit Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol. After starring in the sports comedy film Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Lohan quickly became the subject of intense media coverage due to a series of personal struggles and legal troubles, as well as a number of stints in rehabilitation facilities due to substance abuse. This period saw her lose several roles and had significantly impacted her career and public image negatively. Thereafter, she appeared in films, such as A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Just My Luck (2006), Bobby (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012), and The Canyons (2013).
Lohan then appeared on various television shows, including the docu-series Lindsay (2014), the British comedy series Sick Note (2018), the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019), and the musical competition show The Masked Singer Australia (2019) in which she served as a judge. She also made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014–2015).
Lohan rose to prominence in the music industry under Casablanca Records, releasing two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Lohan dabbled in fashion, beginning a line of her own titled 6126 and briefly serving as artistic advisor for Emanuel Ungaro in 2009. Since 2016, she has opened several nightclubs and resorts in Greece.
Early life
Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx borough of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina, and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with Lohan in The Parent Trap, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage, and she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan is a natural redhead.
Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when Lindsay was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Career
1989–1999: Career beginnings
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney. At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
2000–2003: Success with Disney films
Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was once again met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, , it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002. Lohan landed the role as the daughter in Disney's remake, Freaky Friday, also that month, which required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. Lohan recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film. The song peaked at number 18 on Radio Disney's Top 30. Lohan announced that the song was separate from her singing career since many teen idols such as Hilary Duff and Raven-Symoné were expanding their careers from acting to singing. In 2003, Lohan recorded four songs that were released for the soundtrack to Lohan's film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, including a Radio Disney hit, "Drama Queen (That Girl)."
She had begun working with Diane Warren and Randy Jackson, who were going to help write and produce her album. Diane Warren wrote the song "I Decide" for Lohan, which was originally going to be on her album. When Lohan decided not to collaborate with Warren and Jackson, "I Decide" was instead released on the soundtrack to the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and on to Radio Disney.
2004–2006: Status as teen idol and music releases
Lohan began writing the tracks on her album in April 2004. "I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to," Lohan said. "I'm just trying to feel it out and see where it goes. I'm playing guitar and
I also love to dance, so [the music will be] somewhere along the lines of hip-hop and rock."
Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released in the United States on December 7, 2004. The album was the first high-seller from Casablanca Records in several years, selling 1,000,000 units in the United States. The album received mostly negative reviews, with critics commenting that Lohan "isn't a bad singer, but not an extraordinary singer either." In the United States, the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 261,762 copies in its first week. In Germany the album debuted at number 53 and took four weeks to complete its chart run. The first two singles from Speak, "Rumors" and "Over", were both successes, with "Over" topping the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, where it stayed for three weeks. The song also did well internationally in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Rumors" peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and also did well in Australia and Germany, where it reached number 14. The music video for "Rumors" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Both songs received heavy airplay on MTV's Total Request Live. The final single, "First", was released to help promote Lohan's film, Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song earned small success in Australia and Germany. Lohan promoted the album by performing the songs in a number of live appearances. A tour of Taiwan was planned, but later scrapped.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media. Following the film, which was scripted by former "Not Ready for Prime Time Actress" Tina Fey and featured several other veterans of Saturday Night Lives "Not Ready for Prime Time Company", Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards and in 2006 she hosted the 2006 World Music Awards. Lohan returned to Disney in 2005, starring in the comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide, but it received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, based on the series of dolls.
Lohan's second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in December 2005. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was eventually certified Gold. Lohan co-wrote most of the songs on the album, which received a mixed critical response. Slant Magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." Lohan herself directed the music video for the album's only single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)", which features her sister Aliana Lohan. The video is a dramatization of the pain Lohan said her family suffered at the hands of her father. It was her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 57.
2006–2008: Interruptions and mature film roles
Lohan's next widely released film, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 and, according to Variety, earned her over $7 million. The opening weekend box office takings of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak" according to Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, based on humorist Garrison Keillor's works, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny.'" Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera." The Emilio Estevez ensemble drama Bobby, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman, played by Jared Leto, on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule was released. In the film, Lohan portrays an out-of-control teenager whose mother (Felicity Huffman) brings her to the house of her own estranged mother (Jane Fonda). Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism." During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional." He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and said that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.'" In 2007, Lohan was cast in the film Poor Things, which she ultimately lost.
In early January 2007, production on the film I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. While Lohan was in rehab, she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better." Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in April 2007, shortly before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then."
In the wake of her second DUI arrest, Lohan withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which she had been due to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a psychological horror-thriller in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered in July 2007 to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million." It earned Lohan dual Golden Raspberry awards for Worst Actress, with Lohan coming first and second, tying with herself. Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable, citing possible issues with securing insurance.
2008–2011: Continued delays
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. In the comedy Labor Pains, Lohan plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant. During the shoot, Lohan's manager worked with the paparazzi to encourage the media to show her work, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009, "a setback for the star" according to Variety. The premiere received 2.1 million viewers, "better-than-average" for the channel according to E! Online. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote that "this is not a triumphant return of a prodigal child star. ... [Labor Pains] never shakes free of the heavy baggage Ms. Lohan brings to the role." Lohan was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth-season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.
Lohan narrated and presented the British television documentary Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, about human trafficking in India. It was filmed during a week in India in December 2009, and transmitted on BBC Three in April 2010. The BBC was criticized for having hired Lohan, and while reviewers called the documentary compelling, they also found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting. Lohan said: "I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film." In April 2010, Lohan was let go from the film The Other Side where she had been set to star, with the director saying she was "not bankable."
Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album, tentatively titled Spirit in the Dark, in late 2007. In May 2008, the single "Bossy" was released onto digital outlets, and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
The song was meant to serve as the lead single from the album. Later that year, Lohan said that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.
In June 2010, Lohan was the subject of a fashion shoot in the photographer docu-series Double Exposure on Bravo. Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation film Machete opened in September 2010. In the film, Lohan's character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance, and later dons a nun's habit while toting a machine gun. Its critical reviews were mixed. The Washington Post described her character as "a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image." Premiere.com said she was "terrible" while Variety called it "her best work in some time." Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements, Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie. Lohan filmed a sketch where she is dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Inappropriate Comedy in 2010. The film had issues finding a distributor and was not released until 2013, when it was met with poor box office and critical reception. Lohan appeared on the October 2010 cover of Vanity Fair. She told the magazine: "I want my career back" and "I know that I'm a damn good actress."
2012–2017: Television work and stage debut
Lohan had not appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2006, when she hosted the show for the fourth time in March 2012. Her appearance received mixed to negative reviews. Critics appreciated the self-deprecating references to her personal troubles, but also commented that she largely played a supporting role. The episode had the second highest ratings of the season with 7.4 million viewers. In May 2012, Lohan appeared briefly, as a celebrity judge, on the television series Glee, in the episode "Nationals." Lohan stars as a surfer in the art film First Point by artist Richard Phillips. It debuted at Art Basel in June 2012 and features a score by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk. Comments from critics on Lohan's work were mixed. Lohan starred as Elizabeth Taylor in the biographical made-for-TV movie Liz & Dick, which premiered on the Lifetime cable channel in November 2012. Reviews of Lohan's performance were largely, but not unanimously, negative. The Hollywood Reporter said she was "woeful" while Variety called her "adequate." Entertainment Weekly described the premiere ratings of 3.5 millions as "a little soft." During the production, paramedics were called to Lohan's hotel room, treating her for exhaustion and dehydration. In April 2013, the horror comedy Scary Movie 5 was released, where Lohan appears as herself alongside Charlie Sheen in the opening sketch. While the movie itself was panned by critics, a few reviewers found Lohan's and Sheen's to be one of the better scenes. Lohan also guest-starred as herself in an April 2013 episode of Sheen's comedy series Anger Management.
In August 2013, just days after Lohan left rehab, The Canyons was released, an independent erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. It was made on a low budget, most of which was gathered through online fund raiser Kickstarter. Lohan received $100 a day and a share of the profits, and she was also credited as a co-producer. The New York Times Magazine described Lohan as difficult to work with, and the shoot as fraught with conflict between Lohan and Schrader. Lohan and her co-star, adult-film actor James Deen, portray an actress and a producer in a volatile relationship. Reviews for the film were generally poor, but several critics praised Lohan's performance. The New Yorker said she was "overwrought and unfocused" while Variety called her "very affecting" and Salon described her as "almost incandescent." The same month Lohan filled in for Chelsea Handler as host of the cable talk show Chelsea Lately. She received mostly positive reviews for her appearance and the show garnered its best ratings of the year.
The 8-part docu-series Lindsay was transmitted in March and April 2014 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network. The series followed Lohan's life and work as she moved to New York City after leaving rehab. In the final episode, Lohan said that she had had a miscarriage which had interrupted filming of the series. The premiere had 693,000 viewers, described as "so-so" by The Hollywood Reporter. The ratings then slipped and the finale only had 406,000 viewers. New York Daily News called the series "surprisingly routine", Variety described it as boring, while Liz Smith said it was "compelling" and "usually painful to watch." In December 2013, Lohan introduced Miley Cyrus before her set at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In April 2014, Lohan guest-starred in an episode of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Around this time, Lohan had also announced and began promoting a film she was set to star in titled Inconceivable, which was never produced for unknown reasons.
Lohan made her stage debut in October 2014, starring in the London West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satire about the movie business. She portrayed Karen, the secretary of a Hollywood executive, in a role originally played by Madonna. Reviews of Lohan's performance were mixed, with the Associated Press describing critical reception overall as "lukewarm." The Stage said she was "out of her league" while The Times wrote that she "can act a bit" and The Guardian said she "holds the stage with ease."
In 2015, the English band Duran Duran announced that Lohan was featured on the song "Danceophobia" from their fourteenth studio album, Paper Gods.
2018–present: Return to music and acting comeback
In June 2015, Lohan filmed the supernatural thriller, Among the Shadows. The film saw a series of delays with its release and was eventually listed for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2018. It was released on March 5, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.
In October 2016, Lohan opened her first nightclub, in collaboration with her ex-business partner Dennis Papageorgiou, named "Lohan Nightclub", in Athens, Greece.
In July 2018, the second season of Sick Note —in which Lohan has a recurring role— premiered on Sky One. In May 2018, she opened a resort on the Greek island Mykonos called "Lohan Beach House Mykonos" and later her second resort in Ialisos Beach, Rhodes, called "Lohan Beach House Rhodes." In July 2018, People magazine revealed that Lohan had signed on to star in an MTV reality series, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club focusing on the Mykonos Beach House and her career and business ventures. The series premiered on January 8, 2019, on MTV. The show was canceled after one season. As of June 2019, the beach club is no longer open in Mykonos.
In July 2019, it was announced that Lohan will be one of the panelists on the Australian edition of Masked Singer. It was announced on October 10 that Lohan will return for season two of The Masked Singer. On July 7, 2020, it was revealed that Lohan would be unable to return to the judging panel in the second season, as she could not travel from Dubai to Melbourne because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions. She was replaced for season 2 by new panelist, comedian Urzila Carlson.
In June 2019, Page Six reported that Lohan had re-signed with Casablanca Records to record and release her third studio album, along with "a couple of soundtracks." In July, Lohan confirmed signing a joint deal with Casablanca and Republic Records. In August 2019, a snippet of a song titled "Xanax" was premiered by radio host Kris Fade on Virgin Radio Dubai. Lohan then teased her song again in late-December, announcing in January that her first album in 15 years would be released at the end of February.
On April 1, 2020, Lohan announced her album's lead single, "Back to Me." The song was released on April 3 and received positive reviews from critics.
Lohan has announced several upcoming films including one titled Frame, which she is set to star in, as well an untitled film based on the book Honeymoon, which Lohan is writing the script for. During her appearance on CNN's 2019 New Year's Eve special, Lohan announced she would be coming back to the United States for a Hollywood comeback. Lohan also announced that she is managing her younger sister Ali's music career.
In March 2021, Lohan auctioned a single called Lullaby. In May 2021, Netflix announced that Lohan was set to star in Falling for Christmas, a Christmas romantic comedy about a woman who suffers amnesia following a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. The film began filming in November 2021, and is to be directed and co-written by Janeen Damian, with a release date set for late 2022.
Other ventures
Fashion and modeling
Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign. She was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring–Summer 2009 campaign. Lohan has a long-lasting fascination with Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during The Parent Trap shoot. In the 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York magazine, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity, saying that the photo shoot was "an honor." The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it disturbing, saying "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... [and] the photographs bear none of Monroe's fragility."
In 2008, Lohan launched a clothes line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). The line started with leggings, before expanding to a full collection, covering 280 pieces . In January 2009, Lohan appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway. In September 2009, Lohan became an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. A collection by designer Estrella Archs with Lohan as adviser was presented in October, receiving a "disastrous" reception, according to Entertainment Weekly and New York. Lohan left the company in March 2010. Lohan appeared in the January–February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine, in a shoot inspired by a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of the magazine. Editor Hugh Hefner said Lohan's issue was "breaking sales records."
In early 2018, Lohan announced plans on developing a makeup brand separate from her fashion brand and stated that it was still in its early stages of development.
Apps
In December 2014, the free-to-play video game app Lindsay Lohan's The Price of Fame was released for the iOS and Android operating systems. Polygon said it was "funny, trashy and surprisingly self-aware" while Vulture called it "a crappy knockoff of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
In June 2017, Lohan announced she was starting a lifestyle site called Preemium, which subscribers could access for $2.99 a month.
In October 2021, Lohan announced that she would be hosting a podcast through Studio 71.
Personal life
Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, Hard Rock Cafe heir Harry Morton in 2006, and DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008 and 2009. In April 2009, following her breakup with Ronson, Lohan appeared in a dating video spoof on the comedy website Funny or Die. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media. In 2016, Lohan was engaged to London-based Russian millionaire Egor Tarabasov, owner of the real estate agency Home House Estates and son of Dmitry Tarabasov. They reportedly split up in mid-2017, with Lohan accusing Tarabasov of abuse and him accusing her of stealing £24,000 worth of his belongings. On November 28, 2021, Lohan announced her engagement to financier Bader Shammas after three years of dating.
Lohan spoke about her turbulent childhood in 2007, the same year her parents finalized their divorce: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family ... I was put between my mother and father a lot." Despite the conflicts, Lohan spoke very fondly of her family. However, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 she admitted that she had cut off contact with her father, describing his behavior as unpredictable and hard to deal with.
Filmography
After beginning her acting career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Lohan, at age 11, made her film debut in Disney's successful remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Freaky Friday (2003) remains her highest-grossing film, while Mean Girls (2004), both a critical and commercial success, became a cult classic. Her career faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the late 2000s and early 2010s, but she has still appeared in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 5 music videos. Her films include:
Discography
Speak (2004)
A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lindsay Lohan
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
References
Notes
Cited works
External links
1986 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from New York (state)
American child actresses
American child singers
American documentary filmmakers
American expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American people convicted of theft
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Child pop musicians
Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School alumni
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Lohan family
Motown artists
People from Cold Spring Harbor, New York
People from Merrick, New York
People from the Bronx
Singers from New York (state)
Universal Records artists
Women documentary filmmakers | false | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Lindsay Lohan",
"Personal life",
"What are some controversys Lohan has been involved with?",
"In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting."
] | C_7160bcbf54934a3c96b56cfec91cd7cd_0 | Did she convert to Islam? | 3 | Did Lindsay Lohan convert to Islam? | Lindsay Lohan | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. Video surveillance of the burglary recorded at Lohan's home played a large role in breaking the case. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Lohan offered her services to Barack Obama's Democratic election effort, but was declined. In a blog post, Lohan criticized the media and then Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for not focusing on policy, and attacked Palin's positions on homosexuality, birth control and abortion. Lohan had previously expressed an interest in going to Iraq, during the Iraq War in 2006, on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Lohan supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, something that prompted ABC News to call her a "political turncoat". Only weeks later, she tweeted words supportive of Obama. Speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said that she was not a lesbian. When asked if she was bisexual in 2008, she responded "Maybe. Yeah," adding, "I don't want to classify myself." However, in a 2013 interview, she said, "I know I'm straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. ... I think I was looking for something different." In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, whom she worked with on several films, on Instagram and saying that his wife Georgina Chapman should stay with him. Weinstein had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lindsay Dee Lohan (; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. Born and raised in New York City, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera Another World at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap (1998). The film's success led to appearances in the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002), and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy sleeper hit Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol. After starring in the sports comedy film Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Lohan quickly became the subject of intense media coverage due to a series of personal struggles and legal troubles, as well as a number of stints in rehabilitation facilities due to substance abuse. This period saw her lose several roles and had significantly impacted her career and public image negatively. Thereafter, she appeared in films, such as A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Just My Luck (2006), Bobby (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012), and The Canyons (2013).
Lohan then appeared on various television shows, including the docu-series Lindsay (2014), the British comedy series Sick Note (2018), the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019), and the musical competition show The Masked Singer Australia (2019) in which she served as a judge. She also made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014–2015).
Lohan rose to prominence in the music industry under Casablanca Records, releasing two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Lohan dabbled in fashion, beginning a line of her own titled 6126 and briefly serving as artistic advisor for Emanuel Ungaro in 2009. Since 2016, she has opened several nightclubs and resorts in Greece.
Early life
Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx borough of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina, and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with Lohan in The Parent Trap, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage, and she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan is a natural redhead.
Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when Lindsay was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Career
1989–1999: Career beginnings
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney. At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
2000–2003: Success with Disney films
Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was once again met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, , it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002. Lohan landed the role as the daughter in Disney's remake, Freaky Friday, also that month, which required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. Lohan recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film. The song peaked at number 18 on Radio Disney's Top 30. Lohan announced that the song was separate from her singing career since many teen idols such as Hilary Duff and Raven-Symoné were expanding their careers from acting to singing. In 2003, Lohan recorded four songs that were released for the soundtrack to Lohan's film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, including a Radio Disney hit, "Drama Queen (That Girl)."
She had begun working with Diane Warren and Randy Jackson, who were going to help write and produce her album. Diane Warren wrote the song "I Decide" for Lohan, which was originally going to be on her album. When Lohan decided not to collaborate with Warren and Jackson, "I Decide" was instead released on the soundtrack to the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and on to Radio Disney.
2004–2006: Status as teen idol and music releases
Lohan began writing the tracks on her album in April 2004. "I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to," Lohan said. "I'm just trying to feel it out and see where it goes. I'm playing guitar and
I also love to dance, so [the music will be] somewhere along the lines of hip-hop and rock."
Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released in the United States on December 7, 2004. The album was the first high-seller from Casablanca Records in several years, selling 1,000,000 units in the United States. The album received mostly negative reviews, with critics commenting that Lohan "isn't a bad singer, but not an extraordinary singer either." In the United States, the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 261,762 copies in its first week. In Germany the album debuted at number 53 and took four weeks to complete its chart run. The first two singles from Speak, "Rumors" and "Over", were both successes, with "Over" topping the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, where it stayed for three weeks. The song also did well internationally in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Rumors" peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and also did well in Australia and Germany, where it reached number 14. The music video for "Rumors" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Both songs received heavy airplay on MTV's Total Request Live. The final single, "First", was released to help promote Lohan's film, Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song earned small success in Australia and Germany. Lohan promoted the album by performing the songs in a number of live appearances. A tour of Taiwan was planned, but later scrapped.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media. Following the film, which was scripted by former "Not Ready for Prime Time Actress" Tina Fey and featured several other veterans of Saturday Night Lives "Not Ready for Prime Time Company", Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards and in 2006 she hosted the 2006 World Music Awards. Lohan returned to Disney in 2005, starring in the comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide, but it received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, based on the series of dolls.
Lohan's second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in December 2005. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was eventually certified Gold. Lohan co-wrote most of the songs on the album, which received a mixed critical response. Slant Magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." Lohan herself directed the music video for the album's only single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)", which features her sister Aliana Lohan. The video is a dramatization of the pain Lohan said her family suffered at the hands of her father. It was her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 57.
2006–2008: Interruptions and mature film roles
Lohan's next widely released film, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 and, according to Variety, earned her over $7 million. The opening weekend box office takings of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak" according to Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, based on humorist Garrison Keillor's works, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny.'" Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera." The Emilio Estevez ensemble drama Bobby, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman, played by Jared Leto, on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule was released. In the film, Lohan portrays an out-of-control teenager whose mother (Felicity Huffman) brings her to the house of her own estranged mother (Jane Fonda). Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism." During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional." He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and said that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.'" In 2007, Lohan was cast in the film Poor Things, which she ultimately lost.
In early January 2007, production on the film I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. While Lohan was in rehab, she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better." Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in April 2007, shortly before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then."
In the wake of her second DUI arrest, Lohan withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which she had been due to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a psychological horror-thriller in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered in July 2007 to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million." It earned Lohan dual Golden Raspberry awards for Worst Actress, with Lohan coming first and second, tying with herself. Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable, citing possible issues with securing insurance.
2008–2011: Continued delays
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. In the comedy Labor Pains, Lohan plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant. During the shoot, Lohan's manager worked with the paparazzi to encourage the media to show her work, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009, "a setback for the star" according to Variety. The premiere received 2.1 million viewers, "better-than-average" for the channel according to E! Online. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote that "this is not a triumphant return of a prodigal child star. ... [Labor Pains] never shakes free of the heavy baggage Ms. Lohan brings to the role." Lohan was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth-season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.
Lohan narrated and presented the British television documentary Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, about human trafficking in India. It was filmed during a week in India in December 2009, and transmitted on BBC Three in April 2010. The BBC was criticized for having hired Lohan, and while reviewers called the documentary compelling, they also found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting. Lohan said: "I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film." In April 2010, Lohan was let go from the film The Other Side where she had been set to star, with the director saying she was "not bankable."
Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album, tentatively titled Spirit in the Dark, in late 2007. In May 2008, the single "Bossy" was released onto digital outlets, and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
The song was meant to serve as the lead single from the album. Later that year, Lohan said that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.
In June 2010, Lohan was the subject of a fashion shoot in the photographer docu-series Double Exposure on Bravo. Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation film Machete opened in September 2010. In the film, Lohan's character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance, and later dons a nun's habit while toting a machine gun. Its critical reviews were mixed. The Washington Post described her character as "a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image." Premiere.com said she was "terrible" while Variety called it "her best work in some time." Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements, Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie. Lohan filmed a sketch where she is dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Inappropriate Comedy in 2010. The film had issues finding a distributor and was not released until 2013, when it was met with poor box office and critical reception. Lohan appeared on the October 2010 cover of Vanity Fair. She told the magazine: "I want my career back" and "I know that I'm a damn good actress."
2012–2017: Television work and stage debut
Lohan had not appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2006, when she hosted the show for the fourth time in March 2012. Her appearance received mixed to negative reviews. Critics appreciated the self-deprecating references to her personal troubles, but also commented that she largely played a supporting role. The episode had the second highest ratings of the season with 7.4 million viewers. In May 2012, Lohan appeared briefly, as a celebrity judge, on the television series Glee, in the episode "Nationals." Lohan stars as a surfer in the art film First Point by artist Richard Phillips. It debuted at Art Basel in June 2012 and features a score by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk. Comments from critics on Lohan's work were mixed. Lohan starred as Elizabeth Taylor in the biographical made-for-TV movie Liz & Dick, which premiered on the Lifetime cable channel in November 2012. Reviews of Lohan's performance were largely, but not unanimously, negative. The Hollywood Reporter said she was "woeful" while Variety called her "adequate." Entertainment Weekly described the premiere ratings of 3.5 millions as "a little soft." During the production, paramedics were called to Lohan's hotel room, treating her for exhaustion and dehydration. In April 2013, the horror comedy Scary Movie 5 was released, where Lohan appears as herself alongside Charlie Sheen in the opening sketch. While the movie itself was panned by critics, a few reviewers found Lohan's and Sheen's to be one of the better scenes. Lohan also guest-starred as herself in an April 2013 episode of Sheen's comedy series Anger Management.
In August 2013, just days after Lohan left rehab, The Canyons was released, an independent erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. It was made on a low budget, most of which was gathered through online fund raiser Kickstarter. Lohan received $100 a day and a share of the profits, and she was also credited as a co-producer. The New York Times Magazine described Lohan as difficult to work with, and the shoot as fraught with conflict between Lohan and Schrader. Lohan and her co-star, adult-film actor James Deen, portray an actress and a producer in a volatile relationship. Reviews for the film were generally poor, but several critics praised Lohan's performance. The New Yorker said she was "overwrought and unfocused" while Variety called her "very affecting" and Salon described her as "almost incandescent." The same month Lohan filled in for Chelsea Handler as host of the cable talk show Chelsea Lately. She received mostly positive reviews for her appearance and the show garnered its best ratings of the year.
The 8-part docu-series Lindsay was transmitted in March and April 2014 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network. The series followed Lohan's life and work as she moved to New York City after leaving rehab. In the final episode, Lohan said that she had had a miscarriage which had interrupted filming of the series. The premiere had 693,000 viewers, described as "so-so" by The Hollywood Reporter. The ratings then slipped and the finale only had 406,000 viewers. New York Daily News called the series "surprisingly routine", Variety described it as boring, while Liz Smith said it was "compelling" and "usually painful to watch." In December 2013, Lohan introduced Miley Cyrus before her set at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In April 2014, Lohan guest-starred in an episode of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Around this time, Lohan had also announced and began promoting a film she was set to star in titled Inconceivable, which was never produced for unknown reasons.
Lohan made her stage debut in October 2014, starring in the London West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satire about the movie business. She portrayed Karen, the secretary of a Hollywood executive, in a role originally played by Madonna. Reviews of Lohan's performance were mixed, with the Associated Press describing critical reception overall as "lukewarm." The Stage said she was "out of her league" while The Times wrote that she "can act a bit" and The Guardian said she "holds the stage with ease."
In 2015, the English band Duran Duran announced that Lohan was featured on the song "Danceophobia" from their fourteenth studio album, Paper Gods.
2018–present: Return to music and acting comeback
In June 2015, Lohan filmed the supernatural thriller, Among the Shadows. The film saw a series of delays with its release and was eventually listed for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2018. It was released on March 5, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.
In October 2016, Lohan opened her first nightclub, in collaboration with her ex-business partner Dennis Papageorgiou, named "Lohan Nightclub", in Athens, Greece.
In July 2018, the second season of Sick Note —in which Lohan has a recurring role— premiered on Sky One. In May 2018, she opened a resort on the Greek island Mykonos called "Lohan Beach House Mykonos" and later her second resort in Ialisos Beach, Rhodes, called "Lohan Beach House Rhodes." In July 2018, People magazine revealed that Lohan had signed on to star in an MTV reality series, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club focusing on the Mykonos Beach House and her career and business ventures. The series premiered on January 8, 2019, on MTV. The show was canceled after one season. As of June 2019, the beach club is no longer open in Mykonos.
In July 2019, it was announced that Lohan will be one of the panelists on the Australian edition of Masked Singer. It was announced on October 10 that Lohan will return for season two of The Masked Singer. On July 7, 2020, it was revealed that Lohan would be unable to return to the judging panel in the second season, as she could not travel from Dubai to Melbourne because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions. She was replaced for season 2 by new panelist, comedian Urzila Carlson.
In June 2019, Page Six reported that Lohan had re-signed with Casablanca Records to record and release her third studio album, along with "a couple of soundtracks." In July, Lohan confirmed signing a joint deal with Casablanca and Republic Records. In August 2019, a snippet of a song titled "Xanax" was premiered by radio host Kris Fade on Virgin Radio Dubai. Lohan then teased her song again in late-December, announcing in January that her first album in 15 years would be released at the end of February.
On April 1, 2020, Lohan announced her album's lead single, "Back to Me." The song was released on April 3 and received positive reviews from critics.
Lohan has announced several upcoming films including one titled Frame, which she is set to star in, as well an untitled film based on the book Honeymoon, which Lohan is writing the script for. During her appearance on CNN's 2019 New Year's Eve special, Lohan announced she would be coming back to the United States for a Hollywood comeback. Lohan also announced that she is managing her younger sister Ali's music career.
In March 2021, Lohan auctioned a single called Lullaby. In May 2021, Netflix announced that Lohan was set to star in Falling for Christmas, a Christmas romantic comedy about a woman who suffers amnesia following a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. The film began filming in November 2021, and is to be directed and co-written by Janeen Damian, with a release date set for late 2022.
Other ventures
Fashion and modeling
Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign. She was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring–Summer 2009 campaign. Lohan has a long-lasting fascination with Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during The Parent Trap shoot. In the 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York magazine, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity, saying that the photo shoot was "an honor." The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it disturbing, saying "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... [and] the photographs bear none of Monroe's fragility."
In 2008, Lohan launched a clothes line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). The line started with leggings, before expanding to a full collection, covering 280 pieces . In January 2009, Lohan appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway. In September 2009, Lohan became an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. A collection by designer Estrella Archs with Lohan as adviser was presented in October, receiving a "disastrous" reception, according to Entertainment Weekly and New York. Lohan left the company in March 2010. Lohan appeared in the January–February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine, in a shoot inspired by a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of the magazine. Editor Hugh Hefner said Lohan's issue was "breaking sales records."
In early 2018, Lohan announced plans on developing a makeup brand separate from her fashion brand and stated that it was still in its early stages of development.
Apps
In December 2014, the free-to-play video game app Lindsay Lohan's The Price of Fame was released for the iOS and Android operating systems. Polygon said it was "funny, trashy and surprisingly self-aware" while Vulture called it "a crappy knockoff of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
In June 2017, Lohan announced she was starting a lifestyle site called Preemium, which subscribers could access for $2.99 a month.
In October 2021, Lohan announced that she would be hosting a podcast through Studio 71.
Personal life
Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, Hard Rock Cafe heir Harry Morton in 2006, and DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008 and 2009. In April 2009, following her breakup with Ronson, Lohan appeared in a dating video spoof on the comedy website Funny or Die. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media. In 2016, Lohan was engaged to London-based Russian millionaire Egor Tarabasov, owner of the real estate agency Home House Estates and son of Dmitry Tarabasov. They reportedly split up in mid-2017, with Lohan accusing Tarabasov of abuse and him accusing her of stealing £24,000 worth of his belongings. On November 28, 2021, Lohan announced her engagement to financier Bader Shammas after three years of dating.
Lohan spoke about her turbulent childhood in 2007, the same year her parents finalized their divorce: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family ... I was put between my mother and father a lot." Despite the conflicts, Lohan spoke very fondly of her family. However, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 she admitted that she had cut off contact with her father, describing his behavior as unpredictable and hard to deal with.
Filmography
After beginning her acting career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Lohan, at age 11, made her film debut in Disney's successful remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Freaky Friday (2003) remains her highest-grossing film, while Mean Girls (2004), both a critical and commercial success, became a cult classic. Her career faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the late 2000s and early 2010s, but she has still appeared in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 5 music videos. Her films include:
Discography
Speak (2004)
A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lindsay Lohan
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
References
Notes
Cited works
External links
1986 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from New York (state)
American child actresses
American child singers
American documentary filmmakers
American expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American people convicted of theft
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Child pop musicians
Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School alumni
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Lohan family
Motown artists
People from Cold Spring Harbor, New York
People from Merrick, New York
People from the Bronx
Singers from New York (state)
Universal Records artists
Women documentary filmmakers | false | [
"Saint Aquilina of Thessalonica (also spelled Akylina) was an 18th century Greek Orthodox Christian saint and martyr. \nShe was born in Zagliberi, a village near Thessalonica in Greece at a time when Greece was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. When she was a baby her father accidentally killed a Muslim neighbour, and converted to Islam in order to escape execution.\n\nHowever, Aquilina's mother raised her as a Christian. When she reached the age of eighteen, the Ottoman authorities pressured her father to make her convert to Islam as well. When she refused, she was arrested and beaten to death on September 27, 1764. Her relics were hidden by Christians to avoid desecration, and were only discovered in 2012, in the nearby town of Ossa, Thessaloniki. She is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with feast day on September 27.\n\nReferences \n\nYear of birth missing\n1764 deaths\nChristians executed for refusing to convert to Islam\nNew Martyrs\n18th-century Greek people\nSaints of Ottoman Greece\nPeople from Thessaloniki (regional unit)\nGreek saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church\n18th-century Greek women",
"Carley Watts was an English glamour and lingerie model.\n\nShe temporarily abandoned modelling after it was reported in the press in August 2013 that she was to convert to Islam and move to Monastir. However, she confirmed she was single in February 2014 and still resides in England. Watts later commented that press coverage \"did have a knock on effect on the relationship which is why I decided to eventually end it. Sometimes loving someone is not enough to make things work when there are so many other people and cultural differences involved\".\n\nReferences\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Allerdale\nEnglish female models"
] |
[
"Lindsay Lohan",
"Personal life",
"What are some controversys Lohan has been involved with?",
"In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting.",
"Did she convert to Islam?",
"I don't know."
] | C_7160bcbf54934a3c96b56cfec91cd7cd_0 | What challanges has Lindsay faced in her life? | 4 | What challanges has Lindsay Lohan faced in her life? | Lindsay Lohan | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. Video surveillance of the burglary recorded at Lohan's home played a large role in breaking the case. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Lohan offered her services to Barack Obama's Democratic election effort, but was declined. In a blog post, Lohan criticized the media and then Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for not focusing on policy, and attacked Palin's positions on homosexuality, birth control and abortion. Lohan had previously expressed an interest in going to Iraq, during the Iraq War in 2006, on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Lohan supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, something that prompted ABC News to call her a "political turncoat". Only weeks later, she tweeted words supportive of Obama. Speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said that she was not a lesbian. When asked if she was bisexual in 2008, she responded "Maybe. Yeah," adding, "I don't want to classify myself." However, in a 2013 interview, she said, "I know I'm straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. ... I think I was looking for something different." In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, whom she worked with on several films, on Instagram and saying that his wife Georgina Chapman should stay with him. Weinstein had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. CANNOTANSWER | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. | Lindsay Dee Lohan (; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. Born and raised in New York City, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera Another World at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap (1998). The film's success led to appearances in the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002), and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy sleeper hit Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol. After starring in the sports comedy film Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Lohan quickly became the subject of intense media coverage due to a series of personal struggles and legal troubles, as well as a number of stints in rehabilitation facilities due to substance abuse. This period saw her lose several roles and had significantly impacted her career and public image negatively. Thereafter, she appeared in films, such as A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Just My Luck (2006), Bobby (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012), and The Canyons (2013).
Lohan then appeared on various television shows, including the docu-series Lindsay (2014), the British comedy series Sick Note (2018), the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019), and the musical competition show The Masked Singer Australia (2019) in which she served as a judge. She also made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014–2015).
Lohan rose to prominence in the music industry under Casablanca Records, releasing two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Lohan dabbled in fashion, beginning a line of her own titled 6126 and briefly serving as artistic advisor for Emanuel Ungaro in 2009. Since 2016, she has opened several nightclubs and resorts in Greece.
Early life
Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx borough of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina, and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with Lohan in The Parent Trap, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage, and she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan is a natural redhead.
Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when Lindsay was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Career
1989–1999: Career beginnings
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney. At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
2000–2003: Success with Disney films
Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was once again met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, , it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002. Lohan landed the role as the daughter in Disney's remake, Freaky Friday, also that month, which required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. Lohan recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film. The song peaked at number 18 on Radio Disney's Top 30. Lohan announced that the song was separate from her singing career since many teen idols such as Hilary Duff and Raven-Symoné were expanding their careers from acting to singing. In 2003, Lohan recorded four songs that were released for the soundtrack to Lohan's film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, including a Radio Disney hit, "Drama Queen (That Girl)."
She had begun working with Diane Warren and Randy Jackson, who were going to help write and produce her album. Diane Warren wrote the song "I Decide" for Lohan, which was originally going to be on her album. When Lohan decided not to collaborate with Warren and Jackson, "I Decide" was instead released on the soundtrack to the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and on to Radio Disney.
2004–2006: Status as teen idol and music releases
Lohan began writing the tracks on her album in April 2004. "I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to," Lohan said. "I'm just trying to feel it out and see where it goes. I'm playing guitar and
I also love to dance, so [the music will be] somewhere along the lines of hip-hop and rock."
Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released in the United States on December 7, 2004. The album was the first high-seller from Casablanca Records in several years, selling 1,000,000 units in the United States. The album received mostly negative reviews, with critics commenting that Lohan "isn't a bad singer, but not an extraordinary singer either." In the United States, the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 261,762 copies in its first week. In Germany the album debuted at number 53 and took four weeks to complete its chart run. The first two singles from Speak, "Rumors" and "Over", were both successes, with "Over" topping the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, where it stayed for three weeks. The song also did well internationally in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Rumors" peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and also did well in Australia and Germany, where it reached number 14. The music video for "Rumors" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Both songs received heavy airplay on MTV's Total Request Live. The final single, "First", was released to help promote Lohan's film, Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song earned small success in Australia and Germany. Lohan promoted the album by performing the songs in a number of live appearances. A tour of Taiwan was planned, but later scrapped.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media. Following the film, which was scripted by former "Not Ready for Prime Time Actress" Tina Fey and featured several other veterans of Saturday Night Lives "Not Ready for Prime Time Company", Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards and in 2006 she hosted the 2006 World Music Awards. Lohan returned to Disney in 2005, starring in the comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide, but it received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, based on the series of dolls.
Lohan's second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in December 2005. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was eventually certified Gold. Lohan co-wrote most of the songs on the album, which received a mixed critical response. Slant Magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." Lohan herself directed the music video for the album's only single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)", which features her sister Aliana Lohan. The video is a dramatization of the pain Lohan said her family suffered at the hands of her father. It was her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 57.
2006–2008: Interruptions and mature film roles
Lohan's next widely released film, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 and, according to Variety, earned her over $7 million. The opening weekend box office takings of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak" according to Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, based on humorist Garrison Keillor's works, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny.'" Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera." The Emilio Estevez ensemble drama Bobby, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman, played by Jared Leto, on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule was released. In the film, Lohan portrays an out-of-control teenager whose mother (Felicity Huffman) brings her to the house of her own estranged mother (Jane Fonda). Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism." During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional." He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and said that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.'" In 2007, Lohan was cast in the film Poor Things, which she ultimately lost.
In early January 2007, production on the film I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. While Lohan was in rehab, she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better." Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in April 2007, shortly before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then."
In the wake of her second DUI arrest, Lohan withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which she had been due to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a psychological horror-thriller in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered in July 2007 to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million." It earned Lohan dual Golden Raspberry awards for Worst Actress, with Lohan coming first and second, tying with herself. Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable, citing possible issues with securing insurance.
2008–2011: Continued delays
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. In the comedy Labor Pains, Lohan plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant. During the shoot, Lohan's manager worked with the paparazzi to encourage the media to show her work, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009, "a setback for the star" according to Variety. The premiere received 2.1 million viewers, "better-than-average" for the channel according to E! Online. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote that "this is not a triumphant return of a prodigal child star. ... [Labor Pains] never shakes free of the heavy baggage Ms. Lohan brings to the role." Lohan was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth-season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.
Lohan narrated and presented the British television documentary Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, about human trafficking in India. It was filmed during a week in India in December 2009, and transmitted on BBC Three in April 2010. The BBC was criticized for having hired Lohan, and while reviewers called the documentary compelling, they also found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting. Lohan said: "I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film." In April 2010, Lohan was let go from the film The Other Side where she had been set to star, with the director saying she was "not bankable."
Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album, tentatively titled Spirit in the Dark, in late 2007. In May 2008, the single "Bossy" was released onto digital outlets, and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
The song was meant to serve as the lead single from the album. Later that year, Lohan said that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.
In June 2010, Lohan was the subject of a fashion shoot in the photographer docu-series Double Exposure on Bravo. Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation film Machete opened in September 2010. In the film, Lohan's character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance, and later dons a nun's habit while toting a machine gun. Its critical reviews were mixed. The Washington Post described her character as "a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image." Premiere.com said she was "terrible" while Variety called it "her best work in some time." Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements, Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie. Lohan filmed a sketch where she is dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Inappropriate Comedy in 2010. The film had issues finding a distributor and was not released until 2013, when it was met with poor box office and critical reception. Lohan appeared on the October 2010 cover of Vanity Fair. She told the magazine: "I want my career back" and "I know that I'm a damn good actress."
2012–2017: Television work and stage debut
Lohan had not appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2006, when she hosted the show for the fourth time in March 2012. Her appearance received mixed to negative reviews. Critics appreciated the self-deprecating references to her personal troubles, but also commented that she largely played a supporting role. The episode had the second highest ratings of the season with 7.4 million viewers. In May 2012, Lohan appeared briefly, as a celebrity judge, on the television series Glee, in the episode "Nationals." Lohan stars as a surfer in the art film First Point by artist Richard Phillips. It debuted at Art Basel in June 2012 and features a score by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk. Comments from critics on Lohan's work were mixed. Lohan starred as Elizabeth Taylor in the biographical made-for-TV movie Liz & Dick, which premiered on the Lifetime cable channel in November 2012. Reviews of Lohan's performance were largely, but not unanimously, negative. The Hollywood Reporter said she was "woeful" while Variety called her "adequate." Entertainment Weekly described the premiere ratings of 3.5 millions as "a little soft." During the production, paramedics were called to Lohan's hotel room, treating her for exhaustion and dehydration. In April 2013, the horror comedy Scary Movie 5 was released, where Lohan appears as herself alongside Charlie Sheen in the opening sketch. While the movie itself was panned by critics, a few reviewers found Lohan's and Sheen's to be one of the better scenes. Lohan also guest-starred as herself in an April 2013 episode of Sheen's comedy series Anger Management.
In August 2013, just days after Lohan left rehab, The Canyons was released, an independent erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. It was made on a low budget, most of which was gathered through online fund raiser Kickstarter. Lohan received $100 a day and a share of the profits, and she was also credited as a co-producer. The New York Times Magazine described Lohan as difficult to work with, and the shoot as fraught with conflict between Lohan and Schrader. Lohan and her co-star, adult-film actor James Deen, portray an actress and a producer in a volatile relationship. Reviews for the film were generally poor, but several critics praised Lohan's performance. The New Yorker said she was "overwrought and unfocused" while Variety called her "very affecting" and Salon described her as "almost incandescent." The same month Lohan filled in for Chelsea Handler as host of the cable talk show Chelsea Lately. She received mostly positive reviews for her appearance and the show garnered its best ratings of the year.
The 8-part docu-series Lindsay was transmitted in March and April 2014 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network. The series followed Lohan's life and work as she moved to New York City after leaving rehab. In the final episode, Lohan said that she had had a miscarriage which had interrupted filming of the series. The premiere had 693,000 viewers, described as "so-so" by The Hollywood Reporter. The ratings then slipped and the finale only had 406,000 viewers. New York Daily News called the series "surprisingly routine", Variety described it as boring, while Liz Smith said it was "compelling" and "usually painful to watch." In December 2013, Lohan introduced Miley Cyrus before her set at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In April 2014, Lohan guest-starred in an episode of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Around this time, Lohan had also announced and began promoting a film she was set to star in titled Inconceivable, which was never produced for unknown reasons.
Lohan made her stage debut in October 2014, starring in the London West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satire about the movie business. She portrayed Karen, the secretary of a Hollywood executive, in a role originally played by Madonna. Reviews of Lohan's performance were mixed, with the Associated Press describing critical reception overall as "lukewarm." The Stage said she was "out of her league" while The Times wrote that she "can act a bit" and The Guardian said she "holds the stage with ease."
In 2015, the English band Duran Duran announced that Lohan was featured on the song "Danceophobia" from their fourteenth studio album, Paper Gods.
2018–present: Return to music and acting comeback
In June 2015, Lohan filmed the supernatural thriller, Among the Shadows. The film saw a series of delays with its release and was eventually listed for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2018. It was released on March 5, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.
In October 2016, Lohan opened her first nightclub, in collaboration with her ex-business partner Dennis Papageorgiou, named "Lohan Nightclub", in Athens, Greece.
In July 2018, the second season of Sick Note —in which Lohan has a recurring role— premiered on Sky One. In May 2018, she opened a resort on the Greek island Mykonos called "Lohan Beach House Mykonos" and later her second resort in Ialisos Beach, Rhodes, called "Lohan Beach House Rhodes." In July 2018, People magazine revealed that Lohan had signed on to star in an MTV reality series, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club focusing on the Mykonos Beach House and her career and business ventures. The series premiered on January 8, 2019, on MTV. The show was canceled after one season. As of June 2019, the beach club is no longer open in Mykonos.
In July 2019, it was announced that Lohan will be one of the panelists on the Australian edition of Masked Singer. It was announced on October 10 that Lohan will return for season two of The Masked Singer. On July 7, 2020, it was revealed that Lohan would be unable to return to the judging panel in the second season, as she could not travel from Dubai to Melbourne because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions. She was replaced for season 2 by new panelist, comedian Urzila Carlson.
In June 2019, Page Six reported that Lohan had re-signed with Casablanca Records to record and release her third studio album, along with "a couple of soundtracks." In July, Lohan confirmed signing a joint deal with Casablanca and Republic Records. In August 2019, a snippet of a song titled "Xanax" was premiered by radio host Kris Fade on Virgin Radio Dubai. Lohan then teased her song again in late-December, announcing in January that her first album in 15 years would be released at the end of February.
On April 1, 2020, Lohan announced her album's lead single, "Back to Me." The song was released on April 3 and received positive reviews from critics.
Lohan has announced several upcoming films including one titled Frame, which she is set to star in, as well an untitled film based on the book Honeymoon, which Lohan is writing the script for. During her appearance on CNN's 2019 New Year's Eve special, Lohan announced she would be coming back to the United States for a Hollywood comeback. Lohan also announced that she is managing her younger sister Ali's music career.
In March 2021, Lohan auctioned a single called Lullaby. In May 2021, Netflix announced that Lohan was set to star in Falling for Christmas, a Christmas romantic comedy about a woman who suffers amnesia following a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. The film began filming in November 2021, and is to be directed and co-written by Janeen Damian, with a release date set for late 2022.
Other ventures
Fashion and modeling
Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign. She was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring–Summer 2009 campaign. Lohan has a long-lasting fascination with Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during The Parent Trap shoot. In the 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York magazine, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity, saying that the photo shoot was "an honor." The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it disturbing, saying "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... [and] the photographs bear none of Monroe's fragility."
In 2008, Lohan launched a clothes line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). The line started with leggings, before expanding to a full collection, covering 280 pieces . In January 2009, Lohan appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway. In September 2009, Lohan became an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. A collection by designer Estrella Archs with Lohan as adviser was presented in October, receiving a "disastrous" reception, according to Entertainment Weekly and New York. Lohan left the company in March 2010. Lohan appeared in the January–February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine, in a shoot inspired by a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of the magazine. Editor Hugh Hefner said Lohan's issue was "breaking sales records."
In early 2018, Lohan announced plans on developing a makeup brand separate from her fashion brand and stated that it was still in its early stages of development.
Apps
In December 2014, the free-to-play video game app Lindsay Lohan's The Price of Fame was released for the iOS and Android operating systems. Polygon said it was "funny, trashy and surprisingly self-aware" while Vulture called it "a crappy knockoff of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
In June 2017, Lohan announced she was starting a lifestyle site called Preemium, which subscribers could access for $2.99 a month.
In October 2021, Lohan announced that she would be hosting a podcast through Studio 71.
Personal life
Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, Hard Rock Cafe heir Harry Morton in 2006, and DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008 and 2009. In April 2009, following her breakup with Ronson, Lohan appeared in a dating video spoof on the comedy website Funny or Die. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media. In 2016, Lohan was engaged to London-based Russian millionaire Egor Tarabasov, owner of the real estate agency Home House Estates and son of Dmitry Tarabasov. They reportedly split up in mid-2017, with Lohan accusing Tarabasov of abuse and him accusing her of stealing £24,000 worth of his belongings. On November 28, 2021, Lohan announced her engagement to financier Bader Shammas after three years of dating.
Lohan spoke about her turbulent childhood in 2007, the same year her parents finalized their divorce: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family ... I was put between my mother and father a lot." Despite the conflicts, Lohan spoke very fondly of her family. However, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 she admitted that she had cut off contact with her father, describing his behavior as unpredictable and hard to deal with.
Filmography
After beginning her acting career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Lohan, at age 11, made her film debut in Disney's successful remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Freaky Friday (2003) remains her highest-grossing film, while Mean Girls (2004), both a critical and commercial success, became a cult classic. Her career faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the late 2000s and early 2010s, but she has still appeared in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 5 music videos. Her films include:
Discography
Speak (2004)
A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lindsay Lohan
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
References
Notes
Cited works
External links
1986 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from New York (state)
American child actresses
American child singers
American documentary filmmakers
American expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American people convicted of theft
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Child pop musicians
Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School alumni
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Lohan family
Motown artists
People from Cold Spring Harbor, New York
People from Merrick, New York
People from the Bronx
Singers from New York (state)
Universal Records artists
Women documentary filmmakers | false | [
"Lizie Lindsay is Child ballad 226 (Roud 94), existing in several variants (also known as \"Lizzie Lindsay\" or \"Leezie Lindsay\").\n\nSynopsis\n\nA highland Laird courts Lizie Lindsay in Edinburgh, sometime after his mother had warned him not to hide his highland origins. Her family warns him off, but her maid encourages her. She finds the highlands hard, but finally he brings her to his family, where he is a lord, and makes her the lady of a great castle.\n\nIn some variants, she is told when he is wooing her in Edinburgh that he is a lord, and that is what persuades her to go.\n\nSee also\nDugall Quin\nThe Beggar-Laddie\nGlasgow Peggie\nBonny Lizie Baillie\n\nExternal links\nLizie Lindsay\nLeezie Lindsay\n\nChild Ballads",
"Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, singer, songwriter and entrepreneur who began her career as a child actor in the late 1990s. In 1998, Lohan made her motion picture debut in Disney's commercially and critically successful 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. She continued her acting career by appearing in a number of Disney films, including Freaky Friday (2003), which remains her highest-grossing film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) and Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005). Her first non-Disney film, Mean Girls (2004), became a massive success by grossing over $129 million worldwide and later became a cult classic. Lohan also did smaller, more mature roles in which she received positive reviews on her acting including A Prairie Home Companion (2005), Bobby (2006) and Chapter 27 (2007). Between 2006 and 2007, Lohan continued her career by starring in films like Just My Luck (2006), Georgia Rule (2007) and I Know Who Killed Me (2007). Lohan's career had faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the mid to late 2000s, but she has still been able to appear in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 6 music videos.\n\nFilm\n\nAs actress\n\nAs personality\n\nTelevision\n\nAs actress\n\nAs personality\n\nAs producer\n\nTheatre\n\nMusic videos\n\nReferences\n\nLohan, Lindsay\nFilmographies\nLohan, Lindsay"
] |
[
"Lindsay Lohan",
"Personal life",
"What are some controversys Lohan has been involved with?",
"In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting.",
"Did she convert to Islam?",
"I don't know.",
"What challanges has Lindsay faced in her life?",
"In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest."
] | C_7160bcbf54934a3c96b56cfec91cd7cd_0 | Who are her parents? | 5 | Who are Lindsay Lohan's parents? | Lindsay Lohan | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. Video surveillance of the burglary recorded at Lohan's home played a large role in breaking the case. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Lohan offered her services to Barack Obama's Democratic election effort, but was declined. In a blog post, Lohan criticized the media and then Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for not focusing on policy, and attacked Palin's positions on homosexuality, birth control and abortion. Lohan had previously expressed an interest in going to Iraq, during the Iraq War in 2006, on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Lohan supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, something that prompted ABC News to call her a "political turncoat". Only weeks later, she tweeted words supportive of Obama. Speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said that she was not a lesbian. When asked if she was bisexual in 2008, she responded "Maybe. Yeah," adding, "I don't want to classify myself." However, in a 2013 interview, she said, "I know I'm straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. ... I think I was looking for something different." In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, whom she worked with on several films, on Instagram and saying that his wife Georgina Chapman should stay with him. Weinstein had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lindsay Dee Lohan (; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. Born and raised in New York City, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera Another World at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap (1998). The film's success led to appearances in the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002), and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy sleeper hit Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol. After starring in the sports comedy film Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Lohan quickly became the subject of intense media coverage due to a series of personal struggles and legal troubles, as well as a number of stints in rehabilitation facilities due to substance abuse. This period saw her lose several roles and had significantly impacted her career and public image negatively. Thereafter, she appeared in films, such as A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Just My Luck (2006), Bobby (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012), and The Canyons (2013).
Lohan then appeared on various television shows, including the docu-series Lindsay (2014), the British comedy series Sick Note (2018), the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019), and the musical competition show The Masked Singer Australia (2019) in which she served as a judge. She also made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014–2015).
Lohan rose to prominence in the music industry under Casablanca Records, releasing two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Lohan dabbled in fashion, beginning a line of her own titled 6126 and briefly serving as artistic advisor for Emanuel Ungaro in 2009. Since 2016, she has opened several nightclubs and resorts in Greece.
Early life
Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx borough of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina, and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with Lohan in The Parent Trap, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage, and she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan is a natural redhead.
Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when Lindsay was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Career
1989–1999: Career beginnings
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney. At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
2000–2003: Success with Disney films
Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was once again met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, , it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002. Lohan landed the role as the daughter in Disney's remake, Freaky Friday, also that month, which required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. Lohan recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film. The song peaked at number 18 on Radio Disney's Top 30. Lohan announced that the song was separate from her singing career since many teen idols such as Hilary Duff and Raven-Symoné were expanding their careers from acting to singing. In 2003, Lohan recorded four songs that were released for the soundtrack to Lohan's film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, including a Radio Disney hit, "Drama Queen (That Girl)."
She had begun working with Diane Warren and Randy Jackson, who were going to help write and produce her album. Diane Warren wrote the song "I Decide" for Lohan, which was originally going to be on her album. When Lohan decided not to collaborate with Warren and Jackson, "I Decide" was instead released on the soundtrack to the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and on to Radio Disney.
2004–2006: Status as teen idol and music releases
Lohan began writing the tracks on her album in April 2004. "I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to," Lohan said. "I'm just trying to feel it out and see where it goes. I'm playing guitar and
I also love to dance, so [the music will be] somewhere along the lines of hip-hop and rock."
Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released in the United States on December 7, 2004. The album was the first high-seller from Casablanca Records in several years, selling 1,000,000 units in the United States. The album received mostly negative reviews, with critics commenting that Lohan "isn't a bad singer, but not an extraordinary singer either." In the United States, the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 261,762 copies in its first week. In Germany the album debuted at number 53 and took four weeks to complete its chart run. The first two singles from Speak, "Rumors" and "Over", were both successes, with "Over" topping the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, where it stayed for three weeks. The song also did well internationally in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Rumors" peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and also did well in Australia and Germany, where it reached number 14. The music video for "Rumors" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Both songs received heavy airplay on MTV's Total Request Live. The final single, "First", was released to help promote Lohan's film, Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song earned small success in Australia and Germany. Lohan promoted the album by performing the songs in a number of live appearances. A tour of Taiwan was planned, but later scrapped.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media. Following the film, which was scripted by former "Not Ready for Prime Time Actress" Tina Fey and featured several other veterans of Saturday Night Lives "Not Ready for Prime Time Company", Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards and in 2006 she hosted the 2006 World Music Awards. Lohan returned to Disney in 2005, starring in the comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide, but it received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, based on the series of dolls.
Lohan's second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in December 2005. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was eventually certified Gold. Lohan co-wrote most of the songs on the album, which received a mixed critical response. Slant Magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." Lohan herself directed the music video for the album's only single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)", which features her sister Aliana Lohan. The video is a dramatization of the pain Lohan said her family suffered at the hands of her father. It was her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 57.
2006–2008: Interruptions and mature film roles
Lohan's next widely released film, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 and, according to Variety, earned her over $7 million. The opening weekend box office takings of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak" according to Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, based on humorist Garrison Keillor's works, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny.'" Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera." The Emilio Estevez ensemble drama Bobby, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman, played by Jared Leto, on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule was released. In the film, Lohan portrays an out-of-control teenager whose mother (Felicity Huffman) brings her to the house of her own estranged mother (Jane Fonda). Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism." During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional." He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and said that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.'" In 2007, Lohan was cast in the film Poor Things, which she ultimately lost.
In early January 2007, production on the film I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. While Lohan was in rehab, she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better." Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in April 2007, shortly before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then."
In the wake of her second DUI arrest, Lohan withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which she had been due to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a psychological horror-thriller in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered in July 2007 to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million." It earned Lohan dual Golden Raspberry awards for Worst Actress, with Lohan coming first and second, tying with herself. Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable, citing possible issues with securing insurance.
2008–2011: Continued delays
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. In the comedy Labor Pains, Lohan plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant. During the shoot, Lohan's manager worked with the paparazzi to encourage the media to show her work, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009, "a setback for the star" according to Variety. The premiere received 2.1 million viewers, "better-than-average" for the channel according to E! Online. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote that "this is not a triumphant return of a prodigal child star. ... [Labor Pains] never shakes free of the heavy baggage Ms. Lohan brings to the role." Lohan was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth-season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.
Lohan narrated and presented the British television documentary Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, about human trafficking in India. It was filmed during a week in India in December 2009, and transmitted on BBC Three in April 2010. The BBC was criticized for having hired Lohan, and while reviewers called the documentary compelling, they also found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting. Lohan said: "I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film." In April 2010, Lohan was let go from the film The Other Side where she had been set to star, with the director saying she was "not bankable."
Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album, tentatively titled Spirit in the Dark, in late 2007. In May 2008, the single "Bossy" was released onto digital outlets, and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
The song was meant to serve as the lead single from the album. Later that year, Lohan said that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.
In June 2010, Lohan was the subject of a fashion shoot in the photographer docu-series Double Exposure on Bravo. Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation film Machete opened in September 2010. In the film, Lohan's character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance, and later dons a nun's habit while toting a machine gun. Its critical reviews were mixed. The Washington Post described her character as "a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image." Premiere.com said she was "terrible" while Variety called it "her best work in some time." Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements, Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie. Lohan filmed a sketch where she is dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Inappropriate Comedy in 2010. The film had issues finding a distributor and was not released until 2013, when it was met with poor box office and critical reception. Lohan appeared on the October 2010 cover of Vanity Fair. She told the magazine: "I want my career back" and "I know that I'm a damn good actress."
2012–2017: Television work and stage debut
Lohan had not appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2006, when she hosted the show for the fourth time in March 2012. Her appearance received mixed to negative reviews. Critics appreciated the self-deprecating references to her personal troubles, but also commented that she largely played a supporting role. The episode had the second highest ratings of the season with 7.4 million viewers. In May 2012, Lohan appeared briefly, as a celebrity judge, on the television series Glee, in the episode "Nationals." Lohan stars as a surfer in the art film First Point by artist Richard Phillips. It debuted at Art Basel in June 2012 and features a score by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk. Comments from critics on Lohan's work were mixed. Lohan starred as Elizabeth Taylor in the biographical made-for-TV movie Liz & Dick, which premiered on the Lifetime cable channel in November 2012. Reviews of Lohan's performance were largely, but not unanimously, negative. The Hollywood Reporter said she was "woeful" while Variety called her "adequate." Entertainment Weekly described the premiere ratings of 3.5 millions as "a little soft." During the production, paramedics were called to Lohan's hotel room, treating her for exhaustion and dehydration. In April 2013, the horror comedy Scary Movie 5 was released, where Lohan appears as herself alongside Charlie Sheen in the opening sketch. While the movie itself was panned by critics, a few reviewers found Lohan's and Sheen's to be one of the better scenes. Lohan also guest-starred as herself in an April 2013 episode of Sheen's comedy series Anger Management.
In August 2013, just days after Lohan left rehab, The Canyons was released, an independent erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. It was made on a low budget, most of which was gathered through online fund raiser Kickstarter. Lohan received $100 a day and a share of the profits, and she was also credited as a co-producer. The New York Times Magazine described Lohan as difficult to work with, and the shoot as fraught with conflict between Lohan and Schrader. Lohan and her co-star, adult-film actor James Deen, portray an actress and a producer in a volatile relationship. Reviews for the film were generally poor, but several critics praised Lohan's performance. The New Yorker said she was "overwrought and unfocused" while Variety called her "very affecting" and Salon described her as "almost incandescent." The same month Lohan filled in for Chelsea Handler as host of the cable talk show Chelsea Lately. She received mostly positive reviews for her appearance and the show garnered its best ratings of the year.
The 8-part docu-series Lindsay was transmitted in March and April 2014 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network. The series followed Lohan's life and work as she moved to New York City after leaving rehab. In the final episode, Lohan said that she had had a miscarriage which had interrupted filming of the series. The premiere had 693,000 viewers, described as "so-so" by The Hollywood Reporter. The ratings then slipped and the finale only had 406,000 viewers. New York Daily News called the series "surprisingly routine", Variety described it as boring, while Liz Smith said it was "compelling" and "usually painful to watch." In December 2013, Lohan introduced Miley Cyrus before her set at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In April 2014, Lohan guest-starred in an episode of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Around this time, Lohan had also announced and began promoting a film she was set to star in titled Inconceivable, which was never produced for unknown reasons.
Lohan made her stage debut in October 2014, starring in the London West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satire about the movie business. She portrayed Karen, the secretary of a Hollywood executive, in a role originally played by Madonna. Reviews of Lohan's performance were mixed, with the Associated Press describing critical reception overall as "lukewarm." The Stage said she was "out of her league" while The Times wrote that she "can act a bit" and The Guardian said she "holds the stage with ease."
In 2015, the English band Duran Duran announced that Lohan was featured on the song "Danceophobia" from their fourteenth studio album, Paper Gods.
2018–present: Return to music and acting comeback
In June 2015, Lohan filmed the supernatural thriller, Among the Shadows. The film saw a series of delays with its release and was eventually listed for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2018. It was released on March 5, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.
In October 2016, Lohan opened her first nightclub, in collaboration with her ex-business partner Dennis Papageorgiou, named "Lohan Nightclub", in Athens, Greece.
In July 2018, the second season of Sick Note —in which Lohan has a recurring role— premiered on Sky One. In May 2018, she opened a resort on the Greek island Mykonos called "Lohan Beach House Mykonos" and later her second resort in Ialisos Beach, Rhodes, called "Lohan Beach House Rhodes." In July 2018, People magazine revealed that Lohan had signed on to star in an MTV reality series, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club focusing on the Mykonos Beach House and her career and business ventures. The series premiered on January 8, 2019, on MTV. The show was canceled after one season. As of June 2019, the beach club is no longer open in Mykonos.
In July 2019, it was announced that Lohan will be one of the panelists on the Australian edition of Masked Singer. It was announced on October 10 that Lohan will return for season two of The Masked Singer. On July 7, 2020, it was revealed that Lohan would be unable to return to the judging panel in the second season, as she could not travel from Dubai to Melbourne because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions. She was replaced for season 2 by new panelist, comedian Urzila Carlson.
In June 2019, Page Six reported that Lohan had re-signed with Casablanca Records to record and release her third studio album, along with "a couple of soundtracks." In July, Lohan confirmed signing a joint deal with Casablanca and Republic Records. In August 2019, a snippet of a song titled "Xanax" was premiered by radio host Kris Fade on Virgin Radio Dubai. Lohan then teased her song again in late-December, announcing in January that her first album in 15 years would be released at the end of February.
On April 1, 2020, Lohan announced her album's lead single, "Back to Me." The song was released on April 3 and received positive reviews from critics.
Lohan has announced several upcoming films including one titled Frame, which she is set to star in, as well an untitled film based on the book Honeymoon, which Lohan is writing the script for. During her appearance on CNN's 2019 New Year's Eve special, Lohan announced she would be coming back to the United States for a Hollywood comeback. Lohan also announced that she is managing her younger sister Ali's music career.
In March 2021, Lohan auctioned a single called Lullaby. In May 2021, Netflix announced that Lohan was set to star in Falling for Christmas, a Christmas romantic comedy about a woman who suffers amnesia following a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. The film began filming in November 2021, and is to be directed and co-written by Janeen Damian, with a release date set for late 2022.
Other ventures
Fashion and modeling
Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign. She was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring–Summer 2009 campaign. Lohan has a long-lasting fascination with Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during The Parent Trap shoot. In the 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York magazine, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity, saying that the photo shoot was "an honor." The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it disturbing, saying "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... [and] the photographs bear none of Monroe's fragility."
In 2008, Lohan launched a clothes line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). The line started with leggings, before expanding to a full collection, covering 280 pieces . In January 2009, Lohan appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway. In September 2009, Lohan became an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. A collection by designer Estrella Archs with Lohan as adviser was presented in October, receiving a "disastrous" reception, according to Entertainment Weekly and New York. Lohan left the company in March 2010. Lohan appeared in the January–February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine, in a shoot inspired by a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of the magazine. Editor Hugh Hefner said Lohan's issue was "breaking sales records."
In early 2018, Lohan announced plans on developing a makeup brand separate from her fashion brand and stated that it was still in its early stages of development.
Apps
In December 2014, the free-to-play video game app Lindsay Lohan's The Price of Fame was released for the iOS and Android operating systems. Polygon said it was "funny, trashy and surprisingly self-aware" while Vulture called it "a crappy knockoff of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
In June 2017, Lohan announced she was starting a lifestyle site called Preemium, which subscribers could access for $2.99 a month.
In October 2021, Lohan announced that she would be hosting a podcast through Studio 71.
Personal life
Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, Hard Rock Cafe heir Harry Morton in 2006, and DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008 and 2009. In April 2009, following her breakup with Ronson, Lohan appeared in a dating video spoof on the comedy website Funny or Die. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media. In 2016, Lohan was engaged to London-based Russian millionaire Egor Tarabasov, owner of the real estate agency Home House Estates and son of Dmitry Tarabasov. They reportedly split up in mid-2017, with Lohan accusing Tarabasov of abuse and him accusing her of stealing £24,000 worth of his belongings. On November 28, 2021, Lohan announced her engagement to financier Bader Shammas after three years of dating.
Lohan spoke about her turbulent childhood in 2007, the same year her parents finalized their divorce: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family ... I was put between my mother and father a lot." Despite the conflicts, Lohan spoke very fondly of her family. However, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 she admitted that she had cut off contact with her father, describing his behavior as unpredictable and hard to deal with.
Filmography
After beginning her acting career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Lohan, at age 11, made her film debut in Disney's successful remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Freaky Friday (2003) remains her highest-grossing film, while Mean Girls (2004), both a critical and commercial success, became a cult classic. Her career faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the late 2000s and early 2010s, but she has still appeared in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 5 music videos. Her films include:
Discography
Speak (2004)
A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lindsay Lohan
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
References
Notes
Cited works
External links
1986 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from New York (state)
American child actresses
American child singers
American documentary filmmakers
American expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American people convicted of theft
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Child pop musicians
Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School alumni
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Lohan family
Motown artists
People from Cold Spring Harbor, New York
People from Merrick, New York
People from the Bronx
Singers from New York (state)
Universal Records artists
Women documentary filmmakers | false | [
"\"Children's Zoo\" is the second segment of the third episode of the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. This is one of the few stories without narration.\n\nPlot\nDebbie is a four-year-old girl starved for attention because her parents are always fighting. Her mother yells at her and her father is too lazy to give her any quality time. Debbie asks her parents to take her to the Children's Zoo. A friend gave her an invitation which specifies that both parents must accompany the child.\n\nAt the zoo, Debbie is directed to the children's entrance after the keeper confirms that her friend explained to her the nature of the Children's Zoo. Her parents are ostensibly taken to a waiting room. Inside, it is revealed that parents who bring their children to the Children's Zoo are in fact locked in display rooms which the children peruse, selecting their new parents from among them. The newer parental arrivals vainly threaten the zoo staff and demand to be let out, while others seem to have gone half-insane from prolonged captivity, and plead with and try to bribe Debbie to choose them. Debbie chooses a more subdued couple who tell her that they have learned their lesson and will try to be the best parents they can.\n\nDebbie's parents watch with a mixture of anger, confusion, and horror as their daughter walks off with her chosen parents to a better life.\n\nProduction\nWes Craven appears in a cameo, as the angry, threatening father. He directed several episodes of this series.\n\nReferences\n \n\n1985 American television episodes\nThe Twilight Zone (1985 TV series season 1) episodes\n\nfr:Zoo d'enfants",
"Love Is Never Silent is a 1985 Hallmark Hall of Fame television film aired on NBC December 9, 1985 and stars Mare Winningham and Cloris Leachman. It is based on the novel In This Sign by Joanne Greenberg.\n\nThe film won two Emmy awards for direction and for best drama special. It received a further three nominations, including one for Winningham's performance. The Movie Scene gives the film a favorable review. In a contemporary review, The New York Times argues that the film is rather long-winded and criticizes the mother's actions but compliments it on being quite tough and a \"handsome production\".\n\nPlot\nThe film begins in the 1930s and takes place over the following twenty years. Ten-year old Margaret Ryder is a hearing child of deaf parents. After her younger brother is killed in an accident, she has to negotiate a price for his coffin, as her parents are unable to communicate with the speaking world. Margaret assists her parents at all times, but sometimes feels left out of the hearing world, as her parents don't encourage her to mix with others. Her only true friend is Mr. Petrakis, an immigrant from Greece who used the radio to learn English. As Margaret gets older, she excels in high school math and on graduating high school, Margaret gets a job.\n\nAt work, she meets William Anglin, who asks her out. She turns him down multiple times as she is still living with and helping her parents in their new house. She finally accepts as he is enlisted in the war. They develop a romance and write to each other while he is gone. William comes home for a few days and they quickly marry as he is due to go back the next day. Margaret's parents are furious, but they eventually agree to meet his family.\n\nWilliam comes home from the war early after an injury and stays with Margaret and her parents for a few weeks until he is accepted into a university. They move out of her family home and into a small university apartment. Margaret parents come to visit and are not happy with the accommodation they are living in and leave.\n\nMargaret and her parents don't speak for a while until Margaret shows up at their house, pregnant. Her parents begin to argue with her about how well William is providing for her and how responsible she is. Finally she tells them that she has been responsible her whole life as she has had to interpret the world for her parents since she was little. Tearfully, she sits alone in a church and reminisces over her times with Mr. Petrakis, who has recently died.\n\nMargaret gives birth to a son, Marshal. At the Christening, her parents arrive and they are reunited.\n\nFive years later, Margaret's mother is retiring and the factory she worked at is throwing her a party. She stands in front of everyone and signs a speech about how the hearing and deaf are alike and should not be divided.\n\nSee also\n\nList of films featuring the deaf and hard of hearing\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1985 television films\n1985 films\n1980s drama films\nAmerican drama films\nAmerican films\nDeaf culture in the United States\nEnglish-language films\nFilms based on American novels\nHallmark Hall of Fame episodes\nFilms directed by Joseph Sargent\nPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie winners\nFilms about deaf people\nFilms scored by Billy Goldenberg"
] |
[
"Lindsay Lohan",
"Personal life",
"What are some controversys Lohan has been involved with?",
"In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting.",
"Did she convert to Islam?",
"I don't know.",
"What challanges has Lindsay faced in her life?",
"In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest.",
"Who are her parents?",
"I don't know."
] | C_7160bcbf54934a3c96b56cfec91cd7cd_0 | Does she have any siblings? | 6 | Does Lindsay Lohan have any siblings? | Lindsay Lohan | In July 2007, Lohan's home was burgled by the Bling Ring, a group of fashion-motivated burglars whose ringleader considered Lohan to be their ultimate conquest. Video surveillance of the burglary recorded at Lohan's home played a large role in breaking the case. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, Lohan offered her services to Barack Obama's Democratic election effort, but was declined. In a blog post, Lohan criticized the media and then Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin for not focusing on policy, and attacked Palin's positions on homosexuality, birth control and abortion. Lohan had previously expressed an interest in going to Iraq, during the Iraq War in 2006, on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. In the 2012 presidential election, Lohan supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, something that prompted ABC News to call her a "political turncoat". Only weeks later, she tweeted words supportive of Obama. Speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said that she was not a lesbian. When asked if she was bisexual in 2008, she responded "Maybe. Yeah," adding, "I don't want to classify myself." However, in a 2013 interview, she said, "I know I'm straight. I have made out with girls before, and I had a relationship with a girl. ... I think I was looking for something different." In April 2016, Lohan was studying Islam and considered converting. In October 2017, Lohan received scrutiny for defending Harvey Weinstein, whom she worked with on several films, on Instagram and saying that his wife Georgina Chapman should stay with him. Weinstein had been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lindsay Dee Lohan (; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. Born and raised in New York City, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera Another World at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures film The Parent Trap (1998). The film's success led to appearances in the television films Life-Size (2000) and Get a Clue (2002), and the big-screen productions Freaky Friday (2003) and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004).
Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the teen comedy sleeper hit Mean Girls (2004) affirmed her status as a teen idol. After starring in the sports comedy film Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Lohan quickly became the subject of intense media coverage due to a series of personal struggles and legal troubles, as well as a number of stints in rehabilitation facilities due to substance abuse. This period saw her lose several roles and had significantly impacted her career and public image negatively. Thereafter, she appeared in films, such as A Prairie Home Companion (2006), Just My Luck (2006), Bobby (2006), Chapter 27 (2007), Machete (2010), Liz & Dick (2012), and The Canyons (2013).
Lohan then appeared on various television shows, including the docu-series Lindsay (2014), the British comedy series Sick Note (2018), the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club (2019), and the musical competition show The Masked Singer Australia (2019) in which she served as a judge. She also made her stage debut in the London West End production of Speed-the-Plow (2014–2015).
Lohan rose to prominence in the music industry under Casablanca Records, releasing two studio albums, the platinum-certified Speak (2004) and gold-certified A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Lohan dabbled in fashion, beginning a line of her own titled 6126 and briefly serving as artistic advisor for Emanuel Ungaro in 2009. Since 2016, she has opened several nightclubs and resorts in Greece.
Early life
Lindsay Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in the Bronx borough of New York City, and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Dina, and Michael Lohan. Her father, a former Wall Street trader, has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother is a former singer and dancer. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr., who appeared with Lohan in The Parent Trap, Aliana, known as "Ali", and Dakota "Cody" Lohan. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage, and she was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her maternal antecedents were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party on Long Island. She began home-schooling in grade 11. Lohan is a natural redhead.
Lohan's parents married in 1985, separated when Lindsay was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007.
Career
1989–1999: Career beginnings
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie, and appeared in over 60 television commercials for brands like Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in her role on Another World for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of twins, separated in infancy, who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and received largely positive reviews. Lohan received unanimous acclaim for her debut performance. Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities." The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney. At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series Bette, but she resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
2000–2003: Success with Disney films
Lohan starred in two made-for-TV movies: Life-Size alongside Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002. In 2003, Lohan starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 remake of Disney's family comedy Freaky Friday, playing a mother and daughter who switch bodies and have to take on each other's roles. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more mainstream. Her performance was once again met with significant praise. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, , it remained her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 87 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emilio Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in September 2002. Lohan landed the role as the daughter in Disney's remake, Freaky Friday, also that month, which required her to learn how to play the guitar and to sing. Lohan recorded a song for the film, "Ultimate", which was released to Radio Disney to help promote the film. The song peaked at number 18 on Radio Disney's Top 30. Lohan announced that the song was separate from her singing career since many teen idols such as Hilary Duff and Raven-Symoné were expanding their careers from acting to singing. In 2003, Lohan recorded four songs that were released for the soundtrack to Lohan's film, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, including a Radio Disney hit, "Drama Queen (That Girl)."
She had begun working with Diane Warren and Randy Jackson, who were going to help write and produce her album. Diane Warren wrote the song "I Decide" for Lohan, which was originally going to be on her album. When Lohan decided not to collaborate with Warren and Jackson, "I Decide" was instead released on the soundtrack to the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and on to Radio Disney.
2004–2006: Status as teen idol and music releases
Lohan began writing the tracks on her album in April 2004. "I write a lot of lyrics and I'm involved in the producing process, because it's like, if I'm singing it, I want it to be something that I can relate to," Lohan said. "I'm just trying to feel it out and see where it goes. I'm playing guitar and
I also love to dance, so [the music will be] somewhere along the lines of hip-hop and rock."
Lohan's debut album, Speak, was released in the United States on December 7, 2004. The album was the first high-seller from Casablanca Records in several years, selling 1,000,000 units in the United States. The album received mostly negative reviews, with critics commenting that Lohan "isn't a bad singer, but not an extraordinary singer either." In the United States, the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 261,762 copies in its first week. In Germany the album debuted at number 53 and took four weeks to complete its chart run. The first two singles from Speak, "Rumors" and "Over", were both successes, with "Over" topping the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, where it stayed for three weeks. The song also did well internationally in countries such as Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "Rumors" peaked at number six on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and also did well in Australia and Germany, where it reached number 14. The music video for "Rumors" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. Both songs received heavy airplay on MTV's Total Request Live. The final single, "First", was released to help promote Lohan's film, Herbie: Fully Loaded. The song earned small success in Australia and Germany. Lohan promoted the album by performing the songs in a number of live appearances. A tour of Taiwan was planned, but later scrapped.
In 2004, Lohan had lead roles in two major motion pictures. The first film, Disney's teen comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." But the film was not met with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions." Her second lead role that year, in the teen comedy Mean Girls, marked Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen." Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "Lohan is sensitive and appealing, a solid locus for audience sympathy." David Rooney from Variety said that "Lohan displays plenty of charm, verve and deft comic timing." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. In 2021, The New Yorker critic Richard Brody placed Lohan's performance in Mean Girls at number eleven in his list of "The Best Movie Performances of the Century So Far".
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly. Vanity Fair described how she became a household name. Paparazzi began following her and her love life and partying became frequent targets of gossip sites and the tabloid media. Following the film, which was scripted by former "Not Ready for Prime Time Actress" Tina Fey and featured several other veterans of Saturday Night Lives "Not Ready for Prime Time Company", Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, when Lohan was 17, she became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards and in 2006 she hosted the 2006 World Music Awards. Lohan returned to Disney in 2005, starring in the comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide, but it received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, based on the series of dolls.
Lohan's second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in December 2005. It peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was eventually certified Gold. Lohan co-wrote most of the songs on the album, which received a mixed critical response. Slant Magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." Lohan herself directed the music video for the album's only single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)", which features her sister Aliana Lohan. The video is a dramatization of the pain Lohan said her family suffered at the hands of her father. It was her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 57.
2006–2008: Interruptions and mature film roles
Lohan's next widely released film, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 and, according to Variety, earned her over $7 million. The opening weekend box office takings of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak" according to Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, based on humorist Garrison Keillor's works, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny.'" Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera." The Emilio Estevez ensemble drama Bobby, about the hours leading up to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene alongside Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman, played by Jared Leto, on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule was released. In the film, Lohan portrays an out-of-control teenager whose mother (Felicity Huffman) brings her to the house of her own estranged mother (Jane Fonda). Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism." During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated." In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional." He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and said that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.'" In 2007, Lohan was cast in the film Poor Things, which she ultimately lost.
In early January 2007, production on the film I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. While Lohan was in rehab, she continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better." Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in April 2007, shortly before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then."
In the wake of her second DUI arrest, Lohan withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in which she had been due to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a psychological horror-thriller in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered in July 2007 to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million." It earned Lohan dual Golden Raspberry awards for Worst Actress, with Lohan coming first and second, tying with herself. Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable, citing possible issues with securing insurance.
2008–2011: Continued delays
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. In the comedy Labor Pains, Lohan plays a woman who pretends to be pregnant. During the shoot, Lohan's manager worked with the paparazzi to encourage the media to show her work, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009, "a setback for the star" according to Variety. The premiere received 2.1 million viewers, "better-than-average" for the channel according to E! Online. Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote that "this is not a triumphant return of a prodigal child star. ... [Labor Pains] never shakes free of the heavy baggage Ms. Lohan brings to the role." Lohan was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth-season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.
Lohan narrated and presented the British television documentary Lindsay Lohan's Indian Journey, about human trafficking in India. It was filmed during a week in India in December 2009, and transmitted on BBC Three in April 2010. The BBC was criticized for having hired Lohan, and while reviewers called the documentary compelling, they also found Lohan's presence to be odd and distracting. Lohan said: "I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film." In April 2010, Lohan was let go from the film The Other Side where she had been set to star, with the director saying she was "not bankable."
Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album, tentatively titled Spirit in the Dark, in late 2007. In May 2008, the single "Bossy" was released onto digital outlets, and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
The song was meant to serve as the lead single from the album. Later that year, Lohan said that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.
In June 2010, Lohan was the subject of a fashion shoot in the photographer docu-series Double Exposure on Bravo. Robert Rodriguez's action exploitation film Machete opened in September 2010. In the film, Lohan's character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance, and later dons a nun's habit while toting a machine gun. Its critical reviews were mixed. The Washington Post described her character as "a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image." Premiere.com said she was "terrible" while Variety called it "her best work in some time." Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements, Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie. Lohan filmed a sketch where she is dressed as Marilyn Monroe for Inappropriate Comedy in 2010. The film had issues finding a distributor and was not released until 2013, when it was met with poor box office and critical reception. Lohan appeared on the October 2010 cover of Vanity Fair. She told the magazine: "I want my career back" and "I know that I'm a damn good actress."
2012–2017: Television work and stage debut
Lohan had not appeared on Saturday Night Live since 2006, when she hosted the show for the fourth time in March 2012. Her appearance received mixed to negative reviews. Critics appreciated the self-deprecating references to her personal troubles, but also commented that she largely played a supporting role. The episode had the second highest ratings of the season with 7.4 million viewers. In May 2012, Lohan appeared briefly, as a celebrity judge, on the television series Glee, in the episode "Nationals." Lohan stars as a surfer in the art film First Point by artist Richard Phillips. It debuted at Art Basel in June 2012 and features a score by Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk. Comments from critics on Lohan's work were mixed. Lohan starred as Elizabeth Taylor in the biographical made-for-TV movie Liz & Dick, which premiered on the Lifetime cable channel in November 2012. Reviews of Lohan's performance were largely, but not unanimously, negative. The Hollywood Reporter said she was "woeful" while Variety called her "adequate." Entertainment Weekly described the premiere ratings of 3.5 millions as "a little soft." During the production, paramedics were called to Lohan's hotel room, treating her for exhaustion and dehydration. In April 2013, the horror comedy Scary Movie 5 was released, where Lohan appears as herself alongside Charlie Sheen in the opening sketch. While the movie itself was panned by critics, a few reviewers found Lohan's and Sheen's to be one of the better scenes. Lohan also guest-starred as herself in an April 2013 episode of Sheen's comedy series Anger Management.
In August 2013, just days after Lohan left rehab, The Canyons was released, an independent erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Easton Ellis. It was made on a low budget, most of which was gathered through online fund raiser Kickstarter. Lohan received $100 a day and a share of the profits, and she was also credited as a co-producer. The New York Times Magazine described Lohan as difficult to work with, and the shoot as fraught with conflict between Lohan and Schrader. Lohan and her co-star, adult-film actor James Deen, portray an actress and a producer in a volatile relationship. Reviews for the film were generally poor, but several critics praised Lohan's performance. The New Yorker said she was "overwrought and unfocused" while Variety called her "very affecting" and Salon described her as "almost incandescent." The same month Lohan filled in for Chelsea Handler as host of the cable talk show Chelsea Lately. She received mostly positive reviews for her appearance and the show garnered its best ratings of the year.
The 8-part docu-series Lindsay was transmitted in March and April 2014 on Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network. The series followed Lohan's life and work as she moved to New York City after leaving rehab. In the final episode, Lohan said that she had had a miscarriage which had interrupted filming of the series. The premiere had 693,000 viewers, described as "so-so" by The Hollywood Reporter. The ratings then slipped and the finale only had 406,000 viewers. New York Daily News called the series "surprisingly routine", Variety described it as boring, while Liz Smith said it was "compelling" and "usually painful to watch." In December 2013, Lohan introduced Miley Cyrus before her set at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. In April 2014, Lohan guest-starred in an episode of the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Around this time, Lohan had also announced and began promoting a film she was set to star in titled Inconceivable, which was never produced for unknown reasons.
Lohan made her stage debut in October 2014, starring in the London West End production of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, a satire about the movie business. She portrayed Karen, the secretary of a Hollywood executive, in a role originally played by Madonna. Reviews of Lohan's performance were mixed, with the Associated Press describing critical reception overall as "lukewarm." The Stage said she was "out of her league" while The Times wrote that she "can act a bit" and The Guardian said she "holds the stage with ease."
In 2015, the English band Duran Duran announced that Lohan was featured on the song "Danceophobia" from their fourteenth studio album, Paper Gods.
2018–present: Return to music and acting comeback
In June 2015, Lohan filmed the supernatural thriller, Among the Shadows. The film saw a series of delays with its release and was eventually listed for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2018. It was released on March 5, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.
In October 2016, Lohan opened her first nightclub, in collaboration with her ex-business partner Dennis Papageorgiou, named "Lohan Nightclub", in Athens, Greece.
In July 2018, the second season of Sick Note —in which Lohan has a recurring role— premiered on Sky One. In May 2018, she opened a resort on the Greek island Mykonos called "Lohan Beach House Mykonos" and later her second resort in Ialisos Beach, Rhodes, called "Lohan Beach House Rhodes." In July 2018, People magazine revealed that Lohan had signed on to star in an MTV reality series, Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club focusing on the Mykonos Beach House and her career and business ventures. The series premiered on January 8, 2019, on MTV. The show was canceled after one season. As of June 2019, the beach club is no longer open in Mykonos.
In July 2019, it was announced that Lohan will be one of the panelists on the Australian edition of Masked Singer. It was announced on October 10 that Lohan will return for season two of The Masked Singer. On July 7, 2020, it was revealed that Lohan would be unable to return to the judging panel in the second season, as she could not travel from Dubai to Melbourne because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions. She was replaced for season 2 by new panelist, comedian Urzila Carlson.
In June 2019, Page Six reported that Lohan had re-signed with Casablanca Records to record and release her third studio album, along with "a couple of soundtracks." In July, Lohan confirmed signing a joint deal with Casablanca and Republic Records. In August 2019, a snippet of a song titled "Xanax" was premiered by radio host Kris Fade on Virgin Radio Dubai. Lohan then teased her song again in late-December, announcing in January that her first album in 15 years would be released at the end of February.
On April 1, 2020, Lohan announced her album's lead single, "Back to Me." The song was released on April 3 and received positive reviews from critics.
Lohan has announced several upcoming films including one titled Frame, which she is set to star in, as well an untitled film based on the book Honeymoon, which Lohan is writing the script for. During her appearance on CNN's 2019 New Year's Eve special, Lohan announced she would be coming back to the United States for a Hollywood comeback. Lohan also announced that she is managing her younger sister Ali's music career.
In March 2021, Lohan auctioned a single called Lullaby. In May 2021, Netflix announced that Lohan was set to star in Falling for Christmas, a Christmas romantic comedy about a woman who suffers amnesia following a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. The film began filming in November 2021, and is to be directed and co-written by Janeen Damian, with a release date set for late 2022.
Other ventures
Fashion and modeling
Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign. She was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring–Summer 2009 campaign. Lohan has a long-lasting fascination with Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during The Parent Trap shoot. In the 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York magazine, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity, saying that the photo shoot was "an honor." The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it disturbing, saying "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... [and] the photographs bear none of Monroe's fragility."
In 2008, Lohan launched a clothes line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). The line started with leggings, before expanding to a full collection, covering 280 pieces . In January 2009, Lohan appeared as a guest judge on Project Runway. In September 2009, Lohan became an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro. A collection by designer Estrella Archs with Lohan as adviser was presented in October, receiving a "disastrous" reception, according to Entertainment Weekly and New York. Lohan left the company in March 2010. Lohan appeared in the January–February 2012 issue of Playboy magazine, in a shoot inspired by a nude pictorial of Marilyn Monroe from the first issue of the magazine. Editor Hugh Hefner said Lohan's issue was "breaking sales records."
In early 2018, Lohan announced plans on developing a makeup brand separate from her fashion brand and stated that it was still in its early stages of development.
Apps
In December 2014, the free-to-play video game app Lindsay Lohan's The Price of Fame was released for the iOS and Android operating systems. Polygon said it was "funny, trashy and surprisingly self-aware" while Vulture called it "a crappy knockoff of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood."
In June 2017, Lohan announced she was starting a lifestyle site called Preemium, which subscribers could access for $2.99 a month.
In October 2021, Lohan announced that she would be hosting a podcast through Studio 71.
Personal life
Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, Hard Rock Cafe heir Harry Morton in 2006, and DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008 and 2009. In April 2009, following her breakup with Ronson, Lohan appeared in a dating video spoof on the comedy website Funny or Die. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media. In 2016, Lohan was engaged to London-based Russian millionaire Egor Tarabasov, owner of the real estate agency Home House Estates and son of Dmitry Tarabasov. They reportedly split up in mid-2017, with Lohan accusing Tarabasov of abuse and him accusing her of stealing £24,000 worth of his belongings. On November 28, 2021, Lohan announced her engagement to financier Bader Shammas after three years of dating.
Lohan spoke about her turbulent childhood in 2007, the same year her parents finalized their divorce: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family ... I was put between my mother and father a lot." Despite the conflicts, Lohan spoke very fondly of her family. However, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 she admitted that she had cut off contact with her father, describing his behavior as unpredictable and hard to deal with.
Filmography
After beginning her acting career as a child actor in the early 1990s, Lohan, at age 11, made her film debut in Disney's successful remake of The Parent Trap (1998). Freaky Friday (2003) remains her highest-grossing film, while Mean Girls (2004), both a critical and commercial success, became a cult classic. Her career faced many interruptions from legal and personal troubles during the late 2000s and early 2010s, but she has still appeared in 26 films (including 6 as a personality), 12 television appearances, 1 play and 5 music videos. Her films include:
Discography
Speak (2004)
A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lindsay Lohan
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart
References
Notes
Cited works
External links
1986 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Actresses from New York (state)
American child actresses
American child singers
American documentary filmmakers
American expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom
American expatriates in the United Arab Emirates
American women pop singers
American film actresses
American people convicted of theft
American people of Irish descent
American people of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
American soap opera actresses
American television actresses
Child pop musicians
Cold Spring Harbor Jr./Sr. High School alumni
Golden Raspberry Award winners
Living people
Lohan family
Motown artists
People from Cold Spring Harbor, New York
People from Merrick, New York
People from the Bronx
Singers from New York (state)
Universal Records artists
Women documentary filmmakers | false | [
"An only child is a person who does not have any siblings, neither biological nor adopted.\n\nOnly Child may also refer to:\n\n Only Child (novel), a novel by Jack Ketchum\n Only Child, a 2020 album by Sasha Sloan",
"Sivasakthi () is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language soap opera starring Shamitha, Renuka, Sabitha Anand, Viswanath, Shreekumar, Sanjeev, Saakshi Siva, and Poovilangu Mohan. It replaced Lakshmi and it was broadcast on Sun TV on Monday to Friday from 16 June 2008 to 18 December 2009 at 22:00 (IST) for 385 episodes. It was produced by Home Media Sujatha Vijakumar, director by Balaji Yadav. Shamitha, who plays the lead role, made her Tamil-language debut with the series. Co-actors Shreekumar and Shamitha were revealed to be married.\n\nPlot\nIt is a story about single mother Sivagami and daughter Shakthi had been leading a happy life, though not doing well financially, life had been smooth for them both. Sivagami had a secret hidden behind her and daughter Sakthi does not know about it. Sakthi had always longed to have a big family like her best friend Parimala. One day Sivagami falls sick and that is when Sivasakthi learns the truth. Truth about her father, and her other four siblings. Sakthi promise her mother to find her siblings and bring them back to her. On her search, she experiences much difficulty. Lost her love life and yet carried on with her search for her siblings.\n\nCast\n\nMain\n Shamitha as Shakthi\n A fourth daughter of Sivagami's, a poor girl, witnessed two murders. Grown up not knowing about her other siblings. Finally Sakthi learns of her siblings and promises her mother to find them. On the search of her siblings, she has lost her love, Venkat. Yet, for the love and desperate to meet her siblings, she continues with her life.\n Renuka / Sabitha Anand as Sivagami\n A mother of five kids. Has a lovely caring husband, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. She has five children. After her husband dies, she does odd jobs and finally ends up at an orphanage home.\n Shreekumar as Kannan (Left)\n A third son of Sivagami's, a rowdy and for Mukilan, Kannan is everything, because of his dedication. Kannan still remembers his mother and siblings, cries daily thinking about his mother and wondering where his siblings are. He does not know Sakthi is his sister, threatens her for a sim card after Sakti witnessed a murder and the person before dying gave her a sim card. Since then, both Sivagami and Sakthi consider Kannan to be a rowdy. Until Kannan sees Sivagami, he does not know Sakthi is his sister. Upon learning this, Kannan abandons his rowdy life and tells them he is Kannan, but they insult him. On the other hand. Mukilan is annoyed Kannan left him and decides to take revenge on Sakthi.\n Manjari Vinodhini/Sneha Nampiar as Kavitha/Gayathri the first daughter of Sivagami. She misses her mother and believes she has died. She wonders how to find her siblings. She married Saravanan and has a daughter, Divya.\n Vithiya as Vimala/Kanchana\n A fifth youngest daughter of Sivagami's, she is soft-spoken and fearful. She married Venkat without knowing about his love-life, Sakthi who happens to be her sister.\n Sailatha as Ponni\n A third daughter of Sivagami's, she is brave.\n\nSupporting\n Viswanath as Venkat\n Shakthi's ex-boyfriend and Vimala's husband.\n Sharvan as Subramani (Shakti's husband)\n Sanjeev as Sevvazhai \n Kannan as Saravanan Gayathri's husband\n Saakshi Siva as Sabapadhi\n Poovilangu Mohan \n Vija Krishnaraj\n Swaminathan as Perumal\n Santhyananth as Nandhagopal\n Umamaheswari as Parimala\n She is a loving daughter, friendly, and Sakthi's best friend.\n Shanthy Anand as Rajeswari (Parimala's sister)\n Nesan as Akilan (Pooni's husband)\n Ashok as Ashok Kumar (Parimala's husband)\n Jekan as Bala Subramaniyum \n Sandha as Shanthi\n\nCasting\nThe series is a Mystery Family Thriller story. produced by Home Media, that aired on Sun TV. Actress Shamitha landed in lead Female role, who has appeared in Tamil-language films like Pandavar Bhoomi, was selected to portray the lead role of Shakthi, making her Tamil-language debut with the series. Renuka was selected to portray Sivagami. Later Sabitha Anand was replaced role of Sivagami. Other main cast include Shreekumar, Sailatha, Vithiya, and Sneha Nampiar and the supporting cast include Viswanath, Sanjeev, Umamaheswari, Saakshi Siva and Poovilangu Mohan.\n\nOriginal soundtrack\n\nTitle song\nThe title song was written by lyricist P. Vijay with vocals by Shankar Mahadevan and Shweta.\n\nSoundtrack\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nInternational broadcast\nThe series was released on 16 June 2008 on Sun TV and the show was also broadcast internationally on Channel's international distribution. \n It aired in Sri Lanka, South East Asia, Middle East, United States, Canada, Europe, Oceania, South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa on Sun TV.\n It aired in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Gemini TV, dubbed into Telugu Language.\n\nSee also\n List of programs broadcast by Sun TV\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Website \n Sun TV on YouTube\n Sun TV Network \n Sun Group \n\nSun TV television series\nTamil-language thriller television series\n2000s Tamil-language television series\n2008 Tamil-language television series debuts\nTamil-language television shows\n2009 Tamil-language television series endings"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial"
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Where was the burial? | 1 | Where was the burial of Mary Surratt? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | the Washington Arsenal | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | true | [
"The Zvejnieki burial ground is an archaeological site consisting of a large Stone Age (i.e. Mesolithic and Neolithic cemetery with over 400 burials and associated grave goods. It is located along a drumlin on the northern shore of Lake Burtnieks in northern Latvia.\n\nThe site had been known among archaeologists since the nineteenth century. However, it was first explored archaeologically through excavations led by Francis Zagorskis between 1964 and 1978. Before the discovery of a human skull in 1964, the site was used primarily for quarrying gravel. Archaeologists estimate that the site originally contained over 400 burials.\n\nThe cemetery contains 330 recorded burials, with roughly equal numbers of male and females. About one third of the burials are children. The principal grave goods are animal tooth pendants, occurring in both adult and child graves. A smaller number of male and female graves contain hunting and fishing equipment, including harpoons, spears, arrowheads and fish-hooks. The earliest burials are dated to the Middle Mesolithic, 8th millennium BCE, but they continue throughout the Stone Age, extending over at least four millennia.\n\nTwo sites representing settlements have been identified close to the cemetery: Zvejnieki I (Neolithic) and Zvejnieki II (Mesolithic).\n\nArchaeogenetics\nIn 2017, researchers successfully extracted the ancient DNA from the petrous bone of six adult individuals buried at Zvejnieki. DNA analysis showed that Burial 121, which was previously thought to be female, was actually male, and that Burials 221 and 137, which were previously thought to male, were actually female.\n\nDNA analysis shows that the people from Zvejnieki appear to have maintained genetic continuity from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic and likely adopted Neolithic practices through cultural diffusion, as the populations showed little genetic affinity for the Anatolian farmers that migrated to large parts of Europe during the Neolithic. However, a late Neolithic individual from Zvejnieki, Burial 137, appears to show some genetic affinity for the Caucasus hunter-gathers typified by an ancient DNA sample from Satsurblia Cave.\n\nIn 2018, Mathieson et al. published an analysis of a large number of individuals buried at the Zvejnieki burial ground from ca. 7500 BC to 2700 BC. The Y-DNA of 15 males was extracted, with 8 carrying haplogroup R1b1a1a, 6 carrying I2a1 and various subclades of it (particularly I2a1a1), and one carrying Q1a2. With regards to mtDNA, every individual successfully analysed (both male and female) carried subclades of haplogroup U (particularly subclades of U2, U4 and U5).\n\nBurials\nThe burials at Zvejnieki include evidence for secondary burial: that people were intentionally using remains left by previous generations in their graves. The most typical way of burying their dead was in an oval shaped pit with grey fill. There were instances of darker soil from previous graves and burials that cut into other ones. This could be because of the want for the dead to be connected to their ancestors in the afterlife. By being dug into a previous grave, they can remain with their loved ones forever. The darker soil from other graves can be an indication that they were of higher status. It can also mean that this grave is not to be disturbed any further (see Burial 316 and 317). Disturbing previous graves at Zvejneiki was done more often than not. This could be in part due to the fact that they did not build permanent buildings. By incorporating their dead, or the past, into their burials, they were making it as permanent as it could be.\n\nThe most recent burials are listed here with what is known about them. Due to looting that has taken place, many do not have confirmations on what gender or age they were. Artifacts appear in some, as well as what was once clothing in a few. Some graves have multiple individuals within them, but it is still hard to say whether they were related or just buried together.\n\nBurial 309\nThis was a secondary burial. The individual had been disturbed, and there is no conclusion on gender or age. Only the skull and upper part of the thoracic cage was present.\n\nBurial 310\nThis burial had been disturbed, and there is no conclusion on what gender or age the individual was. Only lower limbs and the pelvis were preserved.\n\nBurial 311\nThis burial had been greatly disturbed but with the placement of the vertebrae, as well as help from the presence of phalanges from the left hand they know that it was a primary burial.\n\nBurial 312\nThis burial was found in the first excavation but could not be completed. Before they got back to it, it was looted. From the first excavation they determined that it contained four individuals, three adults and one child. There were also flint artifacts found, but it is unclear what their use was.\n\nBurial 313\nThis burial was 33 to 37 years old, and a female. They found a full skeleton that was placed on its back. She was a primary deposit, and the space was filled. There were a few animal bones found, but these may have just been a coincidence.\n\nBurial 314\nThis burial was over 35 years old, and a female. This was a primary deposit, and the space was filled.\n\nBurial 315\nThere was no gender or age determined for this burial. While they know that the individual was placed on their back, the remains were not well preserved.\n\nBurials 316 and 317\nThe most well-known is the double burial of 316 and 317. Archaeologists have determined it to be one female (on the left) and one male (on the right). Their grave was dug into five older burials on the site. They were then covered with a darker, older soil which would have been from an ancestors’ grave nearby, roughly 20 to 100 meters away. The darker soil may have been an indication of higher status or a way to show the grave should no longer be disturbed.\n\nThe female, Burial 316, was 36 to 40 years old. She was found with a plethora of grave goods. She had 120 amber pendants that went from the upper part of her body to just above the knees, two amber rings that were near her jaw, and 40 bone beads that were near the knees as well as other places. The collection she was buried with makes her one of the richest amber graves in the Baltic area.\n\nThe male, Burial 317, was 25 to 30 years old. He shows signs of being wrapped tightly when buried. His bones had limited movement, and are compressed.1 Around his cranium, they found a large presence of ochre which they believe could be from a clay mask that was painted. This individual was lying on top of a stone that was 15 cm. It was situated under his pelvic bone.\n\nBurial 318\nThis burial only yielded a forearm and hand, and so no age or gender has been determined. They think that this might have been disturbed when Burials 316 and 317 were dug.\n\nBurials 319 and 320\nThis double burial was of young children, neither of the genders were determined though. Burial 319 was around five years old, and Burial 320 was around two and a half years old. Eleven tooth pendants were found around them, and they were covered in ochre.\n\nBurial 321\nThis individual was between 16 and 17 years old, but the gender is undetermined. It was a primary deposition.\n\nBurial 322\nThis individual was between 35 and 40 years old, and a female. This burial was a primary deposit, but there have been disturbances from secondary burials around and on top of it.\n\nBurials 323 and 325\nThis burial also consists of two individuals but is not as lavish as the previous. Burial 323 is of a child around the age of four. The sex cannot be determined for this young individual.\n\nBurial 325 is of a male that was 30 to 35 years old. This double burial was a primary deposit, and there were no artifacts found with them in the grave. While there is no obvious reason to think they were deposited at the same time, there has been no disturbances after placement. There was also little movement of the bones for Burial 325 which could indicate that it was wrapped or covered.\n\nBurial 324\nThis burial has two individuals, but they were believed to be immature. 324a was a newborn and 324b was between two and three years old. Neither have a determined sex.\n\nBurial 326\nThis burial does not have a determined age or gender. They have determined that it was a primary deposit, and most likely was disturbed by the building of a house.\n\nBurial 328\nThis individual was a male between the ages of 20 and 25. It was a filled-in burial and no artifacts were found with him.\n\nBurial 329\nThis individual has no confirmed sex or age, but from their fully erupted third molars we know that it is an adult. It was a primary burial.\n\nBurial 330\nThis burial was found while excavating Burial 323-325. They concluded that this grave was dug into while depositing 323-325.\n\nSee also\n Deriivka\n Motala#Archaeogenetics\n Khvalynsk#Archaeogenetics\n Iron Gates Mesolithic\n Samara culture#Genetics\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nArchaeological sites in Latvia\nStone Age Latvia\nCorded Ware culture",
"The African Burial Ground, (Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground) known historically as the \"Burial Ground for Negroes\", is the older of two municipal burial grounds established for the interment of free people of color and the enslaved in the city of Richmond, Virginia. It is located at 1540 E Broad St., in the area known as Shockoe Bottom.\n\nHistory\nThe African Burial Ground (a.k.a Burial Ground for Negroes) may have been established around 1750, or as late as 1799. It was closed to new burials in 1816 after the opening of the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground (Richmond's 2nd African Burial Ground) located at 5th and Marshall St. (now called Hospital St.).\n\nThe Burial Ground for Negroes was also the site of the city gallows. It is where the leader of a famous slave rebellion Gabriel Prosser, and 25 of his followers were executed in 1800.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project: Richmond African Burial Ground\nRichmond Cemeteries: African Burial Ground\nCemeteries in Richmond, Virginia\nAfrican-American cemeteries\nAfrican-American history in Richmond, Virginia\nHistory of slavery in Virginia\nAfrican-American historic places"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal"
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Who was there? | 2 | Who was at Mary Surratt's burial at the Washington Arsenal? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | true | [
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"Thomas Ashby was an English religious dissident who was executed at Tyburn on 29 March 1544.\n\nHe was originally included in the process for canonising the English Martyrs, as he had been executed for denying the King's Supremacy. However this was later rejected as there was some doubt that he died as a Catholic. \"And the xix. day of March [1544] was draune from the tower unto Tyborne . . . . . Ascheby, that was some tyme a prest and forsoke it, and there was hongyd and qwarterd and there byrryd.\"\n\nReferences\n\nYear of birth missing\n1544 deaths\nPeople executed at Tyburn\nEnglish martyrs"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal",
"Who was there?",
"Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M."
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Were they hanged? | 3 | Were Herold, Powell, and Surratt hanged? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | true | [
"The is a correctional facility in Katsushika, Tokyo. A part of the penal system of Japan, it is operated by the Ministry of Justice. It is one of seven detention houses in Japan, which detain people awaiting trial, as well as those who have been sentenced to death and await execution.\n\nHistory\nThe TDH has a tactical response unit, the Special Security Response Team, established on April 1, 2019.\n\nExecution chamber\n\nOne of Japan's seven execution chambers is in this facility. All executions in Japan are carried out by hanging. The execution chamber in Tokyo has a trap door, which is opened by one of the three buttons in the next-door room, which are simultaneously pressed by three prison staff members so that none of them will know for certain which of them pressed the real button. \n\nAs the condemned dies, their body falls into a room below the execution chamber, and in that room the death is confirmed. Before the condemned is executed, they pass a statue of Amida Nyorai (Amitābha), one of the Buddhas. The execution room is in two sections, with both of them together the size of a 15 tatami mat room.\n\nNotable prisoners\n Carlos Ghosn\nKiyoshi Miki\n Shoko Asahara (hanged 6 July 2018)\n Richard Sorge\n Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka\nNorio Nagayama (hanged 1 August 1997)\nTsutomu Miyazaki (hanged on 17 June 2008)\nMasahiro Kanagawa (hanged 21 February 2013)\nSeiichi Endo (hanged 6 July 2018)\nYukio Seki (hanged 26 November 1993)\nTeruhiko Seki (hanged 19 December 2017)\nHideki Kanda (hanged 1 August 1997)\nToru Toyoda (hanged 26 July 2018)\nKenichi Hirose (hanged 26 July 2018)\nSeiha Fujima (hanged 7 December 2007)\nMitsuo Yabe (hanged 30 September 1987)\nKoichi Shoji (hanged 2 August 2019)\nYoshio Iwamoto (hanged 27 August 2007)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n 法務省矯正局 \n 東京拘置所 \n\nBuildings and structures in Tokyo\nPrisons in Japan\nExecution sites in Japan\nKatsushika\n1879 establishments in Japan",
"This is a list of people executed in Australia, sorted geographically by state. As state boundaries have changed during Australia's history, this article lists executions according to state and territory boundaries as they have existed since 1989.\n\nBefore the arrival of Europeans, death sentences were carried out in Australia under Aboriginal customary law, either directly or through sorcery. The first executions under European law occurred on 2 October 1629 on Long Island in the Houtman Abrolhos of Western Australia, where seven crew members of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia were hanged for mutiny and the subsequent massacre of 125 passengers and crew.\n\nWithin weeks of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 and the establishment of Sydney, New South Wales as the first permanent European settlement, Thomas Barrett became the first person to be executed in Australia under British law. Since Federation in 1901, 114 people have been legally executed in Australia.\n\nNew South Wales\n \nTo assist those working to make the list more complete, the following information is added. According to one source, total numbers executed in NSW prior to 1820 per period were as follow. 1788-99: 43 (list below complete); 1800-09: 98 (list below as complete as possible because the fact of some executions are in doubt); 1810-19: 92.\nAccording to another source, total numbers executed in NSW during certain periods after 1820 were as follows: 1820-29: 170; 1830-39: 288; 1840-49: 99; 1850-59: 36; 1860-69: 51; 1870-79: 23; 1880-89: 26; 1890-99: 67; 1900-39: 24.\n\nFrom 1788 to 1830\n\nLocation of execution not indicated\n Samuel Mobbs – 16 March 1797 – Hanged for burglary.\n James Reece – 8 February 1799 – Hanged for bestiality with a sow. Reece tried to cut his own throat on the morning of his execution. \n John Hardy – 2 June 1800 – Hanged for vagrancy and theft.\n William Jones – March 1803 – Hanged for robbing Thomas Harley, a settler from Prospect.\n James Lovell – 22 February 1805 – Hanged for forging and uttering.\n George Holland – 11 October 1806 – Hanged for breaking into the house of Laughlane Gallighcoghan at Parramatta and stealing 10 shillings. Holland had assaulted the occupant of the home, described as a \"feeble old man\".\n Dennis Kaneen – 27 November 1806 – Hanged for breaking into the house of James Hogsen and stealing six bushels of maize, some meat, sugar and a copper coin amounting to nine shillings and three pence.\n William Page – 15 December 1806 – Hanged for burglary from the house of William Tracey at Fennel Farm.\n Abraham Smith – 15 December 1806 – Hanged for burglary from the house of William Tracey at Fennel Farm.\n William Poxam – 4 April 1807 – Hanged for sheep stealing.\n John Hughes – 4 April 1807 – Hanged for entering the house of Edward Redmond and stealing a chest containing cash, bills and other property.\n Hugh Dowling – 28 September 1808 – Hanged for armed burglary of the house of William Styles at Nepean and stealing cash and clothing.\n William Davis – 11 June 1813 – Hanged for cutting and maiming William Mason with a knife during a drunken brawl at Ultimo.\n Thomas Thorpe – September 1813 – Hanged for assaulting and robbing John Galligan of a silver watch on the King's Highway.\n William Gray – March or April 1814 – Hanged for highway robbery. Stopped the cart of Edward Powell Jr and John Beckwith on the King's Highway and robbed them of ten gallons of spirits and other items.\n Dennis Donovan – 12 July 1814 – Hanged for burglary of the house of John Cowley at Surry Hills, the murders of William Alder, Thomas White and Hannah Sculler on the Hawkesbury, and for rape. His body was handed over for anatomisation and dissection.\n Patrick Dawson – 9 February 1816 – Hanged for the robbery and murder of Edward Pugh at his home in Richmond. His body was dissected and anatomised.\n Philip McGee – 9 February 1816 – Hanged for the robbery and murder of Edward Pugh at his home in Richmond. His body was dissected and anatomised.\n Henry Laycock – 9 February 1816 – Hanged for the robbery and murder of Edward Pugh at his home in Richmond. His body was dissected and anatomised.\n Thomas Hill – 1 March 1816 – Hanged for cutting and maiming police constable Thomas Smith near Parramatta.\n William Langford – 1 March 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery on the Parramatta Road, robbing William Wright of a silver watch.\n Elizabeth Anderson – 19 July 1816 – Hanged for the murder of her husband, John Anderson, at Pitt Town. Her body was handed over to surgeons to be dissected and anatomised.\n James Stock – 19 July 1816 – Hanged for the murder of John Anderson at Pitt Town. His body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Nicholas Knight – 19 July 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery of Mrs Pearce on the Liverpool Rd, of two gallons of rum and a quantity of barley.\n Thomas Collins – 1 November 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery having violently assaulted and robbed the cart of John Andrews on the Parramatta Road.\n Hugh MacAlaire – 1 November 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery having violently assaulted and robbed the cart of John Andrews on the Parramatta Road.\n Moowattin (also called Daniel Mowatty) – 1 November 1816 – Hanged for the rape of a fifteen-year-old girl at Parramatta. The first indigenous person legally hanged in Australia.\n Patrick Ryan – 19 December 1825 – Hanged for arson in setting fire to the house of Richard Thompson at Bathurst.\n John Judd – 30 April 1830 – Hanged for robbery and putting in fear of John Smith in the Singleton area. After receiving sentence of death from Judge Dowling, Judd remarked to the court \"My Lord and Gentlemen of the Jury, it is only five minutes choking.\"\n John Roach – 30 April 1830 – Hanged for burglary and putting in fear in the Singleton area.\n\nSydney Cove\n Thomas Barrett – 27 February 1788 – Barrett was publicly hanged at Sydney Cove for stealing or conspiring to steal from government stores. He was the first person hanged in the colony of New South Wales.\n John Bennett – 2 May 1788 – A 20-year-old convict who was publicly hanged at Sydney Cove for theft.\n Samuel Payton – 28 June 1788 – Hanged at Sydney Cove for stealing shirts, stockings and combs. He was a 20-year-old convict and stonemason. \n Edward Corbett – 28 June 1788 – Hanged at Sydney Cove for the theft of four cows.\n James Daly – December 1788 – Hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of a handkerchief from a fellow convict using force and arms.\n James Baker – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n James Brown – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Richard Lukes – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Thomas Jones – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Luke Haines/Haynes – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Richard Askew/Asky – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Ann/Anne Davis (alias Judith Jones) – 23 November 1789 – The first woman hanged in Australia. A First Fleet convict, she was found guilty of theft from a fellow convict at Sydney Cove. She claimed to be pregnant to avoid the noose and some old women were instructed to inspect her. One of the women told the court, \"Gentlemen, she is as much with child as I am.\"\n\nSydney\n\n1790s\n Thomas Sanderson – 10 January 1790 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing with force of arms flour, beef, pork, associated chattels and goods from Thomas Steel and Joseph Bishop.\n William Chafe – 20 April 1790 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of James Sunnyhill in Sydney Cove. \n Hugh Low – 24 August 1790 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing. He had behaved with merit during the shipwreck of the Guardian; a letter of pardon arrived from His Majesty 12 months after his execution.\n James Chapman – 28 July 1791 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking into the house of John Patree and stealing a shirt. \n James Collington – 8 February 1792 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking into the hut of the baker John Campbell and stealing bread, flour and a check apron. At the hanging tree he addressed the assembled convicts before his execution, warning them to avoid the path he had pursued; but said that he was induced by hunger to commit the crime for which he suffered. \n John Crowe/Crow – 10 December 1793 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Archibald Macdonald – 14 July 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n John Hemming – 17 July 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Robert Spriggs.\n John Bevan – 6 October 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of William Fielder. \n John Hill – 16 October 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for murder in the course of robbery. He had fatally stabbed Simon Burn in the left side of the chest at Parramatta.\n William Smith – 16 November 1795 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of William Parrish at Prospect Hill.\n John Fenlow – 8 August 1796 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his servant David Lane at Mulgrave, on the Hawkesbury.\n Francis Morgan – 30 November 1796 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Simon Raven. Following his execution his body was gibbeted on Pinchgut Island in Sydney Harbour. His skeleton was still hanging there four years after his execution.\n John Lawler/Lawor – 30 November 1796 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the public stores.\n Martin McEwan – 30 November 1796 – Soldier, hanged at Sydney for robbing the public stores.\n John Rayner – 31 July 1797 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Johnathan Boroughbridge – April 1798 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy after he and accomplices stole two boats with the intent of escaping the colony.\n Michael Gibson – April 1798 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy after he and accomplices stole two boats with the intent of escaping the colony.\n Samuel Wright – February 1799 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Simeon Lord in High St (Lower George St). Wright had been reprieved at the gallows in 1793, when previously sentenced to hang for burglary.\n Thomas Jones – 6 July 1799 – Publicly hanged in Sydney on the site of the crime for the murder of missionary Samuel Clode in the brickfields. A soldier in the NSW Corps, he had owed the missionary money but when the man came to collect he was murdered by Jones with his wife and two neighbours as accomplices. Clode was stabbed, his throat cut and his skull fractured with an axe. The Jones house was pulled down and burned on orders of the governor, the gallows were erected on its spot and he and two of his accomplices were hanged. Jones' corpse was later gibbeted.\n Elizabeth Jones – 6 July 1799 – Wife of Thomas Jones. Hanged at Sydney for her part in the murder of missionary Samuel Clode at the brickfields in Sydney. After being hanged her body was handed over for surgical dissection.\n William Elberry – 6 July 1799 – Hanged at Sydney for his part in the murder of Samuel Clode, executed where the murder took place then gibbeted.\n\n1800s\n William Meredeth – 4 July 1800 – Hanged at Sydney for escaping from custody.\n Thomas Thompson – 4 July 1800 – A corporal in the New South Wales Corps. Hanged at Sydney for forgery.\n James Riley - December 1800 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary. However another source indicates that he may not in fact have been executed.\n Charles Davis - February 1801 - Hanged at Sydney\n David Burton - 5 December 1801 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Mary Hailey\n Laughlan Doyle – 14 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n John Lynch – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n John Francis Morgan – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Patrick Ross – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Thomas Shanks – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Michael Wollaghan – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Laurence Dempsey – 19 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Timothy Mulch/Mulcahy/Malahoy – 25 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n John Brown – 26 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n James Connors – 26 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Charles Crump – 20 February 1804 – Hanged in Sydney for the theft of nine pieces of chintzes and printed calicoes from William Tough in Sydney Cove.\n John Brannan – 10 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Sydney.\n Timothy Hogan – 10 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Sydney.\n James Bevan (known as 'Warminster') – 21 May 1804 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of eight-year-old Elizabeth Douglas.\n John Green – 21 November 1804 – Hanged at Sydney for rape near Parramatta on 11 November 1804. Green was African-American, born in Pennsylvania.\n William Miller – 30 September 1805 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Bridget Kean at Hawkesbury.\n Herbert Keeling – 28 April 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for forging and uttering two promissory notes purporting to be drawn by Henry Kable.\n James Dabbs – 16 May 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the home of Rowland Hassall at Parramatta.\n Elias Davis - 4 September 1806 - Hanged at Sydney for breaking and entering the dwelling house of Robert Broughton, Parramatta.\n William Organ – 11 October 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing nine sheep from his employer John Palmer between the Hawkesbury and Sydney.\n Joseph Moreton – 27 November 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of Henry Williams near Castle Hill.\n William Mason – 27 November 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking and entering the house of John Prosser and stealing a cart and an article of clothing.\n John Murphey – 27 November 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking and entering the house of Michael Connor at North Boundary. \n James Halfpenny – 17 December 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for bushranging and theft of livestock, four muskets and a chest.\n Stephen Halfpenny – 17 December 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for bushranging and theft of livestock, four muskets and a chest.\n Joseph Eades – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing a cart of alcohol and clothing items.\n John Higgins – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing a cart of alcohol and clothing items.\n William Morgan – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing a cart of alcohol and clothing items.\n Robert Murray – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing from the property of James Larratts.\n Benjamin Yeates – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing from the property of James Larratts.\n John Brown – 30 May 1808 – Hanged at Sydney. A convict who escaped from custody and remained at large in the Van Diemen's Land wilderness for some 20 months. During this time, with John Lemon (Lemon was shot dead while resisting capture) he was involved in the murder of three soldiers, Corporal John Curry, Private Robert Grindstone and Private James Daniels. For his involvement in the crimes Brown was transported from Van Diemen's Land to Sydney to stand trial. His body was dissected and gibbeted.\n Alexander Wilson (alias Charles Boyle) – 18 June 1808 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of William Moad.\n John MacNeal – 18 June 1808 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and robbery upon his master, having stolen two half casks and two quarter casks of gunpowder from the house of Robert Campbell.\n Mary Grady – 18 June 1808 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Charles Stuart at Parramatta.\n Richard Broughton – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for stealing two head of horned cattle from John Palmer at Hawkesbury.\n John Cheeseman – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for stealing two head of horned cattle from John Palmer at Hawkesbury.\n Charles Flynn – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for stealing from on board the ship Hero, lying in Sydney Cove, two spy glasses valued at 40 shillings and a table cloth valued at 10 shillings.\n Joseph Moreton – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for forging and uttering a promissory note thereby defrauding Benjamin South of Richmond Hill the sum of £21.\n Thomas Doolan (Dowlan) – 26 August 1809 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of John Styles on the Hawkesbury.\n\n1810s\n John Campbell – June 1810 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Elizabeth Macarthur.\n James Hutchinson – 26 February 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing from the shop of Thomas Abbott. Hutchinson was originally condemned to death in June 1810 for burglary however he escaped from custody, upon being recaptured his sentence was reduced to hard labour. In February 1811 he was convicted along with James Ratty of stealing from commercial premises and both were hanged together.\n James Ratty – 26 February 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cloth, muslin etc. from the shop of Thomas Abbott.\n Martin Egan – 10 May 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Cooney. After being executed his body was handed over to surgeons for dissection and anatomisation.\n Thomas Clough – 13 May 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Cooney. After being executed his body was handed over to surgeons for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Gould – 9 March 1812 – A soldier of the 73rd Regiment of Foot. Hanged in Sydney for the murder of Margaret Finnie, the wife of a fellow soldier.\n Peter Gory – 21 January 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at arms of William Parish in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.\n John McCabe – 21 January 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at arms of William Parish in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.\n John Townsend – 21 January 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at arms of William Parish in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.\n Matthew Kearns – 24 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Joseph Sutton, body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Kearns (the Elder) – 24 March 1813 – (Brother of Matthew Kearns). Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Joseph Sutton, body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Kearns (the Younger) – 24 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Joseph Sutton, body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Richard Berry – 31 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing.\n John Mahony – 31 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing (brother of Thomas Mahony who was hanged on 24 March 1813 in Paramatta for a separate offence).\n Angelo (Giuseppe) LeRose – 13 April 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and robbery of Samuel Larkin on Parramatta Road, Iron Cove.\n Francis Barry – 13 April 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing three oxen that were the property of the crown.\n Richard Dowling – 13 April 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing three oxen that were the property of the crown.\n Thomas John Turner – 12 July 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Elizabeth, whom he stabbed to death at Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen's Land. His body was given up for dissection and anatomisation.\n Bartholomew Foley – 14 July 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing at Launceston, Van Diemen's Land.\n John White – 22 July 1814 – Hanged for his part in the murders of Rowland Edwards and William Jenkins during a botched robbery of the house at the Parramatta Toll Gate. He was accompanied by Dennis Donovan (hanged for other offences on 12 July 1814); it was Donovan who fired the fatal shots. But for his part in the robbery John White was found equally guilty. His body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Patrick Collins – 20 December 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for his part in the murder of William Alder & Thomas White on the Hawkesbury. Body dissected and anatomised.\n John Shepherd – 20 December 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Mary Bryant in The Rocks, Sydney. His body was handed over to surgeons for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Styles – 7 July 1815 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Roberts at Botany Bay. His body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Colin Hunter – 4 November 1816 – Hanged in Sydney for the murder at Canterbury of John Miller who was shot during a burglary of his home. Body was dissected and anatomised pursuant to sentence.\n Thomas Dooley – 4 November 1816 – Hanged in Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of John Miller. The prisoner's body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation after he was executed.\n Michael Ryan (real name John Mahony) – 4 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of John Miller. Body was dissected and anatomised pursuant to sentence.\n James Flavell – 15 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Thomas Reeds in Castlereagh St.\n William Tripp – 15 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Thomas Reeds in Castlereagh St.\n John Palmer – 15 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a bullock from the herd of Capt. Eber Bunker at Liverpool.\n Samuel Smith - 3 October 1817 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Randall at George Town, Van Diemen's Land\n John Walker – 10 October 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Suddis at Wilberforce.\n Ralph Pearson – 10 October 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Suddis at Wilberforce.\n Thomas McGiff – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of John Parkes at Petersham.\n Thomas Brown – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a mare, the property of Thomas Arkill.\n Patrick Ducey – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a cow, the property of Patrick Devoy.\n Bartholomew Roach – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing two heifers, the property of John Croker.\n William Wallis – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery in the house of John Harris.\n Edward Haley – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a horse, cart and other sundries near Parramatta.\n Samuel Pollock – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a horse, cart and other sundries near Parramatta.\n James Fitzpatrick – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the house of John Brown at Portland Head.\n Pedro Aldanoes (also called Peter Adams) – 7 December 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Joseph Yeates outside Parramatta.\n Timothy Buckley – 9 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of district constable William Cosgrove at South Creek.\n David Brown – 9 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of William Cosgrove.\n Timothy Ford – 9 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of William Cosgrove.\n Thomas Ray – 16 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n John Jones – 16 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n Thomas Smith – 16 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n John Green – 23 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for housebreaking and attempted murder at Cockle Bay.\n John Brennan – 23 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for housebreaking and attempted murder at Cockle Bay.\n John Petree (alias McIntosh) – 23 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery outside Liverpool.\n Matthew Dace - 31 December 1819 - Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Dennis Guiney on the Parramatta Road.\n Robert Parsons - 31 December 1819 - Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Dennis Guiney on the Parramatta Road.\n\n1820 to 1821\n William Taylor - 14 July 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary in Castlereagh Street.\n James Ingley - 14 July 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary in Castlereagh Street.\n James Garland - 14 July 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for forgery of store receipts at Parramatta.\n Thomas McGowran – 18 August 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing.\n Daniel (or David) Bell – 18 August 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing. Originally transported on the Friendship (1800) for his role in the Irish Rebellion.\n Annesley McGrath – 18 August 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing.\n George Rouse - 25 August 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the residence of Lieutenant Hector Macquarie.\n Dennis Malloy - 25 August 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle.\n Thomas Ford (alias Ward) - 25 August 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the residence of Anne Robinson on the Parramatta Road.\n John Kirby – 18 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Burragong, also called Jack, an indigenous tracker, in the Newcastle district.\n George Bowerman – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at the eighteen-mile stone on the Windsor Road.\n James Bowerman – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at the eighteen-mile stone on the Windsor Road.\n Solomon Bowerman – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at the eighteen-mile stone on the Windsor Road.\n James Clancy (Clency) – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing from a house and violent robbery of a child.\n John Bagnell – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for house-breaking and highway robbery.\n Nicholas Cooke – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing from the house of James Seville near Constitution Hill, and assaulting Constable Edward Dillon with a stone.\n Edward Luffin – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle duffing.\n Michael Tracey – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at the house of John Waite.\n John Sullivan – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Daniel O'Brien – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery.\n John O'Brien – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle duffing.\n William Swift – 17 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Maria Minton at Richmond.\n James Robinson – 17 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his overseer Charles Linton. Robinson was from Angola.\n Francis Pascoe – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Michael Donnelly.\n John Ryan – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n Miles Jordan – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in the Hawkesbury district.\n Pasco Haddycott – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Michael Donnelly.\n William McGeary (Geary) – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for a string of highway robberies on the Windsor Road.\n Thomas Smith – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n John Whiteman – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n William Kennedy – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary & theft of a hat, comb and razor from Henry McAlister near Prospect.\n John Mills – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n Charles Young – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n John Cochrane – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n\n1822 to 1824\n Francis Murphy – 6 April 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Nicholas Devine (former Superintendent of Convicts) at what is now Erskineville.\n William Harris – 6 April 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of James Cribb on the Parramatta Road.\n John Maloney – 1 May 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the house of John McKenzie at Pitt Town.\n William Varley – 1 May 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the house of John McKenzie at Pitt Town.\n Thomas Roach – 1 May 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the house of John McKenzie at Pitt Town.\n George Young – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of a cart belonging to John Blaxland at South Creek.\n James Dowden – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of John Sunderland, south of Parramatta.\n Joseph Knowles – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from John Price's residence at the Parramatta Toll-House.\n George Barke – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from John Price's residence at the Parramatta Toll-House.\n Thomas Barry – 14 October 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Samuel and Esther Bradley at Birchgrove.\n Valentine Wood – 8 November 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing Sergeant Barlow on the Prospect Road.\n William Baxter – 8 November 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of Robert Hawkins on the Dog Trap Road.\n Thomas Till – 8 November 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a boat at Port Macquarie.\n William Poole – 22 May 1823 – Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally sentenced to death for leading a party of convicts in escape into the hinterland, in the hope they could walk to Timor.\n Edward Gorman – 13 October 1823 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William Wells during a robbery at Minto. Gorman was recognisable for his \"remarkable tooth\".\n Robert Grant – 15 January 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally condemned to death in 1822 for horse theft.\n Thomas Harley – 4 March 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally sentenced to death in 1822 for burglary from the house of Robert Campbell in George St.\n Cornelius Fitzpatrick – 28 June 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Bentley outside Newcastle.\n John Donovan – 23 August 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Tom Brown at Emu Plains.\n John Hand – 30 August 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Minton at Richmond.\n James Stack – 30 August 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Minton at Richmond.\n\n1825 to 1826\n Martin Benson – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek near Windsor.\n Eliza Campbell – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of her master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n James Coogan – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n Anthony Rodney – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n John Sprole – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n Jeremiah Buckley – 4 April 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Canterbury.\n Edmond Bates – 11 April 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for beating his wife Julia to death during a Christmas Day drunken rage at Kissing Point.\n James Wright – 30 May 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe murder of his wife Mary Ann at the Hawkesbury.\n James Webb – 19 August 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Robert Collett at Toongabbie.\n Patrick Moloney – 12 September 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William Elliott at Port Macquarie.\n Daniel Leary - 12 December 1825 - Hanged at Sydney for rape of Mary Grainger at Wallis Plains.\n John Burke – 6 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Cogan at Mulgoa.\n William Corbett – 6 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Great Western Road.\n Duncan McCallum – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n Peter Roberts – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n William Patient – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n William Morrison – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n Andrew White – 1 May 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Taggart at Grant's Creek, outside Bathurst.\n William Cusack – 3 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Campbelltown.\n John Hossle – 3 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of John Blackman at Bathurst.\n Bridget Fairless – 12 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in what is now the Leichhardt section of Parramatta Road.\n John Connolly (Collins) – 12 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in what is now the Leichhardt section of Parramatta Road.\n Charles Butler – 3 August 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Kitty Carman (Catherine Collins) at Portland Head.\n Joseph Lockett – 7 August 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road near Cabramatta.\n Isaac Smith – 11 September 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Constable William Green at Captain John Brabyn's estate, Clifton, Windsor.\n\n1827\n George Worrall (Fisher's Ghost Murder) – 5 February 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Frederick Fisher at Campbelltown.\n William Leddington – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n James Smith – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n John Edwards – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n Richard Johnson – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n Edward Coulthurst – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n William Ward - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of Michael Foley at Bringelly\n Thomas Power - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of Michael Foley at Bringelly\n John Curry - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Joseph Cox on the road between Liverpool and Parramatta\n William Webb - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery and putting in fear of the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill\n John Lynch - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the burglary of the house of Thomas Parnell at Richmond. Lynch was also involved in the Wellington mutiny.\n Michael Coogan - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for forgery. Coogan was an American who had also attempted piracy of a ship called The Liberty\n Thomas Quinn - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill. Before the noose was fastened Quinn kicked off his boots \"and they fell with a hollow sound on his coffin, which lay directly under\".\n Patrick Geary - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill\n John Goff - 24 September 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for murder while attempting escape on Norfolk Island.\n Edward Moore - 24 September 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for murder while attempting escape on Norfolk Island.\n William Watson - 24 September 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for murder while attempting escape on Norfolk Island.\n Black Tommy – 31 December 1827 – (sometimes called Jackey-Jackey) Wiradjuri man from Bathurst district, hanged at Sydney for the murder of Geoffrey Connell at Reedy Swamp, near Bathurst.\n William Lee – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing in the dwelling-house of John Coghill, and putting the inmates in bodily fear.\n Jon Carrington – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing in the dwelling-house of John Coghill, and putting the inmates in bodily fear.\n James Charlton – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing in the dwelling-house of John Coghill, and putting the inmates in bodily fear.\n William (or Michael) Pearce – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and robbery in the house of Francis Forbes at Liverpool.\n\n1828\n Charles Connor – 13 March 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of James Mackenzie at Windsor.\n Lot McNamara – 17 March 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Janet Mackellar at Minto.\n William Johnson – 24 March 1828 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for the murder of Morris Morgan at Moreton Bay.\n George Kilroy (Kildray, Gilroy, Kilray) – 24 March 1828 – An associate of Jack Donahue. Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of George Plomer on the Richmond Road.\n William Smith – 24 March 1828 – An associate of Jack Donahue. Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of George Plomer on the Richmond road. On the first attempt the rope snapped and Smith fell to the ground. He was taken away until Kilroy and Johnson were declared dead and their corpses removed, then he was hanged again.\n William Regan – 5 May 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Davis in Castlereagh St.\n John Timmins – 11 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n Thomas Ford – 11 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n John Curtis – 16 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the theft of a cow from the herd of William Wentworth, at Bringelly.\n James (or Joseph) Johnson (also called Philip Macauley, Phillip Gawley) – 16 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault of George Tills outside Liverpool.\n John Welsh – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and attempted murder of George Barber at Picton.\n Joseph Bradley – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for forgery.\n Patrick Troy – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for forgery.\n Patrick Kegney (sometimes Stegney) – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery.\n Joseph (John) Spicer – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery.\n John (James) Tomlins – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery.\n James Henry – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the theft of a cow at Stone Quarry Creek.\n Samuel Clarke – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n Thomas Quigley – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n Alexander Browne – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for sodomy with William Lyster on the whaler Royal Sovereign.\n John Welch – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and the armed assault of Constable William Wade at Bong Bong. Welch was about sixteen at the time of his execution. \"He cried bitterly\".\n William Bayne – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and armed assault of Constable Wade at Bong Bong.\n Thomas Whisken (or Wiscott) – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of the home of James Hassall at Bathurst.\n William Owens – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of the home of James Hassall at Bathurst.\n James Holmes – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of the home of James Hassall at Bathurst.\n John Iron – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery of John Browne at Botany.\n Thomas Ryan – 29 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James McGrath just north of Richmond.\n\n1829\n Michael Green – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Susannah Smith at Windsor.\n John Payne (sometimes Paid) – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill.\n Edward Whelan – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill.\n George Skinner – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Susannah Smith at Windsor.\n John Price – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Susannah Smith at Windsor.\n Michael Lynch – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Thomas Kendall at Pitt Town.\n Florence (or Henry) Driscoll – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Isaac Cornwall at Richmond.\n Lot Molds – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Thomas Kendall at Pitt Town.\n William Riddell – 23 March 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Heley in the Muswellbrook district. Riddell apparently desired Heley's wife; Heley was found dismembered in a stump hole. Riddell was an atheist, republican, radical, autodidact. He ran up the steps to the gallows, took snuff and said \"I prefer death to living in chains and fetters in such a country as this\".\n Charles White – 8 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Murphy at Luskintyre.\n John Brunger (also called Brugan/Burgen) – 18 Apr 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William Perfoot (also called Parfitt) at Moreton Bay.\n Thomas Matthews – 18 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Connolly, a fellow work-gang member, at Moreton Bay.\n Thomas Allen – 18 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Connolly, a fellow work-gang member, at Moreton Bay.\n Patrick Sullivan – 20 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Condron at Moreton Bay.\n William Bowen – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Leslie Duguid at Wallis Plains (East Maitland).\n Peter Reilly – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Ellis Hall at Wallis Plains.\n James Smart – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the home of John Thomas at Wallis Plains.\n James Gallagher – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of John Thomas at Wallis Plains.\n John Crowther – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of John Thomas at Wallis Plains.\n Thomas Slater – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for assault on Betty Griffiths with a tomahawk in Cumberland St. Sydney.\n William Yemms (Jems) – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the government stores at Port Macquarie.\n James Gardiner – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the government stores at Port Macquarie.\n William Davison – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle from James Laidley at Bathurst.\n John Whelan – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle from James Laidley at Bathurst.\n John Shorter – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle from James Laidley at Bathurst.\n George Smith – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Illawarra district.\n John Allwright – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Illawarra district.\n George McDonald – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the Illawarra district.\n James Naughton – 25 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Elizabeth Watson. He was previously charged, with Edward Gorman, with murder in 1823.\n Timothy Murphy – 1 June 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe-murder of fellow-convict John Monaghan at Mt York while they were working on the road to Bathurst.\n John Slack (alias York) – 22 June 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary at the house of Timothy Beard at Cabramatta.\n George Groves – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Richard Brooks at Denham Court.\n James McColville – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Richard Brooks at Denham Court.\n John Salt – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Ben Crow in the Bargo Brush.\n Richard Peacock – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Ben Crow in the Bargo Brush.\n William Pitts – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Ben Crow in the Bargo Brush.\n John Neilson – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Windsor.\n James Barnes – 13 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Joshua Moore on the Liverpool Road.\n Joseph Stephenson – 13 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Joshua Moore on the Liverpool Road.\n Daniel Grier – 28 September 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Charles Penson (Tinson, Tinsal) – 28 September 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary\n Joseph Parker – 28 September 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John \"Kangaroo Jack\" Hazeldine at Gibraltar Creek in the Cox's River district. \n George Williams – 22 October 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery, assault and battery of William Hickey\n John Sly – 28 December 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for forgery\n\n1830\n Thomas Finley – 11 January 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of overseer Edward Walsh at Bathurst. \n Stephen Smith – 5 April 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe-murder of fellow convict William Davis at Moreton Bay\n John Hawes – 5 April 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe-murder of fellow convict William Davis at Moreton Bay\n Henry Muggleton – 31 May 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Mark King at Moreton Bay\n Daniel Kirwan (Curwen) – 7 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of a constable on the Windsor Road\n John Martin – 7 June 1830 – Known as 'Jack the Drummer'. Hanged at Sydney for the rape of seven-year-old Eliza Deering in a yard off George Street\n Michael Toole – 7 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear at Pitt Water\n Thomas McCormick – 21 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting the occupants in fear\n Jack Field – 23 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Pike between Parramatta and Toongabbie\n Henry O'Neil – 23 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Pike between Parramatta and Toongabbie\n Harry Cade – 23 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Pike between Parramatta and Prospect. Cade was transported at the age of fourteen and executed after he turned sixteen\n William Dalton – 28 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Ellison near Parramatta\n William Coleman – 13 December 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing his master Samuel Terry. Coleman stole money and buried it in a bottle in Terry's garden.\n\nParramatta\n(Rose Hill was officially renamed Parramatta in June 1791)\n\n George Mitton – 1788 – Hanged at Rose Hill (Parramatta) for robbery.\n William Harris – 28 October 1790 – Broke into a house in Rose Hill and assaulted one of the occupants, stole three pounds of beef and one pound of flour, a frock and a book. He was publicly hanged at Rose Hill.\n Edward Wildblood – 28 October 1790 – A co-offender with the aforementioned William Harris, he was convicted of breaking into a house in Rose Hill, assaulting one of the occupants and stealing three pounds of beef and one pound of flour, a frock and a book. He was publicly hanged at Rose Hill.\n James Derry – 19 September 1796 – Hanged at Parramatta for robbing the public stores.\n Matthew McNally – 1 December 1796 – Hanged at Parramatta for robbing the public stores.\n Thomas Doyle – 1 December 1796 – Hanged at Parramatta for robbing the public stores.\n Simon Taylor – 20 May 1799 – Hanged at Parramatta for the murder of his wife Anne Taylor.\n Richard Weston – May or June 1800 – Hanged at Parramatta for vagrancy and theft. \n Charles Hill – 8 March 1804 – Freeman who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Parramatta\n Samuel Humes/Hughes – 8 March 1804 – Convict, a principal and informant who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Executed at Parramatta, then gibbeted.\n John Place – 8 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Parramatta. \n Patrick McDermot – 19 May 1806 – Hanged at Parramatta for burglary from the house of Matthew Pearce at Seven Hills and theft of clothing items. \n John Kenny – 24 January 1807 – Hanged and gibbetted at the scene of the crime in Parramatta for the murder of Mary Smith.\n Michael Bagan – 20 June 1808 – Entered the house of Jane Codd near Parramatta, assaulted her and stole items from her home. Hanged at the Parramatta brickfields.\n Felix Donnelly – 20 June 1808 – Entered the house of Jane Codd near Parramatta, assaulted her and stole items from her home. Hanged at the Parramatta brickfields.\n John Dunn – 25 August 1811 – Hanged at Parramatta for the murder of Mary Rowe, his body was handed over to the medical officer at Parramatta General Hospital for dissection and anatomisation.\n Pearce Conden – 24 March 1813 – Publicly hanged at the site of the crime in George St Parramatta for the murder of Joseph Sutton. Body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Thomas Mahony – 24 March 1813 – Publicly hanged at the site of the crime in George St Parramatta for the murder of Joseph Sutton. Body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Matthew Craven – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged outside Parramatta for 'divers robberies'.\n Thomas Cavanaugh – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged outside Parramatta for armed robberies.\n Thomas (John) Ashton – 2 December 1829 – Hanged at Parramatta for rape of ten-year-old Elizabeth Price.\n\nCastle Hill\n Patrick Gannon – 23 March 1803 – Hanged at Castle Hill for rape, attempted murder and robbery.\n Francis Simpson – 23 March 1803 – Hanged along with Patrick Gannon at Castle Hill for robbery.\n John Lynch – 27 September 1803 – Hanged at Castle Hill for the assault and robbery of Samuel Phelps at Hawkesbury.\n James Tracey – 27 September 1803 – Hanged at Castle Hill for the assault and robbery of Samuel Phelps at Hawkesbury.\n William Johnston – 9 March 1804 – Convict, a principal along with Phillip Cunningham in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Executed at Castle Hill, then gibbeted.\n John Neal – 9 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at the Government Farm, Castle Hill.\n George Harrington – 9 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at the Government Farm, Castle Hill.\n\nHawkesbury & Windsor\n Thomas McLaughlane (the elder) – 7 October 1803 – Hanged at Hawkesbury, for robbery with violence at the house of John Palmer at Hawkesbury.\n Phillip Cunningham – 5 March 1804 – Convict, leader of the Castle Hill Rebellion. Summarily hanged on the steps of the government storehouse at Greenhills (present day Windsor). \n James Davis – 19 June 1810 – Hanged at Portland Head (Hawkesbury) for burglary from the house of John Cox.\n Thomas Begley – 31 August 1829 – Hanged at Windsor for burglary at Mulgoa.\n Michael Rafter – 29 January 1830 – Hanged at Windsor for a litany of burglaries in the Portland Head district.\n John Smith – 29 January 1830 – Hanged at Windsor for rape of his seven-year-old daughter.\n John Tiernan – 25 August 1830 – Hanged at Windsor for highway robbery, horse theft and stealing. Aged seventeen, Tiernan objected to being interrupted in his prayers on the scaffold and wrestled the executioner over the edge of the platform.\n\nNewcastle\n John Pagan – 7 January 1820 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of James White.\n William Smith – 7 January 1820 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of James White.\n\nBurwood\n Daniel Watkins – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged at Burwood for the armed robbery of Thomas Bartie Clay at Burwood.\n Thomas Mustin (Muston) – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged at Burwood for robbery and putting in fear at the house of Richard Morgan on the Liverpool Road.\n John Brown – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged at Burwood for robbery and putting in fear at the house of Richard Morgan on the Liverpool Road.\n\nBankstown\n Patrick Sullivan – 18 October 1826 – Publicly hanged on gallows constructed in Bankstown ('Irish Town', now Bass Hill) for bushranging.\n James Moran – 18 October 1826 – Publicly hanged on gallows constructed in Bankstown ('Irish Town', now Bass Hill) for bushranging.\n\nCampbelltown\n John Holmes – 21 August 1829 – Hanged at Campbelltown for setting fire to a barn belonging to James Bean at Campbelltown.\n Richard McCann – 6 February 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for theft, assault and putting in fear in the Goulburn district\n Thomas Beasley - 8 February 1830 - Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary with assault in the Airds district\n Joseph Moorbee (Mowerby, alias Nuttall) - 8 February 1830 - Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary with assault in the Airds district\n Mark Byfield – 8 March 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the theft of a silver watch\n Broger – 30 August 1830 – Indigenous. Publicly hanged at Campbelltown for the murder of John Rivett at Kangaroo Valley\n Peter Dew (alias Saunders) – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary and putting in fear at Goulburn\n William Haggerty – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for cattle theft from Francis Lawless in the Liverpool district\n John Spellary – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for cattle theft from Francis Lawless in the Liverpool district\n James Welsh – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary from the house of David Reece at Burra Burra, near Taralga.\n\nMaitland\n Michael Brown – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n Patrick Corcoran – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n Andrew Cullen – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n Richard Turnstyle – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n William Chandler – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for horse theft from Peter Cunningham at Merton (near Denman).\n\nLiverpool\n Jean Herman Maas – 1 September 1830 – Hanged at Liverpool for forgery.\n James McGibbon – 1 September 1830 – Hanged at Liverpool for forgery.\n\nBathurst\n Ralph Entwistle (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood near present-day Georges Plains, bushranging and horse theft\n Thomas Dunne (\"The Ribbon Gang\")- 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Dominic Daley (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft\n James Driver (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft\n William Gahan (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Patrick Gleeson (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Michael Kearney (\"The Ribbon Gang\")- 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n John Kenny (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft\n John Shepherd (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Robert Webster (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft.\n\n1831\n\n William Bubb – 10 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Adam Oliver at Norfolk Island.\n John Cook – 10 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Adam Oliver at Norfolk Island.\n James Murphy – 10 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Adam Oliver at Norfolk Island\n John Mason - 15 January 1831 - Hanged at Sydney for armed robberies at Kingdon Ponds (near Scone) and Liverpool Plains\n Edward Bowen – 15 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the house of John Town, Upper Hunter (Goulburn River).\n Hugh Duffy – 15 January 1831 – Hanged for burglary and putting in fear at the house of John Town.\n Patrick Feeney – 15 January 1831 – Hanged for burglary and putting in fear at the house of John Town.\n Lawrence Moore – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong\n Thomas Kite – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong\n Dennis Kelly – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong\n Anthony Connor – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong.\n David O'Hara – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear at the house of James Raymond.\n Thomas Woolley – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear at the house of James Raymond.\n John Welch – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for attempted murder at Norfolk Island.\n Joseph Crampton – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for highway robbery with violence of George Cubitt at Parramatta.\n Charles McManus – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of John Norman at Moreton Bay.\n John Thomas – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing in the Menangle Park area.\n James Ready – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Annandale.\n William Webber – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the road from South Creek to Parramatta.\n John Roberts – 5 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James McIlroy (James Michael Roy) at Patterson's Plains. Roberts was Welsh and spoke little English. His corpse was sent for dissection but the remains were crudely discarded and were found scattered in the Domain.\n John Leadbeater (alias Onions) – 23 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Maxwell at Patterson's Plains.\n Thomas Lucas – 23 September 1831 – Hanged for the murder of Constable Robert \"Long Bob\" Watersworth in the West Pennant Hills area.\n David Pegg – 26 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the Hunter Valley.\n Richard Anscombe – 26 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the Hunter Valley.\n Hugh Carberry – 26 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for theft of a horse and cattle.\n\n William Mooney – 16 November 1831 – Publicly hanged on the outskirts of Goulburn for the murder of his overseer Maurice Roach near Crookwell. Body hung in gibbet until ordered buried by Governor Bourne in 1833. \n John White – 16 November 1831 – Publicly hanged on the outskirts of Goulburn for the murder of his overseer Maurice Roach near Crookwell. Body hung in gibbet until ordered buried by Governor Bourne in 1833.\n Edward Slingsby – 21 November 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for the murder of William Payne at Dunn's Plains, outside Rockley.\n Michael Lynch – 21 November 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for aiding and abetting the murder of William Payne.\n Denis O'Brien – 21 November 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for aiding and abetting the murder of William Payne.\n\n1832 to 1833\n\n Charles Smithwick – 27 February 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of George Miller at Razorback.\n Patrick McGuire – 5 March 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of fellow convict Matthew Gallagher at Moreton Bay.\n Thomas Wood (alias Carberry) – 8 March 1832 – Hanged for highway robbery outside Parramatta.\n Patrick Burke – 14 March 1832 – Bushranger. Publicly hanged at the scene of his crime for highway robbery at Appin.\n Thomas Brennan – 6 April 1832 – Shot by military firing squad at Dawes Battery, Sydney. A private soldier of His Majesty's 39th Regiment of Foot, Brennan had fired at his sergeant with the intent of killing him.\n John Hammell – 7 May 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his overseer George Williamson with a spade at Grose Farm (today Sydney University).\n John Fitzsimmons – 14 June 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for arson. (Fitzsimmons set ablaze a stack of wheat at Penrith).\n John Troy – 18 August 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and burglary at Canterbury.\n Thomas Smith – 18 August 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and burglary at Canterbury.\n Edward Kennedy – 23 August 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for divers highway robberies at Parramatta and Cabramatta.\n Edward Fordham – 5 November 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Bradford at Lower Minto.\n Russell Crawford – 8 December 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of George Suttor on the Windsor Road.\n James Lockhard – 4 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Murdoch Campbell in the Narellan area.\n Patrick Brady – 11 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Daniel Stewart at Webb's Creek, Windsor.\n John Walsh – 11 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Henry Kenyon at Bathurst.\n James Dwyer – 11 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Henry Dawkins at Bathurst.\n John Bowen – 7 March 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear at Inverary.\n Joseph Coleman – 18 March 1833 – Hanged at Old Banks, Paterson Plains for the attempted murder of Edward Cory.\n William Carney – 20 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Keith at Penrith.\n William Jones – 23 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road.\n Robert Mullins – 23 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road.\n Patrick Neagle (Nangle, Naigle)– 23 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road\n Edward Green – 27 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Edward Edwards at a shop in Pitt St.\n Richard Long – 11 July 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Dog Trap Road.\n Henry Cook – 11 July 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Dog Trap Road.\n John Richardson – 5 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Maitland.\n Henry Beard – 5 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Maitland.\n William Johnstone – 6 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Prospect Hill.\n Joseph Clifford – 6 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Prospect Hill.\n Terence Byrne – 12 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Ann Davis at Lane Cove.\n Edward Giles – 12 September 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at Sutton Forest.\n Jonathan Jones – 12 September 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of an elderly lady, Mary Larkin, of silver, handkerchiefs and jewellery on the Liverpool Road. \n John (\"Flash Kiddy\") Elliott – 12 September 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of a butcher named Mason in Liverpool St.\n George Giddons – 28 November 1833 – Hanged for attempted murder of Thomas Millbourne at Port Macquarie.\n Anthony Hitchcock (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Castle Forbes for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach at Patrick's Plains, Hunter Valley.\n John Poole (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Castle Forbes for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach at Patrick's Plains, Hunter Valley.\n James Riley (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach\n John Perry (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach\n James Ryan (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach.\n Michael Kearns – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault on the person of James Podman at Bathurst.\n\n1834\n\n Bryant Kyne – 13 January 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Gavarin (Gevan, Gavan, Gavanagh, Govarin) at the Balmain residence of the solicitor-general, John Plunkett.\n Patrick Gallagher – 23 January 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Ellen Walsh in the vicinity of St Mary's Rd, Domain.\n William Elliott - 6 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of police corporal James McNally on Parramatta Road near Concord.\n William Gills - 6 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Donald McIntyre at Invermein, near Scone.\n William \"Blue Stockings\" Johnson - 6 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of David Ramsay at Fish River in the Bathurst district.\n John Elliott - 14 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Frances Cunningham at Sutton Forest\n Michael Carey – 19 May 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for sexual assault on ten-year-old Michael Minton (son of Michael Minton, murdered in the Richmond district in 1824) on the Parramatta Rd. Minton and his younger friend (who was witness to the crime) were ordered by the magistrate to attend the hanging.\n William Chapman - 18 August 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Samuel Chapman (alias Priest) at Snails Bay in 1831\n Henry Mills - 18 August 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Samuel Chapman (alias Priest) at Snails Bay in 1831\n Thomas Tattersdale – 10 November 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Dr Robert Wardell in the Marrickville-Petersham area.\n John Jenkins – 19 November 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Dr Robert Wardell.\n Michael Gallagher – 11 December 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of John Hinton in the Bargo Brush.\n John Edwards – 11 December 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of Corporal John Cock of the Mounted Police in the Lake Bathurst area.\n John Walton – 11 December 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the attempted murder of Corporal Cock.\n\n1835\n\n Edward McManus – 9 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of sly-grog providore Alice Cooper (Bunton) at Emu Plains.\n William Weatherwick – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Smith on the North Shore.\n William Phineas Bowles – 16 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Sarah in Bathurst St.\n Charles Norford – 20 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Patrick Lynch. Norford was shaving Lynch when he suddenly cut his throat.\n Mickey Mickey – 28 February 1835 – Indigenous. Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Margaret Hanswall at Watagan.\n John McCarthy – 4 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Constable Duncan Kennedy near Carcoar.\n Patrick Kilmartin – 11 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Hamilton on the Botany Road.\n Henry Barlow – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n John Carter – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n John Bryant – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n James Barton – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool coach at Penrith.\n William Scannell (alias Daniel Hughes) – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n John Molloy – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault of Alexander Paine.\n John Stocking – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault of Alexander Paine.\n Lawrence Whelahan – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for assault on Mary Kelly at Canterbury.\n Joseph Keys – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Charles Fisher Shepherd at Long Flats, Monaro.\n James Masterman – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Ultimo (Stonemason's Arms).\n William Salter (Sawder, Solder) – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Ultimo.\n James Thompson – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Ultimo.\n James Green – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting at Constable James Brown in the Braidwood district.\n John Gould (Joseph Gold) – 24 August 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife at Bar Point. \"One of the children of this unfortunate man was carried on the shoulders of a spectator, to witness the dying struggles of his parent.\"\n Charley – 4 September 1835 – Gringai man, actual name not recorded. Hanged at Dungog for his involvement in the murder of five white settlers at Rawdon Vale as part of the frontier conflict in the Barrington River district (\"The Mackenzie Murders\"). In Charley's case, he was named specifically for being responsible for the death of Fred Simmons.\n George Bagley – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Newcastle for the attempted murder of Hugh McIntyre near Maitland.\n Patrick Cassidy – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Newcastle for the attempted murder of Hugh McIntyre near Maitland.\n William O'Neill – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and robbery.\n Thomas Solder – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Hugh Caffey – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Peter Doyle – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and robbery of William Akers outside Bathurst.\n Martin Byrne – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and robbery of William Akers outside Bathurst.\n William Jeffries – 9 November 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Richard Somerville at Port Macquarie.\n Richard Bayliss – 8 December 1835 – Hanged for burglary at sundry houses at Field of Mars and elsewhere.\n John Williams – 8 December 1835 – Hanged for burglary at sundry houses at Field of Mars and elsewhere.\n Thomas Connolly – 8 December 1835 – Hanged for burglary at sundry houses at Field of Mars and elsewhere.\n John Maher – 8 December 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Peter Robinson at Maitland.\n\n1836\n\n Thomas Arundell – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Margaret Fitzpatrick at Lewis Ponds, near Bathurst.\n Edward Jones – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Margaret Fitzpatrick at Lewis Ponds, near Bathurst.\n William Doyle – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Molloy near Mount York.\n William Baker – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Mary at Penrith.\n Robert Duffy – 15 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the stabbing murder of his wife Mary Duffy in Phillip St.\n John Whitehead – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Lane Cove.\n John Hare – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Major William Elrington at Bathurst.\n John Treish (Frisk, Fish, Trish, Frish) – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Lane Cove.\n John Smith – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Hunter Valley.\n William Kitchen – 9 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Ann in Harrington St.\n John Wales (also called Watt) - 10 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and putting in bodily fear of Constable Daniel Riley near Bong Bong.\n Timothy Pickering – 10 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and putting in bodily fear of Daniel Riley near Bong Bong.\n Joseph Free – 11 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Edward Brown at Invermein.\n James Tobin – 16 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Fox at Marks' Farm, Illawarra.\n Michael Maloney – 17 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Richard Hamlyn at Goulburn.\n James Hare – 17 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Richard Hamlyn at Goulburn.\n Terence Lavell – 21 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Honora Davey at Williams River.\n James Sproule (alias Fraser) – 21 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Honora Davey at Williams River.\n John Gore – 10 August 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Thomas Wood at Cassilis.\n William Walker – 10 August 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Wood at Cassilis.\n John Gregg – 2 September 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in the Penrith district.\n James Smith – 14 November 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Jack Haydon between Marulan & Bungonia. Smith was the first non-Indigenous Australian-born person to be executed.\n Thomas (or James) Walker - 18 November 1836 - Hanged for murder of fellow bushranger John Poole in the Hunter Valley.\n John Mead – 29 November 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape and sodomy of Julius Rudder, aged ten, on the Old Botany Road.\n William (or James or Thomas) Cook – 29 November 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Alice Kent in the Upper Hunter Valley.\n\n1837 to 1838\n\n Andrew Gillies – 15 February 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Kelly near Yass.\n George Capsey – 7 March 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and assault of Henry Jarvis near Berrima.\n John Jones – 8 May 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Private Thomas O'Brien, a soldier of the 50th Regiment, on the highway outside Berrima.\n John Cooper – 9 June 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder on Dominic Gannon at Port Macquarie.\n William Taylor – 9 June 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for aggravated highway robbery of Mr Thomas Hyacinth Macquoid on the road between Berrima and Mittagong.\n Michael Cagney (or Cogner) – 1 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Edward Hughes at Maitland.\n Louis Williams – 1 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John McCormick at the Gwydir River.\n Philip Hennessy – 5 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Alexander Hamilton in the Hunter Valley.\n Dennis Broslughan (sometimes Brossley) – 5 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Alexander Hamilton in the Hunter Valley.\n John Cary Willis – 8 December 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Dennis Maloney at Port Macquarie.\n Edward Doyle – 8 December 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery and putting in fear at the house of James Wright, Bay of Islands, New Zealand.\n George Woolf – 8 December 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting and wounding with intent to kill Patrick Sheedy, a police corporal who was attempting to arrest him at Bathurst.\n William Moore – 22 February 1838 – Publicly hanged in High St, Maitland for the murder of his master John Hoskyns.\n Patrick Cuffy – 20 March 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery and assault on William Vivers at Bureen.\n John Toole – 20 March 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery and assault on William Vivers at Bureen.\n Edward Tufts – 29 April 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Jones at Taree.\n George Comerford – 30 May 1838 – Bushranger. Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Constable Matthew Thompkins at Deep Creek, near Eganstown in the Port Phillip District. Comerford had murdered (or been involved in the murder of) at least seven men.\n Bryant Flannigan – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Nagle, \"Big Mary\" Nagle and Patrick Riley at Bunbejong, near Mudgee.\n Daniel Maloney – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Mahoney at Hassan's Walls.\n Dennis Haberlin (Haverden) – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at the house of John and Sarah Rawles and the attempted rape of Sarah Rawles, at Woodford Bay, Longueville.\n Thomas Ribbands – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Ann Jones, at Taree. Ann's husband John had been stabbed to death by one of their servants, Edward Tufts, earlier that year. \n William Wilkins – 4 September 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for assault and robbery of Thomas Humphries near Maitland.\n William Worthington (\"Bumblefoot\") – 4 September 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe murder of Jack Swan at Port Macquarie.\n William Hawkins – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n John Johnson – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n Edward Foley – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n Jim Oates – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n James Parry – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n Charlie Kilmeister – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n John Russell – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n William Price – 21 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John \"My Lord\" Dunn in Sorrell Street Parramatta. The victim was well known in the district at the time; he was seventy years old, a convict who had been in the colony thirty years, \"very deformed\" and less than a metre tall.\n\n1839\n\n Timothy O'Donnell – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Alexander McEdwards at Mt Campbell.\n Michael Walsh – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Alexander McEdwards at Mt Campbell.\n Edward Hall – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Fitzpatrick at Currawang.\n James Mayne – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Fitzpatrick at Currawang\n James Magee – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Catherine at Cowpastures (Camden)\n Thomas Sumner – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n George Cooke – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n Ryder Gorman – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n Dennis Dacey – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n Thomas Finney – 20 August 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Elizabeth at Cockfighter's Creek (Wollombi)\n Patrick Quilken – 6 September 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William MacLaren at Barrington Tops\n William Morris – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for murder of Thomas Renton at the Bargon River\n Peter Scullion (Scallyen) – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and murder of Andrew Shanley at Sutton Forest\n Joseph Saunders – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Andrew Shanley\n George Carey – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for having stolen property in possession and abetting the murder of Shanley\n George (John) Gorman – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Ann Daly at Maitland\n James Davies – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Maher at Black Creek (Branxton)\n Alexander Telford – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of James Maher\n Archibald Taylor – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of James Maher\n Llewellyn Powell – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Abraham Meares near Gilgandra\n James Lynch – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding & abetting the Meares murder\n Charles Clipp – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding & abetting the Meares murder.\n\n1840s\n\n John (or James) Hunt (\"The Doctor\") – 10 March 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for murder of Dan McCarthy at Regentville\n Thomas Whitton – 19 March 1840 – Publicly hanged at Goulburn for the murder of John Hawker and arson at Oak Park, Crookwell. Whitton had earlier murdered John Kennedy Hume, brother of the explorer Hamilton Hume\n William Newman – 8 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Harry Hodgson at Rosemount station, Patrick's Plains (Singleton).\n James Martin – 8 December 1840 – Bushranger. Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Jack Johnston at Gammon Plains\n James Mason – 8 December 1840 – Bushranger. Hanged at Sydney for being an accessory to the murder of Jack Johnston\n Michael Monaghan (sometimes recorded as Hinnigan, Minighan) – 11 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his overseer Robert Archer at Glendon\n Enoch Bradley – 11 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of George Woodman at Yass\n John Francis Legge – 11 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Sarah Brooks, his wife's four-year-old child\n John Shea (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Graham at Scone\n Edward Davis (\"Teddy the Jew Boy\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham. The \"Jew Boy\" Gang terrorised the Hunter River district with numerous robberies and murders.\n Robert Chitty (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n James Everett (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n John Marshall (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n James Bryant (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n Richard Glanville (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n Michael Bradley – 5 April 1841 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Catherine Harrison near Morpeth\n Charles Cannon – 25 May 1841 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Robert Bulmer at Cherry Tree Hill, near Carcoar\n Michael Lynch – 4 June 1841 – Hanged for murder of Matthew Sullivan near Jamberoo. Lynch is assumed to be the last person hanged on the gallows at the Old Sydney Gaol, George Street\n Patrick Curran – 21 October 1841 – Bushranger. Hanged at Berrima for attempted murder of constable Patrick McGuire at the Black Range, Molonglo, and rape of Mary Wilsmore at Bungendore\n Robert Hudson – 29 October 1841 – Publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for murdering fellow convict Dean West at the hospital, Macquarie St \n George Stroud (Stroode) – 29 October 1841 – Publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for murdering his wife Sarah at Concord. Stroud and Hudson were the first men executed at Darlinghurst Gaol\n Thomas Horner – 5 April 1842 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of his overseer James Stone near Shannon Vale. Stone was the former wrestler known as \"Little Elephant\"\n Patrick Kleighran (Clearehan, Clerehan, Clearham) – 22 April 1842 – Hanged at Berrima for the murder of Timothy Murphy on the Murrumbidgee.\n John Lynch (alias Dunleavy) – 22 April 1842 – Hanged at Berrima for the murder of Kearns Landregan near the Ironstone Bridge on the edge of Berrima. Confessed to ten murders.\n John Walsh – 3 May 1842 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Catherine Collitt at Mt Victoria.\n Henry Sears (Seen) – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n John Jones – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n Nicholas Lewis – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n George Beavers – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n Stephen Brennan – 9 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Pat Lynch on Norfolk Island.\n George Wilson – 24 April 1843 – Hanged at Newcastle for the malicious wounding of Francis Bigge at the Peel River.\n Thomas Forrester (\"Long Tom\") – 24 April 1843 – Hanged at Newcastle for aiding and abetting the malicious wounding of Francis Bigge at the Peel River.\n Matthew Whittle – 2 May 1843 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the attempted murder of Patrick Grady near Oberon.\n Benjamin Harris – 17 October 1843 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Constable John Rutledge near Denman.\n Lucretia Dunkley – 22 October 1843 – Hanged at Berrima Gaol for the murder of her husband Henry Dunkley near Gunning.\n Martin Beech – 22 October 1843 – Hanged at Berrima Gaol for the murder of Henry Dunkley near Gunning.\n Therramitchie – 24 October 1843 – Indigenous. Confessed to at least two murders. Publicly hanged at Port Macquarie for the murder of John Pocock.\n Harry – 8 November 1843 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland Gaol for the murder of a baby named Michael Keoghue near Glendon.\n Melville – 8 November 1843 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland for the murder of a baby named Michael Keoghue near Glendon.\n John Knatchbull – 13 February 1844 – Former Royal Navy captain, publicly hanged in front of Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of shopkeeper Ellen Jamieson with a tomahawk in Margaret Street.\n Joseph Vale – 17 April 1844 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of John Thornton near Mulbring.\n Mary Thornton – 17 April 1844 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of her husband John Thornton near Mulbring.\n Frederick (or Abraham) Gasten (or Gaston) – 31 October 1844 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Elizabeth Price near Kanimbla.\n George Vigors – 13 August 1844 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of James Noble in Clarence St.\n Thomas Burdett – 13 August 1844 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of James Noble in Clarence St.\n Henry Atkins – 8 October 1844 – Hanged at Berrima for the murder of John Daly near Tumut.\n Benjamin Stanley – 7 November 1844 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Robert Campbell at Williams River.\n John Vidall – 7 February 1845 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Thomas Warne in George St.\n John Ahern – 12 August 1845 – Publicly hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his niece Mary-Anne Clark in the area that subsequently became Railway Square.\n James Fitzpatrick – 24 October 1845 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Peter McCormick, a fellow-convict at the Newcastle Stockade.\n William Shea – 17 April 1846 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Andrew Menzies at Hillsborough.\n John Kean (Liddell) – 30 April 1847 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Ellen Hyndes near Campbelltown.\n Peter Pigeon – 4 November 1847 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of William \"Coachey\" Taylor at Morpeth.\n William Fyfe (Foyle in Prison Records) – 4 July 1848 – Publicly hanged at Darlinghurst for murder of Robert Cox at Kangaroo Point, Moreton Bay.\n Francis Dermott (or Diamond or Durham) – 22 September 1848 – African-American. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape of Mary Green on the Shoalhaven.\n Patrick Bryan – 1 November 1848 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Eliza Neilson at Clarence Town.\n Charles Henry Mackie – 10 November 1848 – Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of a nine-year-old girl.\n George Waters Ward – 19 March 1849 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Richard Connolly (or King) at Muswellbrook.\n James Richardson – 7 May 1849 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Elizabeth Richardson at Campbelltown. He had also murdered Elizabeth's daughter and nine-month-old grandchild and attempted to murder a four-year-old grandchild.\n Owen Molloy – 18 September 1849 – Publicly hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of John Leonard at Moreton Bay.\n Patrick Walsh – 2 November 1849 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Benjamin Fox on the Turon River.\n\n1850s \n\n Mogo Gar – 5 November 1850 – Bundjalung man, hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Daniel Page at the Bellinger River.\n James Whelan – 5 November 1850 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Catherine Byrnes near Kent St.\n William Hayes – 26 April 1851 – Hanged at Maitland Gaol for the murder of Benjamin Cott near present-day Gillieston.\n Michael Collihane (alias \"Mickey Bad-English\") - 8 October 1851 – Publicly hanged at Maitland for the rape of Anne Milsom at Aberdeen.\n Patrick McNamara – 29 March 1852 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of his wife Rose McNamara at Aberglasslyn.\n Thomas Wilmore – 14 April 1852 – Hanged at Goulburn Gaol for the murder of Phillip Alger in the Wellington District.\n Francis Thomas Green – 21 September 1852 – Publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of John Jones at Buckley's Creek. This was the last public hanging in NSW.\n Timothy Sullivan – 30 September 1852 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Daniel Harrington at King's Plains, near Carcoar. This execution was badly botched.\n John Newing – 30 September 1852 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Hing, another Chinese man, on 17 October 1851, at Brown's Station on the Castlereagh\n Paddy – 8 April 1853 – Wiradjuri man, hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Catherine Schmidt at Oakey Creek in the Mudgee district.\n Patrick McCarthy – 8 April 1853 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Henry Williamson at Bookimbla.\n Billy Palmer – 9 May 1854 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Jane Bradley near Obley.\n James McLaughlan – 9 May 1854 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Sarah Atkins at Kikiamah, near Grenfell.\n James Talbot – 30 May 1854 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of James Barry at Kangaloola Creek, near Yass.\n Daniel Gardiner – 4 April 1854 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of his wife Catherine at Rocky River.\n Christopher Walsh – 28 September 1854 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of his wife Mary Walsh at Lidney Park, near Millers Forest.\n William Ryan – 28 February 1855 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Catherine near the corner of Hay and Castlereagh Sts.\n William Rodgers – 5 July 1855 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Joseph Allsopp at Baulkham Hills.\n Samuel Wilcox – 5 July 1855 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Johanna Smith in Liverpool St, Sydney.\n Mary-Ann Brownlow −11 November 1855 – Hanged at Goulburn Gaol for the murder of her husband George Moore Brownlow at Gundaroo.\n Henry Curran – 12 May 1857 – Hanged at Bathurst for the rape and violent assault of Bridget Watkins at Dirty Swamp (Locksley).\n Addison Mitchell – 12 May 1857 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of William Ablett between Carcoar and Cowra.\n Patrick Walsh – 4 November 1857 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of William Graham at Balranald.\n James Moyes – 7 September 1858 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Alden on board the Oliver Jordan, berthed at Sydney.\n John Arrow – 11 May 1859 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Catherine Leary at Summer Hill Creek, Orange.\n Thomas Ryan (alias William Martin) – 11 May 1859 – Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Leah England in the Wellington Valley.\n Harry – 18 May 1859 – Indigenous. Hanged at Goulburn for the rape and attempted murder of fifteen-year-old Margaret McMahon at Coolamatong near Berridale.\n John Norris – 22 July 1859 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape of six-year-old Harriet Curren near Prospect.\n Robert Davis – 3 November 1859 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Roger Flood (or Robert Quinn) at Dubbo.\n William Ross – 22 November 1859 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Jack Hamilton at Walcha.\n Jemmy – 22 November 1859 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Sam Pong at Gunnedah.\n\n1860s \n\n John Jones – 26 April 1860 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Rebecca Bailey outside Maitland.\n Jim Crow – 26 April 1860 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland for the rape of Jane Delantry at Thalaba, outside Dungog.\n Ellen Monks – 8 May 1860 – Hanged at Goulburn for the hammer murder of her husband Thomas Monks at Longnose Creek, near Crookwell.\n Frederick Clarke – 8 May 1860 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Walter Angel in the Moppity Range, near Murringo.\n William Goodson – 16 May 1860 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Mary Goodson at Kissing Point.\n Black Harry (also called Sippey Shippy, Sippy, Sheepy, Lippy) – 6 November 1861 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Mary Mills at Hall's Creek, near Merriwa.\n William Johnson (Baldwin) – 3 December 1861 – Hanged at Goulburn for the rape of Alice Hutchings at Rossiville, outside Goulburn.\n Jackey Bullfrog (alias \"Flash Jack\") – 25 April 1862 – Indigenous. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of William Clark near Condobolin.\n John Peisley – 25 April 1862 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder (fatal wounding) of William Benyon at Bigga. An associate of the Ben Hall - Frank Gardiner Gang.\n Henry Keene – 5 May 1862 – Bushranger. Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of James Lawrie on Billabong Creek.\n Benjamin Allerton – 5 May 1862 – Bushranger. Hanged at Goulburn for the robbery and wounding with intent of David Elliott at Wakool.\n John Smith (alias Regan) – 4 June 1862 – Hanged at Goulburn for attempted murder on Alfred Bishop at Tipperary Gully, near Young.\n Jackey – 23 October 1862 – Indigenous. Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Louisa Brown at Winburndale.\n Alexander Ross – 18 March 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for highway robbery and the attempted murder of Harry Stephens at Caloola, near Blayney.\n Charles Ross – 18 March 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for highway robbery and the attempted murder of Harry Stephens at Caloola, near Blayney. \n Henry Manns – 26 March 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for his part in the highway robbery of the gold escort at Eugowra Rocks. An associate of the Ben Hall - Frank Gardiner Gang.\n Charles Robardy – 20 May 1863 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Daniel Crotty on the Boorowa-Murringo Road, near Willawong Creek.\n Mahommed Cassim – 2 June 1863 – Circus Juggler, born in India. Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of a fellow juggler (name lost) at Sawpit Gully, near Queanbeyan.\n Henry Wilson – 2 October 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Peter Clarke near Murrurundi.\n Thomas McCann – 1 February 1864 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for highway robbery and the attempted murder of William Saville near Cordeaux Creek, Berrima.\n James Stewart – 22 November 1864 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Charles Verdhun near Bourke.\n George Gibson (alias Paddy Tom) – 20 May 1865 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Alec Musson at Pyramul.\n Sam Poo – 19 September 1865 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Snr Constable John Ward at Barney's Reef near Birriwa.\n Ah Luan – 21 November 1865 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Nee Jack at Bald Hills Creek.\n John Dunn – 19 March 1866 – Bushranger, member of the Ben Hall Gang. Hanged at Darlinghurst for robbery and the murder of Constable Sam Nelson at Collector\n James Crookwell – 14 April 1866 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Constable William Raymond in the Bargo Brush.\n Michael Green – 11 June 1866 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Andrew Shearer at Rushcutter's Bay.\n Spider – 26 November 1866 – Indigenous. Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Elizabeth Anderson at Canonbar, near Nyngan.\n Michael Maher – 3 December 1866 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Richard Higgins at Garrawilla, near Coonabarabran.\n Harry Suis – 10 December 1866 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Ah Wong at Goulburn.\n William Henry Scott – 18 March 1867 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Anne Ramsden (Scott) in Sussex St.\n Thomas Clarke – 25 June 1867 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable William Walsh at Jinden.\n John Clarke – 25 June 1867 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable William Walsh at Jinden. \n William Peters – 26 June 1867 – Hanged in Bathurst for the attempted murder of eight-year-old Faith Perkins at Orange.\n Henry James O'Farrell – 21 April 1868 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the attempted assassination of Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh on 12 March 1868 at Clontarf.\n Albert Barnes – 26 May 1868 – Hanged in the old gaol at Bathurst for the murder of James Casey at Hassan's Walls.\n John McEvitt – 26 May 1868 – Hanged in the old gaol at Bathurst for the murder of a boy named Francis Evans at Clark's Creek.\n John Munday (alias Collins)- 2 June 1868 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of John Conroy, Bridget Conroy, Thomas Smith, a shepherd surnamed White and another shepherd, name not recorded, near Bowning.\n Ah Sung – 24 November 1868 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Ralph Lee and Amelia Lee (aged five), near Avisford.\n\n1870s\n\n John Baker - 1871 - Bushranger hanged at Bathurst for murder and other crimes. A partner of Wiliam Bertam, who was hanged at Toowoomba on 29 August 1870. They stuck up Mount Murchison Station, Cobham's station and a Poolamacca resident and stole horses, etc. Also committed other robberies on the road and entered homes; in Oct 1869 on the Barrier Ranges they bailed up a hawker, Charles Young, whom they murdered.\n Robert Campbell (alias Palmer) – 10 January 1871 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of John and Louis Pohlman at Yanco.\n Chong Gow – 6 June 1871 – Hanged at Deniliquin for the murder of Tommy Ah Gun at Hay.\n Michael McMahon – 12 December 1871 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Jack Jones at Hall's Creek.\n Thomas Kelly – 2 January 1872 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Superintendent William McLaren at Parramatta Gaol.\n George Robert Nichols (The Parramatta River Murders) – 18 June 1872 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Percy Walker (and John Bridger) in upper Sydney Harbour.\n Alfred Lester (alias Froude)(The Parramatta River Murders) – 18 June 1872 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Percy Walker (and John Bridger) in upper Sydney Harbour.\n John Conn – 11 June 1872 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Aveline Littler near Wyndeyer.\n William McCrow – 8 April 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Margaret Ward at a residence on the corner of Crown and Stanley streets, Woolloomooloo.\n John Scource – 8 April 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Lee on Sydney Harbour.\n Julius Krauss (also called William Cross) – 1 July 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Captain John Longmuir on board HMS Rifleman.\n Henry Vincent Jarvis – 23 December 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of James Muggeridge on the Orange-Bathurst Road near Evans Plains Creek.\n John Hawthorne (alias Perry, real name Sherrin) – 19 May 1874 – Bushranger. Believed to have committed at least four murders. Hanged at Goulburn for the robbery & attempted murder of James Slocombe near Wheeo.\n John Glover – 19 May 1874 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of William Piety at Bolaro, near Adaminaby.\n Gottlieb Eichhorn – 23 June 1874 – Hanged at Armidale Gaol for the rape of seventy-two-year-old Eliza Chapman at Saumarez Ponds. Mrs Chapman died from the injuries received. Eichhorn was sixteen at the time of the crime.\n John McGrath – 10 September 1875 – Indigenous. Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for rape of Sarah Murfin at Warragubra, near Bega.\n George Rope – 7 December 1875 – Hanged at Mudgee Gaol for the murder of his sister-in-law Hannah Rope at Lawson's Creek.\n Ah Chong – 18 April 1876 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Po Tie at Parramatta Gaol.\n George Pitt – 21 June 1876 – Hanged at Mudgee for the murder of Ann Martin at Guntawang.\n Michael Connelly – 28 June 1876 – Hanged at Tamworth Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary Connelly at Carroll Gap.\n Daniel Boon – 19 July 1876 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of Alexander McMullan at North Wagga.\n Thomas Newman – 29 May 1877 – Hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the murder of a child, Mary-Ann McGregor, near Coonabarabran.\n Peter Murdoch (Murdick, alias Higgins) – 18 December 1877 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of Henry Ford near Cartwright's Hill.\n Ing Chee – 28 May 1878 – Hanged at Goulburn Gaol for the murder of Li Dock in Goulburn.\n Alfred – 10 June 1879 – Indigenous. Hanged at Mudgee for the rape of Jane Dowd at Three Mile Flat, near Wellington.\n\n1880s \n Andrew George Scott (Captain Moonlite) – 20 January 1880 – (Bushranger) Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Constable Webb-Bowen at Wantabadgery.\n Thomas Rogan – 20 January 1880 – (Bushranger) A member of the Moonlite Gang, hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Constable Webb-Bowen at Wantabadgery.\n Albert – 26 May 1880 – Indigenous stockman, hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the shooting murders of Nugle Jack and Sally at a camp at Baradine.\n Daniel King – 11 June 1880 – Hanged at Tamworth Gaol for the murder of Lizzie Hart (alias Rolk, alias Betts) at Tamworth.\n William Brown – 29 March 1881 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the rape of his twelve-year-old daughter Ann at Yappa Brush, The Bight, across the Manning from Wingham.\n Henry Wilkinson – 1 June 1881 – Hanged at Albury Gaol for the murder of Mary Pumpa at Lyster's Gap, near Jindera.\n John McGuane – 22 November 1882 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Thomas Smith at Inverell.\n Charles Cunningham – 29 November 1882 – Hanged at Goulburn for the attempted murder of his warder Walter Izard at Berrima Gaol. \"His last moments were marked by the expression of undiminished hatred to authority, which he personified to Her Majesty the Queen.\"\n Henry Tester – 7 December 1882 – Hanged at Deniliquin for the murder of seven-year-old Louisa Preston at Moira.\n George Ruxbourne – 23 May 1883 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Jimmy Young at Armidale.\n William Rice- 23 April 1884 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of James Griffin at 51 Phelps St, Surry Hills.\n Joseph Cordini – 13 June 1884 – Hanged at Deniliquin Gaol for the murder of George Mizon on the Hay road outside Deniliquin.\n Charles Watson – 14 April 1885 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Matthews at Wyadra, near Hillston.\n Frank Johns – 14 July 1885 – (Bushranger) A member of the Moonlite Gang, hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the attempted murder of William Roberts at Parramatta Gaol.\n Matthew Friske – 10 December 1885 – Hanged at Grafton Gaol for the murder of Matt Matteson at Coffs Harbour.\n William Liddiard – 8 June 1886 – Hanged at Grafton for the murder of Pat Noonan at Wardell.\n Alfred Reynolds – 8 October 1886 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Rhoda at Gowrie St, Newtown.\n Robert Read – 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n George Duffy - 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n William Boyce - 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n Joseph Martin - 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n John Creighan (alias Grace) – 29 May 1888 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Jack Stapleton at Hillgrove.\n Robert Hewart – 11 September 1888 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Thomas Park in a cell at the Central Police Court.\n Louisa Collins – 22 January 1889 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the poisoning of her husband at Botany. She was the last woman hanged in New South Wales.\n James Morrison – 19 July 1889 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Constable David Sutherland in Macleay St, Potts Point.\n Thomas Reilly – 6 November 1889 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of Christian Eppel on the Wagga Common. Reilly was a cousin of Ned Kelly.\n\n1890s \n\n Albert Schmidt – 18 November 1890 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of John Young Taylor near Old Junee. Believed to have committed at least two other murders.\n Lars Peter Hansen – 2 June 1891 – Hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the murder of Charles Duncker on the Peak Hill road.\n Maurice Dalton – 17 November 1891 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Catherine at 1 Foveaux St Surry Hills.\n Harold Dutton Mallalieu – 26 November 1891 – Hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the murder of Jerome Casey on the Moonagee Road near Nyngan.\n Jimmy Tong – 29 November 1892 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Harry Hing at Walcha.\n Edward Smedley – 14 June 1893 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Phoebe at Quirindi. \n George Archer – 11 July 1893 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Emma Harrison at a house on the corner of Burton and Bourke streets, Darlinghurst. This hanging was mishandled and Archer suffocated to death on the rope.\n John Makin – 15 August 1893 – (\"The Macdonaldtown Baby Farmer\"). Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of the infant Horace Murray.\n Woy Hoy (Jimmy Ah Hoy) – 24 November 1893 – Hanged at Mudgee for the murder of Ah Fook in Lewis St, Mudgee.\n Herbert Edward 'Bertie' Glasson (sometimes Edwin Hubert) – 29 November 1893 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John William Phillips and Frances Letitia 'Fanny' Cavanough at Carcoar on 23 September 1893. The first prisoner executed at Bathurst Gaol on its present site (opened 1888).\n Charles Montgomery – 31 May 1894 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable Fred Bowden near the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.\n Thomas Williams – 31 May 1894 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable Fred Bowden near the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.\n Alexander Lee – 20 July 1894 – Hanged at Tamworth for the murder of William McKay at the CBC bank at Barraba.\n John Cummins – 20 July 1894 – Hanged at Tamworth for the murder of William McKay at the CBC bank at Barraba.\n Frederick Paton (alias Frederick Dennis) – 11 December 1894 – Hanged at Bathurst Gaol for the murder of John Hall at Fifield on 6 May 1894.\n Alfred Grenon – 7 February 1895 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Thomas Heavey at Elizabeth Bay.\n Thomas Meredith Sheridan – 7 January 1896 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Jessie Nicholls, who died at Castlereagh St from the effects of an illegal abortion.\n Charles Hines – 21 May 1897 – Hanged at Maitland for the rape of his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter Mary Emily Hayne at Gundy\n Thomas Moore – 24 June 1897 – Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of Edward (or Edwin) Smith at Brennan's Bend on the Darling River below Bourke in November, 1896.\n Frank Butler – 17 July 1897 – (\"The Glenbrook Murders\") Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Arthur Preston and Lee Weller at Penrith and Glenbrook.\n Wong Min – 13 December 1898 – Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of Joe Mong Jong (or Woung) at Warren, New South Wales on 16 August 1898. Also stabbed Alice Spong during same incident.\n Stewart Wilson Christopher Briggs – 5 April 1899 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Margaret Miller and Margaret Dutt at 89 Douglas St Petersham (now Stanmore).\n\n1900s \n John Sleigh (alias Ward) – 6 December 1900 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Frank \"Bones\" Curran at Back Creek, near Bombala.\n Jackie Underwood – 14 January 1901 – Indigenous. Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of Percival Mawbey at Breelong. He and Jimmy Governor also killed Helen Josephine Kerz, Mrs Sarah Mawbey, Grace Mawbey and Hilda Mawbey in the same incident.\n Jimmy Governor – 18 January 1901 – Indigenous. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Helen Josephine Kerz at Breelong. In the same incident he and Jackie Underwood also killed Mrs. Sarah Mawbey, Grace Mawbey, Percival Mawbey and Hilda Mawbey. Jimmy and his brother Joe also killed Alexander McKay near Ulan, Elizabeth O'Brien and her baby son at Poggie, near Merriwa, and Keiran Fitzpatrick near Wollar.\n Joseph Campbell – 20 December 1901 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape of nine-year-old Violet Oldfield at Queanbeyan. He had also raped another nine-year-old at Ramsay's Bush (Haberfield)\n Thomas Moore – 14 April 1903 – Indigenous. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape and murder of ten-year-old Janet Irene Smith at Ramsay's Bush, Leichhardt (now Haberfield).\n Digby Grand – 7 July 1903 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Police Constable Samuel Long at Auburn.\n Henry Jones – 7 July 1903 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Police Constable Samuel Long at Auburn.\n Ah Check – 28 June 1904 – Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of William Tregaskis at Peak Hill, NSW. He was the last person executed at Old Dubbo Gaol.\n John Raymond Brown – 11 December 1906 – Hanged at Grafton Gaol for the murders of Daniel O'Keefe, Margaret O'Keefe and Patrick Gillick at German Creek, near Ballina (now called Empire Vale).\n Peter Sadeek – 11 June 1907 – Hanged at Broken Hill Gaol for the murder of Mary Cooney (or Jewson) at White Cliffs.\n Nicholas Baxter – 29 October 1907 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Mary MacNamara at 2 Sarah St Enmore.\n George Toffts – 26 November 1907 – Hanged at Tamworth Gaol for the murder of Eliza Maud Fletcher at Quirindi.\n\n1910 onwards\n William Frederick Ball – 17 June 1912 – Hanged at Armidale Gaol for the murder of Louisa Ball at Bingara.\n Frank Franz – 20 December 1916 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Police Constable George Joss Duncan at Tottenham.\n Roland Nicholas Kennedy – 20 December 1916 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Police Constable George Joss Duncan at Tottenham.\n James Wilson – 31 May 1917 – Hanged at Long Bay Gaol for the murder of George Pappageorgi at Haymarket, Sydney.\n Christian William Benzing – 16 June 1917 – Hanged at Long Bay for the rape and murder of eleven-year-old Dorothy Myra Small at Rockdale.\n Edward Williams – 29 April 1924 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of his three children, five-year-old Rosalie, three-year-old Mary and two-year-old Cecillia at Underwood St Paddington.\n William George Gordon Simpson – 10 December 1924 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murders of Guy Chalmers Clift and Police Constable James Flynn at Appin.\n William Cyril Moxley – 17 August 1932 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murders of Dorothy Ruth Denzel and Frank Barnby Wilkinson at Moorebank.\n Edwin John Hickey – 14 May 1936 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of former Conciliation Commissioner Montague Henwood on the train between Faulconbridge and Linden. Hickey was seventeen at the time of the crime.\n James Leighton Massey – 15 June 1936 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of Norman Samuel McLaren Stead at Darlinghurst.\n Alfred Spicer – 26 May 1938 – Hanged at Long Bay for the rape and murder of six-year-old Marcia Hayes at Windsor.\n John Trevor Kelly – 24 August 1939 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of Marjorie Constance Sommerlad at Tenterfield. He was the last person to be judicially executed in the state of New South Wales.\n\nNorfolk Island\n\n1800s to 1830s\n Peter McLean – 14 December 1800 – Irish convict and political prisoner, hanged without trial for conspiracy to mutiny\n John Houlahan – 14 December 1800 – Irish convict and political prisoner, hanged without trial for conspiracy to mutiny\n John McDonald - 13 April 1832 - Hanged for the attempted murder of fellow-convict Thomas Smith\n Thomas Reilly - 23 September 1833 - Hanged for the murder of fellow-convict Edward Doolan\n Matthew Connor - 23 September 1833 - Hanged for the attempted murder of constable Patrick Sullivan\n James Reynolds - 23 September 1833 - Hanged for the attempted murder of constable Patrick Sullivan\n Robert Douglas - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Henry Drummond - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n James Bell - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Joseph Butler - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Robert Glennie - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Walter Burke - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Joseph Snell - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n William McCulloch - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Michael Andrews - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n William Groves - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Thomas Freshwater - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Henry Knowles - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Robert Ryan - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n James Burrows - 26 December 1835 - Hanged for the murder of fellow-convict John Dursley\n George Thompson - 26 December 1835 - Hanged for the attempted murder of fellow-convict John Fell at Longridge\nWilliam Westwood (Jackey Jackey) – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for mutiny and the murder of convict constables John Morris, John Dinon, Thomas Saxton and police runner Stephen Smith, on 1 July 1846, known as the \"Cooking Pot Uprising\"\n\n1840s\nJohn Davies (or Davis) – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nSamuel Kenyon – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising. \nDennis Pendergast – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nOwen Commuskey – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nHenry Whiting – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Pearson – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nJames Cairns – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Westwood ('Jackey Jackey') - 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot uprising.\nWilliam Pickthorne – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nLawrence Kavenagh – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Scrimshaw – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nEdward McGinniss – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Brown ('Doggie') - 19 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nJohn Liddall - 3 November 1846 - Hanged for murder of Henry Clarke.\nBernard Macartney - 3 November 1846 - Hanged for murder of Henry Clarke.\n\nNorthern Territory\n Charles Flannagan – 15 July 1893 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Samuel Croker at Auvergne Station.\n Wandy Wandy – 25 July 1893 – Hanged on gallows constructed at the scene of the crime at Malay Bay for his part in the murder of six unnamed Malays.\n Moolooloorun (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 17 January 1895 – Hanged on gallows constructed at Crescent Lagoon in the presence of other members of his aboriginal community for the murder of an unnamed Chinese man near the Roper River.\n Chung Yeung – 10 August 1899 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Chee Hang at Yam Creek.\n Lem Kai – 10 August 1899 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Chee Hang at Yam Creek.\n Jimmie (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 8 April 1901 – Hanged on gallows constructed at Shaw's Creek, Victoria River, for the murder of John Larsen at Daly River.\n Tommy (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 21 December 1905 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murders of Henry Edwards, Richard Frost and Nowra at Victoria River district.\n Koppio (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 15 July 1913 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murders of Ching Loy and Lo Sin at the old Howley Mine.\n Jaroslav Koci – 8 August 1952 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Darwin taxi-driver George Thomas Grantham.\n Jan Novotny – 8 August 1952 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Darwin taxi-driver George Thomas Grantham.\n\nQueensland\n\n1830s to 1850s\n John Bulbridge – 18 December 1830 – Hanged at Moreton Bay for absconding from the penal colony there and committing a robbery at Port Macquarie\n Charles Fagan - 18 December 1830 - Hanged at Moreton Bay for absconding and committing a robbery at Port Macquarie\n Mullan – 3 July 1841 – Indigenous. Hanged at the Windmill, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, for the murder of surveyor Granville William Chetwynd Stapylton at Mount Lindesay\n Ningavil - 3 July 1841 - Indigenous. Hanged at the Windmill, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, for the murder of surveyor Granville Chetwynd Stapylton at Mount Lindsay\n Patrick Fitzgerald - 8 July 1850 - Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol, Petrie Terrace, for the murder of James Marsden at Gigooman\n Jacob Wagner – 8 July 1850 – Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murder of James Marsden at Gigooman\n Angee (An Gee) – 6 January 1852 – Chinese. Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murder of James Holbert in the Burnett district\n Davy – 22 August 1854 – Indigenous. Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murder of Adolphus Trevethan on Rawbelle station in the Burnett district\n Dundalli – 5 January 1855 – Indigenous. Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murders of Andrew Gregor and William Boller. This was the last official public execution in Queensland\n William Teagle - 28 July 1857 - Hanged at Brisbane Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary Leighton at Drayton\n Chamery - 4 August 1859 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Mary Treatroff at Dugandan\n Dick - 4 August 1859 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Mary Treatroff at Dugandan\n\n1860s\n Thomas Woods - 7 December 1860 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Gabriel Morell at Coonambula\n Georgie – 12 Dec 1861 – Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Bridget Ryan at Little Ipswich\n Tommy - 2 April 1862 - Chinese, real name not recorded. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of George Lang at Nebo\n Matthew McGuinness - 8 April 1862 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of a shepherd named Schaff between Gayndah and Mundubbera\n Alexander Ritchie – 1 August 1864 – Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for the murder of Charles Owen at Yandilla\n Jackey - 3 November 1865 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Ann Mee at Degilbo\n Rudolf Mornberger - 13 December 1865 - German. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Heinrich Bode on the Logan River\n Thomas John Griffin – 1 June 1868 – Police officer and gold commissioner hanged at Rockhampton Gaol for the murder of troopers John Power and Patrick Cahill on the banks of the Mackenzie River while they were on duty escorting a large sum of money from Rockhampton to Clermont\n Billy - 7 December 1868 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Mary Thompson at Tivoli\n Jacob - 17 May 1869 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Jane Knott and Amelia Reichmann at Ideraway\n John Williams – 24 November 1869 – Hanged at Rockhampton for the murder of Patrick Halligan at Eight Mile Island\n George C.F. Palmer – 24 November 1869 – Hanged at Rockhampton for the murder of Patrick Halligan at Eight Mile Island\n Alexander Archibald – 22 December 1869 – Hanged at Rockhampton for abetting the murder of Patrick Halligan at Eight Mile Island.\n\n1870s\n Gee Lee – 7 March 1870 – Chinese. Hanged at Toowoomba for the murder of Louis Vernon at Caroline sheep station on the Burenda run, in the Warrego district.\n Jacky Whitton – 7 March 1870 – Indigenous. Hanged at Toowoomba for the rape of thirteen-year-old Henrietta Reiss at Bodumba station near Warwick.\n William Prendergast – 28 March 1870 – Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Patrick Hartnett at Fortitude Valley.\n William Brown (or Bertram) – 29 August 1870 – Hanged at Toowoomba for robbery under arms at Mangalore.\n Donald Ross – 21 November 1870 – Hanged at Rockhampton for the murder of George Rose at Springsure.\n George – 15 May 1871 – Indigenous. Hanged at Rockhampton for the rape of Ellen Manning at Gracemere.\n Dugald - 28 May 1872 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of twelve-year-old Catherine Hutchinson south of Gympie.\n Patrick Collins - 29 May 1872 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Simon Zieman at Gunde Gunda Creek near Surat.\n John Garbett - 10 March 1874 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Tom Conroy at Taroom.\n Alick (alias Johnny) - 29 December 1874 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of eleven-year-old Gertrude Brauer at Doughboy Creek.\n Johnny Clayson – 14 April 1875 – Indigenous. Hanged at Rockhampton for the rape of Johanna Kopp at Palmerville.\n Johann (John) Wenzell - 29 August 1876 - German. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Joel Martin at Gabbinbar, Toowoomba.\n George - 18 May 1877 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Maryborough Gaol for the rape of Mrs McBride.\n Tommy Ah Mow – 18 May 1877 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Maryborough for the rape of Mrs. McBride.\n James Cunningham - 14 January 1878 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Frank Steinebecker near Cairns.\n Sam Ah Poo - 19 August 1878 - Chinese. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of M. Fisher McMichael at Bundaleer Plains, near Noorama.\n Ervora (alias Johnny) - 23 December 1878 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Charles \"the Swede\" Andrews near Tambo.\n Joseph Mutter - 9 June 1879 - German. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Maria Josephina Steffen at Ravenswood. \"When the drop fell the convict's head was completely severed from the body. The executioner attributed this horrible result to the hard condition of the rope, caused by the frost\".\n\n1880s\n Joseph Wells - 22 March 1880 - Hanged at Brisbane for armed robbery and attempted murder at Cunnamulla\n James Elsdale (alias Munro) - 31 May 1880 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Michael McEvoy at Belltopper Creek, Aramac\n Jimmy Ah Sue - 31 May 1880 - Chinese. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Ah Coo Wah at Copperfield (Clermont)\n Maximus 'Pedro' Gomez - 21 June 1880 - Filipino. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of William Clarke on Possession Island (Bedanug), Torres Strait\n Kagariu (Johnny Campbell) - 16 August 1880 - Indigenous. Bushranger. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Jane MacAlister at Kipper Creek, Northbrook\n Ah Que - 12 December 1881 - Chinese. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Ah Wah and Geon Ching at Palmerville\n George Byrne - 22 May 1882 - Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Susan Isaacs in Elizabeth Street, Brisbane\n Towolar (Jemmy) - 5 June 1882 - From Ambae, New Hebrides. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Jeremiah Worth at Bundaberg\n Jango – 15 October 1883 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Eliza Mills at Dingo. He was sixteen at the time of his crime\n George – 15 October 1883 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the rape of thirteen-year-old Johanna Anderson at Gracemere\n James Gardiner (alias McMahon) – 15 October 1883 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of 'German Ada' at Rockhampton\n Walter Edward Gordon – 25 October 1885 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Walter Bunning near Rockhampton\n Tim Tee – 5 April 1886 – Chinese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Jimmy Ah Fook at Dulvadilla\n Wong Tong – 21 June 1886 – Chinese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Kok Tow near Bundaberg\n Christopher Pickford – 30 May 1887 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Martin Emmerson at Ravenswood Junction\n John Harrison – 13 June 1887 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of William Thompson\n Ellen Thompson – 13 June 1887 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of her husband William. She was the only woman hanged in Queensland\n Sedin - 12 November 1888 - Malay. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of John Fitzgerald and Christian Meyriga at Normanton\n Edmond Duhamel - 12 November 1888 - Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Sarah Ann Descury at Croydon\n\n1890s\n Michael Barry – 2 June 1890 – Hanged at Rockhampton (Wandal) for the murder of his wife Mary. He was the last person to be hanged in Queensland outside of Brisbane\n Donald – 25 April 1892 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the rape of Eva Scott at Hornet Bank Station near Taroom\n Frank Charles Horrocks – 26 September 1892 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Rudolph Weissmüller at Mooraree near Brisbane \n Charles Gleeson – 24 October 1892 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Patrick McKiernan at Prince of Wales Island (Muralug), Torres Strait\n Leonardo William Moncado – 24 October 1892 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Bob, an Indigenous cabin-boy, on board the Northern coastal trading vessel Sketty Belle\n George Thomas Blantern – 23 October 1893 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Flora McDonald at Marlborough Station\n Hatsuro Abe – 28 May 1894 – Japanese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of a Japanese widow, Omatzie, on Thursday Island\n Miore - 20 May 1895 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Francis Macartney at Avondale. See Narasemai below\n Narasemai – 20 May 1895 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Francis Macartney at Avondale\n Sayer (also called Safhour) – 22 July 1895 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Peter Anderson near Etowrie near Mackay.\n Jackey – 4 November 1895 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Jacky Williams near Mount Morgan. \n Frank Tinyana – 4 November 1895 – Filipino. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the attempted murder of his wife Amelia and the murder of Constable William Conroy on Thursday Island.\n\n1900 onwards\n William Broome – 11 June 1900 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Mary Le Blowitz near Bundaberg\n Charles Beckman – 13 May 1901 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Alfred Anderson at Bowen\n Wandee (or Wantee) – 27 May 1901 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Alfred Burnstead near Townsville\n John Rheuben – 30 September 1901 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Fanny Hardwick at Rockhampton\n Arafau (or Orifough) – 3 December 1901 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Morris Summers near Farleigh\n David Alexander Brown - 9 December 1901 - Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Graham Haygarth at Charters Towers\n Patrick Kenniff – 12 January 1903 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Constable George Doyle at Lethbridge's Pocket near Carnarvon\n Sow Too Low (or Sotulo) – 22 June 1903 – From Malaita (now part of Solomon Islands). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of John Martin and Sergeant David Johnston at Mackay Gaol. He was also thought responsible for the murder of 12-year-old Alice Gunning near Mackay \n Gosano (also called 'Kanalso called Charlie') – 17 April 1905 – From Malaita (now part of Solomon Islands). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of John Parsons at Ingham \n James Wharton – 17 July 1905 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of William Munday at Toowong \n Johannes – 14 May 1906 – From Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Constable Albert Price \n Twadiga – 14 May 1906 – From Gawa Island (now in Papua New Guinea). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of five-year-old William Baulch, at Homebush, near Mackay \n Look Kow (or Lee Kow) – 31 December 1906 – Chinese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Lee Chay Yuen in Townsville \n August Millewski – 16 December 1907 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of an Indian man, Wallum Nabby, near Nananga \n Bismarck – 19 April 1909 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Janet Evitts at Jundah\n Arthur Ross – 7 June 1909 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of bank clerk James Muir\n Alexander Joseph Bradshaw – 13 June 1910 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of George and Alice Sutherland at Carron River, near Croydon\nGeorge David Silva – 10 June 1912 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of seventeen-year-old Maud Ching at Alligator Creek, near Hay Point. On the same occasion he also murdered Maud's younger siblings Teddy, Dolly, Hugh and Winnie, and their mother Agnes\n Charles Deen - 5 May 1913 - From Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Peter Dana (Dina, Dinna) at Innisfail\nErnest Austin- 22 September 1913 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Ivy Alexandra Mitchell. He was the last person executed in Queensland\n\nSouth Australia\n\n1830s to 1850s\nMichael Magee – 2 May 1838 – The first public execution in South Australia. A runaway convict, hanged from a tree on Montefiore Hill for shooting at with intent to kill Sheriff Smart\nWang Nucha (Tommy Roundhead) – 31 May 1839 – Hanged in front of the government iron stores (very close to the site of Magee's hanging) for the murder of James Thompson on the Para\nYerr-i-Cha (George) – 31 May 1839 – Hanged for the murder of William Duffield in the Gilles Plains area\nGeorge Hughes – 16 March 1840 – Hanged outside the Horse Police Barracks for theft and firing with murderous intent at the Para River\nHenry Curran – 16 March 1840 – Hanged outside the Horse Police Barracks for theft and firing with murderous intent at the Para River\nMongarawata – 25 August 1840 – Hanged by Major O'Halloran on the Coorong in retribution for the massacre of over fifteen passengers wrecked on the Maria\nPilgarie (Moorcan-gac) – 25 August 1840 – Hanged by Major O'Halloran on the Coorong in retribution for the massacre of fifteen passengers wrecked on the Maria\nJoseph Stagg – 18 November 1840 - Hanged for the murder of John Gofton near Torrens Island. The first public execution to be conducted outside Adelaide Gaol, with a crowd of roughly seven hundred in attendance.\nNgarbi (Nultia) – 1 August 1843 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Stubbs at Port Lincoln\nWera Maldera – 28 March 1845 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of George McGrath at McGrath's Flat, on the Coorong\nThomas Donnelly – 29 March 1847 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Kingberrie, an indigenous local, at Rivoli Bay\nKeelgulla – 9 November 1849 – Hanged at the scene of the crime for the murder of Captain James Beevor at Mount Drummond\nNeulalta – 9 November 1849 – Hanged at the scene of the crime for the murder of Captain James Beevor at Mount Drummond\nJames Yates – 5 September 1850 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of a shepherd named Jack Mansforth at Skillagolee Creek\nWilliam Wright – 12 March 1853 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of a man known as Robert Head, committed at East Wellington\nWilliam Bell – 27 December 1854 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Augustus Valrecht at Port Adelaide. This was the last public execution at Adelaide Gaol, with approximately three thousand onlookers. \nWeenpulta – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\nWeellanna – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\nYardulunulkarna – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\nEelanna – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\n\n1860s to 1890s\nManyetta – 5 October 1860 – Hanged at Streaky Bay for the murder of John Jones at Mount Joy\nPilti Miltinda (Bobby) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd (sometimes Reinbert) and her two children near Kapunda\nTankaworty (Alick or Jimmy) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd and her two children near Kapunda\nWarretya (Kop Robert) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd and her two children near Kapunda\nWarretya (Gogeye Jimmy) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd and her two children near Kapunda\nNilgerie – 1861 – Hanged near the scene of the crime at Fowler's Bay for the murder of Thomas Berggoist\nTilcherie – 1861 – Hanged near the scene of the crime at Fowler's Bay for the murder of Thomas Berggoist\nMangiltie – 1861 – Hanged at Port Lincoln for the murder of Margaret Impey (Impett) at Mount Wedge\nKarabidnie – 1861 – Hanged at Port Lincoln for the murder of Margaret Impey at Mount Wedge\nJohn Seaver – 11 March 1862 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Police Inspector Richard Pettinger at a ball at Government House, Adelaide\nMagnultie – 1862 – Hanged at Venus Bay for the murder of William Walker near Cherado\nMalachi Martin – 24 December 1862 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Jane Macmanamin at Salt Creek\nCarl Jung – 10 November 1871 – Hanged at Mount Gambier for the murder of Assistant Bailiff Thomas Garraway at Deep Gully, near Mount Gambier\nElizabeth Woolcock – 30 December 1873 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Thomas Woolcock at North Yelta. The only woman executed in South Australia. \nWilliam Ridgeway – 1 January 1874 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Frederick Burt at Coonatto\nWilliam Page – 27 October 1875 – Hanged at Mount Gambier for the murder of Mary Julia Buchan\nCharles Streitman - 24 July 1877 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Robert Woodhead at Wallaroo\nHugh Fagan (alias James Lynch) - 15 April 1878 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Patrick Bannon at Saltire\nJonathan Prest - 16 July 1878 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary Prest near Port Adelaide\nRobert Johnson (alias William Nugent) – 18 November 1881 – Hanged at Mount Gambier for the murder of Trooper Harry Pearce\nWilliam Burns – 18 January 1883 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Henry Loton on the high seas, off the Cape Verde Islands. \"While waiting his doom, he formed an attachment to a young sparrow, which he tamed perfectly. He was greatly affected by the sight of the bird flitting about the scaffold while the preparations for his execution were in progress\"\nMah Poo (alias Charlie Bow) – 10 November 1883 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Tommy Ah Fook in Hindley Street\nWilliam Brown (alias Allen, alias Lane)– 24 August 1894 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of George Morowsky at Waukaringa \nGeorge Lynch – 6 November 1895 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Donald Ross at Balaklava \nJoshua Beard – 10 July 1897 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Walter Hall at Streaky Bay\n\n1900 onwards\nLolli Kayser Singh – 17 January 1900 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Sunda Singh at Denial Bay\nThomas Horton – 12 May 1904 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Florence in Rundle Street\nAlbert Bonfield – 5 January 1905 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Caroline Hinds at Kensington Gardens\nNotella Habibulla – 16 November 1906 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Edith in Bristol Street (off Cardwell St)\nJames (Joe) Coleman – 2 July 1908 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Constable Albert Ring at Glenelg\nJohn Robins – 16 March 1910 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Robert Ownsworth in Moonta St Adelaide\nHadji Khan – 5 April 1910 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Said Mahommed at Frome Creek\nCarlos Augustus Bonello – 5 May 1910 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Norma Plush at Siegersdorf\nPercival Budd – 24 April 1919 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Harold Jacques at Crystal Brook\nAlexander Newland Lee – 15 July 1920 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Muriel at Rhynie. Lee was the nephew of Martha Needle\nWilliam Francis – 22 November 1927 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Myra at Rosaville, Mount Gambier\nWilliam Haines – 16 December 1927 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Devina Schmidt at Bridgewater\nFrederick Carr – 12 November 1929 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Maude at Birkenhead\nThomas Blythe – 9 January 1930 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Sarah at Unley\nHarold James Box – 26 April 1944 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Albert Edmund (Lance) Brown at Gawler Place, Adelaide\nCharles O'Leary – 14 November 1946 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Walter 'Spoggy' Ballard at Nangwarry, near Penola\nAlfred Griffin – 22 March 1950 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Elsie Wheeler at a Hutt Street boarding house\nJohn Balaban – 26 August 1953 – Murdered at least four people. Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Zora Kusic at Torrensville\nWilliam Feast – 23 March 1956 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Eunice Gwynne at Wingfield\nRaymond John Bailey – 24 June 1958 – Convicted for the Sundown Murders. Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Thyra Bowman\nGlen Sabre Valance – 24 November 1964 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Richard Stang at Kooroon Station. Last person to be executed in South Australia.\n\nTasmania\n\n1800s to 1810s\nThomas England - April 1806 - Private of 102nd Regiment, hanged at Port Dalrymple for his part in theft from Government Stores at Port Dalrymple on 18 Jan 1806.\nJames Keating - 14 April 1806 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in theft from Government Stores at Port Dalrymple on 18 Jan 1806.\nTerence Flynn - 14 July 1810 - Hanged in the Queenborough district (Sandy Bay) for murder\nJob Stokes - 14 July 1810 - Hanged in the Queenborough district for housebreaking\nJohn McCabe - 21 January 1813 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of William Parish\nJohn Townshend - 21 January 1813 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of William Parish\nPeter Gory - 21 January 1813 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of William Parish\nWilliam Stephens (Steel) - 25 May 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nThomas Mauley - 6 June 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for murder\nRichard McGuire (McGwire) - June 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of William Carlisle and James O'Byrne at New Norfolk\nHugh Byrne - June or early July 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of William Carlisle and James O'Byrne at New Norfolk\nRichard Collyer - 26 January 1818 - Hanged on the New Town road, Hobart, for the murder in 1815 of Carlisle and O'Byrne at New Norfolk\nGeorge Gray - 11 June 1818 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of John Evans (real name Charles Bell) at York Plains\nWilliam Trimm - 11 June 1818 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing in the Richmond district\n\n1820 to 1822\nThomas Bailey - 28 July 1820 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nJohn Brady - 28 July 1820 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nRobert Hunter - 28 April 1821 - Publicly hanged at scaffold erected at the top of Macquarie Street, Hobart Town, for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nEdward Brady - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nJames Flynn - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nJoseph Potaski - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nJohn Oliver - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for cattle-stealing\nJohn McGuinness – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nMichael Riley – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nThomas Kenny – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nJohn Higgins – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging \nJohn Hill – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nJohn Morell – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston for stealing in the Norfolk Plains district\nDaniel McCarthy – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nRobert Gillaird – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nWilliam Lloyd – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nPatrick Kane – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nWilliam Hyder – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town for diverse robberies in the Paterson's Plains district\nJames Norris – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town\nEdward McCracken – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town\nThomas Gutteridge – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town for stealing at Norfolk Plains\nWilliam Smith - 25 April 1822 - Publicly hanged at the Cascade end of Macquarie Street, Hobart, for sheep stealing.\nJohn Williams - 25 April 1822 - Publicly hanged at the Cascade end of Macquarie Street, Hobart, for sheep stealing.\n\n1823 to 1824\nJames Smith – 12 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing. (Smith actually cheated the hangman by \"suspending himself by a silk handkerchief from a bar...in the room in which he was confined\")\nGeorge Richardson – 14 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nRobert Oldham – 14 April 1823– Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing \nWilliam Davis – 14 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing \nRalph Churlton – 14 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nAlexander Pearce – 19 July 1824 – Murderer and cannibal. Hanged at Hobart\nThomas Butler – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nPatrick Connolly – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nJames Tierney – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nIsaac Walker – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nJohn Thomson – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nGeorge Gardner - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for killing a steer with intent to steal \nArthur Dicker - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for killing a steer with intent to steal \nThomas Taylor - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for the murder of John Street at Abbotsfield\nLuke Fowler - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for the murder of John Street at Abbotsfield\nCharles Kimberley - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for the murder of Judith Burke\nJames Crawford - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nJohn Bimms - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nJob Corfield – 8 September 1824 – Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nMatthew Stephenson - 15 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nJohn Twiggs - 15 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\n\n1825 to 1826\nThomas Hudson – 28 January 1825 – Hanged at Macquarie Harbour for the murder of Robert Esk\nRichard Allen – 28 January 1825 - Hanged at Macquarie Harbour for the murder of William Saul at Birch's Bay\nFrancis Oates – 28 January 1825 - Hanged at Macquarie Harbour for the murder of James Williamson\nHenry McConnell – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nJeremiah Ryan – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder and robbery\nCharles Ryder – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder and robbery\nJames Bryant – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder and robbery\nBlack Jack (or Jack Roberts) – 25 February 1825 – Indigenous. Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Patrick McCarthy\nMusquito – 25 February 1825 – Indigenous (Eora). Hanged at Hobart for a murder at Grindstone Bay\nPeter Thackery – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJohn Logan – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for attempted shooting murder of William Shoobridge. The victim was saved because the bullet struck a ruler in his pocket.\nSamuel Fielding – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJames Chamberlain – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nStephen Lear – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at the Surveyor-General's\nHenry Fry – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at the Surveyor-General's \nJohn Reid Riddel – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of George Fildes in Goulburn St. He confessed to the murder of both his ex-wives.\nThomas Peacock – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of Constable Craggs \nWilliam Buckley – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJoseph Broadhead – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJohn Everiss – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJohn Godliman – 7 September 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Samuel Hunt at Fourteen-Tree Plain, near Jericho.\nJonas Dobson – 12 December 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of his overseer\nJohn Johnson – 6 January 1826 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Mr. Barnes' \nSamuel Longman – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary\nCharles Wigley – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary\nJames Major – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing an ox\nWilliam Pollock – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nGeorge Harden – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nWilliam Preece – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robberies and bushranging\nJames McCabe – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for murder, robberies and bushranging\nRichard Brown – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJames Brown – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJohn Green – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nThomas Bosworth – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing a boat\nRichard Miller – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing a boat\nRichard Craven – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing a boat\nJames Eales – 17 February 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing and robbery\nWilliam Eales – 17 February 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing and robbery\nMatthew Brady – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nPatrick Bryant – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nThomas Jeffries – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJohn Perry – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJohn Thompson – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Margaret Smith at the Watch-House\nSamuel Hodgetts – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJames McKenney – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJames Goodwin – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJohn Gregory – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nWilliam Tilley – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nWilliam Brown – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nThomas Dunnings – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Alexander Simpson at Pittwater\nEdward Everett – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Alexander Simpson at Pittwater\nWilliam Smith – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Alexander Simpson at Pittwater\nJohn Taylor – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour and robbing soldiers of their arms\nGeorge Watters – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour and robbing soldiers of their arms \nJack – 13 September 1826 – Indigenous. Hanged for the murder of Thomas Colley at Oyster Bay. Jack was kept apart before the execution as he was suffering from leprosy.\nDick – 13 September 1826 – Indigenous. Hanged for the murder of Thomas Colley at Oyster Bay\nGeorge Brace – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery and bushranging\nJohn McFarlane – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding into the woods and robbing William Holdship at Browns River\nJames Edwards – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding into the woods and robbing William Holdship at Browns River\nThomas Balfour – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding into the woods and robbing William Holdship at Browns River\nJohn Dadd – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nJohn Clark – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nPatrick Brown – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJohn Pearson (Penson) – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary from Richard Worley, butcher, Elizabeth St\nJames Rowles – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbing his employer John Dunn's shop, Elizabeth St\nTimothy Swinscow – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbing Mrs. Till at New Norfolk\nWilliam Wickens – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbing Mrs. Till at New Norfolk\nGeorge Farquharson – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing at Jericho\nRobert Cable – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from the Sherwin flock on the Clyde\nThomas Savell – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from David Lord in the Pitt Water district\nJohn Davis – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from David Lord in the Pitt Water district\nJohn Cruitt – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from David Lord in the Pitt Water district\n\n1827\nRobert Grant - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing from Edmund Bryant near Jericho\nGeorge Bentley - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing from Edmund Bryant near Jericho\nWilliam Crest - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing from Edmund Bryant near Jericho\nWilliam Evans - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery at New Town of John Sayers 'the broom-maker'.\nPeter Rice - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for shooting at John Swift in Murray Street, Hobart\nPatrick Dunne - 8 January 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Kingston\nCharles Burgh - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for horse stealing\nHenry Strong - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nMichael Brown - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nGeorge Ellis - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nWilliam Birt - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nWilliam Hoadley - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nWilliam Tuffnell - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of nine-year-old Ellen Briggs\nRichard Gill - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nEdward Howe - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for highway robbery near Scottsdale\nJoseph Horsefield - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nJames Gurd - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary in the Norfolk Plains district\nWilliam Ashford - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary in the Norfolk Plains district\nAndrew Winchester - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary in the Macquarie River district\nWilliam Haywood - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Christopher McRae at Lake River \nHenry Oakley – 3 July 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary from Mr Brodie on the Clyde\nThomas Bidwell Child – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for forgery\nJohn Wright – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Old Beach\nJohn Clayton – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nGeorge Dunning – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nWilliam Longhurst – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nDaniel McPherson – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary of the home of Henry Bye, North Hobart\nMartin Higgins – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for \"stealing in a dwelling house at noon-day\" from Henry Bye, North Hobart\nJames Horsefield - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nGeorge Metcalfe - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJames Coates - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJohn Brown (the Mariner) - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJohn Lee - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nGeorge Braithwaite - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJohn Brown (the Bricklayer) - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nThomas Davis (real name Roberts) - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nMatthew McCullum - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nHumphrey Oulton - 15 November 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the theft of a sheep\nAbraham Abrahams - 15 November 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the theft of a mare from the Gourlay property on the Clyde\nWilliam Shepherd - 15 November 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary from the home of Ralph Compton on the Norfolk Plains (Longford)\nGeorge Lacey - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of Constable George Rex at Macquarie Harbour\nJohn Ward (\"Flash Jack\") - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nSamuel Measures - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nWilliam Jenkins - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJames Conhope - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of a six-year-old (convict per Minerva)\nJames Reid - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nThomas Williams - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJames Kirk - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJohn McMillan - 17 December 1827- Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJohn Maguire - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\n\n1828 to 1829\nGeorge Driver - 30 January 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Onely at Macquarie Harbour\nSamuel Higgins - 30 January 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Onely at Macquarie Harbour\nWilliam Fowler - 1 March 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of a little girl named Emma Groom\nHenry Williamson - 1 March 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Malcolm Logan at Green Ponds (Kempton)\nThomas Pearson - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and burglary at Cross Marsh (Melton Mowbray)\nPhelim Bonner (real name Crampsey) - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery on James Collins\nEdward Hangan - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of a gun from James McLanachan\nJohn Grimes - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for shooting with intent at George Marshall near Sorell\nThomas Collins - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary at the home of George Cartwright\nEdward Burke - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nAbraham Aaron - 1 August 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Maria Island \nPhilip Large - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of eleven year-old Margaret Stewart\nJohn Morrison - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for arson\nJohn Gibson - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nCharles Williams - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery\nWilliam Ashton - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nJoseph Moulds - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nWilliam Baker - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nJohn Baker - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for sheep stealing\nBernard Shields - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for sheep stealing (convict per Minerva) \nDaniel Mackie - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for sheep stealing\nDaniel Leary - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for bullock stealing\nThomas Rogers - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nGeorge Palmer - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery\nDaniel Brown - 2 March 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of a fellow-convict named Stopford at Macquarie Harbour\nJohn Salmon - 2 March 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of a fellow-convict named Stopford at Macquarie Harbour\nJohn Leach - 7 March 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of his common-law wife\nRobert Bourke - 12 July 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping and stealing a boat at Macquarie Harbour\nWilliam Madden - 12 July 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery\nWilliam Herring - 12 July 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping and stealing a boat at Macquarie Harbour\n\n1830 to 1831\nJohn Mayo – 11 January 1830 – Hanged at Hobart Gaol for the murder of James Bailey at Macquarie Harbour\nWilliam Wilkes - 23 January 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Dennis Alcoloret on Bruny Island in Oct 1827\nHugh Campbell – 3 February 1830 – Soldier of the 63rd Regiment, hanged at Hobart for the murder of Jonathan Brett\nMichael Best - 11 February 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Richard Garner at Hamilton\nJohn Oxley – 24 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Susan Corfield\nSamuel Killen – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nJohn Jones – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nJoseph Fogg – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for an unnatural crime\nThomas Goodwin – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for cutting the throat of Ann Hamilton with intent to kill\nMary McLauchlan – 19 April 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of her infant son. The first woman executed in Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania.\nEdmund Daniels - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict, Asia 3rd) \nJohn Dighton - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict - Earl St Vincent) \nJames Child - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict - Chapman 2nd) \nAndrew Bates - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict - Phoenix) \nEdward Ladywig - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery (Convict - Phoenix) \nJoseph Ellis - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing (Convict - Dromedary) \nAndrew McCue - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary of clothing and money from the house of John Robins\nGeorge Thomson – 17 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for housebreaking, theft of silver plate and two pistols (Convict - Lady Harewood) \nEdward Sweeney – 30 June 1830 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his wife Mary Sweeney\nWilliam Thomas – 30 June 1830 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of John 'Smutty Jack' Warne\nWilliam Messenger - 10 July 1830 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of a five-year-old child\nJohn Brady - 10 July 1830 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of a five-year-old child\nRichard Udall - 10 July 1830 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of a five-year-old child\nCharles Routley - 17 September 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John \"Pretty Jack\" Buckley at Carlton River\nHenry Strong - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nWilliam Hoadley - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nMichael Brown - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nWilliam Birt - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nGeorge Ellis - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nCharles Burgh (alias Sutton) - 9 January 1831 - Hanged at Hobart for the theft of a horse from Captain Andrew Barclay near Launceston\nEdward Broughton (28) - 5 August 1831- Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour; while on the run he had murdered and cannibalised William Coventry and two others\nMatthew Macavoy - 5 August 1831 - Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour; while on the run he had murdered and cannibalised William Coventry and two others\nJohn Somers - 23 December 1831 - Hanged at Hobart for rape\n\n1832 to 1834\nJames Camm – 30 April 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for piracy; he was involved in the Cyprus mutiny in 1829\nJames Metcalfe – 30 April 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for assault of John Munn\nRobert Gordon – 30 April 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary\nJohn Gow - 14 May 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the shooting murder of Patrick Carrigan, a soldier of the 63rd\nJoseph Colvin - 14 May 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Patrick Carrigan\nElijah Alder - 16 March 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Benjamin Horne at Ross\nJohn Towers – 5 June 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of two hawkers named Patrick Fitzgibbon and John Kellerman on the St Paul's Plains\nJames Fletcher – 5 June 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Patrick Fitzgibbon and John Kellerman on the St Paul's Plains\nThomas Fleet – 17 October 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted axe murder of William Waring Saxton at Port Arthur\nWilliam Evans – 17 October 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted knife murder of George Edwards at Granton\nWilliam Higham - 5 January 1833 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robberies in the Ross area\nSimon Gowan (Going) - 5 January 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of eight-year-old Mary Ann Bowman at Jericho\nJohn Glover - 5 January 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of eight-year-old Mary Ann Bowman at Jericho\nRobert Dutchess - 5 January 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for bestiality with a mare\nJohn Clements ('Jack the Lagger') - 5 January 1833 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery and putting in fear\nRichard (John) Jones - 15 April 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for bestiality on board the Circassian\nThomas Ansell – 1 November 1833 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nJonathan Dark - 1 November 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary in Argyle St\nWilliam Ward – 10 March 1834 – Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nSamuel Newman – 10 March 1834 – Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nThomas Dawson – 10 March 1834 – Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nJoseph Deane – 26 March 1834 – Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Green Ponds (Kempton)\nHenry Rutland – 26 March 1834 – Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Green Ponds (Kempton)\nSamuel (a 'man of colour') – 26 March 1834 – Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder at Port Arthur of Chief Constable Richard Newman\nJoseph Greenwood – 16 April 1834 – Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Constable Thomas Terry at New Town racecourse. \nBenjamin Davidson - 17 June 1834 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Ann Howell at Norfolk Plains (Longford)\nWilliam Hurlock (Hislop) - 17 June 1834 - Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Ann Howell\nHenry Street - 17 June 1834 - Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Ann Howell\n\n1835 to 1839\nJohn Burke – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nWilliam Weston – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nJohn Ashton – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nThomas Kirkham – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nJohn Dunn - 11 August 1835 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of William Evans at Lemon Springs, near Oatlands\nGeorge Clarke - 11 August 1835 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of William Evans at Lemon Springs, near Oatlands\nSamuel Hibbill (Hibbell) - 10 March 1836 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Capt. Sibson Bragg, by throwing him overboard the schooner Industry in the Tasman Sea\nThomas Harris - 10 March 1836 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Capt. Sibson Bragg, by throwing him overboard the schooner Industry in the Tasman Sea\nRobert Smith - 10 March 1836 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Capt. Sibson Bragg, by throwing him overboard the schooner Industry in the Tasman Sea\nSamuel Guillem - 16 March 1837 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Mary Mills at New Norfolk\nJohn McKay – first five days of May 1837 – Hanged at Hobart for the 1 April 1837 murder of Joseph Edward Wilson near Perth. His corpse was later gibbeted at Perth.\nJohn Gardiner – 10 November 1837 – Hanged at Launceston Gaol for the murder of George Mogg on the Tamar\nJohn Hudson – 10 November 1837 – Hanged at Launceston for cutting and maiming with intent to murder Isaac Schofield, the overseer of a chain-gang\nJames Hawes – 10 November 1837 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary and assault on Valentine Soper at Windmill Hill, Launceston\nHenry Stewart – 10 November 1837 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary and assault on Valentine Soper at Windmill Hill, Launceston\nJames Atterall - 21 June 1838 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Vincent's Hotel, Epping Forest\nJames Regan - 21 June 1838 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Vincent's Hotel, Epping Forest\nAnthony Banks - 21 June 1838 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Vincent's Hotel, Epping Forest. Banks was the first native-born Vandemonian executed in the colony\n\n1840 to 1844\nJohn Riley - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Matthews in Warwick St. Hobart\nJohn Davis - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Matthews in Warwick St. Hobart\nGeorge Pettit - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Paul at York Plains\nJohn Martin - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Sergeant George Newman (of the 51st) on board the government brig Tamar\nJohn Watson - 30 January 1841 - Bushranger. Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of John Holding at Ashby, near Ross\nPatrick Wallace - 30 January 1841 - Bushranger. Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of John Holding at Ashby, near Ross. Wallace and Watson were hangman Solomon Blay's first executions.\nJoseph Broom - 19 February 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of Joseph Bailey near Campbell Town\nJames McKay - 27 May 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Trusson at the Great Lake\nWilliam Hill - 27 May 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Trusson at the Great Lake\nPatrick Minnighan - 25 June 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Travers at Port Arthur\nEdward Allen - 31 July 1841 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Samuel Brewell at Muddy Creek, on the west bank of the Tamar\nThomas Dooner - 6 August 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Joseph Walker at a hut on the Macquarie River\nJames Broomfield - 25 October 1841 - Bushranger. Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery at Tarleton\nJames Williamson - 4 January 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Lord at Swanport (Swansea)\nGeorge Bailey - 4 January 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Lord at Swanport (Swansea)\nHenry Belfield - 20 January 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Broadman at Port Arthur\nElijah Ainsworth - 6 June 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of five-year-old Mary Jeffery \nThomas Turner - 9 June 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of his wife Hannah at Moonah\nWilliam Langham - 10 August 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of the Doctor at Port Arthur and the stabbing of a boy named Thomas Cooke\nSamuel Williams - 27 December 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Harkness at Port Arthur\nJames Littleton - 27 December 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Henry Seaton at Broadmarsh\nHenry Smith - 11 May 1843 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Henry Childs (Childe) at Sandy Bay\nJames Bowtell - 16 May 1843 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of William Marks on the highway at Dysart\nRiley Jeffs – 26 July 1843 – Bushranger. Publicly hanged at Launceston for the murder of District Constable William Ward at Campbell Town\nJohn Conway – 26 July 1843 – Bushranger. Publicly hanged at Launceston for the murder of District Constable William Ward at Campbell Town\nJohn Woolley – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery and attempting to kill special constable William Hobart Wells\nGeorge Churchward – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nWilliam Thomas – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nGeorge Bristol – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nJohn Walker – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nAlexander Reid - 24 April 1844 – Hanged at Oatlands for shooting and wounding Constable Murray\nThomas Marshall – 24 April 1844 – Hanged At Oatlands for the murder of Ben Smith\nGeorge Jones – 30 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery \nJames Platt – 30 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery\nIsaac Tidburrow (Tidbury) - 9 July 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of seven-year-old Mary-Ann Gangell\nThomas Wicksett - 9 July 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Ayres at Port Arthur\nJames Gannon - 7 August 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for a rape committed near Richmond\nThomas Smith - 7 August 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of overseer William Perry at Port Arthur\nJames Boyle - 7 August 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of overseer William Perry at Port Arthur\n\n1845 to 1849\nRichard Jackson - 1 May 1845 - Hanged at Oatlands for the rape of Elizabeth Davis\nAnthony Kedge - 8 August 1845 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Charles Shepherd between George Town and Low Head\nFrancis Maxfield - 12 August 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of sub-overseer Joseph Ellis at Port Arthur\nThomas Gomm – 23 September 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nWilliam Taylor - 23 September 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nIsaac Lockwood – 23 September 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nEliza Benwell – 2 October 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nThomas Gillan - 1 November 1845 - Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery at Breadalbane (Cocked Hat)\nMichael Keegan (Keogan) - 31 December 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of sub-overseer Joseph Ellis at Port Arthur\nJob Harris - 31 December 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for his involvement in the pack-rape of a fellow-convict at the Coal Mines, Saltwater River\nWilliam Collier - 31 December 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for his involvement in the pack-rape of a fellow-convict at the Coal Mines, Saltwater River\nJohn Phillips – 4 February 1846 – Hanged at Oatlands for setting fire to the magistrate's oatstacks following a conviction for sly grog selling\nDaniel McCabe - 24 March 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for cutting and wounding, with intent to kill, Francis Scott at Impression Bay\nCharles Woodman - 24 March 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and attempted murder of Elizabeth Jones in Davey Street\nHenry Food - 28 April 1846 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Revd Dr Browne\nHenry Cooper - 13 May 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Richard Beech at Impression Bay\nMichael Roach - 24 September 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for wounding with intent to murder catechist Roger Boyle at Port Arthur\nMichael Lyons - 11 November 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for committing an 'unnatural crime' with a goat at Port Cygnet\nPeter Kenny - 24 March 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of James Goodall Francis at Battery Point. Kenny, a former Point Puer boy, attacked Francis with a tomahawk while attempting burglary. Francis went on to become Premier of Victoria twenty-five years later\nWilliam Bennett - 24 March 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of fellow-prisoner Thomas Shand at Port Arthur\nGeorge Wood - 29 June 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Taylor at Port Arthur\nCharles Benwell – 14 September 1847 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of George Lowe near Bagdad. He was the brother of Eliza Benwell, hanged in 1845.\nLaban Gower - 23 November 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Ann Mayfield at Old Beach\nHugh Glacken – 25 November 1847 – Hanged at Launceston for bushranging\nJames Hill - 4 January 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of an elderly lady named Alice Martin at Brighton\nHenry Whelan - 4 January 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Robert Mann at Berriedale\nJames Kennedy - 4 January 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of William Millar at Port Arthur\nJames Connolly - 22 February 1848 - Publicly hanged at Hobart for arson (setting a barn on fire) at Impression Bay. \nNathaniel Westerman (Weston) - 4 April 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of fellow-prisoner Joseph Blundell at Port Arthur\nJames Sullivan – 9 May 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Constable James Kelly at Swanston, near Andover\nPatrick Shea – 9 May 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Constable James Kelly at Swanston\nJames McGough – 9 May 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Constable James Kelly at Swanston\nJohn Shale – 9 May 1848 - Hanged at Oatlands for wounding John Connell with intent to murder\nThomas Smith – 4 August 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for stabbing with intent to murder Constable Clough at Jericho\nJeremiah Maher – 4 August 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for stabbing with intent to murder Constable Clough at Jericho\nThomas Liner – 8 August 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the stabbing murder of Hugh Gilmore in Kelly St\nJohn Jordan – 7 November 1848 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Zimran Youram at Norfolk Plains\nMatthew Mahide – 7 November 1848 – Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery at Snake Banks (present-day Powranna)\nMichael Rogers- 3 January 1849 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Joseph Howard at Port Sorell\nWilliam Stamford - 3 January 1849 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Thomas Lovell at Brushy Plains (Runnymede)\nJohn Russell Dickers - 20 March 1849 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of Constable Samuel Withers on the corner of Fitzroy Crescent and Davey St, South Hobart\nJames Holloway - 25 June 1849 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of Edwin Beckett at Prosser's Plains (present-day Buckland)\nJohn Stevens – 24 July 1849 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Margaret Buttery at Longford\nJames McKechnie - 31 December 1849 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Francis Sockett in Davey St, Hobart\n\n1850 to 1854\nJohn King - 21 March 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of Alexander Smith at Port Arthur\nJames Howarth - 21 March 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Joshua Jennings at New Town\nJames Mullay - 26 July 1850 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of fellow-constable John McNamara at Perth\nJoseph Squires - 26 July 1850 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of four-year-old Horatio James\nChristopher Hollis - 24 September 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Couchman at Bridgewater\nJohn Woods - 6 November 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Constable Bernard Mulholland at Franklin\nJoseph Brewer - 11 February 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Ann Hefford at Campbell Town\nThomas Burrows - 13 February 1851 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Thomas Parsons at Nile\nWilliam Parker - 13 February 1851 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Thomas Parsons at Nile\nHenry Hart - 13 February 1851 - Hanged at Launceston for the attempted murder of Harriet Grubb at Cressy\nThomas Dalton - 21 March 1851 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for highway robbery of William Corrigan at Constitution Hill\nWilliam Henry Stevens - 25 April 1851 - Convict. Hanged at Oatlands for Assaulting James Moore, being armed with a gun on the high road between Antill Ponds and Tunbridge\nBuchanan Wilson - 3 May 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Patrick Cooney on the Huon Road, two miles out of Hobart\nGeorge Mackie – 21 July 1851 – Hanged at Oatlands for the murder of Thomas Gilbert at Waters Meeting, near Cranbrook\nJohn Crisp – 27 October 1851 – Hanged at Oatlands for Wounding with Intent Constable William Donohoo at Swansea\nFrancis Duke – 31 October 1851 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of William Smith at Fern Tree Hill, near Deloraine\nJames Yardley – 31 October 1851 – Hanged at Launceston for attempted murder of Robert Hudson at Deloraine\nWilliam Henry Stephens – 25 April 1851 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Thomas Moore at Antill Ponds\nThomas Callaghan (Callaher, Gallagher, Collahon, Collohan, Callahan) - 6 October 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of Ann Curtis at Grasstree Hill\nMichael Conlan - 22 December 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Francis Burt at Franklin\nPatrick Callaghan - 22 December 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Francis Burt at Franklin\nWilliam Porter - 29 December 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of William Andrews at Sandy Bay\nCharles Lockwood - 28 January 1852 - Hanged at Launceston for the attempted murder of William Gaffney at Longford\nJohn Castles - 22 June 1852 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Hibbard at Kangaroo Point\nMary Sullivan - 5 August 1852 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of two-year-old Clara Adeline Fraser in Campbell St. Sullivan was sixteen when she went to the gallows.\nPatrick McMahon – 28 October 1852 – Hanged at Oatlands for rape of a child\nJohn Kilburn - 11 February 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of overseer Charles Weatherall at Pittwater\nJohn Wood - 11 February 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Kate Toole in Goulburn St\nJames Dalton – 26 April 1853 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Constable Tom Buckmaster at Avoca\nAndrew Kelly – 26 April 1853 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Constable Tom Buckmaster at Avoca\nSamuel Jacobs - 29 April 1853 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of six-year-old Nathaniel Poole at Deloraine\nSamuel Maberley - 18 May 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of the Rev Dr Stephen Aldhouse in Church St\nFrancis McManus - 21 June 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of Elizabeth Roscoe on Bruny Island\nLevi McAlister - 21 June 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of six-year-old Jane Hughes at Bridgewater\nWilliam Brown (alias Stockton) – 25 October 1853 – Hanged at Launceston for stabbing with intent to murder James Stephens\nThomas Kenney – 31 July 1854 – Hanged at Launceston for setting fire to a haystack at Kings Meadows\nThomas Hall - 31 July 1854 - Hanged at Launceston for the attempted murder of his wife Jane Hall at Table Cape\nGeorge Whiley – 3 November 1854 – Hanged at Launceston for the robbery and assault of James Smith near Westbury\n\n1855 to 1859\nPeter Connolly – 26 June 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery of William Kearney\nJohn \"Rocky\" Whelan – 26 June 1855 – Bushranger. Confessed to five murders. Hanged at Hobart\nEdward Heylin – 26 June 1855 – Hanged at Hobart for shooting with intent at Constable Robert Allison in Victoria St, Hobart\nJohn Parsons Knights – 26 June 1855 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary of the house of Thomas Nicholson in Victoria St, Hobart\nJohn Mellor - 19 Feb 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and attempted murder of Hugh Simpson at St Peter's Pass, near York Plains\nThomas Rushton - 19 Feb 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and attempted murder of Hugh Simpson at St Peter's Pass, near York Plains\nRichard Rowley - 25 June 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of nine-year-old Isabelle Johnson in Brisbane St\nMichael Casey – 5 August 1856 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of John Hewitt at Falmouth\nGeorge Langridge - 19 September 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of his wife Jane Langridge at Richmond\nJohn O'Neill - 19 September 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery of James Rowland at Constitution Dock\nAnthony Clarke - 12 November 1856 - Hanged at Launceston for murder of John Kendall near Deloraine\nMichael Barry (alias Moloney) - 25 November 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the assault and robbery of Edward Adams at Old Beach\nWilliam Woolford - 25 November 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Constable William Burton at Port Arthur\nGeorge Nixon – 3 March 1857 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of fourteen-year-old Henry Chamberlayne at Kingston\nJohn Higgins - 12 August 1857 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Henry Dales on the Evandale Road near Clairville\nJames Waldron - 12 August 1857 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Henry Dales on the Evandale Road near Clairville\nAlexander Cullen – 18 August 1857 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Betsy Ross in a house behind the Red Lion, Liverpool St\nAbraham Munday – 27 October 1857 – Hanged at Oatlands for attempted murder by poison of George White at Courland Bay\nRichard \"Long Mick\" Ennis – 27 October 1857 – Hanged at Oatlands for the murder of George Sturgeon at Kitty's Corner, near Antill Ponds\nJames Kelly – 28 November 1857 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Coleman O'Loughlin at Avoca\nTimothy Kelly - 28 November 1857 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Coleman O'Loughlin at Avoca\nWilliam Maher – 28 November 1857 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of his wife Catherine Maher at Brown's River, Kingborough\nThomas Callinan - 20 April 1858 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Amelia Murray at Three Hut Point\nHenry Madigan – 5 May 1858 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his brother John Madigan at Prosser's Forest, Ravenswood\nMatthew Burns (Breen) – 5 August 1858 – Hanged at Launceston for the rape of three-year-old Eliza MacDonald at Avoca\nGeorge Young – 5 August 1858 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Esther Scott in High Street Windmill Hill\nThomas Gault – 21 December 1858 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Felonious Assault and Robbery of John Duffy, Isabella Brown and Archibald Stacey at the Mount Nelson Signal Station\nWilliam Anderson - 31 January 1859 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of James Chapman at Distillery Creek\nJohn McLaughlin - 31 January 1859 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of George Cooper on Westbury Road\nWilliam Gibson - 31 January 1859 - Hanged at Launceston for committing sodomy on ten-year-old Tom Gilligan on the road between Fingal and Avoca\nJohn King – 16 February 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Rebecca Hall at the Bull's Head, Goulburn Street\nPeter Haley (\"Black Peter\") – 16 February 1859 – Bushranger. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Shooting with Intent at Richard Propsting on the road between Ross and Tunbridge\nDaniel (\"Wingy\") Stewart – 16 February 1859 – Bushranger. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Shooting with Intent at Richard Propsting on the road between Ross and Tunbridge\nWilliam Ferns (alias Flowers) – 16 February 1859 – Bushranger. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Shooting with Intent at Richard Propsting on the road between Ross and Tunbridge.\nWilliam Davis – 16 February 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Andre Cassavant at Black River\nRobert Brown – 4 May 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape of a three-year-old at Triabunna\nBernard Donahue – 12 July 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of James Burton near Kingston\n\n1860s\nJohn Vigors – 31 January 1860 – Hanged at Oatlands for Shooting with Intent at John Baker at Ellerslie\nHenry Baker - 7 February 1860 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Ellen Gibson at Sandhill\nJohn Nash – 4 May 1860 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of William Iles near Cleveland\nJulius Baker – 10 May 1860 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for shooting with intent at Port Arthur. Baker was a constable who took money from two prisoners Stretton and Donohue to assist their escape, he then shot them in their attempt\nMichael Walsh - 29 May 1860 - Hanged at Launceston for the assault and rape of Eleanor Ward at Longford\nMartin Lydon – 25 September 1860 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape of nine-year-old Hannah Norah Handley at Port Cygnet\nThomas Ross - 30 January 1861 - Hanged at Launceston for an 'unnatural crime' on a boy named William Saunders at Bishopsbourne\nJohn Hailey – 23 May 1861 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of William Wilson at Cullenswood\nJohn Chapman – 23 May 1861 – Hanged at Launceston for assault with intent to murder Daniel Webb at Avoca\nPatrick Maloney – 23 May 1861 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Richard Furlong at Evandale\nMargaret Coghlan – 18 February 1862 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of her husband John Coghlan in Goulburn St, Hobart, near the corner of Harrington St \nCharles Flanders - 24 June 1862 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of ten-year-old Mary Ann Riley at Bagdad\nWilliam Mulligan – 18 November 1862 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape and robbery of Johanna Harrbach at Bagdad \nHendrick Whitnalder – 20 February 1863 – (Described as a 'little Kaffir'). Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for sodomy with fourteen-year-old Cornwall Collins (Collard)\nDennis Collins - 11 August 1863 - Hanged at Launceston for 'an unnatural crime' with seven-year-old Joseph Palmer \nRobert McKavor – 16 February 1864 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the felonious assault and robbery of Edward Coningsby on the Oatlands Road\nJames Lynch – 23 May 1865 – Hanged at Launceston for the rape of his ten-year-old step-daughter Cathy Nichols at Port Sorell\nWilliam Griffiths – 2 December 1865 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of eight-year-old George and six-year-old Sarah Johnson at Glenorchy\nDaniel \"Little Dan\" Connors – 17 March 1868 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Ellen Moriarty at Longford\nPatrick Kiely - 17 November 1869 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his wife Bridget at Paddy's Scrub, Deloraine\n\n1870 onwards\nJohn Regan (46) – 28 June 1870 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his sixteen-year-old wife Emma on the Westbury Road\nJob Smith (55) – 31 May 1875 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape of Margaret Ayres, the chaplain's housemaid, at Port Arthur\nJohn Bishnahan (46) - 19 November 1877 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Thomas Rudge at Evandale\nRichard Copping (19) – 21 October 1878 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Susannah Stacey at Bream Creek\nGeorge Braxton (60) – 10 July 1882 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Ellen Sneezwell in York Street\nJames Ogden (20) – 4 June 1883 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of William Wilson at Cleveland\nJames Sutherland (18) – 4 June 1883 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of William Wilson at Cleveland\nHenry Stock (22) – 13 October 1884 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Kent and her daughter near Ouse\nTimothy Walker (76) - 10 January 1887 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Benjamin Hamilton at Deloraine. Walker was the last transported convict to be executed in Tasmania. This was hangman Solomon Blay's last execution\nArthur Cooley (19) – 17 August 1891 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Mary Camille Ogilvy near Richmond\nJoseph Belbin (19) – 11 March 1914 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Margaret Ledwell at Deloraine\nGeorge Carpenter (27) – 27 December 1922 – Murdered three people at Swansea. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of his cousin Thomas Carpenter\nFrederick Thompson (32) - 14 February 1946 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of eight year old Evelyn Maughan. The last person executed in Tasmania.\n\nVictoria\n\n1840s\nTunnerminnerwait – Hanged at Melbourne on 20 January 1842 for the murder of two whalers at Cape Paterson\nMaulboyheenner – Hanged at Melbourne on 20 January 1842 for the murder of two whalers at Cape Paterson\nCharles Ellis – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 June 1842 for \"shooting with intent to maim or disable\" (\"The Plenty Trio\")\nMartin Fogarty – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 June 1842 for \"shooting with intent to maim or disable\" (\"The Plenty Trio\")\nDaniel (\"Yankee Jack\") Jepps – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 June 1842 for \"shooting with intent to maim or disable\" (\"The Plenty Trio\")\nAlkepurata (\"Roger\") – 5 September 1842 – From Port Fairy. Hanged at Melbourne for murder of Patrick Codd at Mount Rouse, Hamilton\nJeremiah Connell - 27 January 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Edward Martin at Buninyong\nBobby – 30 April 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the killing by spear of Andrew Beveridge at Piangil\nPtolemy – 30 April 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the killing by spear of Andrew Beveridge at Piangil\nJohn (\"Pretty Boy\") Healey – 29 November 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Jemmy Ritchie at Tarraville, Gippsland\nAugustus Dancey 19 – 1 August 1848 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Matthew Luck at Stony Creek (Spotswood)\n\n1850s\nPatrick Kennedy – 1 October 1851 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary at Penshurst\nJames Barlow – 22 May 1852 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder by stabbing William Jones at a boarding house in Flinders Street, Melbourne\nJohn Riches (Richie) – 3 November 1852 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Harry Webb in the Black Forest, near Macedon\nGeorge Pinkerton – 4 April 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Bridget Smith, 8 months pregnant, and her one-year-old son Charles at Brighton\nAaron Durant – 11 July 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for robbery with violence and sexual assault of Mr & Mrs John Wright at Bendigo\nJohn Smith – 23 August 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Fryer's Creek\nHenry Turner – 23 August 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Fryer's Creek\nWilliam Atkins (or Atkyns) – 3 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the robbery of the Private Escort, near Kalkallo\nGeorge (\"Frenchy\") Melville – 3 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the robbery of the Private Escort\nGeorge Wilson – 3 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the robbery of an Escort\nPatrick O'Connor (or Connor) – 24 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the attempted murder of Edward Thompson near Kilmore\nHenry Bradley – 24 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the attempted murder of Edward Thompson near Kilmore\nMichael Fennessy – 25 October 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of his wife Eliza Fennessy off Little Bourke Street\nAlexander Ram – 25 October 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Kitty Finessy at Prahran\nJohn Smith – 25 November 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for being accessory to rape of Mary-Ann Brown on the Goulburn River Diggings\nJoseph West – 27 December 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for rape of eight-year-old Elizabeth Fraser near Chewton\nJames Button – 28 March 1854 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Shooting With Intent on the Goulburn River Diggings\nDavid Magee – 25 April 1854 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of a man named McCarthy on the Avoca River\nWilliam Thoroughgood – 23 May 1854 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of seven-year-old Sarah Bishop\nJohn Hughes – 25 September 1854 – Hanged At Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Abraham Marcus at Yackandandah\nJohn Gunn – 9 November 1854 – Hanged at Geelong Gaol for the murder of Samuel Harris at Warrnambool\nGeorge (John) Roberts – 9 November 1854 – Hanged at Geelong for attempting to poison George Kelly at Native Creek, near Inverleigh\nLuke Lucas – 24 November 1854 – Hanged for murder of his wife Mary off Little Bourke Street\nJames McAlister – 25 July 1855 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Jane Jones at the Exchange Hotel, Swanston Street, Melbourne\nJames Condon (alias Arthur Somerville) - 24 November 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence near Bacchus Marsh\nJohn Dixon – 24 November 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence near Bacchus Marsh\nAlfred Henry Jackson – 24 November 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence near Bacchus Marsh\nJames Ross (alias Griffiths) – 22 April 1856 – Hanged at Geelong Gaol for the murder of his son and Eliza Sayer near Horsham\nWilliam Twigham (or Twiggem, alias Lexton)33 – 11 March 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Sergeant John McNally at the Cathcart Diggings, near Ararat\nChu-Ah-Luk 30 – 2 March 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Ah Pat at Campbell's Creek\nJames Cornick – 16 March 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Agnes McCallum (Horne) at Eaglehawk\nFrederick Turner 22 – 27 April 1857 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery Under Arms on the Flemington Road\nThomas Williams – 28 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nHenry Smith (alias Brennan) – 28 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nThomas Moloney – 28 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nFrancis Brannigan – 29 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nWilliam Brown – 29 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nRichard Bryant – 29 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nJohn Chisley – 30 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nJames Woodlock – 1 June 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Charles Vick in Castlemaine\nChong Sigh – 3 September 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Sophia \"The Chinawoman\" Lewis in a brothel in Stephen Street (Exhibition Street) Melbourne\nHing Tzan – 3 September 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Sophia Lewis in a brothel in Stephen Street (Exhibition Street) Melbourne\nJohn Mason – 6 November 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of \"Big George\" Beynor at Ballan\nEdward Brown – 1 March 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Ararat Racecourse\nWilliam Jones – 1 March 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Ararat Racecourse\nGeorge Robinson – 16 March 1858 – Hanged for the murder of Margaret Brown at Maryborough\nEdward Cardana (alias John Nelson alias Michael Ferrara) – 19 March 1858 – Hanged at Bendigo for the murder of John Armstrong at Long Gully\nOwen McQueeny – 20 October 1858 – Hanged at Geelong for the murder of Elizabeth Lowe near Meredith (\"The Green Tent Murder\")\nSamuel Gibbs – 12 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Anne at Ararat. This execution was botched; the rope snapped tumbling Gibbs to the floor. He had to be carried back up the scaffold and hanged again with a fresh rope.\nGeorge Thompson – 12 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Hugh Anderson at Ballarat\nEdward Hitchcock – 29 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Ann at Strathloddon, near Campbell's Creek. This execution was also botched; Hitchcock failed to die and remained struggling on the rope. The executioner had to grab Hitchcock by the knees and use his weight to ensure death.\nChristian Von Sie (or Von See) – 29 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Martin Loemann near Mitiamo\nThomas Ryan – 11 April 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Joe Hartwig in the Indigo Valley\nWilliam (\"Plaguey Billy\") Armstrong – 12 July 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for shooting with intent, Omeo\nGeorge (\"The Butcher\") Chamberlain 24 – 12 July 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for shooting with intent, Omeo\nRichard Rowley – 26 July 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for violent assault with intent to murder his overseers at the Pentridge Stockade\nWilliam Siddons – 7 November 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of eight-year-old Mary-Anne Smith at Doctor's Creek, near Lexton\nHenry Brown – 21 November 1859 – Hanged for murder of George James Tickner at Mount Korong, near Wedderburn\n\n1860s\nGeorge Waines -16 July 1860 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Mary Hunt at Casterton\nEdward Fenlow (alias Reynolds) – 20 August 1860 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of George Plummer (alias Gardiner) at Inglewood\nJohn McDonald – 30 September 1860 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of his wife Sarah at Ironbark Gully, Bendigo\nWilliam Smith – 22 April 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Ellen near Wangaratta\nHenry Cooley – 11 July 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of his wife Harriet at Heathcote\nNathaniel Horatio Ruby – 5 August 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Joe Watson at the Great Western Reef, Tarnagulla\nMartin Rice – 30 September 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Anthony Green off Bourke Street, Melbourne\nThomas Sanders – 31 October 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of Mary Egan at Keilor\nSamuel Pollett – 29 December 1862 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of his ten-year-old daughter Sarah at Prahran\nThomas McGee – 19 February 1863 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Alexander Brown at Maiden Gully\nJames Murphy – 6 November 1863 – Hanged at Geelong for the murder of Senior Constable Daniel O'Boyle at Warrnambool\nJulian Cross – 11 November 1863 – From Macao. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Robert Scott in the Wappan district (near Mansfield)\nDavid Gedge – 11 November 1863 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Robert Scott in the Wappan district (near Mansfield)\nElizabeth Scott – 11 November 1863 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of her husband in the Wappan district (near Mansfield)\nJames Barrett (also called Birmingham) – 1 December 1863 - Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Beckinsale at Woodstock\nAlexander Davis – 29 February 1864 – Hanged at Ballarat Gaol for the murder of George Sims at Smythesdale\nWilliam Carver (also called Thornby, Foster) – 3 August 1864 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for an attempted bank robbery at Fitzroy\nSamuel Woods (also called Abraham Salmonie) – 3 August 1864 - Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Shooting With Intent in an attempted bank robbery at Fitzroy\nChristopher Harrison – 3 August 1864 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of James Marsh in William St.\nJohn Stacey (real name Casey) – 5 April 1865 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of two-year-old Danny Gleeson at South Melbourne\nJoseph (\"Quiet Joe\") Brown – 4 May 1865 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Emmanuel \"Dodger\" Jacobs at the Whittington Tavern, Bourke Street Melbourne\nPeter Dotsalaere – 6 July 1865 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Catherine Jacobs at 106 LaTrobe Street Melbourne\nDavid Young – 21 August 1865 – Hanged at Castlemaine Gaol for the murder of Margaret Graham at Daylesford\nThomas (\"Yankee Tom\") Menard – 28 October 1865 – Hanged at Geelong for the murder of James Sweeney at Warrnambool\nPatrick Sheehan – 6 November 1865 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of James Kennedy at Rowdy Flat Yackandandah\nLong Poy – 10 March 1866 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Ah Yong at Emu Flat\nJames Jones – 19 March 1866 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Dr Julius Saenger, committed at Scarsdale\nRobert Bourke (alias Cluskey) – 29 November 1866 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Harry Facey Hurst at Diamond Creek\nDenis Murphy – 16 April 1867 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Patrick O'Meara at Bullarook\nJohn Kelly – 4 May 1867 – Hanged at Beechworth for sodomy on eighteen-month-old James Strack at Wangaratta\nWilliam Terry – 31 July 1867 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of a man named Peter Reddick or Redyk on the Coliban near Taradale\nGeorge Searle – 7 August 1867 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Thomas Burke at Piggoreet\nJoseph Ballan – 7 August 1867 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Thomas Burke at Piggoreet\nBernard Cunningham – 31 March 1868 – Confederate Army veteran. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of John Fairweather at Green Gully, near Keilor\nJoseph Whelan – 31 March 1868 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of farmer Tom Branley at Rokewood\nJohn Hogan – 14 August 1868 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Martin Rooney, committed at Bullock Creek, outside Marong\nMichael Flannigan (Flannagan) – 31 March 1869 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Sgt Thomas Hull at Hamilton\nJames Ritson – 3 August 1869 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of the Methodist Minister William Hill, who was visiting him at A Division, Pentridge\nPeter Higgins (alias James Smith) – 11 November 1869 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of his wife Elizabeth Wheelahan near Springhurst\n\n1870s\nAh Pew – 23 May 1870 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of nine-year-old Elizabeth Hunt at Glenluce, near Vaughan\nPatrick Smith – 4 August 1870 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary at North Melbourne\nAndrew Vair (Vere) – 15 August 1870 – Hanged at Ararat for murder of Amos Cheale at St Arnaud\nJames Cusack – 30 August 1870 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Anne at Woods Point\nJames Seery – 14 November 1870 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of August Tepfar at Crooked River, Gippsland\nJames Quinn – 10 November 1871 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of Ah Woo, near Myrtleford\nPatrick Geary – 4 December 1871 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of a shepherd named Thomas Brookhouse near Colac in 1854\nEdward Feeney – 14 May 1872 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Charles Marks in the Treasury Gardens\nJames Wilkie – 20 May 1872 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Henry Pensom at Daylesford\nSamuel Wright – 11 March 1873 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the attempted murder of Arthur Hagan (or Hogan) at Dead Horse Flat, near Eaglehawk\nThomas Brady – 12 May 1873 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of John Watt (\"The Wooragee Murder\")\nJames Smith – 12 May 1873 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of John Watt (\"The Wooragee Murder\")\nPierre Borbun (Barburn, Borhuu) – 20 May 1873 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Sarah Smith, the publican's wife at the White Swan Hotel, Sunrise Gully, Kangaroo Flat\nOscar (or Hasker) Wallace - 11 August 1873 - Hanged at Ballarat for the rape of Mary Cook at Mount Beckworth, near Clunes\nAh Kat (Ah Cat) – 9 August 1875 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Friedrich Renzelmann at Bet Bet, near Dunolly\nAn Gaa – 30 August 1875 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Pooey Waugh, committed at Vaughan\nHenry Howard – 4 October 1875 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Wright, licensee of the Frankston Hotel\nJohn Weachurch (alias Taylor) – 6 December 1875 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for attempted murder of Warder Patrick Moran\nJohn Duffus – 22 May 1876 – Hanged at Castlemaine, having been handed in by his wife for the rape of his eleven-year-old daughter Mary Ann near Goornong\nJames (\"Donegal Jim\") Ashe – 21 August 1876 – Hanged at Ballarat for the rape of Elizabeth Reece at Burrumbeet\nBasileo Bondietto – 11 December 1876 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Carlo Comisto near Tallarook\nWilliam Hastings – 14 March 1877 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Annie near Mount Eliza\nThomas Hogan – 9 June 1879 – Hanged at Beechworth for fratricide at Bundalong, near Yarrawonga\n\n1880s\nNed Kelly 25 – 11 November 1880 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan\nRobert Rohan – 6 June 1881 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of John Shea at Yalca\nRobert Francis Burns – 25 September 1883 – Confessed to eight murders. Hanged at Ararat for the murder of Michael Quinliven at Wickliffe\nHenry Morgan – 6 June 1884 – Hanged at Ararat for the rape and murder of ten-year-old Margaret Nolan at Panmure\nJames Hawthorn – 21 August 1884 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for fratricide at Brighton\nWilliam O'Brien – 24 October 1884 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of farmer Peter McAinsh at Lancefield\nWilliam Barnes – 15 May 1885 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Joe Slack at South Melbourne\nCharles Bushby (alias Baker) – 3 September 1885 – Hanged at Ballarat for attempted murder of Det Sgt Richard Hyland near Gong Gong\nEdward (\"The Fiddler\") Hunter – 27 November 1885 – Hanged at Bendigo Prison for the murder of Jim Power at the Golden Fleece Hotel, Charlton\nFreeland Morell – 7 January 1886 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of fellow sailor John Anderson on the docks at Port Melbourne\nGeorge Syme – 9 November 1888 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his mother-in-law Margaret Clifford at Lilydale\nWilliam Harrison – 18 March 1889 – Hanged at Bendigo for the murder of 'Corky Jack' Duggan at Elmore\nFilipe Castillo - 16 September 1889 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Annie Thornton at North Carlton\nRobert Landells – 16 October 1889 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Peter Sherlock at Chamber's Paddock, about 6 km from Ringwood\n\n1890s\nJohn Thomas Phelan – 16 March 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his de facto wife Ada Hatton at St.James' Place (now Ellis St) South Yarra\nJohn Wilson – 23 March 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his fiancée Estella Marks at Darling Gardens, Clifton Hill\nCornelius Bourke – 20 April 1891 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of an elderly prisoner named Peter Stewart in the gaol at Hamilton\nFatta Chand – 27 April 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Juggo Mull at Healesville\nFrank Spearin (also called John Wilson) – 11 May 1891 – Hanged at Ballarat for the rape of six-year-old Adeline Shepherd at Eastern Oval, Ballarat\nJames Johnston – 18 May 1891 – Hanged at Ballarat Gaol for murdering his wife Mary and their four children in Drummond Street North, Ballarat\nWilliam Coulston (Colston) – 21 August 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Mary & William Davis at Narbethong\nFrederick Bailey Deeming – Murdered at least six people. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Emily Mather at Windsor – 23 May 1892\nJohn Conder – 28 August 1893 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Karamjit Singh near Buchan\nFrances Knorr – 15 January 1894 – \"The Brunswick Baby Farmer\" – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of two infants\nErnest Knox – 19 March 1894 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Isaac Crawcour while in the act of burglary at Williamstown\nFred Jordan – 20 August 1894 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his girlfriend Minnie Crabtree at Port Melbourne\nMartha Needle – 22 October 1894 – Murdered five people by poison. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Louis Juncken at 137 Bridge Road Richmond\nElijah Cockroft – 12 November 1894 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Fanny Mutt at Noradjuha, near Natimuk\nArthur Buck – 1 July 1895 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Catherine Norton at South Melbourne\nEmma Williams – 4 November 1895 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of her two-year-old son John at Port Melbourne\nCharles Henry Strange – 13 January 1896 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Fred Dowse at Lakes Entrance\nCharles John Hall – 13 September 1897 – Hanged at Bendigo for the murder of his wife Minnie at Eaglehawk\nAlfred Archer – 21 November 1898 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of William Matthews at Strathmerton\n\n1900s to 1920s\nWilliam Robert Jones – 26 March 1900 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murdering eight-year-old Rita Jones at Broadford\nAlbert Edward McNamara – 14 April 1902 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for arson causing death of his four-year-old son Bert at Carlton\nAugust Tisler (Sippol) – 20 October 1902 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Edward Sangal at Dandenong\nJames Coleman Williams – 8 September 1904 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his employer's wife Mary Veitch at O'Grady Street Clifton Hill\nCharles Deutschmann – 29 June 1908 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of his wife Isabella Deutschmann at Dobie, near Ararat\nJoseph Pfeiffer – 29 April 1912 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for shooting his sister-in-law Florence Whitely at 102 Mills Street, Middle Park\nJohn Jackson – 24 January 1916 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Constable David McGrath while in the act of robbing the Trades Hall\nAntonio Picone – 18 September 1916 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Giuseppe Lauricella at Queen Victoria Market\nAlbert Edward Budd (39) – 29 January 1918 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his foster-sister Annie Samson at Port Melbourne\nGeorge Farrow Blunderfield – 15 April 1918 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of mother and daughter Margaret & Rose Taylor at Trawool\nColin Campbell Ross – 24 April 1922 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Gun Alley Murder. Posthumously pardoned in 2007, the only instance of a pardon for a judicially executed person in Australia\nAngus Murray (real name Henry Donnelly) – 14 April 1924 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Thomas Berriman at Glenferrie Station\n\n1930 onwards\nDavid Bennett – 26 September 1932 – Hanged at Pentridge Prison for the rape of a four-year-old girl at North Carlton (sentenced to death for a similar offence in WA in 1911). The first execution at Pentridge.\nArnold Sodeman – 1 June 1936 – \"The Schoolgirl Strangler\" – Confessed to the murder of four girls. Hanged at Pentridge.\nEdward Cornelius – 22 June 1936 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of the Reverend Laceby Cecil at St. Saviour's Collingwood (\"The Vicarage Murder\").\nThomas William ('Nugget') Johnson – 23 January 1939 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of Chares Bunney and Robert Gray at the former Windsor Castle Hotel, Dunolly.\nGeorge Green – 17 April 1939 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of Phyllis and Annie Wiseman at Glenroy.\nAlfred Bye – 22 December 1941 – Hanged at Pentridge for stabbing to death Thomas Walker off Treasury Place. Bye took over twenty-two minutes to die.\nEddie Leonski – 9 November 1942 – \"The Brownout Strangler\" – Hanged at Pentridge for the murders of Ivy McLeod (at Victoria Avenue, Albert Park), Pauline Thompson (at Spring Street, Melbourne) and Gladys Hosking (at Gatehouse Street, Parkville).\nJean Lee – 19 February 1951 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent in Dorrit Street, Carlton. The last woman executed in Australia.\nNorman Andrews – 19 February 1951 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent.\nRobert David Clayton – 19 February 1951 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent.\nRonald Ryan – 3 February 1967 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of Prison Officer George Hodson. The last person executed in Australia.\n\nWestern Australia\n\nLong Island, Houtman Abrolhos\n Jeronimus Corneliszoon - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Lenert Michielsz - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Mattys Beijr - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Jan Hendricx - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Allert Janssen - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Rutger Fredericxsz - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Andries Jonas - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n\nYork\n Doodjeep – 7 July 1840 – Hanged in chains at the site of the crime, for the murders of Sarah Cook and her 8-month-old child on 18 May 1839 at Norrilong, York\n Barrabong – 7 July 1840 – Hanged in chains at the site of the crime for the murders of Sarah Cook and her 8-month-old child on 18 May 1839 at Norrilong, York\n\nMullewa\n Wangayackoo – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Yermakarra – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Garolee – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Charlakarra – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Williakarra – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n\nKellerberrin\n Ngowee - 19 January 1866 - For the murder of Edward Clarkson on 21 August 1865, hanged at the site of the crime, at Dalbercuttin, near Kellerberrin\n Egup (Condor) - 21 April 1866 - For the murder of Edward Clarkson on 21 August 1865, hanged at the site of the crime, at Dalbercuttin, near Kellerberrin\n\nRoebourne\n Cooperabiddy – 20 March 1893 – Hanged for murder of James Coppin, described as a 'half-caste', at the Hamersley Ranges\n Doulga – 28 December 1896 – Hanged for the murder of John Horrigan at Lagrange Bay on 28 March 1896 \n Caroling – 14 May 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Dr Edward Vines at Braeside station\n Poeling – 14 May 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Dr Edward Vines at Braeside station\n Weedabong – 14 May 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Dr Edward Vines at Braeside station\n\nDerby\n Lillimara – 21 October 1899 – hanged at Derby Gaol for murder of Thomas Jasper on 17 March 1897 on Oscar Range Station, Fitzroy Crossing\n Mullabudden – 12 May 1900 – hanged at Derby Gaol for murder of John Dobbie on 12 March 1899 at Mount Broome\n Woolmillamah – 12 May 1900 – hanged at Derby Gaol for murder of John Dobbie on 12 March 1899 at Mount Broome\n\nHalls Creek\n Tomahawk – 18 March 1892 – Hanged at Mount Dockerell, the site of the crime, for the murder of William Miller on 26 June 1891\n Dicky – 18 March 1892 – Hanged at Mount Dockerell, the site of the crime, for the murder of William Miller on 26 June 1891\n Chinaman (Jerringo) – 18 March 1892 – Hanged at Mount Dockerell, the site of the crime, for the murder of William Miller on 26 June 1891\n\nGeraldton\n Sing Ong – 29 October 1884 – Hanged for the murder of Chung Ah Foo on 11 May 1884 at Shark Bay\n\nAlbany\n Peter McKean (alias William McDonald) – 12 October 1872 – Hanged for the murder of William \"Yorkie\" Marriott on 30 June 1872 at Slab Hut Gully (Tunney), between Kojonup and Cranbrook\n\nPerth\n Midgegooroo – 22 May 1833 – Executed at the Perth Gaol by firing squad on a death warrant issued summarily by Lieutenant Governor Frederick Irwin, for the murders of Thomas and John Velvick at Bull's Creek on 31 March 1833\n Mendik – 14 October 1841 – Hanged at the site of the crime for the murder of twelve-year-old John Burtenshaw on the Canning River at Maddington on 16 July 1839\n Buckas (a lascar) – January 1845 – Hanged at Perth for rape on a child under ten years of age\n James Malcolm – 14 April 1847 – Hanged at the site of the crime, the Burswood Estate (Victoria Park), for highway robbery and murder of Clark Gordon on 6 January 1847\n Kanyin – 12 April 1850 – Hanged at Redcliffe for the murder of Yadupwert at York. This was the first public execution in Western Australia for inter se murder\n Edward Bishop - 12 October 1854 - Hanged at South Perth for the murder of Ah Chong, a chinaman, at York. Protested his innocence to the end. Three years later William Voss confessed to the crime. Voss was hanged in 1862 at Perth Gaol for the murder of his wife\n Samuel Stanley – 18 April 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder of Catherine Dayly on the York Road\n Jacob – 18 April 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder of Bijare at Gingin on 25 September 1854\n Yoongal – 14 July 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder of Kanip at the Hotham River\n Yandan – 14 July 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder by spearing of a ten-year-old girl named Yangerdan near York\n\nHanged at the Perth Gaol:\n Bridget Hurford – 15 October 1855 – for the murder of her husband John Hurford at Vasse\n William Dodd – 15 October 1855 – for the murder of John Hurford at Vasse\n George Williams – 15 October 1855 – for wounding Warder James McEvoy with a shovel at the Convict Establishment on 26 September 1855 \n John Scott – 14 January 1856 – for the murder of William Longmate at Vasse\n Daniel Lewis (Convict # 2972)- January 1857 - for the rape of Ellen Horton at Woorooloo\n John Lloyd – 29 October 1857 – for wounding with intent to kill John Brown at Port Gregory in June 1857\n Richard Bibbey – 17 October 1859 – for the murder of Billamarra at Upper Irwin in March 1859. First European executed for murder of an aboriginal in Western Australia\n Thomas Airey - 13 October 1860 - for the rape of five-year-old Lydia Farmer at Perth in July. Had been granted ticket-of-leave 4 June 1860.\n John Caldwell - 13 October 1860 - for rape and murder of an aboriginal girl at Champion Bay. A ticket-of-leave man.\n Thomas Clancy – 10 January 1861 – for the rape of seven-year-old Ellen Jane White at Bunbury\n Joseph McDonald – 10 January 1861 – for rape at Toodyay\n Robert Thomas Palin – 6 July 1861 – for robbery with violence of Susan Harding at Fremantle\n William Voss – 9 January 1862 – for the murder of his wife Mary Moir at York on 11 November 1861\n Kewacan (Larry) – 24 January 1862 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861\n Long Jimmy – 24 January 1862 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861 \n Narreen – 10 April 1862 – for the murder of an Indigenous girl called Nelly at Victoria Plains\n Eenue – 10 April 1862 – for the murder of an Indigenous girl called Nelly at Victoria Plains\n Finger – 10 April 1862 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861\n Thomas Pedder – 21 March 1863 – for the murder of Thomas Sweeny, a shepherd, at Irwin River on 1 December 1862\n John Thomas – 8 September 1863 – for the murder of Duncan Urquhart at Peninsula Farm on 6 June 1863\n Joseph White – 21 October 1863 – for rape of 13 yo Jane Rhodes, at Greenough on 18 August 1863\n Teelup – 21 October 1863 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861\n Narrigalt – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Martha Farling, a 3 year-old 'half-caste' girl, near York on 26 May 1865\n Youndalt – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Martha Farling, a 3 yo 'half-caste' girl, near York on 26 May 1865 \n Nandingbert – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Quatcull near Albany on 14 May 1865\n Yardalgene (also called Jackey Howson) – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Quatcull near Albany on 14 May 1865 \n Daniel Duffy - 11 January 1866 - an escaped convict, hanged for the murder of Edward Johnson on 5 November 1865 at Northam \n Matthew Brooks - 11 January 1866 - an escaped convict, hanged for the murder of Edward Johnson on 5 November 1865 at Northam\n Bernard Wootton (also called MacNulty) - 8 October 1867 - an escaped convict, hanged for the attempted murder of Police Sgt. John Moye after his recapture at Murramine, near Beverley. Hanged at Perth Gaol.\n James Fanning – 14 April 1871 – for the rape of thirteen-year-old Mary Dawes on the Albany Road on 24 November 1870. The first private execution and the last execution for rape in the colony\n Margaret Cody – 15 July 1871 – for the murder of James Holditch, at North Fremantle on 4 March 1871\n William Davis – 15 July 1871 – for the murder of James Holditch, at North Fremantle on 4 March 1871\n Briley (Briarly) – 13 October 1871 – for the murder of Charley (Wickin) at Albany\n Noorbung – 13 October 1871 – for the murder of Margaret Mary McGowan at Boyanup on 30 June 1871\n Charcoal (Mullandaridgee) – 15 February 1872 – for the murder of Samuel Wells Lazenby at Port Walcott on 7 August 1871\n Tommy (Mullandee) – 15 February 1872 – for the murder of Samuel Wells Lazenby at Port Walcott on 7 August 1871\n Yarradeee – 16 October 1873 – for the murder and cannibalism of three-year-old Edward William Dunn at Yanganooka, Port Gregory on 5 October 1865\n Muregelly – 16 October 1873 – for the murder and cannibalism of three-year-old Edward William Dunn at Yanganooka, Port Gregory on 5 October 1865\n Robert Goswell – 13 January 1874 – for murder of Mary Anne Lloyd at Stapelford, Beverley on 1 December 1873\n John Gill – 4 April 1874 – hanged for the murder of William Foster at Narrogin on 13 February 1874\n Bobbinett – 22 April 1875 – for the murder of Police Lance-Corporal William Archibald Armstrong near Kojonup on 14 January 1875\n Wanaba (or Wallaby) – 22 April 1875 – for the murder of Tommy Howell (or Moul), a police native assistant, near Yalgoo on 10 July 1874\n Wandagary – 22 April 1875 – for the murder of Tommy Howell (or Moul), a police native assistant, near Yalgoo on 10 July 1874\n Kenneth Brown – 10 June 1876 – for the murder of his wife Mary Ann on 3 January 1876 at Geraldton\n Yarndu – 16 October 1876 \n Chilagorah – 29 April 1879 – for the murder of Pintagorah at Cossack on 31 January 1879\n Ah Kett – 27 January 1883 – for the murder of Foo Ah Moy, at Cheritah Station, Roebourne on 2 July 1883 \n John Collins – 27 January 1883 – for the murder of John King at the Kalgan River near Albany on 2 October 1882\n John Maroney – 25 October 1883 – for the murder of James Watson at Yellenup, Kojonup on 1 May 1883\n William Watkins – 25 October 1883 – for the murder of James Watson at Yellenup, Kojonup on 1 May 1883\n Henry Benjamin Haynes – 23 January 1884 – for the murder of his wife Mary Ann Haynes at Perth on 12 October 1883\n Thomas Henry Carbury – 23 October 1884 – for the murder of Constable Hackett at Beverley on 12 September 1884 \n John Duffy – 28 January 1885 – for the murder of his wife Mary Sultana McGann at Fremantle on 21 November 1884\n Henry Sherry – 27 October 1885 – for the murder of Catherine Waldock at Quinderring, Williams on 16 September 1885\n Franz Erdmann – 4 April 1887 – for the murder of Anthony Johnson at McPhee's Creek, Kimberley on 27 October 1886\n William Conroy – 18 November 1887 – for the murder of John Snook at Fremantle Town Hall on 23 June 1887\n\nRottnest\n Tampin – 16 July 1879 – Hanged for the murder of John Moir at Stokes Inlet on 29 March 1877\n Wangabiddi – 18 Jun 1883 – Hanged for the murder of Charles Redfern at Minni-Minni on the Gascoyne River in May 1882 \n Guerilla – 18 June 1883 – Hanged for the murder of Anthony Cornish at Fitzroy River on 12 December 1882\n Naracorie – 3 August 1883 – Hanged for the murder of Charles Brackell at Wandagee on the Minilya River on 31 July 1882 \n Calabungamarra – 13 June 1888 – Hanged for the murder of a Chinese man, Indyco, at Hamersley Range\n\nFremantle\n\nHanged at the Round House:\n John Gaven – 6 April 1844 – Hanged for the murder of George Pollard at South Dandalup\n\nHanged at Fremantle Prison:\n Long Jimmy (alias Jimmy Long) – 2 March 1889 – A Malay, hanged for the murder of Claude Kerr on board the pearling lugger 'Dawn' at Cossack on 7 September 1888\n Ahle Pres (alias Harry Pres) – 8 November 1889 – A Singapore Malay, hanged for the murder of Louis, a Filipino, near Halls Creek, on 9 June 1889\n Ah Chi (alias Li Ki Hong) – 16 April 1891 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Gin at Daliak, York on 3 March 1891\n Chew Fong – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Pang at Meka Station on 23 Dec 1891\n Lyee Nyee – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Pang at Meka Station on 23 Dec 1891\n Yung Quonk (Young Quong) – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Pang at Meka Station on 23 Dec 1891\n Sin Cho Chi – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of George E.B Fairhead, at a Mill Stream out-station, near Roebourne\n Goulam Mahomet – 2 May 1896 – Hanged for the murder of Tagh Mahomet in the mosque at Coolgardie on 10 January 1896\n Jumna Khan – 31 March 1897 – Hanged for the murder of William Griffiths in High Street, Fremantle on 3 December 1896\n Pedro De La Cruz – 19 July 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Captain John Arthur Reddell of the brigantine Ethel, his 19-year-old son Leslie, the mate James Taylor, and two crew-members (Ando, who was Japanese, and Jimmy, who was Indigenous), at the La Grange Bay pearling grounds, near Broome, on 19 October 1899\n Peter Perez – 19 July 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Captain John Arthur Reddell of the brigantine Ethel, his 19-year-old son Leslie, the mate James Taylor, and two crew-members (Ando, who was Japanese, and Jimmy, who was Indigenous), at the La Grange Bay pearling grounds, near Broome, on 19 October 1899\n Samuel Peters – 9 September 1902 – Hanged for the murder of his wife Trevenna Peters at Leederville on 3 July 1903 \n Stelios Psichitas – 15 April 1903 – Greek national, hanged for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law Sophia Psichitas (nee Leadakis) and murder of his 4-month-old nephew Emanuel at Lawlers on 20 December 1902\n Fredric Maillat – 21 April 1903 – French national, hanged for the murder of Charles Lauffer, at Smith's Mill, Glen Forest, on 4 February 1903\n Sebaro Rokka – 7 July 1903 – Hanged for the murder of Dollah and another Malay at Point Cunningham, near Derby on 20 February 1903\n Ah Hook – 11 January 1904 – Hanged for the murder of Yanoo, a Japanese laundryman, at Carnarvon on 26 August 1903\n Manoor Mohomet – 4 May 1904 – Hanged for the murder of Meer, an Afghan, at Kensington, near Menzies on 16 November 1903\n Simeon Espada – 14 December 1905 – Hanged for the murder of Mark Lieblig at Broome on 30 August 1905\n Charles Hagen – 14 December 1905 – Hanged for the murder of Mark Lieblig at Broome on 30 August 1905\n Pablo Marquez – 14 December 1905 – Hanged for the murder of Mark Lieblig at Broome on 30 August 1905\n Antonio Sala – 19 November 1906 – Hanged for the murder of Battista Gregorini at Mt Jackson on 13 September 1906\n Augustin De Kitchilan – 23 October 1907 – Hanged for the murder of Leah Fouracre at Peppermint Grove Farm, Waroona on 15 or 16 August 1907 \n Harry G. Smith – 23 March 1908 – Hanged for the murder of William John Clinton at Day Dawn on 5 January 1908\n Iwakichi Oki – 22 October 1908 – Hanged for the murder of James Henry Shaw at West Murray, Pinjarra on 23 August 1908\n Martha Rendell – 6 October 1909 – Hanged for the murder of her 14-year-old stepson Arthur Morris by poisoning on 8 October 1908, suspected of killing two younger stepchildren\n Peter Robustelli – 9 February 1910 – Hanged for the murder of Giovanni Forsatti in a lane between Bayley and Woodward streets, Coolgardie on 19 October 1909 \n Alexander Smart – 7 March 1911 – Hanged for the murder of Ethel May Harris at 5 Cowle Street, West Perth on 10 March 1910\n David H Smithson – 25 July 1911 – Hanged for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Elizabeth Frances Compton at Woodlupine on 13 May 1911\n Charles Spargo – 1 July 1913 – Hanged for the murder of Gilbert Pickering Jones at Broome on 23 January 1913\n Charles H. Odgers – 14 January 1914 – Hanged for the murder of Edith Molyneaux at Balgobin, Dandalup on 3 October 1913; also charged with murder of Richard Thomas Williams at Waroona on 14 September 1913\n Andrea Sacheri (alias Joseph Cutay) - 12 April 1915 – Hanged for the murder of 11-year-old Jean Bell at Marrinup, near Dwellingup, on 12 January 1915 \n Frank Matamin (alias Rosland) – 12 March 1923 – Hanged for the murder of Zareen at Nullagine on 27 August 1922\n Royston Rennie – 2 August 1926 – Hanged for the murder of John Roger Greville on the train between East Perth and Perth stations on 3 June 1926\n William Coulter – 25 October 1926 – Hanged for the murders of Inspector John Walsh and Sergeant Alexander Pitman near Boulder on 28 April 1926\n Phillip J. Trefene – 25 October 1926 – Hanged for the murders of Inspector John Walsh and Sergeant Alexander Pitman near Boulder on 28 April 1926\n John Sumpter Milner – 21 May 1928 – Hanged for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Ivy Lewis at Darkan on 28 February 1928\n Clifford Hulme – 3 September 1928 – Hanged for the murder of Harold Eaton Smith at Wubin on 22 June 1928\n Antonio Fanto – 18 May 1931 – Hanged for the murder of Cosimo Nesci (sometimes Nexi, Xesci) at Latham on 20 March 1931\n John Thomas Smith (Snowy Rowles) – 13 June 1932 – Hanged for the murder of Louis George Carron near the 183 mile gate on the No. 1 Rabbit-proof fence, near Youanmi, on or about 20 May 1930 \n Karol Tapci – 23 June 1952 – Hanged for the murder of Norman Alfred Perfect at Wubin on 17 March\n Robert Jeremiah Thomas – 18 July 1960 – Hanged for the murder of taxi-driver Keith Mervyn Campbell Wedd at Claremont on 22 June 1959. Also charged with the murder of John and Kaye O'Hara in Jimbell St, Mosman Park.\n Mervyn Fallows – 6 June 1961 – Hanged for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sandra Dorothea Smith at North Beach on or before 29 December 1960\n Brian William Robinson – 20 January 1964 – Hanged for the murder of Constable Noel Ileson at Belmont on 9 February 1963\n Eric Edgar Cooke – 26 October 1964 – Hanged for murder of John Lindsay Sturkey at Nedlands on 27 January 1963\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Purdue, Brian Legal Executions in Western Australia, Foundation Press, Victoria Park, WA, 1993. \n Heaton, J.H. Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time, S.W. Silver & Son, London, 1879. Part 2, pages 90–94.\n\nAustralian crime-related lists\nExecuted\nAustralia\n \nExecutions\nExecutions"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal",
"Who was there?",
"Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M.",
"Were they hanged?",
"The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M."
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Why were they hanged? | 4 | Why were Herold, Powell, and Surratt hanged? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | false | [
"The is a correctional facility in Katsushika, Tokyo. A part of the penal system of Japan, it is operated by the Ministry of Justice. It is one of seven detention houses in Japan, which detain people awaiting trial, as well as those who have been sentenced to death and await execution.\n\nHistory\nThe TDH has a tactical response unit, the Special Security Response Team, established on April 1, 2019.\n\nExecution chamber\n\nOne of Japan's seven execution chambers is in this facility. All executions in Japan are carried out by hanging. The execution chamber in Tokyo has a trap door, which is opened by one of the three buttons in the next-door room, which are simultaneously pressed by three prison staff members so that none of them will know for certain which of them pressed the real button. \n\nAs the condemned dies, their body falls into a room below the execution chamber, and in that room the death is confirmed. Before the condemned is executed, they pass a statue of Amida Nyorai (Amitābha), one of the Buddhas. The execution room is in two sections, with both of them together the size of a 15 tatami mat room.\n\nNotable prisoners\n Carlos Ghosn\nKiyoshi Miki\n Shoko Asahara (hanged 6 July 2018)\n Richard Sorge\n Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka\nNorio Nagayama (hanged 1 August 1997)\nTsutomu Miyazaki (hanged on 17 June 2008)\nMasahiro Kanagawa (hanged 21 February 2013)\nSeiichi Endo (hanged 6 July 2018)\nYukio Seki (hanged 26 November 1993)\nTeruhiko Seki (hanged 19 December 2017)\nHideki Kanda (hanged 1 August 1997)\nToru Toyoda (hanged 26 July 2018)\nKenichi Hirose (hanged 26 July 2018)\nSeiha Fujima (hanged 7 December 2007)\nMitsuo Yabe (hanged 30 September 1987)\nKoichi Shoji (hanged 2 August 2019)\nYoshio Iwamoto (hanged 27 August 2007)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n 法務省矯正局 \n 東京拘置所 \n\nBuildings and structures in Tokyo\nPrisons in Japan\nExecution sites in Japan\nKatsushika\n1879 establishments in Japan",
"This is a list of people executed in Australia, sorted geographically by state. As state boundaries have changed during Australia's history, this article lists executions according to state and territory boundaries as they have existed since 1989.\n\nBefore the arrival of Europeans, death sentences were carried out in Australia under Aboriginal customary law, either directly or through sorcery. The first executions under European law occurred on 2 October 1629 on Long Island in the Houtman Abrolhos of Western Australia, where seven crew members of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia were hanged for mutiny and the subsequent massacre of 125 passengers and crew.\n\nWithin weeks of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 and the establishment of Sydney, New South Wales as the first permanent European settlement, Thomas Barrett became the first person to be executed in Australia under British law. Since Federation in 1901, 114 people have been legally executed in Australia.\n\nNew South Wales\n \nTo assist those working to make the list more complete, the following information is added. According to one source, total numbers executed in NSW prior to 1820 per period were as follow. 1788-99: 43 (list below complete); 1800-09: 98 (list below as complete as possible because the fact of some executions are in doubt); 1810-19: 92.\nAccording to another source, total numbers executed in NSW during certain periods after 1820 were as follows: 1820-29: 170; 1830-39: 288; 1840-49: 99; 1850-59: 36; 1860-69: 51; 1870-79: 23; 1880-89: 26; 1890-99: 67; 1900-39: 24.\n\nFrom 1788 to 1830\n\nLocation of execution not indicated\n Samuel Mobbs – 16 March 1797 – Hanged for burglary.\n James Reece – 8 February 1799 – Hanged for bestiality with a sow. Reece tried to cut his own throat on the morning of his execution. \n John Hardy – 2 June 1800 – Hanged for vagrancy and theft.\n William Jones – March 1803 – Hanged for robbing Thomas Harley, a settler from Prospect.\n James Lovell – 22 February 1805 – Hanged for forging and uttering.\n George Holland – 11 October 1806 – Hanged for breaking into the house of Laughlane Gallighcoghan at Parramatta and stealing 10 shillings. Holland had assaulted the occupant of the home, described as a \"feeble old man\".\n Dennis Kaneen – 27 November 1806 – Hanged for breaking into the house of James Hogsen and stealing six bushels of maize, some meat, sugar and a copper coin amounting to nine shillings and three pence.\n William Page – 15 December 1806 – Hanged for burglary from the house of William Tracey at Fennel Farm.\n Abraham Smith – 15 December 1806 – Hanged for burglary from the house of William Tracey at Fennel Farm.\n William Poxam – 4 April 1807 – Hanged for sheep stealing.\n John Hughes – 4 April 1807 – Hanged for entering the house of Edward Redmond and stealing a chest containing cash, bills and other property.\n Hugh Dowling – 28 September 1808 – Hanged for armed burglary of the house of William Styles at Nepean and stealing cash and clothing.\n William Davis – 11 June 1813 – Hanged for cutting and maiming William Mason with a knife during a drunken brawl at Ultimo.\n Thomas Thorpe – September 1813 – Hanged for assaulting and robbing John Galligan of a silver watch on the King's Highway.\n William Gray – March or April 1814 – Hanged for highway robbery. Stopped the cart of Edward Powell Jr and John Beckwith on the King's Highway and robbed them of ten gallons of spirits and other items.\n Dennis Donovan – 12 July 1814 – Hanged for burglary of the house of John Cowley at Surry Hills, the murders of William Alder, Thomas White and Hannah Sculler on the Hawkesbury, and for rape. His body was handed over for anatomisation and dissection.\n Patrick Dawson – 9 February 1816 – Hanged for the robbery and murder of Edward Pugh at his home in Richmond. His body was dissected and anatomised.\n Philip McGee – 9 February 1816 – Hanged for the robbery and murder of Edward Pugh at his home in Richmond. His body was dissected and anatomised.\n Henry Laycock – 9 February 1816 – Hanged for the robbery and murder of Edward Pugh at his home in Richmond. His body was dissected and anatomised.\n Thomas Hill – 1 March 1816 – Hanged for cutting and maiming police constable Thomas Smith near Parramatta.\n William Langford – 1 March 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery on the Parramatta Road, robbing William Wright of a silver watch.\n Elizabeth Anderson – 19 July 1816 – Hanged for the murder of her husband, John Anderson, at Pitt Town. Her body was handed over to surgeons to be dissected and anatomised.\n James Stock – 19 July 1816 – Hanged for the murder of John Anderson at Pitt Town. His body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Nicholas Knight – 19 July 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery of Mrs Pearce on the Liverpool Rd, of two gallons of rum and a quantity of barley.\n Thomas Collins – 1 November 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery having violently assaulted and robbed the cart of John Andrews on the Parramatta Road.\n Hugh MacAlaire – 1 November 1816 – Hanged for highway robbery having violently assaulted and robbed the cart of John Andrews on the Parramatta Road.\n Moowattin (also called Daniel Mowatty) – 1 November 1816 – Hanged for the rape of a fifteen-year-old girl at Parramatta. The first indigenous person legally hanged in Australia.\n Patrick Ryan – 19 December 1825 – Hanged for arson in setting fire to the house of Richard Thompson at Bathurst.\n John Judd – 30 April 1830 – Hanged for robbery and putting in fear of John Smith in the Singleton area. After receiving sentence of death from Judge Dowling, Judd remarked to the court \"My Lord and Gentlemen of the Jury, it is only five minutes choking.\"\n John Roach – 30 April 1830 – Hanged for burglary and putting in fear in the Singleton area.\n\nSydney Cove\n Thomas Barrett – 27 February 1788 – Barrett was publicly hanged at Sydney Cove for stealing or conspiring to steal from government stores. He was the first person hanged in the colony of New South Wales.\n John Bennett – 2 May 1788 – A 20-year-old convict who was publicly hanged at Sydney Cove for theft.\n Samuel Payton – 28 June 1788 – Hanged at Sydney Cove for stealing shirts, stockings and combs. He was a 20-year-old convict and stonemason. \n Edward Corbett – 28 June 1788 – Hanged at Sydney Cove for the theft of four cows.\n James Daly – December 1788 – Hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of a handkerchief from a fellow convict using force and arms.\n James Baker – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n James Brown – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Richard Lukes – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Thomas Jones – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Luke Haines/Haynes – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Richard Askew/Asky – 27 March 1789 – One of six Marines hanged at Sydney Cove for theft of government stores.\n Ann/Anne Davis (alias Judith Jones) – 23 November 1789 – The first woman hanged in Australia. A First Fleet convict, she was found guilty of theft from a fellow convict at Sydney Cove. She claimed to be pregnant to avoid the noose and some old women were instructed to inspect her. One of the women told the court, \"Gentlemen, she is as much with child as I am.\"\n\nSydney\n\n1790s\n Thomas Sanderson – 10 January 1790 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing with force of arms flour, beef, pork, associated chattels and goods from Thomas Steel and Joseph Bishop.\n William Chafe – 20 April 1790 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of James Sunnyhill in Sydney Cove. \n Hugh Low – 24 August 1790 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing. He had behaved with merit during the shipwreck of the Guardian; a letter of pardon arrived from His Majesty 12 months after his execution.\n James Chapman – 28 July 1791 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking into the house of John Patree and stealing a shirt. \n James Collington – 8 February 1792 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking into the hut of the baker John Campbell and stealing bread, flour and a check apron. At the hanging tree he addressed the assembled convicts before his execution, warning them to avoid the path he had pursued; but said that he was induced by hunger to commit the crime for which he suffered. \n John Crowe/Crow – 10 December 1793 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Archibald Macdonald – 14 July 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n John Hemming – 17 July 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Robert Spriggs.\n John Bevan – 6 October 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of William Fielder. \n John Hill – 16 October 1794 – Hanged at Sydney for murder in the course of robbery. He had fatally stabbed Simon Burn in the left side of the chest at Parramatta.\n William Smith – 16 November 1795 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of William Parrish at Prospect Hill.\n John Fenlow – 8 August 1796 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his servant David Lane at Mulgrave, on the Hawkesbury.\n Francis Morgan – 30 November 1796 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Simon Raven. Following his execution his body was gibbeted on Pinchgut Island in Sydney Harbour. His skeleton was still hanging there four years after his execution.\n John Lawler/Lawor – 30 November 1796 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the public stores.\n Martin McEwan – 30 November 1796 – Soldier, hanged at Sydney for robbing the public stores.\n John Rayner – 31 July 1797 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Johnathan Boroughbridge – April 1798 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy after he and accomplices stole two boats with the intent of escaping the colony.\n Michael Gibson – April 1798 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy after he and accomplices stole two boats with the intent of escaping the colony.\n Samuel Wright – February 1799 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Simeon Lord in High St (Lower George St). Wright had been reprieved at the gallows in 1793, when previously sentenced to hang for burglary.\n Thomas Jones – 6 July 1799 – Publicly hanged in Sydney on the site of the crime for the murder of missionary Samuel Clode in the brickfields. A soldier in the NSW Corps, he had owed the missionary money but when the man came to collect he was murdered by Jones with his wife and two neighbours as accomplices. Clode was stabbed, his throat cut and his skull fractured with an axe. The Jones house was pulled down and burned on orders of the governor, the gallows were erected on its spot and he and two of his accomplices were hanged. Jones' corpse was later gibbeted.\n Elizabeth Jones – 6 July 1799 – Wife of Thomas Jones. Hanged at Sydney for her part in the murder of missionary Samuel Clode at the brickfields in Sydney. After being hanged her body was handed over for surgical dissection.\n William Elberry – 6 July 1799 – Hanged at Sydney for his part in the murder of Samuel Clode, executed where the murder took place then gibbeted.\n\n1800s\n William Meredeth – 4 July 1800 – Hanged at Sydney for escaping from custody.\n Thomas Thompson – 4 July 1800 – A corporal in the New South Wales Corps. Hanged at Sydney for forgery.\n James Riley - December 1800 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary. However another source indicates that he may not in fact have been executed.\n Charles Davis - February 1801 - Hanged at Sydney\n David Burton - 5 December 1801 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Mary Hailey\n Laughlan Doyle – 14 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n John Lynch – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n John Francis Morgan – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Patrick Ross – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Thomas Shanks – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Michael Wollaghan – March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Laurence Dempsey – 19 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Timothy Mulch/Mulcahy/Malahoy – 25 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n John Brown – 26 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n James Connors – 26 March 1803 – Hanged at Sydney for feloniously entering the house of Thomas Neal of Richmond Hill.\n Charles Crump – 20 February 1804 – Hanged in Sydney for the theft of nine pieces of chintzes and printed calicoes from William Tough in Sydney Cove.\n John Brannan – 10 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Sydney.\n Timothy Hogan – 10 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Sydney.\n James Bevan (known as 'Warminster') – 21 May 1804 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of eight-year-old Elizabeth Douglas.\n John Green – 21 November 1804 – Hanged at Sydney for rape near Parramatta on 11 November 1804. Green was African-American, born in Pennsylvania.\n William Miller – 30 September 1805 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Bridget Kean at Hawkesbury.\n Herbert Keeling – 28 April 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for forging and uttering two promissory notes purporting to be drawn by Henry Kable.\n James Dabbs – 16 May 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the home of Rowland Hassall at Parramatta.\n Elias Davis - 4 September 1806 - Hanged at Sydney for breaking and entering the dwelling house of Robert Broughton, Parramatta.\n William Organ – 11 October 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing nine sheep from his employer John Palmer between the Hawkesbury and Sydney.\n Joseph Moreton – 27 November 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of Henry Williams near Castle Hill.\n William Mason – 27 November 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking and entering the house of John Prosser and stealing a cart and an article of clothing.\n John Murphey – 27 November 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for breaking and entering the house of Michael Connor at North Boundary. \n James Halfpenny – 17 December 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for bushranging and theft of livestock, four muskets and a chest.\n Stephen Halfpenny – 17 December 1806 – Hanged at Sydney for bushranging and theft of livestock, four muskets and a chest.\n Joseph Eades – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing a cart of alcohol and clothing items.\n John Higgins – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing a cart of alcohol and clothing items.\n William Morgan – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing a cart of alcohol and clothing items.\n Robert Murray – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing from the property of James Larratts.\n Benjamin Yeates – 3 July 1807 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing from the property of James Larratts.\n John Brown – 30 May 1808 – Hanged at Sydney. A convict who escaped from custody and remained at large in the Van Diemen's Land wilderness for some 20 months. During this time, with John Lemon (Lemon was shot dead while resisting capture) he was involved in the murder of three soldiers, Corporal John Curry, Private Robert Grindstone and Private James Daniels. For his involvement in the crimes Brown was transported from Van Diemen's Land to Sydney to stand trial. His body was dissected and gibbeted.\n Alexander Wilson (alias Charles Boyle) – 18 June 1808 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of William Moad.\n John MacNeal – 18 June 1808 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and robbery upon his master, having stolen two half casks and two quarter casks of gunpowder from the house of Robert Campbell.\n Mary Grady – 18 June 1808 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Charles Stuart at Parramatta.\n Richard Broughton – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for stealing two head of horned cattle from John Palmer at Hawkesbury.\n John Cheeseman – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for stealing two head of horned cattle from John Palmer at Hawkesbury.\n Charles Flynn – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for stealing from on board the ship Hero, lying in Sydney Cove, two spy glasses valued at 40 shillings and a table cloth valued at 10 shillings.\n Joseph Moreton – 29 August 1808 – Hanged in Sydney for forging and uttering a promissory note thereby defrauding Benjamin South of Richmond Hill the sum of £21.\n Thomas Doolan (Dowlan) – 26 August 1809 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of John Styles on the Hawkesbury.\n\n1810s\n John Campbell – June 1810 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Elizabeth Macarthur.\n James Hutchinson – 26 February 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing from the shop of Thomas Abbott. Hutchinson was originally condemned to death in June 1810 for burglary however he escaped from custody, upon being recaptured his sentence was reduced to hard labour. In February 1811 he was convicted along with James Ratty of stealing from commercial premises and both were hanged together.\n James Ratty – 26 February 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cloth, muslin etc. from the shop of Thomas Abbott.\n Martin Egan – 10 May 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Cooney. After being executed his body was handed over to surgeons for dissection and anatomisation.\n Thomas Clough – 13 May 1811 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Cooney. After being executed his body was handed over to surgeons for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Gould – 9 March 1812 – A soldier of the 73rd Regiment of Foot. Hanged in Sydney for the murder of Margaret Finnie, the wife of a fellow soldier.\n Peter Gory – 21 January 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at arms of William Parish in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.\n John McCabe – 21 January 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at arms of William Parish in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.\n John Townsend – 21 January 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at arms of William Parish in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.\n Matthew Kearns – 24 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Joseph Sutton, body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Kearns (the Elder) – 24 March 1813 – (Brother of Matthew Kearns). Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Joseph Sutton, body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Kearns (the Younger) – 24 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Joseph Sutton, body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Richard Berry – 31 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing.\n John Mahony – 31 March 1813 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing (brother of Thomas Mahony who was hanged on 24 March 1813 in Paramatta for a separate offence).\n Angelo (Giuseppe) LeRose – 13 April 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and robbery of Samuel Larkin on Parramatta Road, Iron Cove.\n Francis Barry – 13 April 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing three oxen that were the property of the crown.\n Richard Dowling – 13 April 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing three oxen that were the property of the crown.\n Thomas John Turner – 12 July 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Elizabeth, whom he stabbed to death at Port Dalrymple, Van Diemen's Land. His body was given up for dissection and anatomisation.\n Bartholomew Foley – 14 July 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for sheep stealing at Launceston, Van Diemen's Land.\n John White – 22 July 1814 – Hanged for his part in the murders of Rowland Edwards and William Jenkins during a botched robbery of the house at the Parramatta Toll Gate. He was accompanied by Dennis Donovan (hanged for other offences on 12 July 1814); it was Donovan who fired the fatal shots. But for his part in the robbery John White was found equally guilty. His body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Patrick Collins – 20 December 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for his part in the murder of William Alder & Thomas White on the Hawkesbury. Body dissected and anatomised.\n John Shepherd – 20 December 1814 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Mary Bryant in The Rocks, Sydney. His body was handed over to surgeons for dissection and anatomisation.\n John Styles – 7 July 1815 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Roberts at Botany Bay. His body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Colin Hunter – 4 November 1816 – Hanged in Sydney for the murder at Canterbury of John Miller who was shot during a burglary of his home. Body was dissected and anatomised pursuant to sentence.\n Thomas Dooley – 4 November 1816 – Hanged in Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of John Miller. The prisoner's body was handed over for dissection and anatomisation after he was executed.\n Michael Ryan (real name John Mahony) – 4 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of John Miller. Body was dissected and anatomised pursuant to sentence.\n James Flavell – 15 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Thomas Reeds in Castlereagh St.\n William Tripp – 15 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Thomas Reeds in Castlereagh St.\n John Palmer – 15 November 1816 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a bullock from the herd of Capt. Eber Bunker at Liverpool.\n Samuel Smith - 3 October 1817 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Randall at George Town, Van Diemen's Land\n John Walker – 10 October 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Suddis at Wilberforce.\n Ralph Pearson – 10 October 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Suddis at Wilberforce.\n Thomas McGiff – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of John Parkes at Petersham.\n Thomas Brown – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a mare, the property of Thomas Arkill.\n Patrick Ducey – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a cow, the property of Patrick Devoy.\n Bartholomew Roach – 7 November 1817 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing two heifers, the property of John Croker.\n William Wallis – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery in the house of John Harris.\n Edward Haley – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a horse, cart and other sundries near Parramatta.\n Samuel Pollock – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a horse, cart and other sundries near Parramatta.\n James Fitzpatrick – 27 February 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the house of John Brown at Portland Head.\n Pedro Aldanoes (also called Peter Adams) – 7 December 1818 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Joseph Yeates outside Parramatta.\n Timothy Buckley – 9 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of district constable William Cosgrove at South Creek.\n David Brown – 9 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of William Cosgrove.\n Timothy Ford – 9 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of William Cosgrove.\n Thomas Ray – 16 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n John Jones – 16 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n Thomas Smith – 16 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n John Green – 23 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for housebreaking and attempted murder at Cockle Bay.\n John Brennan – 23 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for housebreaking and attempted murder at Cockle Bay.\n John Petree (alias McIntosh) – 23 April 1819 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery outside Liverpool.\n Matthew Dace - 31 December 1819 - Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Dennis Guiney on the Parramatta Road.\n Robert Parsons - 31 December 1819 - Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Dennis Guiney on the Parramatta Road.\n\n1820 to 1821\n William Taylor - 14 July 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary in Castlereagh Street.\n James Ingley - 14 July 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary in Castlereagh Street.\n James Garland - 14 July 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for forgery of store receipts at Parramatta.\n Thomas McGowran – 18 August 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing.\n Daniel (or David) Bell – 18 August 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing. Originally transported on the Friendship (1800) for his role in the Irish Rebellion.\n Annesley McGrath – 18 August 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing.\n George Rouse - 25 August 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the residence of Lieutenant Hector Macquarie.\n Dennis Malloy - 25 August 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle.\n Thomas Ford (alias Ward) - 25 August 1820 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the residence of Anne Robinson on the Parramatta Road.\n John Kirby – 18 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Burragong, also called Jack, an indigenous tracker, in the Newcastle district.\n George Bowerman – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at the eighteen-mile stone on the Windsor Road.\n James Bowerman – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at the eighteen-mile stone on the Windsor Road.\n Solomon Bowerman – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at the eighteen-mile stone on the Windsor Road.\n James Clancy (Clency) – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing from a house and violent robbery of a child.\n John Bagnell – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for house-breaking and highway robbery.\n Nicholas Cooke – 22 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing from the house of James Seville near Constitution Hill, and assaulting Constable Edward Dillon with a stone.\n Edward Luffin – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle duffing.\n Michael Tracey – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at the house of John Waite.\n John Sullivan – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Daniel O'Brien – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery.\n John O'Brien – 23 December 1820 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle duffing.\n William Swift – 17 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Maria Minton at Richmond.\n James Robinson – 17 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his overseer Charles Linton. Robinson was from Angola.\n Francis Pascoe – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Michael Donnelly.\n John Ryan – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery.\n Miles Jordan – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in the Hawkesbury district.\n Pasco Haddycott – 22 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Michael Donnelly.\n William McGeary (Geary) – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for a string of highway robberies on the Windsor Road.\n Thomas Smith – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n John Whiteman – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n William Kennedy – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary & theft of a hat, comb and razor from Henry McAlister near Prospect.\n John Mills – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n Charles Young – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n John Cochrane – 24 August 1821 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Windsor Road.\n\n1822 to 1824\n Francis Murphy – 6 April 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Nicholas Devine (former Superintendent of Convicts) at what is now Erskineville.\n William Harris – 6 April 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of James Cribb on the Parramatta Road.\n John Maloney – 1 May 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the house of John McKenzie at Pitt Town.\n William Varley – 1 May 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the house of John McKenzie at Pitt Town.\n Thomas Roach – 1 May 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing the house of John McKenzie at Pitt Town.\n George Young – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of a cart belonging to John Blaxland at South Creek.\n James Dowden – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of John Sunderland, south of Parramatta.\n Joseph Knowles – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from John Price's residence at the Parramatta Toll-House.\n George Barke – 5 July 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from John Price's residence at the Parramatta Toll-House.\n Thomas Barry – 14 October 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Samuel and Esther Bradley at Birchgrove.\n Valentine Wood – 8 November 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing Sergeant Barlow on the Prospect Road.\n William Baxter – 8 November 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of Robert Hawkins on the Dog Trap Road.\n Thomas Till – 8 November 1822 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing a boat at Port Macquarie.\n William Poole – 22 May 1823 – Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally sentenced to death for leading a party of convicts in escape into the hinterland, in the hope they could walk to Timor.\n Edward Gorman – 13 October 1823 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William Wells during a robbery at Minto. Gorman was recognisable for his \"remarkable tooth\".\n Robert Grant – 15 January 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally condemned to death in 1822 for horse theft.\n Thomas Harley – 4 March 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for returning from Port Macquarie in defiance of his commuted sentence. Originally sentenced to death in 1822 for burglary from the house of Robert Campbell in George St.\n Cornelius Fitzpatrick – 28 June 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Bentley outside Newcastle.\n John Donovan – 23 August 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Tom Brown at Emu Plains.\n John Hand – 30 August 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Minton at Richmond.\n James Stack – 30 August 1824 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Minton at Richmond.\n\n1825 to 1826\n Martin Benson – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek near Windsor.\n Eliza Campbell – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of her master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n James Coogan – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n Anthony Rodney – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n John Sprole – 23 January 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his master John Brackfield at South Creek, near Windsor.\n Jeremiah Buckley – 4 April 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Canterbury.\n Edmond Bates – 11 April 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for beating his wife Julia to death during a Christmas Day drunken rage at Kissing Point.\n James Wright – 30 May 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe murder of his wife Mary Ann at the Hawkesbury.\n James Webb – 19 August 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Robert Collett at Toongabbie.\n Patrick Moloney – 12 September 1825 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William Elliott at Port Macquarie.\n Daniel Leary - 12 December 1825 - Hanged at Sydney for rape of Mary Grainger at Wallis Plains.\n John Burke – 6 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Cogan at Mulgoa.\n William Corbett – 6 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Great Western Road.\n Duncan McCallum – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n Peter Roberts – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n William Patient – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n William Morrison – 7 March 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at South Creek.\n Andrew White – 1 May 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Taggart at Grant's Creek, outside Bathurst.\n William Cusack – 3 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Campbelltown.\n John Hossle – 3 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of John Blackman at Bathurst.\n Bridget Fairless – 12 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in what is now the Leichhardt section of Parramatta Road.\n John Connolly (Collins) – 12 July 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in what is now the Leichhardt section of Parramatta Road.\n Charles Butler – 3 August 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Kitty Carman (Catherine Collins) at Portland Head.\n Joseph Lockett – 7 August 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road near Cabramatta.\n Isaac Smith – 11 September 1826 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Constable William Green at Captain John Brabyn's estate, Clifton, Windsor.\n\n1827\n George Worrall (Fisher's Ghost Murder) – 5 February 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Frederick Fisher at Campbelltown.\n William Leddington – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n James Smith – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n John Edwards – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n Richard Johnson – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n Edward Coulthurst – 12 March 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for piracy on the brig Wellington at Norfolk Island\n William Ward - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of Michael Foley at Bringelly\n Thomas Power - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of Michael Foley at Bringelly\n John Curry - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Joseph Cox on the road between Liverpool and Parramatta\n William Webb - 21 May 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery and putting in fear of the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill\n John Lynch - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for the burglary of the house of Thomas Parnell at Richmond. Lynch was also involved in the Wellington mutiny.\n Michael Coogan - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for forgery. Coogan was an American who had also attempted piracy of a ship called The Liberty\n Thomas Quinn - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill. Before the noose was fastened Quinn kicked off his boots \"and they fell with a hollow sound on his coffin, which lay directly under\".\n Patrick Geary - 18 June 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill\n John Goff - 24 September 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for murder while attempting escape on Norfolk Island.\n Edward Moore - 24 September 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for murder while attempting escape on Norfolk Island.\n William Watson - 24 September 1827 - Hanged at Sydney for murder while attempting escape on Norfolk Island.\n Black Tommy – 31 December 1827 – (sometimes called Jackey-Jackey) Wiradjuri man from Bathurst district, hanged at Sydney for the murder of Geoffrey Connell at Reedy Swamp, near Bathurst.\n William Lee – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing in the dwelling-house of John Coghill, and putting the inmates in bodily fear.\n Jon Carrington – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing in the dwelling-house of John Coghill, and putting the inmates in bodily fear.\n James Charlton – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing in the dwelling-house of John Coghill, and putting the inmates in bodily fear.\n William (or Michael) Pearce – 31 December 1827 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and robbery in the house of Francis Forbes at Liverpool.\n\n1828\n Charles Connor – 13 March 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of James Mackenzie at Windsor.\n Lot McNamara – 17 March 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Janet Mackellar at Minto.\n William Johnson – 24 March 1828 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for the murder of Morris Morgan at Moreton Bay.\n George Kilroy (Kildray, Gilroy, Kilray) – 24 March 1828 – An associate of Jack Donahue. Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of George Plomer on the Richmond Road.\n William Smith – 24 March 1828 – An associate of Jack Donahue. Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of George Plomer on the Richmond road. On the first attempt the rope snapped and Smith fell to the ground. He was taken away until Kilroy and Johnson were declared dead and their corpses removed, then he was hanged again.\n William Regan – 5 May 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Davis in Castlereagh St.\n John Timmins – 11 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n Thomas Ford – 11 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n John Curtis – 16 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the theft of a cow from the herd of William Wentworth, at Bringelly.\n James (or Joseph) Johnson (also called Philip Macauley, Phillip Gawley) – 16 June 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault of George Tills outside Liverpool.\n John Welsh – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and attempted murder of George Barber at Picton.\n Joseph Bradley – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for forgery.\n Patrick Troy – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for forgery.\n Patrick Kegney (sometimes Stegney) – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery.\n Joseph (John) Spicer – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery.\n John (James) Tomlins – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery.\n James Henry – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the theft of a cow at Stone Quarry Creek.\n Samuel Clarke – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n Thomas Quigley – 20 October 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Stephen Hunter at Cornwallis.\n Alexander Browne – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for sodomy with William Lyster on the whaler Royal Sovereign.\n John Welch – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and the armed assault of Constable William Wade at Bong Bong. Welch was about sixteen at the time of his execution. \"He cried bitterly\".\n William Bayne – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and armed assault of Constable Wade at Bong Bong.\n Thomas Whisken (or Wiscott) – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of the home of James Hassall at Bathurst.\n William Owens – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of the home of James Hassall at Bathurst.\n James Holmes – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of the home of James Hassall at Bathurst.\n John Iron – 22 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery of John Browne at Botany.\n Thomas Ryan – 29 December 1828 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James McGrath just north of Richmond.\n\n1829\n Michael Green – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Susannah Smith at Windsor.\n John Payne (sometimes Paid) – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill.\n Edward Whelan – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and robbery from the house of Timothy Beard at Carnes Hill.\n George Skinner – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Susannah Smith at Windsor.\n John Price – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Susannah Smith at Windsor.\n Michael Lynch – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Thomas Kendall at Pitt Town.\n Florence (or Henry) Driscoll – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Isaac Cornwall at Richmond.\n Lot Molds – 12 January 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Thomas Kendall at Pitt Town.\n William Riddell – 23 March 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Heley in the Muswellbrook district. Riddell apparently desired Heley's wife; Heley was found dismembered in a stump hole. Riddell was an atheist, republican, radical, autodidact. He ran up the steps to the gallows, took snuff and said \"I prefer death to living in chains and fetters in such a country as this\".\n Charles White – 8 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Murphy at Luskintyre.\n John Brunger (also called Brugan/Burgen) – 18 Apr 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William Perfoot (also called Parfitt) at Moreton Bay.\n Thomas Matthews – 18 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Connolly, a fellow work-gang member, at Moreton Bay.\n Thomas Allen – 18 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Connolly, a fellow work-gang member, at Moreton Bay.\n Patrick Sullivan – 20 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Condron at Moreton Bay.\n William Bowen – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Leslie Duguid at Wallis Plains (East Maitland).\n Peter Reilly – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Ellis Hall at Wallis Plains.\n James Smart – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the home of John Thomas at Wallis Plains.\n James Gallagher – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of John Thomas at Wallis Plains.\n John Crowther – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of John Thomas at Wallis Plains.\n Thomas Slater – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for assault on Betty Griffiths with a tomahawk in Cumberland St. Sydney.\n William Yemms (Jems) – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the government stores at Port Macquarie.\n James Gardiner – 27 April 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the government stores at Port Macquarie.\n William Davison – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle from James Laidley at Bathurst.\n John Whelan – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle from James Laidley at Bathurst.\n John Shorter – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for stealing cattle from James Laidley at Bathurst.\n George Smith – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Illawarra district.\n John Allwright – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Illawarra district.\n George McDonald – 4 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the Illawarra district.\n James Naughton – 25 May 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Elizabeth Watson. He was previously charged, with Edward Gorman, with murder in 1823.\n Timothy Murphy – 1 June 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe-murder of fellow-convict John Monaghan at Mt York while they were working on the road to Bathurst.\n John Slack (alias York) – 22 June 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary at the house of Timothy Beard at Cabramatta.\n George Groves – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Richard Brooks at Denham Court.\n James McColville – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary of the house of Richard Brooks at Denham Court.\n John Salt – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Ben Crow in the Bargo Brush.\n Richard Peacock – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Ben Crow in the Bargo Brush.\n William Pitts – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Ben Crow in the Bargo Brush.\n John Neilson – 8 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Windsor.\n James Barnes – 13 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Joshua Moore on the Liverpool Road.\n Joseph Stephenson – 13 July 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Joshua Moore on the Liverpool Road.\n Daniel Grier – 28 September 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Charles Penson (Tinson, Tinsal) – 28 September 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary\n Joseph Parker – 28 September 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John \"Kangaroo Jack\" Hazeldine at Gibraltar Creek in the Cox's River district. \n George Williams – 22 October 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery, assault and battery of William Hickey\n John Sly – 28 December 1829 – Hanged at Sydney for forgery\n\n1830\n Thomas Finley – 11 January 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of overseer Edward Walsh at Bathurst. \n Stephen Smith – 5 April 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe-murder of fellow convict William Davis at Moreton Bay\n John Hawes – 5 April 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe-murder of fellow convict William Davis at Moreton Bay\n Henry Muggleton – 31 May 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Mark King at Moreton Bay\n Daniel Kirwan (Curwen) – 7 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of a constable on the Windsor Road\n John Martin – 7 June 1830 – Known as 'Jack the Drummer'. Hanged at Sydney for the rape of seven-year-old Eliza Deering in a yard off George Street\n Michael Toole – 7 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear at Pitt Water\n Thomas McCormick – 21 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting the occupants in fear\n Jack Field – 23 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Pike between Parramatta and Toongabbie\n Henry O'Neil – 23 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Pike between Parramatta and Toongabbie\n Harry Cade – 23 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Pike between Parramatta and Prospect. Cade was transported at the age of fourteen and executed after he turned sixteen\n William Dalton – 28 June 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of John Ellison near Parramatta\n William Coleman – 13 December 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for robbing his master Samuel Terry. Coleman stole money and buried it in a bottle in Terry's garden.\n\nParramatta\n(Rose Hill was officially renamed Parramatta in June 1791)\n\n George Mitton – 1788 – Hanged at Rose Hill (Parramatta) for robbery.\n William Harris – 28 October 1790 – Broke into a house in Rose Hill and assaulted one of the occupants, stole three pounds of beef and one pound of flour, a frock and a book. He was publicly hanged at Rose Hill.\n Edward Wildblood – 28 October 1790 – A co-offender with the aforementioned William Harris, he was convicted of breaking into a house in Rose Hill, assaulting one of the occupants and stealing three pounds of beef and one pound of flour, a frock and a book. He was publicly hanged at Rose Hill.\n James Derry – 19 September 1796 – Hanged at Parramatta for robbing the public stores.\n Matthew McNally – 1 December 1796 – Hanged at Parramatta for robbing the public stores.\n Thomas Doyle – 1 December 1796 – Hanged at Parramatta for robbing the public stores.\n Simon Taylor – 20 May 1799 – Hanged at Parramatta for the murder of his wife Anne Taylor.\n Richard Weston – May or June 1800 – Hanged at Parramatta for vagrancy and theft. \n Charles Hill – 8 March 1804 – Freeman who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Parramatta\n Samuel Humes/Hughes – 8 March 1804 – Convict, a principal and informant who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Executed at Parramatta, then gibbeted.\n John Place – 8 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at Parramatta. \n Patrick McDermot – 19 May 1806 – Hanged at Parramatta for burglary from the house of Matthew Pearce at Seven Hills and theft of clothing items. \n John Kenny – 24 January 1807 – Hanged and gibbetted at the scene of the crime in Parramatta for the murder of Mary Smith.\n Michael Bagan – 20 June 1808 – Entered the house of Jane Codd near Parramatta, assaulted her and stole items from her home. Hanged at the Parramatta brickfields.\n Felix Donnelly – 20 June 1808 – Entered the house of Jane Codd near Parramatta, assaulted her and stole items from her home. Hanged at the Parramatta brickfields.\n John Dunn – 25 August 1811 – Hanged at Parramatta for the murder of Mary Rowe, his body was handed over to the medical officer at Parramatta General Hospital for dissection and anatomisation.\n Pearce Conden – 24 March 1813 – Publicly hanged at the site of the crime in George St Parramatta for the murder of Joseph Sutton. Body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Thomas Mahony – 24 March 1813 – Publicly hanged at the site of the crime in George St Parramatta for the murder of Joseph Sutton. Body handed over for dissection and anatomisation.\n Matthew Craven – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged outside Parramatta for 'divers robberies'.\n Thomas Cavanaugh – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged outside Parramatta for armed robberies.\n Thomas (John) Ashton – 2 December 1829 – Hanged at Parramatta for rape of ten-year-old Elizabeth Price.\n\nCastle Hill\n Patrick Gannon – 23 March 1803 – Hanged at Castle Hill for rape, attempted murder and robbery.\n Francis Simpson – 23 March 1803 – Hanged along with Patrick Gannon at Castle Hill for robbery.\n John Lynch – 27 September 1803 – Hanged at Castle Hill for the assault and robbery of Samuel Phelps at Hawkesbury.\n James Tracey – 27 September 1803 – Hanged at Castle Hill for the assault and robbery of Samuel Phelps at Hawkesbury.\n William Johnston – 9 March 1804 – Convict, a principal along with Phillip Cunningham in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Executed at Castle Hill, then gibbeted.\n John Neal – 9 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at the Government Farm, Castle Hill.\n George Harrington – 9 March 1804 – Convict who participated in the Castle Hill Rebellion. Hanged at the Government Farm, Castle Hill.\n\nHawkesbury & Windsor\n Thomas McLaughlane (the elder) – 7 October 1803 – Hanged at Hawkesbury, for robbery with violence at the house of John Palmer at Hawkesbury.\n Phillip Cunningham – 5 March 1804 – Convict, leader of the Castle Hill Rebellion. Summarily hanged on the steps of the government storehouse at Greenhills (present day Windsor). \n James Davis – 19 June 1810 – Hanged at Portland Head (Hawkesbury) for burglary from the house of John Cox.\n Thomas Begley – 31 August 1829 – Hanged at Windsor for burglary at Mulgoa.\n Michael Rafter – 29 January 1830 – Hanged at Windsor for a litany of burglaries in the Portland Head district.\n John Smith – 29 January 1830 – Hanged at Windsor for rape of his seven-year-old daughter.\n John Tiernan – 25 August 1830 – Hanged at Windsor for highway robbery, horse theft and stealing. Aged seventeen, Tiernan objected to being interrupted in his prayers on the scaffold and wrestled the executioner over the edge of the platform.\n\nNewcastle\n John Pagan – 7 January 1820 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of James White.\n William Smith – 7 January 1820 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of James White.\n\nBurwood\n Daniel Watkins – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged at Burwood for the armed robbery of Thomas Bartie Clay at Burwood.\n Thomas Mustin (Muston) – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged at Burwood for robbery and putting in fear at the house of Richard Morgan on the Liverpool Road.\n John Brown – 16 October 1826 – Publicly hanged at Burwood for robbery and putting in fear at the house of Richard Morgan on the Liverpool Road.\n\nBankstown\n Patrick Sullivan – 18 October 1826 – Publicly hanged on gallows constructed in Bankstown ('Irish Town', now Bass Hill) for bushranging.\n James Moran – 18 October 1826 – Publicly hanged on gallows constructed in Bankstown ('Irish Town', now Bass Hill) for bushranging.\n\nCampbelltown\n John Holmes – 21 August 1829 – Hanged at Campbelltown for setting fire to a barn belonging to James Bean at Campbelltown.\n Richard McCann – 6 February 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for theft, assault and putting in fear in the Goulburn district\n Thomas Beasley - 8 February 1830 - Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary with assault in the Airds district\n Joseph Moorbee (Mowerby, alias Nuttall) - 8 February 1830 - Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary with assault in the Airds district\n Mark Byfield – 8 March 1830 – Hanged at Sydney for the theft of a silver watch\n Broger – 30 August 1830 – Indigenous. Publicly hanged at Campbelltown for the murder of John Rivett at Kangaroo Valley\n Peter Dew (alias Saunders) – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary and putting in fear at Goulburn\n William Haggerty – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for cattle theft from Francis Lawless in the Liverpool district\n John Spellary – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for cattle theft from Francis Lawless in the Liverpool district\n James Welsh – 31 August 1830 – Hanged at Campbelltown for burglary from the house of David Reece at Burra Burra, near Taralga.\n\nMaitland\n Michael Brown – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n Patrick Corcoran – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n Andrew Cullen – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n Richard Turnstyle – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for burglary and putting in fear at the house of William Forsyth.\n William Chandler – 1 September 1829 – Hanged at Maitland for horse theft from Peter Cunningham at Merton (near Denman).\n\nLiverpool\n Jean Herman Maas – 1 September 1830 – Hanged at Liverpool for forgery.\n James McGibbon – 1 September 1830 – Hanged at Liverpool for forgery.\n\nBathurst\n Ralph Entwistle (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood near present-day Georges Plains, bushranging and horse theft\n Thomas Dunne (\"The Ribbon Gang\")- 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Dominic Daley (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft\n James Driver (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft\n William Gahan (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Patrick Gleeson (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Michael Kearney (\"The Ribbon Gang\")- 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n John Kenny (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft\n John Shepherd (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John Greenwood, bushranging and horse theft\n Robert Webster (\"The Ribbon Gang\") – 2 November 1830 – Hanged at Bathurst for plundering houses, bushranging and horse theft.\n\n1831\n\n William Bubb – 10 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Adam Oliver at Norfolk Island.\n John Cook – 10 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Adam Oliver at Norfolk Island.\n James Murphy – 10 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Adam Oliver at Norfolk Island\n John Mason - 15 January 1831 - Hanged at Sydney for armed robberies at Kingdon Ponds (near Scone) and Liverpool Plains\n Edward Bowen – 15 January 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the house of John Town, Upper Hunter (Goulburn River).\n Hugh Duffy – 15 January 1831 – Hanged for burglary and putting in fear at the house of John Town.\n Patrick Feeney – 15 January 1831 – Hanged for burglary and putting in fear at the house of John Town.\n Lawrence Moore – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong\n Thomas Kite – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong\n Dennis Kelly – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong\n Anthony Connor – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear, at the farm of Gregory Blaxland at Wollongong.\n David O'Hara – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear at the house of James Raymond.\n Thomas Woolley – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for burglary and putting in fear at the house of James Raymond.\n John Welch – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for attempted murder at Norfolk Island.\n Joseph Crampton – 11 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for highway robbery with violence of George Cubitt at Parramatta.\n Charles McManus – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of John Norman at Moreton Bay.\n John Thomas – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for cattle stealing in the Menangle Park area.\n James Ready – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary at Annandale.\n William Webber – 18 July 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the road from South Creek to Parramatta.\n John Roberts – 5 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James McIlroy (James Michael Roy) at Patterson's Plains. Roberts was Welsh and spoke little English. His corpse was sent for dissection but the remains were crudely discarded and were found scattered in the Domain.\n John Leadbeater (alias Onions) – 23 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Maxwell at Patterson's Plains.\n Thomas Lucas – 23 September 1831 – Hanged for the murder of Constable Robert \"Long Bob\" Watersworth in the West Pennant Hills area.\n David Pegg – 26 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the Hunter Valley.\n Richard Anscombe – 26 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear in the Hunter Valley.\n Hugh Carberry – 26 September 1831 – Hanged at Sydney for theft of a horse and cattle.\n\n William Mooney – 16 November 1831 – Publicly hanged on the outskirts of Goulburn for the murder of his overseer Maurice Roach near Crookwell. Body hung in gibbet until ordered buried by Governor Bourne in 1833. \n John White – 16 November 1831 – Publicly hanged on the outskirts of Goulburn for the murder of his overseer Maurice Roach near Crookwell. Body hung in gibbet until ordered buried by Governor Bourne in 1833.\n Edward Slingsby – 21 November 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for the murder of William Payne at Dunn's Plains, outside Rockley.\n Michael Lynch – 21 November 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for aiding and abetting the murder of William Payne.\n Denis O'Brien – 21 November 1831 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for aiding and abetting the murder of William Payne.\n\n1832 to 1833\n\n Charles Smithwick – 27 February 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of George Miller at Razorback.\n Patrick McGuire – 5 March 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of fellow convict Matthew Gallagher at Moreton Bay.\n Thomas Wood (alias Carberry) – 8 March 1832 – Hanged for highway robbery outside Parramatta.\n Patrick Burke – 14 March 1832 – Bushranger. Publicly hanged at the scene of his crime for highway robbery at Appin.\n Thomas Brennan – 6 April 1832 – Shot by military firing squad at Dawes Battery, Sydney. A private soldier of His Majesty's 39th Regiment of Foot, Brennan had fired at his sergeant with the intent of killing him.\n John Hammell – 7 May 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his overseer George Williamson with a spade at Grose Farm (today Sydney University).\n John Fitzsimmons – 14 June 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for arson. (Fitzsimmons set ablaze a stack of wheat at Penrith).\n John Troy – 18 August 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and burglary at Canterbury.\n Thomas Smith – 18 August 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and burglary at Canterbury.\n Edward Kennedy – 23 August 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for divers highway robberies at Parramatta and Cabramatta.\n Edward Fordham – 5 November 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Bradford at Lower Minto.\n Russell Crawford – 8 December 1832 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of George Suttor on the Windsor Road.\n James Lockhard – 4 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Murdoch Campbell in the Narellan area.\n Patrick Brady – 11 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Daniel Stewart at Webb's Creek, Windsor.\n John Walsh – 11 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Henry Kenyon at Bathurst.\n James Dwyer – 11 February 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Henry Dawkins at Bathurst.\n John Bowen – 7 March 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and putting in fear at Inverary.\n Joseph Coleman – 18 March 1833 – Hanged at Old Banks, Paterson Plains for the attempted murder of Edward Cory.\n William Carney – 20 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Michael Keith at Penrith.\n William Jones – 23 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road.\n Robert Mullins – 23 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road.\n Patrick Neagle (Nangle, Naigle)– 23 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool Road\n Edward Green – 27 May 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Edward Edwards at a shop in Pitt St.\n Richard Long – 11 July 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Dog Trap Road.\n Henry Cook – 11 July 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Dog Trap Road.\n John Richardson – 5 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Maitland.\n Henry Beard – 5 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Maitland.\n William Johnstone – 6 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Prospect Hill.\n Joseph Clifford – 6 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Prospect Hill.\n Terence Byrne – 12 August 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Ann Davis at Lane Cove.\n Edward Giles – 12 September 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at Sutton Forest.\n Jonathan Jones – 12 September 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of an elderly lady, Mary Larkin, of silver, handkerchiefs and jewellery on the Liverpool Road. \n John (\"Flash Kiddy\") Elliott – 12 September 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery of a butcher named Mason in Liverpool St.\n George Giddons – 28 November 1833 – Hanged for attempted murder of Thomas Millbourne at Port Macquarie.\n Anthony Hitchcock (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Castle Forbes for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach at Patrick's Plains, Hunter Valley.\n John Poole (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Castle Forbes for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach at Patrick's Plains, Hunter Valley.\n James Riley (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach\n John Perry (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach\n James Ryan (\"Castle Forbes Gang\") – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting with intent to kill John Larnach.\n Michael Kearns – 21 December 1833 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault on the person of James Podman at Bathurst.\n\n1834\n\n Bryant Kyne – 13 January 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Gavarin (Gevan, Gavan, Gavanagh, Govarin) at the Balmain residence of the solicitor-general, John Plunkett.\n Patrick Gallagher – 23 January 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Ellen Walsh in the vicinity of St Mary's Rd, Domain.\n William Elliott - 6 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of police corporal James McNally on Parramatta Road near Concord.\n William Gills - 6 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Donald McIntyre at Invermein, near Scone.\n William \"Blue Stockings\" Johnson - 6 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the armed robbery of David Ramsay at Fish River in the Bathurst district.\n John Elliott - 14 March 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Frances Cunningham at Sutton Forest\n Michael Carey – 19 May 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for sexual assault on ten-year-old Michael Minton (son of Michael Minton, murdered in the Richmond district in 1824) on the Parramatta Rd. Minton and his younger friend (who was witness to the crime) were ordered by the magistrate to attend the hanging.\n William Chapman - 18 August 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Samuel Chapman (alias Priest) at Snails Bay in 1831\n Henry Mills - 18 August 1834 - Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Samuel Chapman (alias Priest) at Snails Bay in 1831\n Thomas Tattersdale – 10 November 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Dr Robert Wardell in the Marrickville-Petersham area.\n John Jenkins – 19 November 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Dr Robert Wardell.\n Michael Gallagher – 11 December 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of John Hinton in the Bargo Brush.\n John Edwards – 11 December 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder of Corporal John Cock of the Mounted Police in the Lake Bathurst area.\n John Walton – 11 December 1834 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the attempted murder of Corporal Cock.\n\n1835\n\n Edward McManus – 9 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of sly-grog providore Alice Cooper (Bunton) at Emu Plains.\n William Weatherwick – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Smith on the North Shore.\n William Phineas Bowles – 16 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Sarah in Bathurst St.\n Charles Norford – 20 February 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Patrick Lynch. Norford was shaving Lynch when he suddenly cut his throat.\n Mickey Mickey – 28 February 1835 – Indigenous. Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Margaret Hanswall at Watagan.\n John McCarthy – 4 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Constable Duncan Kennedy near Carcoar.\n Patrick Kilmartin – 11 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Hamilton on the Botany Road.\n Henry Barlow – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n John Carter – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n John Bryant – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n James Barton – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery on the Liverpool coach at Penrith.\n William Scannell (alias Daniel Hughes) – 26 May 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the highway robbery of Captain Clarke and Edye Manning on the Liverpool Road at Punchbowl.\n John Molloy – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault of Alexander Paine.\n John Stocking – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery and assault of Alexander Paine.\n Lawrence Whelahan – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for assault on Mary Kelly at Canterbury.\n Joseph Keys – 2 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Charles Fisher Shepherd at Long Flats, Monaro.\n James Masterman – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Ultimo (Stonemason's Arms).\n William Salter (Sawder, Solder) – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Ultimo.\n James Thompson – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Ultimo.\n James Green – 5 June 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting at Constable James Brown in the Braidwood district.\n John Gould (Joseph Gold) – 24 August 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife at Bar Point. \"One of the children of this unfortunate man was carried on the shoulders of a spectator, to witness the dying struggles of his parent.\"\n Charley – 4 September 1835 – Gringai man, actual name not recorded. Hanged at Dungog for his involvement in the murder of five white settlers at Rawdon Vale as part of the frontier conflict in the Barrington River district (\"The Mackenzie Murders\"). In Charley's case, he was named specifically for being responsible for the death of Fred Simmons.\n George Bagley – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Newcastle for the attempted murder of Hugh McIntyre near Maitland.\n Patrick Cassidy – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Newcastle for the attempted murder of Hugh McIntyre near Maitland.\n William O'Neill – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary and robbery.\n Thomas Solder – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Hugh Caffey – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary.\n Peter Doyle – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and robbery of William Akers outside Bathurst.\n Martin Byrne – 15 September 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and robbery of William Akers outside Bathurst.\n William Jeffries – 9 November 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Richard Somerville at Port Macquarie.\n Richard Bayliss – 8 December 1835 – Hanged for burglary at sundry houses at Field of Mars and elsewhere.\n John Williams – 8 December 1835 – Hanged for burglary at sundry houses at Field of Mars and elsewhere.\n Thomas Connolly – 8 December 1835 – Hanged for burglary at sundry houses at Field of Mars and elsewhere.\n John Maher – 8 December 1835 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Peter Robinson at Maitland.\n\n1836\n\n Thomas Arundell – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Margaret Fitzpatrick at Lewis Ponds, near Bathurst.\n Edward Jones – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Margaret Fitzpatrick at Lewis Ponds, near Bathurst.\n William Doyle – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Molloy near Mount York.\n William Baker – 8 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Mary at Penrith.\n Robert Duffy – 15 February 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the stabbing murder of his wife Mary Duffy in Phillip St.\n John Whitehead – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Lane Cove.\n John Hare – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the attempted murder of Major William Elrington at Bathurst.\n John Treish (Frisk, Fish, Trish, Frish) – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery at Lane Cove.\n John Smith – 4 March 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary in the Hunter Valley.\n William Kitchen – 9 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Ann in Harrington St.\n John Wales (also called Watt) - 10 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and putting in bodily fear of Constable Daniel Riley near Bong Bong.\n Timothy Pickering – 10 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the assault and putting in bodily fear of Daniel Riley near Bong Bong.\n Joseph Free – 11 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Edward Brown at Invermein.\n James Tobin – 16 May 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Fox at Marks' Farm, Illawarra.\n Michael Maloney – 17 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Richard Hamlyn at Goulburn.\n James Hare – 17 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Richard Hamlyn at Goulburn.\n Terence Lavell – 21 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Honora Davey at Williams River.\n James Sproule (alias Fraser) – 21 June 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for burglary from the house of Honora Davey at Williams River.\n John Gore – 10 August 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Thomas Wood at Cassilis.\n William Walker – 10 August 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Wood at Cassilis.\n John Gregg – 2 September 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery in the Penrith district.\n James Smith – 14 November 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Jack Haydon between Marulan & Bungonia. Smith was the first non-Indigenous Australian-born person to be executed.\n Thomas (or James) Walker - 18 November 1836 - Hanged for murder of fellow bushranger John Poole in the Hunter Valley.\n John Mead – 29 November 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape and sodomy of Julius Rudder, aged ten, on the Old Botany Road.\n William (or James or Thomas) Cook – 29 November 1836 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Alice Kent in the Upper Hunter Valley.\n\n1837 to 1838\n\n Andrew Gillies – 15 February 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Kelly near Yass.\n George Capsey – 7 March 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and assault of Henry Jarvis near Berrima.\n John Jones – 8 May 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Private Thomas O'Brien, a soldier of the 50th Regiment, on the highway outside Berrima.\n John Cooper – 9 June 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for attempted murder on Dominic Gannon at Port Macquarie.\n William Taylor – 9 June 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for aggravated highway robbery of Mr Thomas Hyacinth Macquoid on the road between Berrima and Mittagong.\n Michael Cagney (or Cogner) – 1 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Edward Hughes at Maitland.\n Louis Williams – 1 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John McCormick at the Gwydir River.\n Philip Hennessy – 5 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Alexander Hamilton in the Hunter Valley.\n Dennis Broslughan (sometimes Brossley) – 5 September 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for highway robbery of Alexander Hamilton in the Hunter Valley.\n John Cary Willis – 8 December 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Dennis Maloney at Port Macquarie.\n Edward Doyle – 8 December 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery and putting in fear at the house of James Wright, Bay of Islands, New Zealand.\n George Woolf – 8 December 1837 – Hanged at Sydney for shooting and wounding with intent to kill Patrick Sheedy, a police corporal who was attempting to arrest him at Bathurst.\n William Moore – 22 February 1838 – Publicly hanged in High St, Maitland for the murder of his master John Hoskyns.\n Patrick Cuffy – 20 March 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery and assault on William Vivers at Bureen.\n John Toole – 20 March 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery and assault on William Vivers at Bureen.\n Edward Tufts – 29 April 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Jones at Taree.\n George Comerford – 30 May 1838 – Bushranger. Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Constable Matthew Thompkins at Deep Creek, near Eganstown in the Port Phillip District. Comerford had murdered (or been involved in the murder of) at least seven men.\n Bryant Flannigan – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Nagle, \"Big Mary\" Nagle and Patrick Riley at Bunbejong, near Mudgee.\n Daniel Maloney – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Thomas Mahoney at Hassan's Walls.\n Dennis Haberlin (Haverden) – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery at the house of John and Sarah Rawles and the attempted rape of Sarah Rawles, at Woodford Bay, Longueville.\n Thomas Ribbands – 15 June 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for putting in fear and burglary from the house of Ann Jones, at Taree. Ann's husband John had been stabbed to death by one of their servants, Edward Tufts, earlier that year. \n William Wilkins – 4 September 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for assault and robbery of Thomas Humphries near Maitland.\n William Worthington (\"Bumblefoot\") – 4 September 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the axe murder of Jack Swan at Port Macquarie.\n William Hawkins – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n John Johnson – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n Edward Foley – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n Jim Oates – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n James Parry – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n Charlie Kilmeister – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n John Russell – 18 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney Gaol for his part in the Myall Creek Massacre.\n William Price – 21 December 1838 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John \"My Lord\" Dunn in Sorrell Street Parramatta. The victim was well known in the district at the time; he was seventy years old, a convict who had been in the colony thirty years, \"very deformed\" and less than a metre tall.\n\n1839\n\n Timothy O'Donnell – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Alexander McEdwards at Mt Campbell.\n Michael Walsh – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Alexander McEdwards at Mt Campbell.\n Edward Hall – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Fitzpatrick at Currawang.\n James Mayne – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Patrick Fitzpatrick at Currawang\n James Magee – 7 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Catherine at Cowpastures (Camden)\n Thomas Sumner – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n George Cooke – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n Ryder Gorman – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n Dennis Dacey – 23 June 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for robbery with violence at the house of William Woods and rape of Ann Amlin at King's Plains (Blayney)\n Thomas Finney – 20 August 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his wife Elizabeth at Cockfighter's Creek (Wollombi)\n Patrick Quilken – 6 September 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of William MacLaren at Barrington Tops\n William Morris – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for murder of Thomas Renton at the Bargon River\n Peter Scullion (Scallyen) – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the robbery and murder of Andrew Shanley at Sutton Forest\n Joseph Saunders – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of Andrew Shanley\n George Carey – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for having stolen property in possession and abetting the murder of Shanley\n George (John) Gorman – 26 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Ann Daly at Maitland\n James Davies – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of James Maher at Black Creek (Branxton)\n Alexander Telford – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of James Maher\n Archibald Taylor – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding and abetting the murder of James Maher\n Llewellyn Powell – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Abraham Meares near Gilgandra\n James Lynch – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding & abetting the Meares murder\n Charles Clipp – 29 November 1839 – Hanged at Sydney for aiding & abetting the Meares murder.\n\n1840s\n\n John (or James) Hunt (\"The Doctor\") – 10 March 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for murder of Dan McCarthy at Regentville\n Thomas Whitton – 19 March 1840 – Publicly hanged at Goulburn for the murder of John Hawker and arson at Oak Park, Crookwell. Whitton had earlier murdered John Kennedy Hume, brother of the explorer Hamilton Hume\n William Newman – 8 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Harry Hodgson at Rosemount station, Patrick's Plains (Singleton).\n James Martin – 8 December 1840 – Bushranger. Hanged at Sydney for the murder of Jack Johnston at Gammon Plains\n James Mason – 8 December 1840 – Bushranger. Hanged at Sydney for being an accessory to the murder of Jack Johnston\n Michael Monaghan (sometimes recorded as Hinnigan, Minighan) – 11 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of his overseer Robert Archer at Glendon\n Enoch Bradley – 11 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of George Woodman at Yass\n John Francis Legge – 11 December 1840 – Hanged at Sydney for the rape of Sarah Brooks, his wife's four-year-old child\n John Shea (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for the murder of John Graham at Scone\n Edward Davis (\"Teddy the Jew Boy\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham. The \"Jew Boy\" Gang terrorised the Hunter River district with numerous robberies and murders.\n Robert Chitty (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n James Everett (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n John Marshall (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n James Bryant (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n Richard Glanville (\"Jew Boy Gang\") – 16 March 1841 – Hanged at Sydney for his role in the murder of John Graham\n Michael Bradley – 5 April 1841 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Catherine Harrison near Morpeth\n Charles Cannon – 25 May 1841 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Robert Bulmer at Cherry Tree Hill, near Carcoar\n Michael Lynch – 4 June 1841 – Hanged for murder of Matthew Sullivan near Jamberoo. Lynch is assumed to be the last person hanged on the gallows at the Old Sydney Gaol, George Street\n Patrick Curran – 21 October 1841 – Bushranger. Hanged at Berrima for attempted murder of constable Patrick McGuire at the Black Range, Molonglo, and rape of Mary Wilsmore at Bungendore\n Robert Hudson – 29 October 1841 – Publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for murdering fellow convict Dean West at the hospital, Macquarie St \n George Stroud (Stroode) – 29 October 1841 – Publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for murdering his wife Sarah at Concord. Stroud and Hudson were the first men executed at Darlinghurst Gaol\n Thomas Horner – 5 April 1842 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of his overseer James Stone near Shannon Vale. Stone was the former wrestler known as \"Little Elephant\"\n Patrick Kleighran (Clearehan, Clerehan, Clearham) – 22 April 1842 – Hanged at Berrima for the murder of Timothy Murphy on the Murrumbidgee.\n John Lynch (alias Dunleavy) – 22 April 1842 – Hanged at Berrima for the murder of Kearns Landregan near the Ironstone Bridge on the edge of Berrima. Confessed to ten murders.\n John Walsh – 3 May 1842 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Catherine Collitt at Mt Victoria.\n Henry Sears (Seen) – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n John Jones – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n Nicholas Lewis – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n George Beavers – 8 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for piracy and assault with intent to murder, off Norfolk Island.\n Stephen Brennan – 9 November 1842 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Pat Lynch on Norfolk Island.\n George Wilson – 24 April 1843 – Hanged at Newcastle for the malicious wounding of Francis Bigge at the Peel River.\n Thomas Forrester (\"Long Tom\") – 24 April 1843 – Hanged at Newcastle for aiding and abetting the malicious wounding of Francis Bigge at the Peel River.\n Matthew Whittle – 2 May 1843 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the attempted murder of Patrick Grady near Oberon.\n Benjamin Harris – 17 October 1843 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Constable John Rutledge near Denman.\n Lucretia Dunkley – 22 October 1843 – Hanged at Berrima Gaol for the murder of her husband Henry Dunkley near Gunning.\n Martin Beech – 22 October 1843 – Hanged at Berrima Gaol for the murder of Henry Dunkley near Gunning.\n Therramitchie – 24 October 1843 – Indigenous. Confessed to at least two murders. Publicly hanged at Port Macquarie for the murder of John Pocock.\n Harry – 8 November 1843 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland Gaol for the murder of a baby named Michael Keoghue near Glendon.\n Melville – 8 November 1843 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland for the murder of a baby named Michael Keoghue near Glendon.\n John Knatchbull – 13 February 1844 – Former Royal Navy captain, publicly hanged in front of Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of shopkeeper Ellen Jamieson with a tomahawk in Margaret Street.\n Joseph Vale – 17 April 1844 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of John Thornton near Mulbring.\n Mary Thornton – 17 April 1844 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of her husband John Thornton near Mulbring.\n Frederick (or Abraham) Gasten (or Gaston) – 31 October 1844 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Elizabeth Price near Kanimbla.\n George Vigors – 13 August 1844 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of James Noble in Clarence St.\n Thomas Burdett – 13 August 1844 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of James Noble in Clarence St.\n Henry Atkins – 8 October 1844 – Hanged at Berrima for the murder of John Daly near Tumut.\n Benjamin Stanley – 7 November 1844 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Robert Campbell at Williams River.\n John Vidall – 7 February 1845 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Thomas Warne in George St.\n John Ahern – 12 August 1845 – Publicly hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his niece Mary-Anne Clark in the area that subsequently became Railway Square.\n James Fitzpatrick – 24 October 1845 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Peter McCormick, a fellow-convict at the Newcastle Stockade.\n William Shea – 17 April 1846 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Andrew Menzies at Hillsborough.\n John Kean (Liddell) – 30 April 1847 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Ellen Hyndes near Campbelltown.\n Peter Pigeon – 4 November 1847 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of William \"Coachey\" Taylor at Morpeth.\n William Fyfe (Foyle in Prison Records) – 4 July 1848 – Publicly hanged at Darlinghurst for murder of Robert Cox at Kangaroo Point, Moreton Bay.\n Francis Dermott (or Diamond or Durham) – 22 September 1848 – African-American. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape of Mary Green on the Shoalhaven.\n Patrick Bryan – 1 November 1848 – Hanged at Newcastle for the murder of Eliza Neilson at Clarence Town.\n Charles Henry Mackie – 10 November 1848 – Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of a nine-year-old girl.\n George Waters Ward – 19 March 1849 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Richard Connolly (or King) at Muswellbrook.\n James Richardson – 7 May 1849 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Elizabeth Richardson at Campbelltown. He had also murdered Elizabeth's daughter and nine-month-old grandchild and attempted to murder a four-year-old grandchild.\n Owen Molloy – 18 September 1849 – Publicly hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of John Leonard at Moreton Bay.\n Patrick Walsh – 2 November 1849 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Benjamin Fox on the Turon River.\n\n1850s \n\n Mogo Gar – 5 November 1850 – Bundjalung man, hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Daniel Page at the Bellinger River.\n James Whelan – 5 November 1850 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Catherine Byrnes near Kent St.\n William Hayes – 26 April 1851 – Hanged at Maitland Gaol for the murder of Benjamin Cott near present-day Gillieston.\n Michael Collihane (alias \"Mickey Bad-English\") - 8 October 1851 – Publicly hanged at Maitland for the rape of Anne Milsom at Aberdeen.\n Patrick McNamara – 29 March 1852 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of his wife Rose McNamara at Aberglasslyn.\n Thomas Wilmore – 14 April 1852 – Hanged at Goulburn Gaol for the murder of Phillip Alger in the Wellington District.\n Francis Thomas Green – 21 September 1852 – Publicly hanged outside Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of John Jones at Buckley's Creek. This was the last public hanging in NSW.\n Timothy Sullivan – 30 September 1852 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Daniel Harrington at King's Plains, near Carcoar. This execution was badly botched.\n John Newing – 30 September 1852 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Hing, another Chinese man, on 17 October 1851, at Brown's Station on the Castlereagh\n Paddy – 8 April 1853 – Wiradjuri man, hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Catherine Schmidt at Oakey Creek in the Mudgee district.\n Patrick McCarthy – 8 April 1853 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Henry Williamson at Bookimbla.\n Billy Palmer – 9 May 1854 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Jane Bradley near Obley.\n James McLaughlan – 9 May 1854 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Sarah Atkins at Kikiamah, near Grenfell.\n James Talbot – 30 May 1854 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of James Barry at Kangaloola Creek, near Yass.\n Daniel Gardiner – 4 April 1854 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of his wife Catherine at Rocky River.\n Christopher Walsh – 28 September 1854 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of his wife Mary Walsh at Lidney Park, near Millers Forest.\n William Ryan – 28 February 1855 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Catherine near the corner of Hay and Castlereagh Sts.\n William Rodgers – 5 July 1855 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Joseph Allsopp at Baulkham Hills.\n Samuel Wilcox – 5 July 1855 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Johanna Smith in Liverpool St, Sydney.\n Mary-Ann Brownlow −11 November 1855 – Hanged at Goulburn Gaol for the murder of her husband George Moore Brownlow at Gundaroo.\n Henry Curran – 12 May 1857 – Hanged at Bathurst for the rape and violent assault of Bridget Watkins at Dirty Swamp (Locksley).\n Addison Mitchell – 12 May 1857 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of William Ablett between Carcoar and Cowra.\n Patrick Walsh – 4 November 1857 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of William Graham at Balranald.\n James Moyes – 7 September 1858 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Alden on board the Oliver Jordan, berthed at Sydney.\n John Arrow – 11 May 1859 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Catherine Leary at Summer Hill Creek, Orange.\n Thomas Ryan (alias William Martin) – 11 May 1859 – Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Leah England in the Wellington Valley.\n Harry – 18 May 1859 – Indigenous. Hanged at Goulburn for the rape and attempted murder of fifteen-year-old Margaret McMahon at Coolamatong near Berridale.\n John Norris – 22 July 1859 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape of six-year-old Harriet Curren near Prospect.\n Robert Davis – 3 November 1859 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Roger Flood (or Robert Quinn) at Dubbo.\n William Ross – 22 November 1859 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Jack Hamilton at Walcha.\n Jemmy – 22 November 1859 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Sam Pong at Gunnedah.\n\n1860s \n\n John Jones – 26 April 1860 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Rebecca Bailey outside Maitland.\n Jim Crow – 26 April 1860 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland for the rape of Jane Delantry at Thalaba, outside Dungog.\n Ellen Monks – 8 May 1860 – Hanged at Goulburn for the hammer murder of her husband Thomas Monks at Longnose Creek, near Crookwell.\n Frederick Clarke – 8 May 1860 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Walter Angel in the Moppity Range, near Murringo.\n William Goodson – 16 May 1860 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Mary Goodson at Kissing Point.\n Black Harry (also called Sippey Shippy, Sippy, Sheepy, Lippy) – 6 November 1861 – Indigenous. Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Mary Mills at Hall's Creek, near Merriwa.\n William Johnson (Baldwin) – 3 December 1861 – Hanged at Goulburn for the rape of Alice Hutchings at Rossiville, outside Goulburn.\n Jackey Bullfrog (alias \"Flash Jack\") – 25 April 1862 – Indigenous. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of William Clark near Condobolin.\n John Peisley – 25 April 1862 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder (fatal wounding) of William Benyon at Bigga. An associate of the Ben Hall - Frank Gardiner Gang.\n Henry Keene – 5 May 1862 – Bushranger. Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of James Lawrie on Billabong Creek.\n Benjamin Allerton – 5 May 1862 – Bushranger. Hanged at Goulburn for the robbery and wounding with intent of David Elliott at Wakool.\n John Smith (alias Regan) – 4 June 1862 – Hanged at Goulburn for attempted murder on Alfred Bishop at Tipperary Gully, near Young.\n Jackey – 23 October 1862 – Indigenous. Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Louisa Brown at Winburndale.\n Alexander Ross – 18 March 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for highway robbery and the attempted murder of Harry Stephens at Caloola, near Blayney.\n Charles Ross – 18 March 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for highway robbery and the attempted murder of Harry Stephens at Caloola, near Blayney. \n Henry Manns – 26 March 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for his part in the highway robbery of the gold escort at Eugowra Rocks. An associate of the Ben Hall - Frank Gardiner Gang.\n Charles Robardy – 20 May 1863 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Daniel Crotty on the Boorowa-Murringo Road, near Willawong Creek.\n Mahommed Cassim – 2 June 1863 – Circus Juggler, born in India. Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of a fellow juggler (name lost) at Sawpit Gully, near Queanbeyan.\n Henry Wilson – 2 October 1863 – Bushranger. Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Peter Clarke near Murrurundi.\n Thomas McCann – 1 February 1864 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for highway robbery and the attempted murder of William Saville near Cordeaux Creek, Berrima.\n James Stewart – 22 November 1864 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Charles Verdhun near Bourke.\n George Gibson (alias Paddy Tom) – 20 May 1865 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Alec Musson at Pyramul.\n Sam Poo – 19 September 1865 – Bushranger. Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Snr Constable John Ward at Barney's Reef near Birriwa.\n Ah Luan – 21 November 1865 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Nee Jack at Bald Hills Creek.\n John Dunn – 19 March 1866 – Bushranger, member of the Ben Hall Gang. Hanged at Darlinghurst for robbery and the murder of Constable Sam Nelson at Collector\n James Crookwell – 14 April 1866 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Constable William Raymond in the Bargo Brush.\n Michael Green – 11 June 1866 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Andrew Shearer at Rushcutter's Bay.\n Spider – 26 November 1866 – Indigenous. Hanged at Bathurst for the rape of Elizabeth Anderson at Canonbar, near Nyngan.\n Michael Maher – 3 December 1866 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Richard Higgins at Garrawilla, near Coonabarabran.\n Harry Suis – 10 December 1866 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Ah Wong at Goulburn.\n William Henry Scott – 18 March 1867 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Anne Ramsden (Scott) in Sussex St.\n Thomas Clarke – 25 June 1867 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable William Walsh at Jinden.\n John Clarke – 25 June 1867 – Bushranger. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable William Walsh at Jinden. \n William Peters – 26 June 1867 – Hanged in Bathurst for the attempted murder of eight-year-old Faith Perkins at Orange.\n Henry James O'Farrell – 21 April 1868 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the attempted assassination of Prince Alfred Duke of Edinburgh on 12 March 1868 at Clontarf.\n Albert Barnes – 26 May 1868 – Hanged in the old gaol at Bathurst for the murder of James Casey at Hassan's Walls.\n John McEvitt – 26 May 1868 – Hanged in the old gaol at Bathurst for the murder of a boy named Francis Evans at Clark's Creek.\n John Munday (alias Collins)- 2 June 1868 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of John Conroy, Bridget Conroy, Thomas Smith, a shepherd surnamed White and another shepherd, name not recorded, near Bowning.\n Ah Sung – 24 November 1868 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Ralph Lee and Amelia Lee (aged five), near Avisford.\n\n1870s\n\n John Baker - 1871 - Bushranger hanged at Bathurst for murder and other crimes. A partner of Wiliam Bertam, who was hanged at Toowoomba on 29 August 1870. They stuck up Mount Murchison Station, Cobham's station and a Poolamacca resident and stole horses, etc. Also committed other robberies on the road and entered homes; in Oct 1869 on the Barrier Ranges they bailed up a hawker, Charles Young, whom they murdered.\n Robert Campbell (alias Palmer) – 10 January 1871 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of John and Louis Pohlman at Yanco.\n Chong Gow – 6 June 1871 – Hanged at Deniliquin for the murder of Tommy Ah Gun at Hay.\n Michael McMahon – 12 December 1871 – Hanged at Maitland for the murder of Jack Jones at Hall's Creek.\n Thomas Kelly – 2 January 1872 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Superintendent William McLaren at Parramatta Gaol.\n George Robert Nichols (The Parramatta River Murders) – 18 June 1872 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Percy Walker (and John Bridger) in upper Sydney Harbour.\n Alfred Lester (alias Froude)(The Parramatta River Murders) – 18 June 1872 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Percy Walker (and John Bridger) in upper Sydney Harbour.\n John Conn – 11 June 1872 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Aveline Littler near Wyndeyer.\n William McCrow – 8 April 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Margaret Ward at a residence on the corner of Crown and Stanley streets, Woolloomooloo.\n John Scource – 8 April 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Lee on Sydney Harbour.\n Julius Krauss (also called William Cross) – 1 July 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Captain John Longmuir on board HMS Rifleman.\n Henry Vincent Jarvis – 23 December 1873 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of James Muggeridge on the Orange-Bathurst Road near Evans Plains Creek.\n John Hawthorne (alias Perry, real name Sherrin) – 19 May 1874 – Bushranger. Believed to have committed at least four murders. Hanged at Goulburn for the robbery & attempted murder of James Slocombe near Wheeo.\n John Glover – 19 May 1874 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of William Piety at Bolaro, near Adaminaby.\n Gottlieb Eichhorn – 23 June 1874 – Hanged at Armidale Gaol for the rape of seventy-two-year-old Eliza Chapman at Saumarez Ponds. Mrs Chapman died from the injuries received. Eichhorn was sixteen at the time of the crime.\n John McGrath – 10 September 1875 – Indigenous. Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for rape of Sarah Murfin at Warragubra, near Bega.\n George Rope – 7 December 1875 – Hanged at Mudgee Gaol for the murder of his sister-in-law Hannah Rope at Lawson's Creek.\n Ah Chong – 18 April 1876 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Po Tie at Parramatta Gaol.\n George Pitt – 21 June 1876 – Hanged at Mudgee for the murder of Ann Martin at Guntawang.\n Michael Connelly – 28 June 1876 – Hanged at Tamworth Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary Connelly at Carroll Gap.\n Daniel Boon – 19 July 1876 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of Alexander McMullan at North Wagga.\n Thomas Newman – 29 May 1877 – Hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the murder of a child, Mary-Ann McGregor, near Coonabarabran.\n Peter Murdoch (Murdick, alias Higgins) – 18 December 1877 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of Henry Ford near Cartwright's Hill.\n Ing Chee – 28 May 1878 – Hanged at Goulburn Gaol for the murder of Li Dock in Goulburn.\n Alfred – 10 June 1879 – Indigenous. Hanged at Mudgee for the rape of Jane Dowd at Three Mile Flat, near Wellington.\n\n1880s \n Andrew George Scott (Captain Moonlite) – 20 January 1880 – (Bushranger) Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Constable Webb-Bowen at Wantabadgery.\n Thomas Rogan – 20 January 1880 – (Bushranger) A member of the Moonlite Gang, hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Constable Webb-Bowen at Wantabadgery.\n Albert – 26 May 1880 – Indigenous stockman, hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the shooting murders of Nugle Jack and Sally at a camp at Baradine.\n Daniel King – 11 June 1880 – Hanged at Tamworth Gaol for the murder of Lizzie Hart (alias Rolk, alias Betts) at Tamworth.\n William Brown – 29 March 1881 – Hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the rape of his twelve-year-old daughter Ann at Yappa Brush, The Bight, across the Manning from Wingham.\n Henry Wilkinson – 1 June 1881 – Hanged at Albury Gaol for the murder of Mary Pumpa at Lyster's Gap, near Jindera.\n John McGuane – 22 November 1882 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Thomas Smith at Inverell.\n Charles Cunningham – 29 November 1882 – Hanged at Goulburn for the attempted murder of his warder Walter Izard at Berrima Gaol. \"His last moments were marked by the expression of undiminished hatred to authority, which he personified to Her Majesty the Queen.\"\n Henry Tester – 7 December 1882 – Hanged at Deniliquin for the murder of seven-year-old Louisa Preston at Moira.\n George Ruxbourne – 23 May 1883 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Jimmy Young at Armidale.\n William Rice- 23 April 1884 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of James Griffin at 51 Phelps St, Surry Hills.\n Joseph Cordini – 13 June 1884 – Hanged at Deniliquin Gaol for the murder of George Mizon on the Hay road outside Deniliquin.\n Charles Watson – 14 April 1885 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of William Matthews at Wyadra, near Hillston.\n Frank Johns – 14 July 1885 – (Bushranger) A member of the Moonlite Gang, hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the attempted murder of William Roberts at Parramatta Gaol.\n Matthew Friske – 10 December 1885 – Hanged at Grafton Gaol for the murder of Matt Matteson at Coffs Harbour.\n William Liddiard – 8 June 1886 – Hanged at Grafton for the murder of Pat Noonan at Wardell.\n Alfred Reynolds – 8 October 1886 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Rhoda at Gowrie St, Newtown.\n Robert Read – 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n George Duffy - 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n William Boyce - 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n Joseph Martin - 7 January 1887 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for his involvement in the Mount Rennie rape case.\n John Creighan (alias Grace) – 29 May 1888 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Jack Stapleton at Hillgrove.\n Robert Hewart – 11 September 1888 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Thomas Park in a cell at the Central Police Court.\n Louisa Collins – 22 January 1889 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the poisoning of her husband at Botany. She was the last woman hanged in New South Wales.\n James Morrison – 19 July 1889 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Constable David Sutherland in Macleay St, Potts Point.\n Thomas Reilly – 6 November 1889 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of Christian Eppel on the Wagga Common. Reilly was a cousin of Ned Kelly.\n\n1890s \n\n Albert Schmidt – 18 November 1890 – Hanged at Wagga Wagga for the murder of John Young Taylor near Old Junee. Believed to have committed at least two other murders.\n Lars Peter Hansen – 2 June 1891 – Hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the murder of Charles Duncker on the Peak Hill road.\n Maurice Dalton – 17 November 1891 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Catherine at 1 Foveaux St Surry Hills.\n Harold Dutton Mallalieu – 26 November 1891 – Hanged at Old Dubbo Gaol for the murder of Jerome Casey on the Moonagee Road near Nyngan.\n Jimmy Tong – 29 November 1892 – Hanged at Armidale for the murder of Harry Hing at Walcha.\n Edward Smedley – 14 June 1893 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of his wife Phoebe at Quirindi. \n George Archer – 11 July 1893 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Emma Harrison at a house on the corner of Burton and Bourke streets, Darlinghurst. This hanging was mishandled and Archer suffocated to death on the rope.\n John Makin – 15 August 1893 – (\"The Macdonaldtown Baby Farmer\"). Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of the infant Horace Murray.\n Woy Hoy (Jimmy Ah Hoy) – 24 November 1893 – Hanged at Mudgee for the murder of Ah Fook in Lewis St, Mudgee.\n Herbert Edward 'Bertie' Glasson (sometimes Edwin Hubert) – 29 November 1893 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of John William Phillips and Frances Letitia 'Fanny' Cavanough at Carcoar on 23 September 1893. The first prisoner executed at Bathurst Gaol on its present site (opened 1888).\n Charles Montgomery – 31 May 1894 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable Fred Bowden near the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.\n Thomas Williams – 31 May 1894 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Constable Fred Bowden near the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.\n Alexander Lee – 20 July 1894 – Hanged at Tamworth for the murder of William McKay at the CBC bank at Barraba.\n John Cummins – 20 July 1894 – Hanged at Tamworth for the murder of William McKay at the CBC bank at Barraba.\n Frederick Paton (alias Frederick Dennis) – 11 December 1894 – Hanged at Bathurst Gaol for the murder of John Hall at Fifield on 6 May 1894.\n Alfred Grenon – 7 February 1895 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the attempted murder of Thomas Heavey at Elizabeth Bay.\n Thomas Meredith Sheridan – 7 January 1896 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Jessie Nicholls, who died at Castlereagh St from the effects of an illegal abortion.\n Charles Hines – 21 May 1897 – Hanged at Maitland for the rape of his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter Mary Emily Hayne at Gundy\n Thomas Moore – 24 June 1897 – Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of Edward (or Edwin) Smith at Brennan's Bend on the Darling River below Bourke in November, 1896.\n Frank Butler – 17 July 1897 – (\"The Glenbrook Murders\") Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Arthur Preston and Lee Weller at Penrith and Glenbrook.\n Wong Min – 13 December 1898 – Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of Joe Mong Jong (or Woung) at Warren, New South Wales on 16 August 1898. Also stabbed Alice Spong during same incident.\n Stewart Wilson Christopher Briggs – 5 April 1899 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Margaret Miller and Margaret Dutt at 89 Douglas St Petersham (now Stanmore).\n\n1900s \n John Sleigh (alias Ward) – 6 December 1900 – Hanged at Goulburn for the murder of Frank \"Bones\" Curran at Back Creek, near Bombala.\n Jackie Underwood – 14 January 1901 – Indigenous. Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of Percival Mawbey at Breelong. He and Jimmy Governor also killed Helen Josephine Kerz, Mrs Sarah Mawbey, Grace Mawbey and Hilda Mawbey in the same incident.\n Jimmy Governor – 18 January 1901 – Indigenous. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Helen Josephine Kerz at Breelong. In the same incident he and Jackie Underwood also killed Mrs. Sarah Mawbey, Grace Mawbey, Percival Mawbey and Hilda Mawbey. Jimmy and his brother Joe also killed Alexander McKay near Ulan, Elizabeth O'Brien and her baby son at Poggie, near Merriwa, and Keiran Fitzpatrick near Wollar.\n Joseph Campbell – 20 December 1901 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape of nine-year-old Violet Oldfield at Queanbeyan. He had also raped another nine-year-old at Ramsay's Bush (Haberfield)\n Thomas Moore – 14 April 1903 – Indigenous. Hanged at Darlinghurst for the rape and murder of ten-year-old Janet Irene Smith at Ramsay's Bush, Leichhardt (now Haberfield).\n Digby Grand – 7 July 1903 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Police Constable Samuel Long at Auburn.\n Henry Jones – 7 July 1903 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Police Constable Samuel Long at Auburn.\n Ah Check – 28 June 1904 – Hanged at Dubbo for the murder of William Tregaskis at Peak Hill, NSW. He was the last person executed at Old Dubbo Gaol.\n John Raymond Brown – 11 December 1906 – Hanged at Grafton Gaol for the murders of Daniel O'Keefe, Margaret O'Keefe and Patrick Gillick at German Creek, near Ballina (now called Empire Vale).\n Peter Sadeek – 11 June 1907 – Hanged at Broken Hill Gaol for the murder of Mary Cooney (or Jewson) at White Cliffs.\n Nicholas Baxter – 29 October 1907 – Hanged at Darlinghurst for the murder of Mary MacNamara at 2 Sarah St Enmore.\n George Toffts – 26 November 1907 – Hanged at Tamworth Gaol for the murder of Eliza Maud Fletcher at Quirindi.\n\n1910 onwards\n William Frederick Ball – 17 June 1912 – Hanged at Armidale Gaol for the murder of Louisa Ball at Bingara.\n Frank Franz – 20 December 1916 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Police Constable George Joss Duncan at Tottenham.\n Roland Nicholas Kennedy – 20 December 1916 – Hanged at Bathurst for the murder of Police Constable George Joss Duncan at Tottenham.\n James Wilson – 31 May 1917 – Hanged at Long Bay Gaol for the murder of George Pappageorgi at Haymarket, Sydney.\n Christian William Benzing – 16 June 1917 – Hanged at Long Bay for the rape and murder of eleven-year-old Dorothy Myra Small at Rockdale.\n Edward Williams – 29 April 1924 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of his three children, five-year-old Rosalie, three-year-old Mary and two-year-old Cecillia at Underwood St Paddington.\n William George Gordon Simpson – 10 December 1924 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murders of Guy Chalmers Clift and Police Constable James Flynn at Appin.\n William Cyril Moxley – 17 August 1932 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murders of Dorothy Ruth Denzel and Frank Barnby Wilkinson at Moorebank.\n Edwin John Hickey – 14 May 1936 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of former Conciliation Commissioner Montague Henwood on the train between Faulconbridge and Linden. Hickey was seventeen at the time of the crime.\n James Leighton Massey – 15 June 1936 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of Norman Samuel McLaren Stead at Darlinghurst.\n Alfred Spicer – 26 May 1938 – Hanged at Long Bay for the rape and murder of six-year-old Marcia Hayes at Windsor.\n John Trevor Kelly – 24 August 1939 – Hanged at Long Bay for the murder of Marjorie Constance Sommerlad at Tenterfield. He was the last person to be judicially executed in the state of New South Wales.\n\nNorfolk Island\n\n1800s to 1830s\n Peter McLean – 14 December 1800 – Irish convict and political prisoner, hanged without trial for conspiracy to mutiny\n John Houlahan – 14 December 1800 – Irish convict and political prisoner, hanged without trial for conspiracy to mutiny\n John McDonald - 13 April 1832 - Hanged for the attempted murder of fellow-convict Thomas Smith\n Thomas Reilly - 23 September 1833 - Hanged for the murder of fellow-convict Edward Doolan\n Matthew Connor - 23 September 1833 - Hanged for the attempted murder of constable Patrick Sullivan\n James Reynolds - 23 September 1833 - Hanged for the attempted murder of constable Patrick Sullivan\n Robert Douglas - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Henry Drummond - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n James Bell - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Joseph Butler - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Robert Glennie - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Walter Burke - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Joseph Snell - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n William McCulloch - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Michael Andrews - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n William Groves - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Thomas Freshwater - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Henry Knowles - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n Robert Ryan - 23 September 1834 - Hanged for mutiny\n James Burrows - 26 December 1835 - Hanged for the murder of fellow-convict John Dursley\n George Thompson - 26 December 1835 - Hanged for the attempted murder of fellow-convict John Fell at Longridge\nWilliam Westwood (Jackey Jackey) – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for mutiny and the murder of convict constables John Morris, John Dinon, Thomas Saxton and police runner Stephen Smith, on 1 July 1846, known as the \"Cooking Pot Uprising\"\n\n1840s\nJohn Davies (or Davis) – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nSamuel Kenyon – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising. \nDennis Pendergast – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nOwen Commuskey – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nHenry Whiting – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Pearson – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nJames Cairns – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Westwood ('Jackey Jackey') - 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot uprising.\nWilliam Pickthorne – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nLawrence Kavenagh – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Scrimshaw – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nEdward McGinniss – 13 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nWilliam Brown ('Doggie') - 19 October 1846 - Hanged for his involvement in the Cooking-Pot Uprising.\nJohn Liddall - 3 November 1846 - Hanged for murder of Henry Clarke.\nBernard Macartney - 3 November 1846 - Hanged for murder of Henry Clarke.\n\nNorthern Territory\n Charles Flannagan – 15 July 1893 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Samuel Croker at Auvergne Station.\n Wandy Wandy – 25 July 1893 – Hanged on gallows constructed at the scene of the crime at Malay Bay for his part in the murder of six unnamed Malays.\n Moolooloorun (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 17 January 1895 – Hanged on gallows constructed at Crescent Lagoon in the presence of other members of his aboriginal community for the murder of an unnamed Chinese man near the Roper River.\n Chung Yeung – 10 August 1899 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Chee Hang at Yam Creek.\n Lem Kai – 10 August 1899 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Chee Hang at Yam Creek.\n Jimmie (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 8 April 1901 – Hanged on gallows constructed at Shaw's Creek, Victoria River, for the murder of John Larsen at Daly River.\n Tommy (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 21 December 1905 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murders of Henry Edwards, Richard Frost and Nowra at Victoria River district.\n Koppio (Aboriginal male, no given surname) – 15 July 1913 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murders of Ching Loy and Lo Sin at the old Howley Mine.\n Jaroslav Koci – 8 August 1952 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Darwin taxi-driver George Thomas Grantham.\n Jan Novotny – 8 August 1952 – Hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol for the murder of Darwin taxi-driver George Thomas Grantham.\n\nQueensland\n\n1830s to 1850s\n John Bulbridge – 18 December 1830 – Hanged at Moreton Bay for absconding from the penal colony there and committing a robbery at Port Macquarie\n Charles Fagan - 18 December 1830 - Hanged at Moreton Bay for absconding and committing a robbery at Port Macquarie\n Mullan – 3 July 1841 – Indigenous. Hanged at the Windmill, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, for the murder of surveyor Granville William Chetwynd Stapylton at Mount Lindesay\n Ningavil - 3 July 1841 - Indigenous. Hanged at the Windmill, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, for the murder of surveyor Granville Chetwynd Stapylton at Mount Lindsay\n Patrick Fitzgerald - 8 July 1850 - Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol, Petrie Terrace, for the murder of James Marsden at Gigooman\n Jacob Wagner – 8 July 1850 – Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murder of James Marsden at Gigooman\n Angee (An Gee) – 6 January 1852 – Chinese. Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murder of James Holbert in the Burnett district\n Davy – 22 August 1854 – Indigenous. Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murder of Adolphus Trevethan on Rawbelle station in the Burnett district\n Dundalli – 5 January 1855 – Indigenous. Hanged in front of Brisbane Gaol for the murders of Andrew Gregor and William Boller. This was the last official public execution in Queensland\n William Teagle - 28 July 1857 - Hanged at Brisbane Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary Leighton at Drayton\n Chamery - 4 August 1859 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Mary Treatroff at Dugandan\n Dick - 4 August 1859 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Mary Treatroff at Dugandan\n\n1860s\n Thomas Woods - 7 December 1860 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Gabriel Morell at Coonambula\n Georgie – 12 Dec 1861 – Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Bridget Ryan at Little Ipswich\n Tommy - 2 April 1862 - Chinese, real name not recorded. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of George Lang at Nebo\n Matthew McGuinness - 8 April 1862 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of a shepherd named Schaff between Gayndah and Mundubbera\n Alexander Ritchie – 1 August 1864 – Hanged at Toowoomba Gaol for the murder of Charles Owen at Yandilla\n Jackey - 3 November 1865 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Ann Mee at Degilbo\n Rudolf Mornberger - 13 December 1865 - German. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Heinrich Bode on the Logan River\n Thomas John Griffin – 1 June 1868 – Police officer and gold commissioner hanged at Rockhampton Gaol for the murder of troopers John Power and Patrick Cahill on the banks of the Mackenzie River while they were on duty escorting a large sum of money from Rockhampton to Clermont\n Billy - 7 December 1868 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Mary Thompson at Tivoli\n Jacob - 17 May 1869 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Jane Knott and Amelia Reichmann at Ideraway\n John Williams – 24 November 1869 – Hanged at Rockhampton for the murder of Patrick Halligan at Eight Mile Island\n George C.F. Palmer – 24 November 1869 – Hanged at Rockhampton for the murder of Patrick Halligan at Eight Mile Island\n Alexander Archibald – 22 December 1869 – Hanged at Rockhampton for abetting the murder of Patrick Halligan at Eight Mile Island.\n\n1870s\n Gee Lee – 7 March 1870 – Chinese. Hanged at Toowoomba for the murder of Louis Vernon at Caroline sheep station on the Burenda run, in the Warrego district.\n Jacky Whitton – 7 March 1870 – Indigenous. Hanged at Toowoomba for the rape of thirteen-year-old Henrietta Reiss at Bodumba station near Warwick.\n William Prendergast – 28 March 1870 – Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Patrick Hartnett at Fortitude Valley.\n William Brown (or Bertram) – 29 August 1870 – Hanged at Toowoomba for robbery under arms at Mangalore.\n Donald Ross – 21 November 1870 – Hanged at Rockhampton for the murder of George Rose at Springsure.\n George – 15 May 1871 – Indigenous. Hanged at Rockhampton for the rape of Ellen Manning at Gracemere.\n Dugald - 28 May 1872 - Indigenous. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of twelve-year-old Catherine Hutchinson south of Gympie.\n Patrick Collins - 29 May 1872 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Simon Zieman at Gunde Gunda Creek near Surat.\n John Garbett - 10 March 1874 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Tom Conroy at Taroom.\n Alick (alias Johnny) - 29 December 1874 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of eleven-year-old Gertrude Brauer at Doughboy Creek.\n Johnny Clayson – 14 April 1875 – Indigenous. Hanged at Rockhampton for the rape of Johanna Kopp at Palmerville.\n Johann (John) Wenzell - 29 August 1876 - German. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Joel Martin at Gabbinbar, Toowoomba.\n George - 18 May 1877 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Maryborough Gaol for the rape of Mrs McBride.\n Tommy Ah Mow – 18 May 1877 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Maryborough for the rape of Mrs. McBride.\n James Cunningham - 14 January 1878 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Frank Steinebecker near Cairns.\n Sam Ah Poo - 19 August 1878 - Chinese. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of M. Fisher McMichael at Bundaleer Plains, near Noorama.\n Ervora (alias Johnny) - 23 December 1878 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Charles \"the Swede\" Andrews near Tambo.\n Joseph Mutter - 9 June 1879 - German. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Maria Josephina Steffen at Ravenswood. \"When the drop fell the convict's head was completely severed from the body. The executioner attributed this horrible result to the hard condition of the rope, caused by the frost\".\n\n1880s\n Joseph Wells - 22 March 1880 - Hanged at Brisbane for armed robbery and attempted murder at Cunnamulla\n James Elsdale (alias Munro) - 31 May 1880 - Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Michael McEvoy at Belltopper Creek, Aramac\n Jimmy Ah Sue - 31 May 1880 - Chinese. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Ah Coo Wah at Copperfield (Clermont)\n Maximus 'Pedro' Gomez - 21 June 1880 - Filipino. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of William Clarke on Possession Island (Bedanug), Torres Strait\n Kagariu (Johnny Campbell) - 16 August 1880 - Indigenous. Bushranger. Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Jane MacAlister at Kipper Creek, Northbrook\n Ah Que - 12 December 1881 - Chinese. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Ah Wah and Geon Ching at Palmerville\n George Byrne - 22 May 1882 - Hanged at Brisbane for the rape of Susan Isaacs in Elizabeth Street, Brisbane\n Towolar (Jemmy) - 5 June 1882 - From Ambae, New Hebrides. Hanged at Brisbane for the murder of Jeremiah Worth at Bundaberg\n Jango – 15 October 1883 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Eliza Mills at Dingo. He was sixteen at the time of his crime\n George – 15 October 1883 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the rape of thirteen-year-old Johanna Anderson at Gracemere\n James Gardiner (alias McMahon) – 15 October 1883 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of 'German Ada' at Rockhampton\n Walter Edward Gordon – 25 October 1885 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Walter Bunning near Rockhampton\n Tim Tee – 5 April 1886 – Chinese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Jimmy Ah Fook at Dulvadilla\n Wong Tong – 21 June 1886 – Chinese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Kok Tow near Bundaberg\n Christopher Pickford – 30 May 1887 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Martin Emmerson at Ravenswood Junction\n John Harrison – 13 June 1887 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of William Thompson\n Ellen Thompson – 13 June 1887 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of her husband William. She was the only woman hanged in Queensland\n Sedin - 12 November 1888 - Malay. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of John Fitzgerald and Christian Meyriga at Normanton\n Edmond Duhamel - 12 November 1888 - Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Sarah Ann Descury at Croydon\n\n1890s\n Michael Barry – 2 June 1890 – Hanged at Rockhampton (Wandal) for the murder of his wife Mary. He was the last person to be hanged in Queensland outside of Brisbane\n Donald – 25 April 1892 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the rape of Eva Scott at Hornet Bank Station near Taroom\n Frank Charles Horrocks – 26 September 1892 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Rudolph Weissmüller at Mooraree near Brisbane \n Charles Gleeson – 24 October 1892 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Patrick McKiernan at Prince of Wales Island (Muralug), Torres Strait\n Leonardo William Moncado – 24 October 1892 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Bob, an Indigenous cabin-boy, on board the Northern coastal trading vessel Sketty Belle\n George Thomas Blantern – 23 October 1893 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Flora McDonald at Marlborough Station\n Hatsuro Abe – 28 May 1894 – Japanese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of a Japanese widow, Omatzie, on Thursday Island\n Miore - 20 May 1895 - Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Francis Macartney at Avondale. See Narasemai below\n Narasemai – 20 May 1895 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Francis Macartney at Avondale\n Sayer (also called Safhour) – 22 July 1895 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Peter Anderson near Etowrie near Mackay.\n Jackey – 4 November 1895 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Jacky Williams near Mount Morgan. \n Frank Tinyana – 4 November 1895 – Filipino. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the attempted murder of his wife Amelia and the murder of Constable William Conroy on Thursday Island.\n\n1900 onwards\n William Broome – 11 June 1900 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Mary Le Blowitz near Bundaberg\n Charles Beckman – 13 May 1901 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Alfred Anderson at Bowen\n Wandee (or Wantee) – 27 May 1901 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Alfred Burnstead near Townsville\n John Rheuben – 30 September 1901 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Fanny Hardwick at Rockhampton\n Arafau (or Orifough) – 3 December 1901 – Pacific Islander. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Morris Summers near Farleigh\n David Alexander Brown - 9 December 1901 - Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Graham Haygarth at Charters Towers\n Patrick Kenniff – 12 January 1903 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Constable George Doyle at Lethbridge's Pocket near Carnarvon\n Sow Too Low (or Sotulo) – 22 June 1903 – From Malaita (now part of Solomon Islands). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of John Martin and Sergeant David Johnston at Mackay Gaol. He was also thought responsible for the murder of 12-year-old Alice Gunning near Mackay \n Gosano (also called 'Kanalso called Charlie') – 17 April 1905 – From Malaita (now part of Solomon Islands). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of John Parsons at Ingham \n James Wharton – 17 July 1905 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of William Munday at Toowong \n Johannes – 14 May 1906 – From Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Constable Albert Price \n Twadiga – 14 May 1906 – From Gawa Island (now in Papua New Guinea). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of five-year-old William Baulch, at Homebush, near Mackay \n Look Kow (or Lee Kow) – 31 December 1906 – Chinese. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Lee Chay Yuen in Townsville \n August Millewski – 16 December 1907 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of an Indian man, Wallum Nabby, near Nananga \n Bismarck – 19 April 1909 – Indigenous. Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Janet Evitts at Jundah\n Arthur Ross – 7 June 1909 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of bank clerk James Muir\n Alexander Joseph Bradshaw – 13 June 1910 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of George and Alice Sutherland at Carron River, near Croydon\nGeorge David Silva – 10 June 1912 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of seventeen-year-old Maud Ching at Alligator Creek, near Hay Point. On the same occasion he also murdered Maud's younger siblings Teddy, Dolly, Hugh and Winnie, and their mother Agnes\n Charles Deen - 5 May 1913 - From Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Peter Dana (Dina, Dinna) at Innisfail\nErnest Austin- 22 September 1913 – Hanged at Boggo Road Gaol for the murder of Ivy Alexandra Mitchell. He was the last person executed in Queensland\n\nSouth Australia\n\n1830s to 1850s\nMichael Magee – 2 May 1838 – The first public execution in South Australia. A runaway convict, hanged from a tree on Montefiore Hill for shooting at with intent to kill Sheriff Smart\nWang Nucha (Tommy Roundhead) – 31 May 1839 – Hanged in front of the government iron stores (very close to the site of Magee's hanging) for the murder of James Thompson on the Para\nYerr-i-Cha (George) – 31 May 1839 – Hanged for the murder of William Duffield in the Gilles Plains area\nGeorge Hughes – 16 March 1840 – Hanged outside the Horse Police Barracks for theft and firing with murderous intent at the Para River\nHenry Curran – 16 March 1840 – Hanged outside the Horse Police Barracks for theft and firing with murderous intent at the Para River\nMongarawata – 25 August 1840 – Hanged by Major O'Halloran on the Coorong in retribution for the massacre of over fifteen passengers wrecked on the Maria\nPilgarie (Moorcan-gac) – 25 August 1840 – Hanged by Major O'Halloran on the Coorong in retribution for the massacre of fifteen passengers wrecked on the Maria\nJoseph Stagg – 18 November 1840 - Hanged for the murder of John Gofton near Torrens Island. The first public execution to be conducted outside Adelaide Gaol, with a crowd of roughly seven hundred in attendance.\nNgarbi (Nultia) – 1 August 1843 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Stubbs at Port Lincoln\nWera Maldera – 28 March 1845 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of George McGrath at McGrath's Flat, on the Coorong\nThomas Donnelly – 29 March 1847 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Kingberrie, an indigenous local, at Rivoli Bay\nKeelgulla – 9 November 1849 – Hanged at the scene of the crime for the murder of Captain James Beevor at Mount Drummond\nNeulalta – 9 November 1849 – Hanged at the scene of the crime for the murder of Captain James Beevor at Mount Drummond\nJames Yates – 5 September 1850 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of a shepherd named Jack Mansforth at Skillagolee Creek\nWilliam Wright – 12 March 1853 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of a man known as Robert Head, committed at East Wellington\nWilliam Bell – 27 December 1854 – Hanged outside Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Augustus Valrecht at Port Adelaide. This was the last public execution at Adelaide Gaol, with approximately three thousand onlookers. \nWeenpulta – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\nWeellanna – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\nYardulunulkarna – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\nEelanna – 14 January 1856 – Hanged at Franklin Harbour for the murder of Peter Brown\n\n1860s to 1890s\nManyetta – 5 October 1860 – Hanged at Streaky Bay for the murder of John Jones at Mount Joy\nPilti Miltinda (Bobby) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd (sometimes Reinbert) and her two children near Kapunda\nTankaworty (Alick or Jimmy) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd and her two children near Kapunda\nWarretya (Kop Robert) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd and her two children near Kapunda\nWarretya (Gogeye Jimmy) – 7 June 1861 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Mary Ann Rainberd and her two children near Kapunda\nNilgerie – 1861 – Hanged near the scene of the crime at Fowler's Bay for the murder of Thomas Berggoist\nTilcherie – 1861 – Hanged near the scene of the crime at Fowler's Bay for the murder of Thomas Berggoist\nMangiltie – 1861 – Hanged at Port Lincoln for the murder of Margaret Impey (Impett) at Mount Wedge\nKarabidnie – 1861 – Hanged at Port Lincoln for the murder of Margaret Impey at Mount Wedge\nJohn Seaver – 11 March 1862 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Police Inspector Richard Pettinger at a ball at Government House, Adelaide\nMagnultie – 1862 – Hanged at Venus Bay for the murder of William Walker near Cherado\nMalachi Martin – 24 December 1862 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Jane Macmanamin at Salt Creek\nCarl Jung – 10 November 1871 – Hanged at Mount Gambier for the murder of Assistant Bailiff Thomas Garraway at Deep Gully, near Mount Gambier\nElizabeth Woolcock – 30 December 1873 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Thomas Woolcock at North Yelta. The only woman executed in South Australia. \nWilliam Ridgeway – 1 January 1874 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Frederick Burt at Coonatto\nWilliam Page – 27 October 1875 – Hanged at Mount Gambier for the murder of Mary Julia Buchan\nCharles Streitman - 24 July 1877 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Robert Woodhead at Wallaroo\nHugh Fagan (alias James Lynch) - 15 April 1878 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Patrick Bannon at Saltire\nJonathan Prest - 16 July 1878 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary Prest near Port Adelaide\nRobert Johnson (alias William Nugent) – 18 November 1881 – Hanged at Mount Gambier for the murder of Trooper Harry Pearce\nWilliam Burns – 18 January 1883 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Henry Loton on the high seas, off the Cape Verde Islands. \"While waiting his doom, he formed an attachment to a young sparrow, which he tamed perfectly. He was greatly affected by the sight of the bird flitting about the scaffold while the preparations for his execution were in progress\"\nMah Poo (alias Charlie Bow) – 10 November 1883 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Tommy Ah Fook in Hindley Street\nWilliam Brown (alias Allen, alias Lane)– 24 August 1894 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of George Morowsky at Waukaringa \nGeorge Lynch – 6 November 1895 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Donald Ross at Balaklava \nJoshua Beard – 10 July 1897 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Walter Hall at Streaky Bay\n\n1900 onwards\nLolli Kayser Singh – 17 January 1900 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Sunda Singh at Denial Bay\nThomas Horton – 12 May 1904 - Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Florence in Rundle Street\nAlbert Bonfield – 5 January 1905 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Caroline Hinds at Kensington Gardens\nNotella Habibulla – 16 November 1906 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Edith in Bristol Street (off Cardwell St)\nJames (Joe) Coleman – 2 July 1908 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Constable Albert Ring at Glenelg\nJohn Robins – 16 March 1910 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Robert Ownsworth in Moonta St Adelaide\nHadji Khan – 5 April 1910 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Said Mahommed at Frome Creek\nCarlos Augustus Bonello – 5 May 1910 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Norma Plush at Siegersdorf\nPercival Budd – 24 April 1919 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Harold Jacques at Crystal Brook\nAlexander Newland Lee – 15 July 1920 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Muriel at Rhynie. Lee was the nephew of Martha Needle\nWilliam Francis – 22 November 1927 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Myra at Rosaville, Mount Gambier\nWilliam Haines – 16 December 1927 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Devina Schmidt at Bridgewater\nFrederick Carr – 12 November 1929 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Maude at Birkenhead\nThomas Blythe – 9 January 1930 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of his wife Sarah at Unley\nHarold James Box – 26 April 1944 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Albert Edmund (Lance) Brown at Gawler Place, Adelaide\nCharles O'Leary – 14 November 1946 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Walter 'Spoggy' Ballard at Nangwarry, near Penola\nAlfred Griffin – 22 March 1950 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Elsie Wheeler at a Hutt Street boarding house\nJohn Balaban – 26 August 1953 – Murdered at least four people. Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Zora Kusic at Torrensville\nWilliam Feast – 23 March 1956 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Eunice Gwynne at Wingfield\nRaymond John Bailey – 24 June 1958 – Convicted for the Sundown Murders. Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Thyra Bowman\nGlen Sabre Valance – 24 November 1964 – Hanged at Adelaide Gaol for the murder of Richard Stang at Kooroon Station. Last person to be executed in South Australia.\n\nTasmania\n\n1800s to 1810s\nThomas England - April 1806 - Private of 102nd Regiment, hanged at Port Dalrymple for his part in theft from Government Stores at Port Dalrymple on 18 Jan 1806.\nJames Keating - 14 April 1806 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in theft from Government Stores at Port Dalrymple on 18 Jan 1806.\nTerence Flynn - 14 July 1810 - Hanged in the Queenborough district (Sandy Bay) for murder\nJob Stokes - 14 July 1810 - Hanged in the Queenborough district for housebreaking\nJohn McCabe - 21 January 1813 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of William Parish\nJohn Townshend - 21 January 1813 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of William Parish\nPeter Gory - 21 January 1813 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of William Parish\nWilliam Stephens (Steel) - 25 May 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nThomas Mauley - 6 June 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for murder\nRichard McGuire (McGwire) - June 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of William Carlisle and James O'Byrne at New Norfolk\nHugh Byrne - June or early July 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of William Carlisle and James O'Byrne at New Norfolk\nRichard Collyer - 26 January 1818 - Hanged on the New Town road, Hobart, for the murder in 1815 of Carlisle and O'Byrne at New Norfolk\nGeorge Gray - 11 June 1818 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of John Evans (real name Charles Bell) at York Plains\nWilliam Trimm - 11 June 1818 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing in the Richmond district\n\n1820 to 1822\nThomas Bailey - 28 July 1820 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nJohn Brady - 28 July 1820 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nRobert Hunter - 28 April 1821 - Publicly hanged at scaffold erected at the top of Macquarie Street, Hobart Town, for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nEdward Brady - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nJames Flynn - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nJoseph Potaski - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of Alfred Thrupp's property at Risdon\nJohn Oliver - 28 April 1821 - Hanged at Hobart for cattle-stealing\nJohn McGuinness – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nMichael Riley – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nThomas Kenny – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nJohn Higgins – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging \nJohn Hill – 28 April 1821 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging\nJohn Morell – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston for stealing in the Norfolk Plains district\nDaniel McCarthy – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nRobert Gillaird – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nWilliam Lloyd – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nPatrick Kane – 30 May 1821 – Hanged at Launceston\nWilliam Hyder – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town for diverse robberies in the Paterson's Plains district\nJames Norris – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town\nEdward McCracken – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town\nThomas Gutteridge – 3 June 1821 – Hanged at George Town for stealing at Norfolk Plains\nWilliam Smith - 25 April 1822 - Publicly hanged at the Cascade end of Macquarie Street, Hobart, for sheep stealing.\nJohn Williams - 25 April 1822 - Publicly hanged at the Cascade end of Macquarie Street, Hobart, for sheep stealing.\n\n1823 to 1824\nJames Smith – 12 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing. (Smith actually cheated the hangman by \"suspending himself by a silk handkerchief from a bar...in the room in which he was confined\")\nGeorge Richardson – 14 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nRobert Oldham – 14 April 1823– Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing \nWilliam Davis – 14 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing \nRalph Churlton – 14 April 1823 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nAlexander Pearce – 19 July 1824 – Murderer and cannibal. Hanged at Hobart\nThomas Butler – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nPatrick Connolly – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nJames Tierney – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nIsaac Walker – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nJohn Thomson – 22 July 1824 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robberies\nGeorge Gardner - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for killing a steer with intent to steal \nArthur Dicker - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for killing a steer with intent to steal \nThomas Taylor - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for the murder of John Street at Abbotsfield\nLuke Fowler - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for the murder of John Street at Abbotsfield\nCharles Kimberley - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for the murder of Judith Burke\nJames Crawford - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nJohn Bimms - 8 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nJob Corfield – 8 September 1824 – Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nMatthew Stephenson - 15 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\nJohn Twiggs - 15 September 1824 - Hanged at George Town for robbery and putting in fear\n\n1825 to 1826\nThomas Hudson – 28 January 1825 – Hanged at Macquarie Harbour for the murder of Robert Esk\nRichard Allen – 28 January 1825 - Hanged at Macquarie Harbour for the murder of William Saul at Birch's Bay\nFrancis Oates – 28 January 1825 - Hanged at Macquarie Harbour for the murder of James Williamson\nHenry McConnell – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nJeremiah Ryan – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder and robbery\nCharles Ryder – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder and robbery\nJames Bryant – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder and robbery\nBlack Jack (or Jack Roberts) – 25 February 1825 – Indigenous. Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Patrick McCarthy\nMusquito – 25 February 1825 – Indigenous (Eora). Hanged at Hobart for a murder at Grindstone Bay\nPeter Thackery – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJohn Logan – 25 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for attempted shooting murder of William Shoobridge. The victim was saved because the bullet struck a ruler in his pocket.\nSamuel Fielding – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJames Chamberlain – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nStephen Lear – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at the Surveyor-General's\nHenry Fry – 26 February 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at the Surveyor-General's \nJohn Reid Riddel – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of George Fildes in Goulburn St. He confessed to the murder of both his ex-wives.\nThomas Peacock – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of Constable Craggs \nWilliam Buckley – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJoseph Broadhead – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJohn Everiss – 31 August 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and robbery\nJohn Godliman – 7 September 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Samuel Hunt at Fourteen-Tree Plain, near Jericho.\nJonas Dobson – 12 December 1825 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of his overseer\nJohn Johnson – 6 January 1826 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Mr. Barnes' \nSamuel Longman – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary\nCharles Wigley – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary\nJames Major – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing an ox\nWilliam Pollock – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nGeorge Harden – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nWilliam Preece – 6 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robberies and bushranging\nJames McCabe – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for murder, robberies and bushranging\nRichard Brown – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJames Brown – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJohn Green – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nThomas Bosworth – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing a boat\nRichard Miller – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing a boat\nRichard Craven – 7 January 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for stealing a boat\nJames Eales – 17 February 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing and robbery\nWilliam Eales – 17 February 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing and robbery\nMatthew Brady – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nPatrick Bryant – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nThomas Jeffries – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJohn Perry – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJohn Thompson – 4 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Margaret Smith at the Watch-House\nSamuel Hodgetts – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJames McKenney – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJames Goodwin – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nJohn Gregory – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nWilliam Tilley – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nWilliam Brown – 5 May 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for Murder, robberies and bushranging\nThomas Dunnings – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Alexander Simpson at Pittwater\nEdward Everett – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Alexander Simpson at Pittwater\nWilliam Smith – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Alexander Simpson at Pittwater\nJohn Taylor – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour and robbing soldiers of their arms\nGeorge Watters – 13 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour and robbing soldiers of their arms \nJack – 13 September 1826 – Indigenous. Hanged for the murder of Thomas Colley at Oyster Bay. Jack was kept apart before the execution as he was suffering from leprosy.\nDick – 13 September 1826 – Indigenous. Hanged for the murder of Thomas Colley at Oyster Bay\nGeorge Brace – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery and bushranging\nJohn McFarlane – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding into the woods and robbing William Holdship at Browns River\nJames Edwards – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding into the woods and robbing William Holdship at Browns River\nThomas Balfour – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for absconding into the woods and robbing William Holdship at Browns River\nJohn Dadd – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nJohn Clark – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nPatrick Brown – 15 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nJohn Pearson (Penson) – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary from Richard Worley, butcher, Elizabeth St\nJames Rowles – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbing his employer John Dunn's shop, Elizabeth St\nTimothy Swinscow – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbing Mrs. Till at New Norfolk\nWilliam Wickens – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for robbing Mrs. Till at New Norfolk\nGeorge Farquharson – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing at Jericho\nRobert Cable – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from the Sherwin flock on the Clyde\nThomas Savell – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from David Lord in the Pitt Water district\nJohn Davis – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from David Lord in the Pitt Water district\nJohn Cruitt – 18 September 1826 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing from David Lord in the Pitt Water district\n\n1827\nRobert Grant - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing from Edmund Bryant near Jericho\nGeorge Bentley - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing from Edmund Bryant near Jericho\nWilliam Crest - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing from Edmund Bryant near Jericho\nWilliam Evans - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery at New Town of John Sayers 'the broom-maker'.\nPeter Rice - 8 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for shooting at John Swift in Murray Street, Hobart\nPatrick Dunne - 8 January 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Kingston\nCharles Burgh - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for horse stealing\nHenry Strong - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nMichael Brown - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nGeorge Ellis - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nWilliam Birt - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nWilliam Hoadley - 9 January 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping, bushranging and robbery\nWilliam Tuffnell - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of nine-year-old Ellen Briggs\nRichard Gill - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nEdward Howe - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for highway robbery near Scottsdale\nJoseph Horsefield - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nJames Gurd - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary in the Norfolk Plains district\nWilliam Ashford - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary in the Norfolk Plains district\nAndrew Winchester - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary in the Macquarie River district\nWilliam Haywood - 19 February 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Christopher McRae at Lake River \nHenry Oakley – 3 July 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary from Mr Brodie on the Clyde\nThomas Bidwell Child – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for forgery\nJohn Wright – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Old Beach\nJohn Clayton – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nGeorge Dunning – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nWilliam Longhurst – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep-stealing\nDaniel McPherson – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary of the home of Henry Bye, North Hobart\nMartin Higgins – 3 July 1827 – Hanged at Hobart for \"stealing in a dwelling house at noon-day\" from Henry Bye, North Hobart\nJames Horsefield - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nGeorge Metcalfe - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJames Coates - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJohn Brown (the Mariner) - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJohn Lee - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nGeorge Braithwaite - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nJohn Brown (the Bricklayer) - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nThomas Davis (real name Roberts) - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nMatthew McCullum - 23 August 1827 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at Stanfield's, Ralph's Bay\nHumphrey Oulton - 15 November 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the theft of a sheep\nAbraham Abrahams - 15 November 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for the theft of a mare from the Gourlay property on the Clyde\nWilliam Shepherd - 15 November 1827 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary from the home of Ralph Compton on the Norfolk Plains (Longford)\nGeorge Lacey - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of Constable George Rex at Macquarie Harbour\nJohn Ward (\"Flash Jack\") - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nSamuel Measures - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nWilliam Jenkins - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJames Conhope - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of a six-year-old (convict per Minerva)\nJames Reid - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nThomas Williams - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJames Kirk - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJohn McMillan - 17 December 1827- Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\nJohn Maguire - 17 December 1827 - Hanged at Hobart for his role in the Rex murder\n\n1828 to 1829\nGeorge Driver - 30 January 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Onely at Macquarie Harbour\nSamuel Higgins - 30 January 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Onely at Macquarie Harbour\nWilliam Fowler - 1 March 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of a little girl named Emma Groom\nHenry Williamson - 1 March 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Malcolm Logan at Green Ponds (Kempton)\nThomas Pearson - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and burglary at Cross Marsh (Melton Mowbray)\nPhelim Bonner (real name Crampsey) - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery on James Collins\nEdward Hangan - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery of a gun from James McLanachan\nJohn Grimes - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for shooting with intent at George Marshall near Sorell\nThomas Collins - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary at the home of George Cartwright\nEdward Burke - 26 May 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nAbraham Aaron - 1 August 1828 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Maria Island \nPhilip Large - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of eleven year-old Margaret Stewart\nJohn Morrison - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for arson\nJohn Gibson - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nCharles Williams - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery\nWilliam Ashton - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nJoseph Moulds - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nWilliam Baker - 15 February 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for robbery\nJohn Baker - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for sheep stealing\nBernard Shields - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for sheep stealing (convict per Minerva) \nDaniel Mackie - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for sheep stealing\nDaniel Leary - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for bullock stealing\nThomas Rogers - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nGeorge Palmer - 17 Feb 1829 - Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery\nDaniel Brown - 2 March 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of a fellow-convict named Stopford at Macquarie Harbour\nJohn Salmon - 2 March 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for murder of a fellow-convict named Stopford at Macquarie Harbour\nJohn Leach - 7 March 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of his common-law wife\nRobert Bourke - 12 July 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping and stealing a boat at Macquarie Harbour\nWilliam Madden - 12 July 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery\nWilliam Herring - 12 July 1829 - Hanged at Hobart for escaping and stealing a boat at Macquarie Harbour\n\n1830 to 1831\nJohn Mayo – 11 January 1830 – Hanged at Hobart Gaol for the murder of James Bailey at Macquarie Harbour\nWilliam Wilkes - 23 January 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Dennis Alcoloret on Bruny Island in Oct 1827\nHugh Campbell – 3 February 1830 – Soldier of the 63rd Regiment, hanged at Hobart for the murder of Jonathan Brett\nMichael Best - 11 February 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Richard Garner at Hamilton\nJohn Oxley – 24 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Susan Corfield\nSamuel Killen – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nJohn Jones – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing\nJoseph Fogg – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for an unnatural crime\nThomas Goodwin – 26 February 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for cutting the throat of Ann Hamilton with intent to kill\nMary McLauchlan – 19 April 1830 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of her infant son. The first woman executed in Van Diemen's Land/Tasmania.\nEdmund Daniels - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict, Asia 3rd) \nJohn Dighton - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict - Earl St Vincent) \nJames Child - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict - Chapman 2nd) \nAndrew Bates - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging. (Convict - Phoenix) \nEdward Ladywig - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for robbery (Convict - Phoenix) \nJoseph Ellis - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for sheep stealing (Convict - Dromedary) \nAndrew McCue - 14 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary of clothing and money from the house of John Robins\nGeorge Thomson – 17 May 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for housebreaking, theft of silver plate and two pistols (Convict - Lady Harewood) \nEdward Sweeney – 30 June 1830 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his wife Mary Sweeney\nWilliam Thomas – 30 June 1830 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of John 'Smutty Jack' Warne\nWilliam Messenger - 10 July 1830 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of a five-year-old child\nJohn Brady - 10 July 1830 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of a five-year-old child\nRichard Udall - 10 July 1830 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of a five-year-old child\nCharles Routley - 17 September 1830 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John \"Pretty Jack\" Buckley at Carlton River\nHenry Strong - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nWilliam Hoadley - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nMichael Brown - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nWilliam Birt - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nGeorge Ellis - 9 January 1831 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery at the property of James Reid on the Macquarie River\nCharles Burgh (alias Sutton) - 9 January 1831 - Hanged at Hobart for the theft of a horse from Captain Andrew Barclay near Launceston\nEdward Broughton (28) - 5 August 1831- Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour; while on the run he had murdered and cannibalised William Coventry and two others\nMatthew Macavoy - 5 August 1831 - Hanged at Hobart for absconding from Macquarie Harbour; while on the run he had murdered and cannibalised William Coventry and two others\nJohn Somers - 23 December 1831 - Hanged at Hobart for rape\n\n1832 to 1834\nJames Camm – 30 April 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for piracy; he was involved in the Cyprus mutiny in 1829\nJames Metcalfe – 30 April 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for assault of John Munn\nRobert Gordon – 30 April 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary\nJohn Gow - 14 May 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the shooting murder of Patrick Carrigan, a soldier of the 63rd\nJoseph Colvin - 14 May 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Patrick Carrigan\nElijah Alder - 16 March 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Benjamin Horne at Ross\nJohn Towers – 5 June 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of two hawkers named Patrick Fitzgibbon and John Kellerman on the St Paul's Plains\nJames Fletcher – 5 June 1832 – Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Patrick Fitzgibbon and John Kellerman on the St Paul's Plains\nThomas Fleet – 17 October 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted axe murder of William Waring Saxton at Port Arthur\nWilliam Evans – 17 October 1832 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted knife murder of George Edwards at Granton\nWilliam Higham - 5 January 1833 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robberies in the Ross area\nSimon Gowan (Going) - 5 January 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of eight-year-old Mary Ann Bowman at Jericho\nJohn Glover - 5 January 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of eight-year-old Mary Ann Bowman at Jericho\nRobert Dutchess - 5 January 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for bestiality with a mare\nJohn Clements ('Jack the Lagger') - 5 January 1833 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery and putting in fear\nRichard (John) Jones - 15 April 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for bestiality on board the Circassian\nThomas Ansell – 1 November 1833 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nJonathan Dark - 1 November 1833 - Hanged at Hobart for burglary in Argyle St\nWilliam Ward – 10 March 1834 – Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nSamuel Newman – 10 March 1834 – Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nThomas Dawson – 10 March 1834 – Hanged at Launceston for burglary\nJoseph Deane – 26 March 1834 – Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Green Ponds (Kempton)\nHenry Rutland – 26 March 1834 – Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for robbery at Green Ponds (Kempton)\nSamuel (a 'man of colour') – 26 March 1834 – Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder at Port Arthur of Chief Constable Richard Newman\nJoseph Greenwood – 16 April 1834 – Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Constable Thomas Terry at New Town racecourse. \nBenjamin Davidson - 17 June 1834 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Ann Howell at Norfolk Plains (Longford)\nWilliam Hurlock (Hislop) - 17 June 1834 - Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Ann Howell\nHenry Street - 17 June 1834 - Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Ann Howell\n\n1835 to 1839\nJohn Burke – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nWilliam Weston – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nJohn Ashton – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nThomas Kirkham – 13 February 1835 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary at Ross\nJohn Dunn - 11 August 1835 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of William Evans at Lemon Springs, near Oatlands\nGeorge Clarke - 11 August 1835 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of William Evans at Lemon Springs, near Oatlands\nSamuel Hibbill (Hibbell) - 10 March 1836 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Capt. Sibson Bragg, by throwing him overboard the schooner Industry in the Tasman Sea\nThomas Harris - 10 March 1836 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Capt. Sibson Bragg, by throwing him overboard the schooner Industry in the Tasman Sea\nRobert Smith - 10 March 1836 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Capt. Sibson Bragg, by throwing him overboard the schooner Industry in the Tasman Sea\nSamuel Guillem - 16 March 1837 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Mary Mills at New Norfolk\nJohn McKay – first five days of May 1837 – Hanged at Hobart for the 1 April 1837 murder of Joseph Edward Wilson near Perth. His corpse was later gibbeted at Perth.\nJohn Gardiner – 10 November 1837 – Hanged at Launceston Gaol for the murder of George Mogg on the Tamar\nJohn Hudson – 10 November 1837 – Hanged at Launceston for cutting and maiming with intent to murder Isaac Schofield, the overseer of a chain-gang\nJames Hawes – 10 November 1837 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary and assault on Valentine Soper at Windmill Hill, Launceston\nHenry Stewart – 10 November 1837 - Hanged at Launceston for burglary and assault on Valentine Soper at Windmill Hill, Launceston\nJames Atterall - 21 June 1838 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Vincent's Hotel, Epping Forest\nJames Regan - 21 June 1838 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Vincent's Hotel, Epping Forest\nAnthony Banks - 21 June 1838 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Vincent's Hotel, Epping Forest. Banks was the first native-born Vandemonian executed in the colony\n\n1840 to 1844\nJohn Riley - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Matthews in Warwick St. Hobart\nJohn Davis - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Matthews in Warwick St. Hobart\nGeorge Pettit - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Paul at York Plains\nJohn Martin - 8 June 1840 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Sergeant George Newman (of the 51st) on board the government brig Tamar\nJohn Watson - 30 January 1841 - Bushranger. Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of John Holding at Ashby, near Ross\nPatrick Wallace - 30 January 1841 - Bushranger. Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of John Holding at Ashby, near Ross. Wallace and Watson were hangman Solomon Blay's first executions.\nJoseph Broom - 19 February 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of Joseph Bailey near Campbell Town\nJames McKay - 27 May 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Trusson at the Great Lake\nWilliam Hill - 27 May 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Trusson at the Great Lake\nPatrick Minnighan - 25 June 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Travers at Port Arthur\nEdward Allen - 31 July 1841 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Samuel Brewell at Muddy Creek, on the west bank of the Tamar\nThomas Dooner - 6 August 1841 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Joseph Walker at a hut on the Macquarie River\nJames Broomfield - 25 October 1841 - Bushranger. Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery at Tarleton\nJames Williamson - 4 January 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Lord at Swanport (Swansea)\nGeorge Bailey - 4 January 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Lord at Swanport (Swansea)\nHenry Belfield - 20 January 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Broadman at Port Arthur\nElijah Ainsworth - 6 June 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of five-year-old Mary Jeffery \nThomas Turner - 9 June 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of his wife Hannah at Moonah\nWilliam Langham - 10 August 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of the Doctor at Port Arthur and the stabbing of a boy named Thomas Cooke\nSamuel Williams - 27 December 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of James Harkness at Port Arthur\nJames Littleton - 27 December 1842 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Henry Seaton at Broadmarsh\nHenry Smith - 11 May 1843 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Henry Childs (Childe) at Sandy Bay\nJames Bowtell - 16 May 1843 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of William Marks on the highway at Dysart\nRiley Jeffs – 26 July 1843 – Bushranger. Publicly hanged at Launceston for the murder of District Constable William Ward at Campbell Town\nJohn Conway – 26 July 1843 – Bushranger. Publicly hanged at Launceston for the murder of District Constable William Ward at Campbell Town\nJohn Woolley – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery and attempting to kill special constable William Hobart Wells\nGeorge Churchward – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nWilliam Thomas – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nGeorge Bristol – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nJohn Walker – 5 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for robbery\nAlexander Reid - 24 April 1844 – Hanged at Oatlands for shooting and wounding Constable Murray\nThomas Marshall – 24 April 1844 – Hanged At Oatlands for the murder of Ben Smith\nGeorge Jones – 30 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery \nJames Platt – 30 April 1844 – Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery\nIsaac Tidburrow (Tidbury) - 9 July 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of seven-year-old Mary-Ann Gangell\nThomas Wicksett - 9 July 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of John Ayres at Port Arthur\nJames Gannon - 7 August 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for a rape committed near Richmond\nThomas Smith - 7 August 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of overseer William Perry at Port Arthur\nJames Boyle - 7 August 1844 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of overseer William Perry at Port Arthur\n\n1845 to 1849\nRichard Jackson - 1 May 1845 - Hanged at Oatlands for the rape of Elizabeth Davis\nAnthony Kedge - 8 August 1845 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Charles Shepherd between George Town and Low Head\nFrancis Maxfield - 12 August 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of sub-overseer Joseph Ellis at Port Arthur\nThomas Gomm – 23 September 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nWilliam Taylor - 23 September 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nIsaac Lockwood – 23 September 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nEliza Benwell – 2 October 1845 – Hanged at Hobart for aiding and abetting the murder of Jane Saunders at New Norfolk\nThomas Gillan - 1 November 1845 - Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery at Breadalbane (Cocked Hat)\nMichael Keegan (Keogan) - 31 December 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of sub-overseer Joseph Ellis at Port Arthur\nJob Harris - 31 December 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for his involvement in the pack-rape of a fellow-convict at the Coal Mines, Saltwater River\nWilliam Collier - 31 December 1845 - Hanged at Hobart for his involvement in the pack-rape of a fellow-convict at the Coal Mines, Saltwater River\nJohn Phillips – 4 February 1846 – Hanged at Oatlands for setting fire to the magistrate's oatstacks following a conviction for sly grog selling\nDaniel McCabe - 24 March 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for cutting and wounding, with intent to kill, Francis Scott at Impression Bay\nCharles Woodman - 24 March 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and attempted murder of Elizabeth Jones in Davey Street\nHenry Food - 28 April 1846 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Revd Dr Browne\nHenry Cooper - 13 May 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Richard Beech at Impression Bay\nMichael Roach - 24 September 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for wounding with intent to murder catechist Roger Boyle at Port Arthur\nMichael Lyons - 11 November 1846 - Hanged at Hobart for committing an 'unnatural crime' with a goat at Port Cygnet\nPeter Kenny - 24 March 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of James Goodall Francis at Battery Point. Kenny, a former Point Puer boy, attacked Francis with a tomahawk while attempting burglary. Francis went on to become Premier of Victoria twenty-five years later\nWilliam Bennett - 24 March 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of fellow-prisoner Thomas Shand at Port Arthur\nGeorge Wood - 29 June 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Taylor at Port Arthur\nCharles Benwell – 14 September 1847 – Hanged at Hobart for murder of George Lowe near Bagdad. He was the brother of Eliza Benwell, hanged in 1845.\nLaban Gower - 23 November 1847 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Ann Mayfield at Old Beach\nHugh Glacken – 25 November 1847 – Hanged at Launceston for bushranging\nJames Hill - 4 January 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of an elderly lady named Alice Martin at Brighton\nHenry Whelan - 4 January 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Robert Mann at Berriedale\nJames Kennedy - 4 January 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of William Millar at Port Arthur\nJames Connolly - 22 February 1848 - Publicly hanged at Hobart for arson (setting a barn on fire) at Impression Bay. \nNathaniel Westerman (Weston) - 4 April 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of fellow-prisoner Joseph Blundell at Port Arthur\nJames Sullivan – 9 May 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Constable James Kelly at Swanston, near Andover\nPatrick Shea – 9 May 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Constable James Kelly at Swanston\nJames McGough – 9 May 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Constable James Kelly at Swanston\nJohn Shale – 9 May 1848 - Hanged at Oatlands for wounding John Connell with intent to murder\nThomas Smith – 4 August 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for stabbing with intent to murder Constable Clough at Jericho\nJeremiah Maher – 4 August 1848 – Hanged at Oatlands for stabbing with intent to murder Constable Clough at Jericho\nThomas Liner – 8 August 1848 - Hanged at Hobart for the stabbing murder of Hugh Gilmore in Kelly St\nJohn Jordan – 7 November 1848 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Zimran Youram at Norfolk Plains\nMatthew Mahide – 7 November 1848 – Hanged at Launceston for armed robbery at Snake Banks (present-day Powranna)\nMichael Rogers- 3 January 1849 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Joseph Howard at Port Sorell\nWilliam Stamford - 3 January 1849 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Thomas Lovell at Brushy Plains (Runnymede)\nJohn Russell Dickers - 20 March 1849 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of Constable Samuel Withers on the corner of Fitzroy Crescent and Davey St, South Hobart\nJames Holloway - 25 June 1849 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for armed robbery of Edwin Beckett at Prosser's Plains (present-day Buckland)\nJohn Stevens – 24 July 1849 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Margaret Buttery at Longford\nJames McKechnie - 31 December 1849 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Francis Sockett in Davey St, Hobart\n\n1850 to 1854\nJohn King - 21 March 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of Alexander Smith at Port Arthur\nJames Howarth - 21 March 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Joshua Jennings at New Town\nJames Mullay - 26 July 1850 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of fellow-constable John McNamara at Perth\nJoseph Squires - 26 July 1850 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of four-year-old Horatio James\nChristopher Hollis - 24 September 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Thomas Couchman at Bridgewater\nJohn Woods - 6 November 1850 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Constable Bernard Mulholland at Franklin\nJoseph Brewer - 11 February 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Ann Hefford at Campbell Town\nThomas Burrows - 13 February 1851 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Thomas Parsons at Nile\nWilliam Parker - 13 February 1851 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Thomas Parsons at Nile\nHenry Hart - 13 February 1851 - Hanged at Launceston for the attempted murder of Harriet Grubb at Cressy\nThomas Dalton - 21 March 1851 - Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for highway robbery of William Corrigan at Constitution Hill\nWilliam Henry Stevens - 25 April 1851 - Convict. Hanged at Oatlands for Assaulting James Moore, being armed with a gun on the high road between Antill Ponds and Tunbridge\nBuchanan Wilson - 3 May 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the armed robbery of Patrick Cooney on the Huon Road, two miles out of Hobart\nGeorge Mackie – 21 July 1851 – Hanged at Oatlands for the murder of Thomas Gilbert at Waters Meeting, near Cranbrook\nJohn Crisp – 27 October 1851 – Hanged at Oatlands for Wounding with Intent Constable William Donohoo at Swansea\nFrancis Duke – 31 October 1851 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of William Smith at Fern Tree Hill, near Deloraine\nJames Yardley – 31 October 1851 – Hanged at Launceston for attempted murder of Robert Hudson at Deloraine\nWilliam Henry Stephens – 25 April 1851 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of Thomas Moore at Antill Ponds\nThomas Callaghan (Callaher, Gallagher, Collahon, Collohan, Callahan) - 6 October 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of Ann Curtis at Grasstree Hill\nMichael Conlan - 22 December 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Francis Burt at Franklin\nPatrick Callaghan - 22 December 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Francis Burt at Franklin\nWilliam Porter - 29 December 1851 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of William Andrews at Sandy Bay\nCharles Lockwood - 28 January 1852 - Hanged at Launceston for the attempted murder of William Gaffney at Longford\nJohn Castles - 22 June 1852 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of William Hibbard at Kangaroo Point\nMary Sullivan - 5 August 1852 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of two-year-old Clara Adeline Fraser in Campbell St. Sullivan was sixteen when she went to the gallows.\nPatrick McMahon – 28 October 1852 – Hanged at Oatlands for rape of a child\nJohn Kilburn - 11 February 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for attempted murder of overseer Charles Weatherall at Pittwater\nJohn Wood - 11 February 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of Kate Toole in Goulburn St\nJames Dalton – 26 April 1853 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Constable Tom Buckmaster at Avoca\nAndrew Kelly – 26 April 1853 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Constable Tom Buckmaster at Avoca\nSamuel Jacobs - 29 April 1853 - Hanged at Launceston for the rape of six-year-old Nathaniel Poole at Deloraine\nSamuel Maberley - 18 May 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of the Rev Dr Stephen Aldhouse in Church St\nFrancis McManus - 21 June 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of Elizabeth Roscoe on Bruny Island\nLevi McAlister - 21 June 1853 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of six-year-old Jane Hughes at Bridgewater\nWilliam Brown (alias Stockton) – 25 October 1853 – Hanged at Launceston for stabbing with intent to murder James Stephens\nThomas Kenney – 31 July 1854 – Hanged at Launceston for setting fire to a haystack at Kings Meadows\nThomas Hall - 31 July 1854 - Hanged at Launceston for the attempted murder of his wife Jane Hall at Table Cape\nGeorge Whiley – 3 November 1854 – Hanged at Launceston for the robbery and assault of James Smith near Westbury\n\n1855 to 1859\nPeter Connolly – 26 June 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery of William Kearney\nJohn \"Rocky\" Whelan – 26 June 1855 – Bushranger. Confessed to five murders. Hanged at Hobart\nEdward Heylin – 26 June 1855 – Hanged at Hobart for shooting with intent at Constable Robert Allison in Victoria St, Hobart\nJohn Parsons Knights – 26 June 1855 – Hanged at Hobart for burglary of the house of Thomas Nicholson in Victoria St, Hobart\nJohn Mellor - 19 Feb 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and attempted murder of Hugh Simpson at St Peter's Pass, near York Plains\nThomas Rushton - 19 Feb 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for bushranging and attempted murder of Hugh Simpson at St Peter's Pass, near York Plains\nRichard Rowley - 25 June 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the rape of nine-year-old Isabelle Johnson in Brisbane St\nMichael Casey – 5 August 1856 – Hanged at Oatlands for the attempted murder of John Hewitt at Falmouth\nGeorge Langridge - 19 September 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of his wife Jane Langridge at Richmond\nJohn O'Neill - 19 September 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for assault and robbery of James Rowland at Constitution Dock\nAnthony Clarke - 12 November 1856 - Hanged at Launceston for murder of John Kendall near Deloraine\nMichael Barry (alias Moloney) - 25 November 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the assault and robbery of Edward Adams at Old Beach\nWilliam Woolford - 25 November 1856 - Hanged at Hobart for the attempted murder of Constable William Burton at Port Arthur\nGeorge Nixon – 3 March 1857 - Hanged at Hobart for the murder of fourteen-year-old Henry Chamberlayne at Kingston\nJohn Higgins - 12 August 1857 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Henry Dales on the Evandale Road near Clairville\nJames Waldron - 12 August 1857 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of Henry Dales on the Evandale Road near Clairville\nAlexander Cullen – 18 August 1857 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Betsy Ross in a house behind the Red Lion, Liverpool St\nAbraham Munday – 27 October 1857 – Hanged at Oatlands for attempted murder by poison of George White at Courland Bay\nRichard \"Long Mick\" Ennis – 27 October 1857 – Hanged at Oatlands for the murder of George Sturgeon at Kitty's Corner, near Antill Ponds\nJames Kelly – 28 November 1857 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Coleman O'Loughlin at Avoca\nTimothy Kelly - 28 November 1857 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Coleman O'Loughlin at Avoca\nWilliam Maher – 28 November 1857 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of his wife Catherine Maher at Brown's River, Kingborough\nThomas Callinan - 20 April 1858 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Amelia Murray at Three Hut Point\nHenry Madigan – 5 May 1858 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his brother John Madigan at Prosser's Forest, Ravenswood\nMatthew Burns (Breen) – 5 August 1858 – Hanged at Launceston for the rape of three-year-old Eliza MacDonald at Avoca\nGeorge Young – 5 August 1858 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Esther Scott in High Street Windmill Hill\nThomas Gault – 21 December 1858 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Felonious Assault and Robbery of John Duffy, Isabella Brown and Archibald Stacey at the Mount Nelson Signal Station\nWilliam Anderson - 31 January 1859 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of James Chapman at Distillery Creek\nJohn McLaughlin - 31 January 1859 - Hanged at Launceston for the armed robbery of George Cooper on Westbury Road\nWilliam Gibson - 31 January 1859 - Hanged at Launceston for committing sodomy on ten-year-old Tom Gilligan on the road between Fingal and Avoca\nJohn King – 16 February 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Rebecca Hall at the Bull's Head, Goulburn Street\nPeter Haley (\"Black Peter\") – 16 February 1859 – Bushranger. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Shooting with Intent at Richard Propsting on the road between Ross and Tunbridge\nDaniel (\"Wingy\") Stewart – 16 February 1859 – Bushranger. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Shooting with Intent at Richard Propsting on the road between Ross and Tunbridge\nWilliam Ferns (alias Flowers) – 16 February 1859 – Bushranger. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for Shooting with Intent at Richard Propsting on the road between Ross and Tunbridge.\nWilliam Davis – 16 February 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Andre Cassavant at Black River\nRobert Brown – 4 May 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape of a three-year-old at Triabunna\nBernard Donahue – 12 July 1859 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of James Burton near Kingston\n\n1860s\nJohn Vigors – 31 January 1860 – Hanged at Oatlands for Shooting with Intent at John Baker at Ellerslie\nHenry Baker - 7 February 1860 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Ellen Gibson at Sandhill\nJohn Nash – 4 May 1860 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of William Iles near Cleveland\nJulius Baker – 10 May 1860 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for shooting with intent at Port Arthur. Baker was a constable who took money from two prisoners Stretton and Donohue to assist their escape, he then shot them in their attempt\nMichael Walsh - 29 May 1860 - Hanged at Launceston for the assault and rape of Eleanor Ward at Longford\nMartin Lydon – 25 September 1860 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape of nine-year-old Hannah Norah Handley at Port Cygnet\nThomas Ross - 30 January 1861 - Hanged at Launceston for an 'unnatural crime' on a boy named William Saunders at Bishopsbourne\nJohn Hailey – 23 May 1861 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of William Wilson at Cullenswood\nJohn Chapman – 23 May 1861 – Hanged at Launceston for assault with intent to murder Daniel Webb at Avoca\nPatrick Maloney – 23 May 1861 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Richard Furlong at Evandale\nMargaret Coghlan – 18 February 1862 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of her husband John Coghlan in Goulburn St, Hobart, near the corner of Harrington St \nCharles Flanders - 24 June 1862 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of ten-year-old Mary Ann Riley at Bagdad\nWilliam Mulligan – 18 November 1862 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape and robbery of Johanna Harrbach at Bagdad \nHendrick Whitnalder – 20 February 1863 – (Described as a 'little Kaffir'). Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for sodomy with fourteen-year-old Cornwall Collins (Collard)\nDennis Collins - 11 August 1863 - Hanged at Launceston for 'an unnatural crime' with seven-year-old Joseph Palmer \nRobert McKavor – 16 February 1864 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the felonious assault and robbery of Edward Coningsby on the Oatlands Road\nJames Lynch – 23 May 1865 – Hanged at Launceston for the rape of his ten-year-old step-daughter Cathy Nichols at Port Sorell\nWilliam Griffiths – 2 December 1865 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of eight-year-old George and six-year-old Sarah Johnson at Glenorchy\nDaniel \"Little Dan\" Connors – 17 March 1868 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Ellen Moriarty at Longford\nPatrick Kiely - 17 November 1869 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his wife Bridget at Paddy's Scrub, Deloraine\n\n1870 onwards\nJohn Regan (46) – 28 June 1870 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of his sixteen-year-old wife Emma on the Westbury Road\nJob Smith (55) – 31 May 1875 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the rape of Margaret Ayres, the chaplain's housemaid, at Port Arthur\nJohn Bishnahan (46) - 19 November 1877 - Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Thomas Rudge at Evandale\nRichard Copping (19) – 21 October 1878 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Susannah Stacey at Bream Creek\nGeorge Braxton (60) – 10 July 1882 – Hanged at Launceston for the murder of Ellen Sneezwell in York Street\nJames Ogden (20) – 4 June 1883 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of William Wilson at Cleveland\nJames Sutherland (18) – 4 June 1883 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of William Wilson at Cleveland\nHenry Stock (22) – 13 October 1884 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Kent and her daughter near Ouse\nTimothy Walker (76) - 10 January 1887 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Benjamin Hamilton at Deloraine. Walker was the last transported convict to be executed in Tasmania. This was hangman Solomon Blay's last execution\nArthur Cooley (19) – 17 August 1891 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Mary Camille Ogilvy near Richmond\nJoseph Belbin (19) – 11 March 1914 – Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of Margaret Ledwell at Deloraine\nGeorge Carpenter (27) – 27 December 1922 – Murdered three people at Swansea. Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of his cousin Thomas Carpenter\nFrederick Thompson (32) - 14 February 1946 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol for the murder of eight year old Evelyn Maughan. The last person executed in Tasmania.\n\nVictoria\n\n1840s\nTunnerminnerwait – Hanged at Melbourne on 20 January 1842 for the murder of two whalers at Cape Paterson\nMaulboyheenner – Hanged at Melbourne on 20 January 1842 for the murder of two whalers at Cape Paterson\nCharles Ellis – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 June 1842 for \"shooting with intent to maim or disable\" (\"The Plenty Trio\")\nMartin Fogarty – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 June 1842 for \"shooting with intent to maim or disable\" (\"The Plenty Trio\")\nDaniel (\"Yankee Jack\") Jepps – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 28 June 1842 for \"shooting with intent to maim or disable\" (\"The Plenty Trio\")\nAlkepurata (\"Roger\") – 5 September 1842 – From Port Fairy. Hanged at Melbourne for murder of Patrick Codd at Mount Rouse, Hamilton\nJeremiah Connell - 27 January 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Edward Martin at Buninyong\nBobby – 30 April 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the killing by spear of Andrew Beveridge at Piangil\nPtolemy – 30 April 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the killing by spear of Andrew Beveridge at Piangil\nJohn (\"Pretty Boy\") Healey – 29 November 1847 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Jemmy Ritchie at Tarraville, Gippsland\nAugustus Dancey 19 – 1 August 1848 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Matthew Luck at Stony Creek (Spotswood)\n\n1850s\nPatrick Kennedy – 1 October 1851 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary at Penshurst\nJames Barlow – 22 May 1852 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder by stabbing William Jones at a boarding house in Flinders Street, Melbourne\nJohn Riches (Richie) – 3 November 1852 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Harry Webb in the Black Forest, near Macedon\nGeorge Pinkerton – 4 April 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Bridget Smith, 8 months pregnant, and her one-year-old son Charles at Brighton\nAaron Durant – 11 July 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for robbery with violence and sexual assault of Mr & Mrs John Wright at Bendigo\nJohn Smith – 23 August 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Fryer's Creek\nHenry Turner – 23 August 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Fryer's Creek\nWilliam Atkins (or Atkyns) – 3 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the robbery of the Private Escort, near Kalkallo\nGeorge (\"Frenchy\") Melville – 3 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the robbery of the Private Escort\nGeorge Wilson – 3 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the robbery of an Escort\nPatrick O'Connor (or Connor) – 24 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the attempted murder of Edward Thompson near Kilmore\nHenry Bradley – 24 October 1853 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the attempted murder of Edward Thompson near Kilmore\nMichael Fennessy – 25 October 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of his wife Eliza Fennessy off Little Bourke Street\nAlexander Ram – 25 October 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Kitty Finessy at Prahran\nJohn Smith – 25 November 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for being accessory to rape of Mary-Ann Brown on the Goulburn River Diggings\nJoseph West – 27 December 1853 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for rape of eight-year-old Elizabeth Fraser near Chewton\nJames Button – 28 March 1854 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Shooting With Intent on the Goulburn River Diggings\nDavid Magee – 25 April 1854 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of a man named McCarthy on the Avoca River\nWilliam Thoroughgood – 23 May 1854 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of seven-year-old Sarah Bishop\nJohn Hughes – 25 September 1854 – Hanged At Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Abraham Marcus at Yackandandah\nJohn Gunn – 9 November 1854 – Hanged at Geelong Gaol for the murder of Samuel Harris at Warrnambool\nGeorge (John) Roberts – 9 November 1854 – Hanged at Geelong for attempting to poison George Kelly at Native Creek, near Inverleigh\nLuke Lucas – 24 November 1854 – Hanged for murder of his wife Mary off Little Bourke Street\nJames McAlister – 25 July 1855 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Jane Jones at the Exchange Hotel, Swanston Street, Melbourne\nJames Condon (alias Arthur Somerville) - 24 November 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence near Bacchus Marsh\nJohn Dixon – 24 November 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence near Bacchus Marsh\nAlfred Henry Jackson – 24 November 1855 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence near Bacchus Marsh\nJames Ross (alias Griffiths) – 22 April 1856 – Hanged at Geelong Gaol for the murder of his son and Eliza Sayer near Horsham\nWilliam Twigham (or Twiggem, alias Lexton)33 – 11 March 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Sergeant John McNally at the Cathcart Diggings, near Ararat\nChu-Ah-Luk 30 – 2 March 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Ah Pat at Campbell's Creek\nJames Cornick – 16 March 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Agnes McCallum (Horne) at Eaglehawk\nFrederick Turner 22 – 27 April 1857 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery Under Arms on the Flemington Road\nThomas Williams – 28 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nHenry Smith (alias Brennan) – 28 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nThomas Moloney – 28 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nFrancis Brannigan – 29 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nWilliam Brown – 29 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nRichard Bryant – 29 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nJohn Chisley – 30 April 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for his part in the murder of Inspector-General John Giles Price\nJames Woodlock – 1 June 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Charles Vick in Castlemaine\nChong Sigh – 3 September 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Sophia \"The Chinawoman\" Lewis in a brothel in Stephen Street (Exhibition Street) Melbourne\nHing Tzan – 3 September 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of Sophia Lewis in a brothel in Stephen Street (Exhibition Street) Melbourne\nJohn Mason – 6 November 1857 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of \"Big George\" Beynor at Ballan\nEdward Brown – 1 March 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Ararat Racecourse\nWilliam Jones – 1 March 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Robbery With Violence at Ararat Racecourse\nGeorge Robinson – 16 March 1858 – Hanged for the murder of Margaret Brown at Maryborough\nEdward Cardana (alias John Nelson alias Michael Ferrara) – 19 March 1858 – Hanged at Bendigo for the murder of John Armstrong at Long Gully\nOwen McQueeny – 20 October 1858 – Hanged at Geelong for the murder of Elizabeth Lowe near Meredith (\"The Green Tent Murder\")\nSamuel Gibbs – 12 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Anne at Ararat. This execution was botched; the rope snapped tumbling Gibbs to the floor. He had to be carried back up the scaffold and hanged again with a fresh rope.\nGeorge Thompson – 12 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Hugh Anderson at Ballarat\nEdward Hitchcock – 29 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Ann at Strathloddon, near Campbell's Creek. This execution was also botched; Hitchcock failed to die and remained struggling on the rope. The executioner had to grab Hitchcock by the knees and use his weight to ensure death.\nChristian Von Sie (or Von See) – 29 November 1858 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Martin Loemann near Mitiamo\nThomas Ryan – 11 April 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Joe Hartwig in the Indigo Valley\nWilliam (\"Plaguey Billy\") Armstrong – 12 July 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for shooting with intent, Omeo\nGeorge (\"The Butcher\") Chamberlain 24 – 12 July 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for shooting with intent, Omeo\nRichard Rowley – 26 July 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for violent assault with intent to murder his overseers at the Pentridge Stockade\nWilliam Siddons – 7 November 1859 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of eight-year-old Mary-Anne Smith at Doctor's Creek, near Lexton\nHenry Brown – 21 November 1859 – Hanged for murder of George James Tickner at Mount Korong, near Wedderburn\n\n1860s\nGeorge Waines -16 July 1860 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Mary Hunt at Casterton\nEdward Fenlow (alias Reynolds) – 20 August 1860 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of George Plummer (alias Gardiner) at Inglewood\nJohn McDonald – 30 September 1860 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of his wife Sarah at Ironbark Gully, Bendigo\nWilliam Smith – 22 April 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Ellen near Wangaratta\nHenry Cooley – 11 July 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of his wife Harriet at Heathcote\nNathaniel Horatio Ruby – 5 August 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Joe Watson at the Great Western Reef, Tarnagulla\nMartin Rice – 30 September 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Anthony Green off Bourke Street, Melbourne\nThomas Sanders – 31 October 1861 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of Mary Egan at Keilor\nSamuel Pollett – 29 December 1862 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the rape of his ten-year-old daughter Sarah at Prahran\nThomas McGee – 19 February 1863 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Alexander Brown at Maiden Gully\nJames Murphy – 6 November 1863 – Hanged at Geelong for the murder of Senior Constable Daniel O'Boyle at Warrnambool\nJulian Cross – 11 November 1863 – From Macao. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Robert Scott in the Wappan district (near Mansfield)\nDavid Gedge – 11 November 1863 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Robert Scott in the Wappan district (near Mansfield)\nElizabeth Scott – 11 November 1863 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of her husband in the Wappan district (near Mansfield)\nJames Barrett (also called Birmingham) – 1 December 1863 - Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Beckinsale at Woodstock\nAlexander Davis – 29 February 1864 – Hanged at Ballarat Gaol for the murder of George Sims at Smythesdale\nWilliam Carver (also called Thornby, Foster) – 3 August 1864 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for an attempted bank robbery at Fitzroy\nSamuel Woods (also called Abraham Salmonie) – 3 August 1864 - Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for Shooting With Intent in an attempted bank robbery at Fitzroy\nChristopher Harrison – 3 August 1864 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of James Marsh in William St.\nJohn Stacey (real name Casey) – 5 April 1865 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of two-year-old Danny Gleeson at South Melbourne\nJoseph (\"Quiet Joe\") Brown – 4 May 1865 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Emmanuel \"Dodger\" Jacobs at the Whittington Tavern, Bourke Street Melbourne\nPeter Dotsalaere – 6 July 1865 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Catherine Jacobs at 106 LaTrobe Street Melbourne\nDavid Young – 21 August 1865 – Hanged at Castlemaine Gaol for the murder of Margaret Graham at Daylesford\nThomas (\"Yankee Tom\") Menard – 28 October 1865 – Hanged at Geelong for the murder of James Sweeney at Warrnambool\nPatrick Sheehan – 6 November 1865 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of James Kennedy at Rowdy Flat Yackandandah\nLong Poy – 10 March 1866 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Ah Yong at Emu Flat\nJames Jones – 19 March 1866 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Dr Julius Saenger, committed at Scarsdale\nRobert Bourke (alias Cluskey) – 29 November 1866 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Harry Facey Hurst at Diamond Creek\nDenis Murphy – 16 April 1867 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Patrick O'Meara at Bullarook\nJohn Kelly – 4 May 1867 – Hanged at Beechworth for sodomy on eighteen-month-old James Strack at Wangaratta\nWilliam Terry – 31 July 1867 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of a man named Peter Reddick or Redyk on the Coliban near Taradale\nGeorge Searle – 7 August 1867 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Thomas Burke at Piggoreet\nJoseph Ballan – 7 August 1867 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Thomas Burke at Piggoreet\nBernard Cunningham – 31 March 1868 – Confederate Army veteran. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of John Fairweather at Green Gully, near Keilor\nJoseph Whelan – 31 March 1868 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of farmer Tom Branley at Rokewood\nJohn Hogan – 14 August 1868 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Martin Rooney, committed at Bullock Creek, outside Marong\nMichael Flannigan (Flannagan) – 31 March 1869 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Sgt Thomas Hull at Hamilton\nJames Ritson – 3 August 1869 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of the Methodist Minister William Hill, who was visiting him at A Division, Pentridge\nPeter Higgins (alias James Smith) – 11 November 1869 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of his wife Elizabeth Wheelahan near Springhurst\n\n1870s\nAh Pew – 23 May 1870 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of nine-year-old Elizabeth Hunt at Glenluce, near Vaughan\nPatrick Smith – 4 August 1870 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Mary at North Melbourne\nAndrew Vair (Vere) – 15 August 1870 – Hanged at Ararat for murder of Amos Cheale at St Arnaud\nJames Cusack – 30 August 1870 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Anne at Woods Point\nJames Seery – 14 November 1870 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of August Tepfar at Crooked River, Gippsland\nJames Quinn – 10 November 1871 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of Ah Woo, near Myrtleford\nPatrick Geary – 4 December 1871 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of a shepherd named Thomas Brookhouse near Colac in 1854\nEdward Feeney – 14 May 1872 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Charles Marks in the Treasury Gardens\nJames Wilkie – 20 May 1872 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Henry Pensom at Daylesford\nSamuel Wright – 11 March 1873 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the attempted murder of Arthur Hagan (or Hogan) at Dead Horse Flat, near Eaglehawk\nThomas Brady – 12 May 1873 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of John Watt (\"The Wooragee Murder\")\nJames Smith – 12 May 1873 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of John Watt (\"The Wooragee Murder\")\nPierre Borbun (Barburn, Borhuu) – 20 May 1873 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Sarah Smith, the publican's wife at the White Swan Hotel, Sunrise Gully, Kangaroo Flat\nOscar (or Hasker) Wallace - 11 August 1873 - Hanged at Ballarat for the rape of Mary Cook at Mount Beckworth, near Clunes\nAh Kat (Ah Cat) – 9 August 1875 – Hanged at Castlemaine for the murder of Friedrich Renzelmann at Bet Bet, near Dunolly\nAn Gaa – 30 August 1875 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Pooey Waugh, committed at Vaughan\nHenry Howard – 4 October 1875 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Elizabeth Wright, licensee of the Frankston Hotel\nJohn Weachurch (alias Taylor) – 6 December 1875 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for attempted murder of Warder Patrick Moran\nJohn Duffus – 22 May 1876 – Hanged at Castlemaine, having been handed in by his wife for the rape of his eleven-year-old daughter Mary Ann near Goornong\nJames (\"Donegal Jim\") Ashe – 21 August 1876 – Hanged at Ballarat for the rape of Elizabeth Reece at Burrumbeet\nBasileo Bondietto – 11 December 1876 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Carlo Comisto near Tallarook\nWilliam Hastings – 14 March 1877 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his wife Annie near Mount Eliza\nThomas Hogan – 9 June 1879 – Hanged at Beechworth for fratricide at Bundalong, near Yarrawonga\n\n1880s\nNed Kelly 25 – 11 November 1880 – Bushranger. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Constable Thomas Lonigan\nRobert Rohan – 6 June 1881 – Hanged at Beechworth for the murder of John Shea at Yalca\nRobert Francis Burns – 25 September 1883 – Confessed to eight murders. Hanged at Ararat for the murder of Michael Quinliven at Wickliffe\nHenry Morgan – 6 June 1884 – Hanged at Ararat for the rape and murder of ten-year-old Margaret Nolan at Panmure\nJames Hawthorn – 21 August 1884 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for fratricide at Brighton\nWilliam O'Brien – 24 October 1884 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of farmer Peter McAinsh at Lancefield\nWilliam Barnes – 15 May 1885 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Joe Slack at South Melbourne\nCharles Bushby (alias Baker) – 3 September 1885 – Hanged at Ballarat for attempted murder of Det Sgt Richard Hyland near Gong Gong\nEdward (\"The Fiddler\") Hunter – 27 November 1885 – Hanged at Bendigo Prison for the murder of Jim Power at the Golden Fleece Hotel, Charlton\nFreeland Morell – 7 January 1886 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murder of fellow sailor John Anderson on the docks at Port Melbourne\nGeorge Syme – 9 November 1888 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his mother-in-law Margaret Clifford at Lilydale\nWilliam Harrison – 18 March 1889 – Hanged at Bendigo for the murder of 'Corky Jack' Duggan at Elmore\nFilipe Castillo - 16 September 1889 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Annie Thornton at North Carlton\nRobert Landells – 16 October 1889 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Peter Sherlock at Chamber's Paddock, about 6 km from Ringwood\n\n1890s\nJohn Thomas Phelan – 16 March 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his de facto wife Ada Hatton at St.James' Place (now Ellis St) South Yarra\nJohn Wilson – 23 March 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his fiancée Estella Marks at Darling Gardens, Clifton Hill\nCornelius Bourke – 20 April 1891 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of an elderly prisoner named Peter Stewart in the gaol at Hamilton\nFatta Chand – 27 April 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Juggo Mull at Healesville\nFrank Spearin (also called John Wilson) – 11 May 1891 – Hanged at Ballarat for the rape of six-year-old Adeline Shepherd at Eastern Oval, Ballarat\nJames Johnston – 18 May 1891 – Hanged at Ballarat Gaol for murdering his wife Mary and their four children in Drummond Street North, Ballarat\nWilliam Coulston (Colston) – 21 August 1891 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Mary & William Davis at Narbethong\nFrederick Bailey Deeming – Murdered at least six people. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Emily Mather at Windsor – 23 May 1892\nJohn Conder – 28 August 1893 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Karamjit Singh near Buchan\nFrances Knorr – 15 January 1894 – \"The Brunswick Baby Farmer\" – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of two infants\nErnest Knox – 19 March 1894 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Isaac Crawcour while in the act of burglary at Williamstown\nFred Jordan – 20 August 1894 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his girlfriend Minnie Crabtree at Port Melbourne\nMartha Needle – 22 October 1894 – Murdered five people by poison. Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Louis Juncken at 137 Bridge Road Richmond\nElijah Cockroft – 12 November 1894 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of Fanny Mutt at Noradjuha, near Natimuk\nArthur Buck – 1 July 1895 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Catherine Norton at South Melbourne\nEmma Williams – 4 November 1895 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of her two-year-old son John at Port Melbourne\nCharles Henry Strange – 13 January 1896 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Fred Dowse at Lakes Entrance\nCharles John Hall – 13 September 1897 – Hanged at Bendigo for the murder of his wife Minnie at Eaglehawk\nAlfred Archer – 21 November 1898 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of William Matthews at Strathmerton\n\n1900s to 1920s\nWilliam Robert Jones – 26 March 1900 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for murdering eight-year-old Rita Jones at Broadford\nAlbert Edward McNamara – 14 April 1902 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for arson causing death of his four-year-old son Bert at Carlton\nAugust Tisler (Sippol) – 20 October 1902 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Edward Sangal at Dandenong\nJames Coleman Williams – 8 September 1904 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his employer's wife Mary Veitch at O'Grady Street Clifton Hill\nCharles Deutschmann – 29 June 1908 – Hanged at Ballarat for the murder of his wife Isabella Deutschmann at Dobie, near Ararat\nJoseph Pfeiffer – 29 April 1912 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for shooting his sister-in-law Florence Whitely at 102 Mills Street, Middle Park\nJohn Jackson – 24 January 1916 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Constable David McGrath while in the act of robbing the Trades Hall\nAntonio Picone – 18 September 1916 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Giuseppe Lauricella at Queen Victoria Market\nAlbert Edward Budd (39) – 29 January 1918 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of his foster-sister Annie Samson at Port Melbourne\nGeorge Farrow Blunderfield – 15 April 1918 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of mother and daughter Margaret & Rose Taylor at Trawool\nColin Campbell Ross – 24 April 1922 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the Gun Alley Murder. Posthumously pardoned in 2007, the only instance of a pardon for a judicially executed person in Australia\nAngus Murray (real name Henry Donnelly) – 14 April 1924 – Hanged at Melbourne Gaol for the murder of Thomas Berriman at Glenferrie Station\n\n1930 onwards\nDavid Bennett – 26 September 1932 – Hanged at Pentridge Prison for the rape of a four-year-old girl at North Carlton (sentenced to death for a similar offence in WA in 1911). The first execution at Pentridge.\nArnold Sodeman – 1 June 1936 – \"The Schoolgirl Strangler\" – Confessed to the murder of four girls. Hanged at Pentridge.\nEdward Cornelius – 22 June 1936 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of the Reverend Laceby Cecil at St. Saviour's Collingwood (\"The Vicarage Murder\").\nThomas William ('Nugget') Johnson – 23 January 1939 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of Chares Bunney and Robert Gray at the former Windsor Castle Hotel, Dunolly.\nGeorge Green – 17 April 1939 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of Phyllis and Annie Wiseman at Glenroy.\nAlfred Bye – 22 December 1941 – Hanged at Pentridge for stabbing to death Thomas Walker off Treasury Place. Bye took over twenty-two minutes to die.\nEddie Leonski – 9 November 1942 – \"The Brownout Strangler\" – Hanged at Pentridge for the murders of Ivy McLeod (at Victoria Avenue, Albert Park), Pauline Thompson (at Spring Street, Melbourne) and Gladys Hosking (at Gatehouse Street, Parkville).\nJean Lee – 19 February 1951 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent in Dorrit Street, Carlton. The last woman executed in Australia.\nNorman Andrews – 19 February 1951 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent.\nRobert David Clayton – 19 February 1951 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent.\nRonald Ryan – 3 February 1967 – Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of Prison Officer George Hodson. The last person executed in Australia.\n\nWestern Australia\n\nLong Island, Houtman Abrolhos\n Jeronimus Corneliszoon - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Lenert Michielsz - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Mattys Beijr - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Jan Hendricx - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Allert Janssen - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Rutger Fredericxsz - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n Andries Jonas - 2 October 1629 - Hanged as party to the murder of 125 men, women and children\n\nYork\n Doodjeep – 7 July 1840 – Hanged in chains at the site of the crime, for the murders of Sarah Cook and her 8-month-old child on 18 May 1839 at Norrilong, York\n Barrabong – 7 July 1840 – Hanged in chains at the site of the crime for the murders of Sarah Cook and her 8-month-old child on 18 May 1839 at Norrilong, York\n\nMullewa\n Wangayackoo – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Yermakarra – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Garolee – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Charlakarra – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n Williakarra – 28 January 1865 - Hanged at Butterabby, the site of the crime, for the spearing of Thomas Bott\n\nKellerberrin\n Ngowee - 19 January 1866 - For the murder of Edward Clarkson on 21 August 1865, hanged at the site of the crime, at Dalbercuttin, near Kellerberrin\n Egup (Condor) - 21 April 1866 - For the murder of Edward Clarkson on 21 August 1865, hanged at the site of the crime, at Dalbercuttin, near Kellerberrin\n\nRoebourne\n Cooperabiddy – 20 March 1893 – Hanged for murder of James Coppin, described as a 'half-caste', at the Hamersley Ranges\n Doulga – 28 December 1896 – Hanged for the murder of John Horrigan at Lagrange Bay on 28 March 1896 \n Caroling – 14 May 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Dr Edward Vines at Braeside station\n Poeling – 14 May 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Dr Edward Vines at Braeside station\n Weedabong – 14 May 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Dr Edward Vines at Braeside station\n\nDerby\n Lillimara – 21 October 1899 – hanged at Derby Gaol for murder of Thomas Jasper on 17 March 1897 on Oscar Range Station, Fitzroy Crossing\n Mullabudden – 12 May 1900 – hanged at Derby Gaol for murder of John Dobbie on 12 March 1899 at Mount Broome\n Woolmillamah – 12 May 1900 – hanged at Derby Gaol for murder of John Dobbie on 12 March 1899 at Mount Broome\n\nHalls Creek\n Tomahawk – 18 March 1892 – Hanged at Mount Dockerell, the site of the crime, for the murder of William Miller on 26 June 1891\n Dicky – 18 March 1892 – Hanged at Mount Dockerell, the site of the crime, for the murder of William Miller on 26 June 1891\n Chinaman (Jerringo) – 18 March 1892 – Hanged at Mount Dockerell, the site of the crime, for the murder of William Miller on 26 June 1891\n\nGeraldton\n Sing Ong – 29 October 1884 – Hanged for the murder of Chung Ah Foo on 11 May 1884 at Shark Bay\n\nAlbany\n Peter McKean (alias William McDonald) – 12 October 1872 – Hanged for the murder of William \"Yorkie\" Marriott on 30 June 1872 at Slab Hut Gully (Tunney), between Kojonup and Cranbrook\n\nPerth\n Midgegooroo – 22 May 1833 – Executed at the Perth Gaol by firing squad on a death warrant issued summarily by Lieutenant Governor Frederick Irwin, for the murders of Thomas and John Velvick at Bull's Creek on 31 March 1833\n Mendik – 14 October 1841 – Hanged at the site of the crime for the murder of twelve-year-old John Burtenshaw on the Canning River at Maddington on 16 July 1839\n Buckas (a lascar) – January 1845 – Hanged at Perth for rape on a child under ten years of age\n James Malcolm – 14 April 1847 – Hanged at the site of the crime, the Burswood Estate (Victoria Park), for highway robbery and murder of Clark Gordon on 6 January 1847\n Kanyin – 12 April 1850 – Hanged at Redcliffe for the murder of Yadupwert at York. This was the first public execution in Western Australia for inter se murder\n Edward Bishop - 12 October 1854 - Hanged at South Perth for the murder of Ah Chong, a chinaman, at York. Protested his innocence to the end. Three years later William Voss confessed to the crime. Voss was hanged in 1862 at Perth Gaol for the murder of his wife\n Samuel Stanley – 18 April 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder of Catherine Dayly on the York Road\n Jacob – 18 April 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder of Bijare at Gingin on 25 September 1854\n Yoongal – 14 July 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder of Kanip at the Hotham River\n Yandan – 14 July 1855 – Hanged at Victoria Park for the murder by spearing of a ten-year-old girl named Yangerdan near York\n\nHanged at the Perth Gaol:\n Bridget Hurford – 15 October 1855 – for the murder of her husband John Hurford at Vasse\n William Dodd – 15 October 1855 – for the murder of John Hurford at Vasse\n George Williams – 15 October 1855 – for wounding Warder James McEvoy with a shovel at the Convict Establishment on 26 September 1855 \n John Scott – 14 January 1856 – for the murder of William Longmate at Vasse\n Daniel Lewis (Convict # 2972)- January 1857 - for the rape of Ellen Horton at Woorooloo\n John Lloyd – 29 October 1857 – for wounding with intent to kill John Brown at Port Gregory in June 1857\n Richard Bibbey – 17 October 1859 – for the murder of Billamarra at Upper Irwin in March 1859. First European executed for murder of an aboriginal in Western Australia\n Thomas Airey - 13 October 1860 - for the rape of five-year-old Lydia Farmer at Perth in July. Had been granted ticket-of-leave 4 June 1860.\n John Caldwell - 13 October 1860 - for rape and murder of an aboriginal girl at Champion Bay. A ticket-of-leave man.\n Thomas Clancy – 10 January 1861 – for the rape of seven-year-old Ellen Jane White at Bunbury\n Joseph McDonald – 10 January 1861 – for rape at Toodyay\n Robert Thomas Palin – 6 July 1861 – for robbery with violence of Susan Harding at Fremantle\n William Voss – 9 January 1862 – for the murder of his wife Mary Moir at York on 11 November 1861\n Kewacan (Larry) – 24 January 1862 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861\n Long Jimmy – 24 January 1862 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861 \n Narreen – 10 April 1862 – for the murder of an Indigenous girl called Nelly at Victoria Plains\n Eenue – 10 April 1862 – for the murder of an Indigenous girl called Nelly at Victoria Plains\n Finger – 10 April 1862 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861\n Thomas Pedder – 21 March 1863 – for the murder of Thomas Sweeny, a shepherd, at Irwin River on 1 December 1862\n John Thomas – 8 September 1863 – for the murder of Duncan Urquhart at Peninsula Farm on 6 June 1863\n Joseph White – 21 October 1863 – for rape of 13 yo Jane Rhodes, at Greenough on 18 August 1863\n Teelup – 21 October 1863 – for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861\n Narrigalt – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Martha Farling, a 3 year-old 'half-caste' girl, near York on 26 May 1865\n Youndalt – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Martha Farling, a 3 yo 'half-caste' girl, near York on 26 May 1865 \n Nandingbert – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Quatcull near Albany on 14 May 1865\n Yardalgene (also called Jackey Howson) – 18 July 1865 – for the murder of Quatcull near Albany on 14 May 1865 \n Daniel Duffy - 11 January 1866 - an escaped convict, hanged for the murder of Edward Johnson on 5 November 1865 at Northam \n Matthew Brooks - 11 January 1866 - an escaped convict, hanged for the murder of Edward Johnson on 5 November 1865 at Northam\n Bernard Wootton (also called MacNulty) - 8 October 1867 - an escaped convict, hanged for the attempted murder of Police Sgt. John Moye after his recapture at Murramine, near Beverley. Hanged at Perth Gaol.\n James Fanning – 14 April 1871 – for the rape of thirteen-year-old Mary Dawes on the Albany Road on 24 November 1870. The first private execution and the last execution for rape in the colony\n Margaret Cody – 15 July 1871 – for the murder of James Holditch, at North Fremantle on 4 March 1871\n William Davis – 15 July 1871 – for the murder of James Holditch, at North Fremantle on 4 March 1871\n Briley (Briarly) – 13 October 1871 – for the murder of Charley (Wickin) at Albany\n Noorbung – 13 October 1871 – for the murder of Margaret Mary McGowan at Boyanup on 30 June 1871\n Charcoal (Mullandaridgee) – 15 February 1872 – for the murder of Samuel Wells Lazenby at Port Walcott on 7 August 1871\n Tommy (Mullandee) – 15 February 1872 – for the murder of Samuel Wells Lazenby at Port Walcott on 7 August 1871\n Yarradeee – 16 October 1873 – for the murder and cannibalism of three-year-old Edward William Dunn at Yanganooka, Port Gregory on 5 October 1865\n Muregelly – 16 October 1873 – for the murder and cannibalism of three-year-old Edward William Dunn at Yanganooka, Port Gregory on 5 October 1865\n Robert Goswell – 13 January 1874 – for murder of Mary Anne Lloyd at Stapelford, Beverley on 1 December 1873\n John Gill – 4 April 1874 – hanged for the murder of William Foster at Narrogin on 13 February 1874\n Bobbinett – 22 April 1875 – for the murder of Police Lance-Corporal William Archibald Armstrong near Kojonup on 14 January 1875\n Wanaba (or Wallaby) – 22 April 1875 – for the murder of Tommy Howell (or Moul), a police native assistant, near Yalgoo on 10 July 1874\n Wandagary – 22 April 1875 – for the murder of Tommy Howell (or Moul), a police native assistant, near Yalgoo on 10 July 1874\n Kenneth Brown – 10 June 1876 – for the murder of his wife Mary Ann on 3 January 1876 at Geraldton\n Yarndu – 16 October 1876 \n Chilagorah – 29 April 1879 – for the murder of Pintagorah at Cossack on 31 January 1879\n Ah Kett – 27 January 1883 – for the murder of Foo Ah Moy, at Cheritah Station, Roebourne on 2 July 1883 \n John Collins – 27 January 1883 – for the murder of John King at the Kalgan River near Albany on 2 October 1882\n John Maroney – 25 October 1883 – for the murder of James Watson at Yellenup, Kojonup on 1 May 1883\n William Watkins – 25 October 1883 – for the murder of James Watson at Yellenup, Kojonup on 1 May 1883\n Henry Benjamin Haynes – 23 January 1884 – for the murder of his wife Mary Ann Haynes at Perth on 12 October 1883\n Thomas Henry Carbury – 23 October 1884 – for the murder of Constable Hackett at Beverley on 12 September 1884 \n John Duffy – 28 January 1885 – for the murder of his wife Mary Sultana McGann at Fremantle on 21 November 1884\n Henry Sherry – 27 October 1885 – for the murder of Catherine Waldock at Quinderring, Williams on 16 September 1885\n Franz Erdmann – 4 April 1887 – for the murder of Anthony Johnson at McPhee's Creek, Kimberley on 27 October 1886\n William Conroy – 18 November 1887 – for the murder of John Snook at Fremantle Town Hall on 23 June 1887\n\nRottnest\n Tampin – 16 July 1879 – Hanged for the murder of John Moir at Stokes Inlet on 29 March 1877\n Wangabiddi – 18 Jun 1883 – Hanged for the murder of Charles Redfern at Minni-Minni on the Gascoyne River in May 1882 \n Guerilla – 18 June 1883 – Hanged for the murder of Anthony Cornish at Fitzroy River on 12 December 1882\n Naracorie – 3 August 1883 – Hanged for the murder of Charles Brackell at Wandagee on the Minilya River on 31 July 1882 \n Calabungamarra – 13 June 1888 – Hanged for the murder of a Chinese man, Indyco, at Hamersley Range\n\nFremantle\n\nHanged at the Round House:\n John Gaven – 6 April 1844 – Hanged for the murder of George Pollard at South Dandalup\n\nHanged at Fremantle Prison:\n Long Jimmy (alias Jimmy Long) – 2 March 1889 – A Malay, hanged for the murder of Claude Kerr on board the pearling lugger 'Dawn' at Cossack on 7 September 1888\n Ahle Pres (alias Harry Pres) – 8 November 1889 – A Singapore Malay, hanged for the murder of Louis, a Filipino, near Halls Creek, on 9 June 1889\n Ah Chi (alias Li Ki Hong) – 16 April 1891 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Gin at Daliak, York on 3 March 1891\n Chew Fong – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Pang at Meka Station on 23 Dec 1891\n Lyee Nyee – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Pang at Meka Station on 23 Dec 1891\n Yung Quonk (Young Quong) – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of Ah Pang at Meka Station on 23 Dec 1891\n Sin Cho Chi – 29 April 1892 – Hanged for the murder of George E.B Fairhead, at a Mill Stream out-station, near Roebourne\n Goulam Mahomet – 2 May 1896 – Hanged for the murder of Tagh Mahomet in the mosque at Coolgardie on 10 January 1896\n Jumna Khan – 31 March 1897 – Hanged for the murder of William Griffiths in High Street, Fremantle on 3 December 1896\n Pedro De La Cruz – 19 July 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Captain John Arthur Reddell of the brigantine Ethel, his 19-year-old son Leslie, the mate James Taylor, and two crew-members (Ando, who was Japanese, and Jimmy, who was Indigenous), at the La Grange Bay pearling grounds, near Broome, on 19 October 1899\n Peter Perez – 19 July 1900 – Hanged for the murder of Captain John Arthur Reddell of the brigantine Ethel, his 19-year-old son Leslie, the mate James Taylor, and two crew-members (Ando, who was Japanese, and Jimmy, who was Indigenous), at the La Grange Bay pearling grounds, near Broome, on 19 October 1899\n Samuel Peters – 9 September 1902 – Hanged for the murder of his wife Trevenna Peters at Leederville on 3 July 1903 \n Stelios Psichitas – 15 April 1903 – Greek national, hanged for the rape and murder of his sister-in-law Sophia Psichitas (nee Leadakis) and murder of his 4-month-old nephew Emanuel at Lawlers on 20 December 1902\n Fredric Maillat – 21 April 1903 – French national, hanged for the murder of Charles Lauffer, at Smith's Mill, Glen Forest, on 4 February 1903\n Sebaro Rokka – 7 July 1903 – Hanged for the murder of Dollah and another Malay at Point Cunningham, near Derby on 20 February 1903\n Ah Hook – 11 January 1904 – Hanged for the murder of Yanoo, a Japanese laundryman, at Carnarvon on 26 August 1903\n Manoor Mohomet – 4 May 1904 – Hanged for the murder of Meer, an Afghan, at Kensington, near Menzies on 16 November 1903\n Simeon Espada – 14 December 1905 – Hanged for the murder of Mark Lieblig at Broome on 30 August 1905\n Charles Hagen – 14 December 1905 – Hanged for the murder of Mark Lieblig at Broome on 30 August 1905\n Pablo Marquez – 14 December 1905 – Hanged for the murder of Mark Lieblig at Broome on 30 August 1905\n Antonio Sala – 19 November 1906 – Hanged for the murder of Battista Gregorini at Mt Jackson on 13 September 1906\n Augustin De Kitchilan – 23 October 1907 – Hanged for the murder of Leah Fouracre at Peppermint Grove Farm, Waroona on 15 or 16 August 1907 \n Harry G. Smith – 23 March 1908 – Hanged for the murder of William John Clinton at Day Dawn on 5 January 1908\n Iwakichi Oki – 22 October 1908 – Hanged for the murder of James Henry Shaw at West Murray, Pinjarra on 23 August 1908\n Martha Rendell – 6 October 1909 – Hanged for the murder of her 14-year-old stepson Arthur Morris by poisoning on 8 October 1908, suspected of killing two younger stepchildren\n Peter Robustelli – 9 February 1910 – Hanged for the murder of Giovanni Forsatti in a lane between Bayley and Woodward streets, Coolgardie on 19 October 1909 \n Alexander Smart – 7 March 1911 – Hanged for the murder of Ethel May Harris at 5 Cowle Street, West Perth on 10 March 1910\n David H Smithson – 25 July 1911 – Hanged for the rape and murder of 18-year-old Elizabeth Frances Compton at Woodlupine on 13 May 1911\n Charles Spargo – 1 July 1913 – Hanged for the murder of Gilbert Pickering Jones at Broome on 23 January 1913\n Charles H. Odgers – 14 January 1914 – Hanged for the murder of Edith Molyneaux at Balgobin, Dandalup on 3 October 1913; also charged with murder of Richard Thomas Williams at Waroona on 14 September 1913\n Andrea Sacheri (alias Joseph Cutay) - 12 April 1915 – Hanged for the murder of 11-year-old Jean Bell at Marrinup, near Dwellingup, on 12 January 1915 \n Frank Matamin (alias Rosland) – 12 March 1923 – Hanged for the murder of Zareen at Nullagine on 27 August 1922\n Royston Rennie – 2 August 1926 – Hanged for the murder of John Roger Greville on the train between East Perth and Perth stations on 3 June 1926\n William Coulter – 25 October 1926 – Hanged for the murders of Inspector John Walsh and Sergeant Alexander Pitman near Boulder on 28 April 1926\n Phillip J. Trefene – 25 October 1926 – Hanged for the murders of Inspector John Walsh and Sergeant Alexander Pitman near Boulder on 28 April 1926\n John Sumpter Milner – 21 May 1928 – Hanged for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Ivy Lewis at Darkan on 28 February 1928\n Clifford Hulme – 3 September 1928 – Hanged for the murder of Harold Eaton Smith at Wubin on 22 June 1928\n Antonio Fanto – 18 May 1931 – Hanged for the murder of Cosimo Nesci (sometimes Nexi, Xesci) at Latham on 20 March 1931\n John Thomas Smith (Snowy Rowles) – 13 June 1932 – Hanged for the murder of Louis George Carron near the 183 mile gate on the No. 1 Rabbit-proof fence, near Youanmi, on or about 20 May 1930 \n Karol Tapci – 23 June 1952 – Hanged for the murder of Norman Alfred Perfect at Wubin on 17 March\n Robert Jeremiah Thomas – 18 July 1960 – Hanged for the murder of taxi-driver Keith Mervyn Campbell Wedd at Claremont on 22 June 1959. Also charged with the murder of John and Kaye O'Hara in Jimbell St, Mosman Park.\n Mervyn Fallows – 6 June 1961 – Hanged for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sandra Dorothea Smith at North Beach on or before 29 December 1960\n Brian William Robinson – 20 January 1964 – Hanged for the murder of Constable Noel Ileson at Belmont on 9 February 1963\n Eric Edgar Cooke – 26 October 1964 – Hanged for murder of John Lindsay Sturkey at Nedlands on 27 January 1963\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Purdue, Brian Legal Executions in Western Australia, Foundation Press, Victoria Park, WA, 1993. \n Heaton, J.H. Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time, S.W. Silver & Son, London, 1879. Part 2, pages 90–94.\n\nAustralian crime-related lists\nExecuted\nAustralia\n \nExecutions\nExecutions"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal",
"Who was there?",
"Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M.",
"Were they hanged?",
"The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M.",
"Why were they hanged?",
"I don't know."
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | What year was it? | 5 | What year was Mary Surratt buried? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
Sources
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | false | [
"Of What Was is the first full-length album by in medias res, an indie rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. Produced by fellow Vancouver indie act Jonathan Anderson, it was originally self-released on July 8, 2003 and sold out of its initial 1,000 copies within a year and a half. Of What Was was then picked up by Anniedale Records and re-released on May 24, 2005. The album was preceded by two EPs, Demos and Intimacy.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Idée Fixe\" - 2:57\n \"Radio Friendly\" - 2:41a\n \"Shakeher\" - 3:46\n \"A Cause For Concern\" - 5:41\n \"You Know You Don't Know\" - 5:47\n \"Best Kept Secret\" - 4:20\n \"Assembly Lines\" - 5:35\n \"Annadonia\" - 5:24\n \"Tail End of a Car Crash\" - 0:55\n \"Of What Was\" — 7:31\n \"Silence Calls\" - 6:24\n \"Silence Calls\" - 22:13b\n\na Originally titled \"Wise Investors\" in the self-released version.\nb Added in the Anniedale Records re-release.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOf What Was on Anniedale Records\nOf What Was on CD Baby\n\n2005 debut albums",
"What A Summer (foal in 1973) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse who defeated both male and female competitors. She was bred in Maryland by Milton Polinger. She was a gray out of the mare Summer Classic who was sired by Summer Tan. Her sire was What Luck, a multiple stakes winning son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Bold Ruler. What A Summer is probably best remembered for her win in the Grade II $65,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes over stakes winners Dearly Precious and Artfully on May 14, 1976.\n\nTwo-year-old season \n\nWhat A Summer was trained very early in her career by Hall of Fame conditioner Bud Delp while racing for her breeder, Milton Polinger. She was bought by Mrs. Bertram Firestone following Polinger's death in the early fall of 1976. That death delayed her the first start of her career until late in the year. Mrs. Firestone turned the mare over to trainer LeRoy Jolley. What A Summer did not start racing until near the end of her two-year-old season, when she broke her maiden at Philadelphia Park. Near the end of the year, she won an allowance race. She ended the year with two wins in four starts.\n\nThree-year-old season \nIn January, What A Summer placed second in her first stakes race, the $25,000 Heirloom Stakes at the old Liberty Bell Race Track in Philadelphia. Two months later, she won her second allowance race over winners and convinced her connections that she was ready to step up in class and take on stakes winners in the Grade II $65,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. In that race, she withstood a fast closing challenge down the stretch to hold off a late charge by 4:5 favorite Dearly Precious in a final time of 1:42.40 for the mile and one sixteenth on the dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Her jockey, Chris McCarron, was credited with a solid ride by conserving energy with moderate fractions in the middle portion of the race. Stakes winner Artfully held on for third in the field of ten three-year-old fillies. In December 1976, What A Summer won the $50,000 Anne Arundel Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse, beating Turn the Guns and Avum in 1:38.20 for the mile under McCarron.\n\nFour-year-old season \n\nIn 1977, What A Summer won the $75,000 Fall Highweight Handicap twice, carrying the high weight of 134 pounds under jockey Jacinto Vásquez. The Fall Highweight is run in November of each year at Aqueduct Racetrack. In the 1977 race, she finished in a time of 1:09.4 and she broke the stakes record for six furlongs. That year, she also won the $40,000 Silver Spoon Handicap, the $50,000 Maskette Handicap and the $35,000 Distaff Handicap. She placed second in the grade one Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park and showed in both the $40,000 Grey Flight Handicap and the $25,000 Regret Stakes.\n\nFive-year-old season \n\nIn 1978 as a five-year-old, What A Summer repeated two of her victories from the year before in both the Fall Highweight Handicap, under Hall of Fame jockey Ángel Cordero Jr., and the $40,000 Silver Spoon Handicap. She also won the $40,000 First Flight Handicap. She placed second in the grade two Vosburgh Stakes, the grade three Vagrancy Handicap, the Sport Page Handicap, the Suwanee River Handicap and the Egret Handicap.\n\nHonors \n\nWhat A Summer was named Maryland-bred horse of the year in 1977 and twice was named champion older mare for the state of Maryland in both 1977 and 1978. She was retired in 1978 and as a broodmare she produced several graded stakes winners. After her retirement, Laurel Park Racecourse named a race in honor, the What A Summer Stakes. She was an Eclipse Award winner and was named American Champion Sprint Horse in 1977.\n\nWhat A Summer ended her career with a record of 18 wins out of 31 starts in her career. Her most memorable race was perhaps her dominating performance in the de facto second leg of the filly Triple Crown, the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. In addition to her 18 wins, she placed nine times with earnings of $479,161. That record of 27 first or second finishes in 31 starts at 87% is among the best in history.\n\nReferences\n What A Summer's pedigree and partial racing stats\n\n1973 racehorse births\nRacehorses bred in Maryland\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nEclipse Award winners\nThoroughbred family 17-b"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal",
"Who was there?",
"Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M.",
"Were they hanged?",
"The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M.",
"Why were they hanged?",
"I don't know.",
"What year was it?",
"I don't know."
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Are there any other interesting aspects about this article? | 6 | Are there any other interesting aspects about the Washington Arsenal other than the executions? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
Sources
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | true | [
"Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region",
"Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal",
"Who was there?",
"Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M.",
"Were they hanged?",
"The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M.",
"Why were they hanged?",
"I don't know.",
"What year was it?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows."
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Why were they like that? | 7 | Why were the coffins at Washington Arsenal buried against the prison wall? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | true | [
"C. G. Jung, in his book \"Memories, Dreams, Reflections\", recalls a conversation he had with a Native American man, one Ochwiay Biano an elder of the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. [Mr. Biano is also known by the English name \"Chief Mountain Lake.\"] Ochwiay Biano said,\n\n“How cruel the whites are: their lips are thin, their noses sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by holes. Their eyes have a staring expression. They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something, they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want, we do not understand them, we think that they are mad.” I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad. “They say they think with their heads,” he replied.\n\n“Why, of course. What do you think with?” I asked him in surprise.\n\n“We think here,” he said, indicating his heart.^ \n\nLater in the 1925 visit, he learned from the Chief that his people, like the Elongyi tribe of Kenya, rose in the morning and spit in their palms, thereby presenting their soul-stuff to the sun to welcome it in an expression of sympathetic magic. Jung marveled that the people of the pueblo knew why they were there.\n\nNotes\n\nPueblo people",
"With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work? is the third offering from English indie band Hot Club De Paris. It was released on Moshi Moshi records on hand numbered limited 10\" vinyl and digital formats.\n\nTrack listing\nAll of the videos of six songs maybe add all of the songs list on With Days Like This as Cheap as Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want to Work?, he produced by Amelia Robona.\nDance A Ragged Dance\nFuck You, The Truth!\nDog Tired At The Spring Dance Marathon\nThey Shoot Horses Don't They?\nNoses Blazing\nExtra Time, Sudden Death\n\nReferences\n\nHot Club de Paris albums\n2010 EPs"
] |
[
"Mary Surratt",
"Burial",
"Where was the burial?",
"the Washington Arsenal",
"Who was there?",
"Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M.",
"Were they hanged?",
"The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M.",
"Why were they hanged?",
"I don't know.",
"What year was it?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows.",
"Why were they like that?",
"The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins."
] | C_8651ff57168a40609c81539285279fd1_0 | Did family attend? | 8 | Did family attend the executions of Harold, Powell, and Surratt? | Mary Surratt | Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 P.M. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 P.M. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor. Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them. Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried 100 yards (91 m) from her grave in the same cemetery. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the US federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and is controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried, but due to statute of limitations, was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Confederate groups and sympathizers. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and gender. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. She has since been portrayed in film, theater, and television.
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) Jenkins on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820 or 1823. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, but most sources say May.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian, Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. Mary's maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life
Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840. John converted to Roman Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John, Jr. (born April 1844).
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today). Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845, having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze). John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads, the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Roman Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater). The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned). Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills). The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
Civil War and widowhood
The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizers, and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers. The Surratt tavern was being used as a safe house for Confederate spies, and at least one author concludes that Mary had "de facto" knowledge of this. Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt's boarding house before and during the Civil War.
On March 7, 1861, three days after Abraham Lincoln's inauguration as President of the United States, Isaac left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff's Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion). John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings, the courier network remained intact.
John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25 or August 26 in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family's remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, and several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty, but John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, he sought a job in the paymaster's department in the United States Department of War, but his application caused federal agents to be suspicious about his family's loyalties to the Union. On November 17, 1863, he was dismissed as postmaster for disloyalty.
The loss of John Jr.'s job as postmaster caused a financial crisis for the Surratt family. When John Sr.'s estate was probated in late November 1862, the family owned only two middle-age male slaves. However, by 1863, Louis J. Weichmann, a friend of John Jr. from St. Charles College, observed that the family had six or more slaves working on the property. By 1864, Mary Surratt found that her husband's unpaid debts and bad business deals had left her with many creditors. Several of her slaves ran away. When he was not meeting with Confederate sympathizers in the city, her son was selling vegetables to raise cash for the family. Mary was tired of running the farm, tavern, and other businesses without her son's help. In the fall of 1864, she began considering moving to her townhouse in the city.
On October 1, 1864, she took possession of the townhouse at 604 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. The house was made of gray brick, wide, deep, and had four stories. The first floor, which was level with the street, had two large rooms, used as the kitchen and dining room. The second floor had a front and back parlor, with the room in the rear used as Mary Surratt's bedroom. The third floor had three rooms: two in the front and a larger one at the back. The fourth floor, which was considered an attic, had two large and one small room, occupied by a servant. Surratt began moving her belongings into the townhouse that month, and on November 1, 1864, Anna and John Jr. took up residence there. Mary Surratt herself moved into the home on December 1. That same day, she leased the tavern in Surrattsville to a former Washington, D.C., policeman and Confederate sympathizer John M. Lloyd for $500 a year. On November 30, December 8, and December 27, Mary Surratt advertised for lodgers in the Daily Evening Star newspaper. She had initially said that she wanted only lodgers who were known to her personally or were recommended by friends, but in her advertisements, she said rooms were "available for 4 gentlemen."
Some scholars have raised questions about Surratt's move into the city. Historians Kate Larson and Roy Chamlee have noted that although there is no definite proof, a case can be made that Surratt made the move into the city in furtherance of her and her son's espionage activities. For example, Larson and Chamlee say that on September 21, 1864, John Surratt wrote to Louis J. Weichmann, observing that the family's plans to move into the city were advancing rapidly "on account of certain events having turned up," perhaps a cryptic reference to either his Confederate activities in general or the conspiracy to kidnap or kill Lincoln. Larson has observed that although the move made long-term economic sense for Surratt, it also, in the short term, would have meant moving expenses and furnishing up to 10 rooms in the townhouse, money that she did not have.
Chamlee, too, found little economic reason to move into the city and concluded that it would have been more profitable to rent the H Street boarding house entirely to lodgers. During her time in the city, Surratt tried to keep her daughter away from what she felt were negative influences. Moreover, Surratt still owed money on both the tavern and the townhouse and would take out yet another mortgage against the townhouse in January 1865.
John Jr. transferred all his title to the family property to his mother in January 1865. That act may have additional implications. A traitor's property could be seized, and John's spy knowledge was certainly his motivation for relinquishing his title to the houses and land. Mary may have known of his motivation as well or at least suspected. If she did, she would have possessed at least de facto knowledge of the conspiracy.
Conspiracy
Louis J. Weichmann moved into Surratt's boarding house on November 1, 1864. On December 23, 1864, Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced John Surratt Jr. to John Wilkes Booth. Booth recruited John Jr. into his conspiracy to kidnap Lincoln. Confederate agents began frequenting the boarding house. Booth visited the boarding house many times over the next few months, sometimes at Mary's request.
George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell boarded at the townhouse for short periods. Atzerodt, a friend of both John Jr. and Booth and a co-conspirator in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, visited the boarding house several times in the first two months of 1865. He stayed at the Surratt boarding house in February 1865 (for one night or several, sources differ), but he proved to be a heavy drinker, and Surratt evicted him after just a few days.
He continued to visit the townhouse frequently afterward, however. Powell posed as a Baptist preacher and stayed at the boarding house for three days in March 1865. David Herold also called at the home several times.
As part of the plot to kidnap Lincoln in March 1865, John, Atzerodt, and Herold hid two Spencer carbines, ammunition, and some other supplies at the Surratt tavern in Surrattsville. On April 11, Mary Surratt rented a carriage and drove to the Surratt tavern. She said that she made the trip to collect a debt owed her by a former neighbor. However, according to her tenant, John Lloyd, Surratt told him to get the "shooting irons" ready to be picked up. On April 14, Surratt said that she would once again visit the family tavern in Surrattsville to collect a debt. Shortly before she left the city, Booth visited the boarding house and spoke privately with her. He gave her a package, later found to contain binoculars, for Lloyd to pick up later that evening. Surratt did so and, according to Lloyd, again told Lloyd to have the "shooting irons" ready for pickup and handed him a wrapped package from Booth.
Booth's plan was to assassinate Lincoln and have Atzerodt kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Powell kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. Booth killed Lincoln, Atzerodt never attempted to kill Johnson, and Powell stabbed Seward repeatedly but failed to murder him. As they fled the city after Lincoln's assassination, Booth and Herold picked up the rifles and binoculars from Surratt's tavern. Lloyd repaired a broken spring on Surratt's wagon before they left.
Arrest and incarceration
Around 2 a.m. on April 15, 1865, members of the District of Columbia police visited the Surratt boarding house, seeking John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt. Why the police came to the house is not entirely clear. Most historians conclude that Weichmann's friend, Department of War employee Daniel Gleason, had alerted federal authorities to Confederate activity centered on the Surratt house, but that does not explain why police rather than federal agents appeared there. (Historian Roy Chamlee, however, says that there is evidence that Gleason did not tell police about his suspicions of Weichmann for several days.) Within 45 minutes of the attack on Lincoln, John Surratt's name had become associated with the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. The police as well as the Provost Marshal's office both had files on John Surratt Jr. and knew he was a close friend of Booth. (It is possible that either James L. Maddox, property supervisor at Ford's Theatre and a friend of Booth's, or actor John Matthews, both of whom may have known about the plot to attack government officials, mentioned Surratt's name.) Historian Otto Eisenschiml has argued that David Herold's attempt to steal a horse from John Fletcher may have led them to the Surratt boarding house, but at least one other scholar has called the link uncertain. Other sources claim that eyewitnesses had identified Booth as Lincoln's attacker, and the detectives had information (a tip from an unnamed actor and a bartender) linking John, Jr., to Booth. Mary lied to the detectives that her son had been in Canada for two weeks. She also did not reveal that she had delivered a package to the tavern on Booth's behalf only hours earlier.
On April 17, a Surratt neighbor told U.S. military authorities that he overheard one of the Surratt's servants saying that three men had come to the house on the night of Lincoln's assassination and that one of the men had mentioned Booth in a theater. (The servant was mistaken about the date, as John Surratt, Jr. had indeed been in Elmira, New York, on a mission for a Confederate general). Other pieces of information also mentioned the boarding house as a key meeting place of the possible conspirators. Either Colonel Henry H. Wells, Provost Marshal (head of the military police) of the District of Columbia, or General Christopher C. Augur told Colonel Henry Steel Olcott to arrest everyone in the house.
Federal soldiers visited the Surratt boarding house again late on the evening of April 17. John Jr. could not be found, but after a search of the house, the agents found in Mary's room a picture of Booth, hidden behind another photograph, pictures of Confederate leaders including Jefferson Davis, a pistol, a mold for making bullets, and percussion caps. As Mary was being arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Powell appeared at her door in disguise. Although Surratt denied knowing him, Powell claimed that he was a laborer hired by Surratt to dig a ditch the next morning. The discrepancy and Powell's unusually well-groomed appearance, quite unlike a ditch-digger, prompted his arrest. He was later identified as the man who had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.
After her arrest, she was held at an annex to the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the Washington Arsenal on April 30. Two armed guards stood before the door to her cell from the beginning of her imprisonment until her death. Her cell, while airy and larger than the others, was sparsely furnished, with a straw mattress, table, wash basin, chair, and a bucket. Food was served four times a day, always of bread; salt pork, beef, or beef soup; and coffee or water. The other arrested conspirators had their heads enclosed in a padded canvas bag to prevent a suicide attempt. Sources disagree as to whether Surratt was also forced to wear it. Although the others wore iron manacles on their feet and ankles, she was not manacled. (Rumors to the contrary were raised by reporters at the trial who could not see her or "heard" the clank of chains about her feet. The rumors were repeatedly investigated and denied.) She began to suffer menstrual bleeding and became weak during her detention. She was given a rocking chair and allowed visits from her daughter, Anna. She and Powell received the most attention from the press. The Northern press was also highly critical of her, claiming that she had a "criminal face" due to her small mouth and dark eyes.
John Surratt Jr. was in Elmira at the time of the assassination, delivering messages on behalf of a Confederate general. After learning of Lincoln's death, he fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Trial
The trial for the alleged conspirators began on May 9. A military tribunal, rather than a civilian court, was chosen as the venue because government officials thought that its more lenient rules of evidence would enable the court to get to the bottom of what was then perceived by the public as a vast conspiracy. All eight alleged conspirators were tried simultaneously. Historians have conflicting views regarding Surratt's innocence. Historian Laurie Verge commented, "Only in the case of Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd is there as much controversy as to the guilt or innocence of one of the defendants." Lincoln assassination scholar Thomas Reed Turner says that of the eight people accused of plotting to kill Lincoln, the case against Surratt remains "the most controversial... at that time and since."
A room on the northeast corner of the third floor of the Arsenal was made into a courtroom, and the prisoners were brought into the room through a side door, which prevented them from passing by or being harassed by spectators. Surratt was given special considerations during the trial because of her illness and gender. In the courtroom, she sat apart from the other prisoners. Sources differ as to whether an armed guard sat on either side of her, as was done for other prisoners during the trial. While the others wore wrist and ankle manacles in the courtroom, she did not. She was also permitted a bonnet, fan, and veil to hide her face from spectators. As her illness worsened during the trial, she was moved to a larger and more comfortable prison cell.
Surratt was charged with abetting, aiding, concealing, counseling, and harboring her co-defendants. The federal government initially attempted to find legal counsel for her and the others, but almost no attorneys were willing to take the job for fear they would be accused of disloyalty to the Union. Surratt retained Reverdy Johnson as her legal counsel. A member of the military commission trying the conspirators challenged Johnson's right to defend Surratt, as he had objected to requiring loyalty oaths from voters in the 1864 presidential election. After much discussion, this objection was withdrawn, but damage had been done to his influence, and he did not attend most of the court sessions. Most of Surratt's legal defense was presented by two other lawyers: Frederick Aiken and John Wesley Clampitt.
The prosecution's strategy was to tie Surratt to the conspiracy. Powell's arrival at her boarding house, three days after the president's murder, was critical evidence against her, the government argued. The prosecution presented nine witnesses, but most of their case rested on the testimony of just two men: John M. Lloyd and Louis J. Weichmann. Lloyd testified on May 13 and 15, 1865 on the hiding of the carbines and other supplies at the tavern in March and the two conversations he had with her in which she told him to get the "shooting irons" ready. Weichmann's testimony was important, as it established an intimate relationship between her and the other conspirators.
Weichmann testified May 16 to 19 and said that he had resided at the boarding house since November 1864. He had seen or overheard John Jr. meeting and talking with Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell many times over the past four and a half months. Weichmann had driven Surratt to the tavern on April 11 and 14, confirmed that she and Lloyd had spent much time in private conversation, testified that he saw Booth give her the package of binoculars, and attested that she had turned the package over to Lloyd. Weichmann also testified at length about the Surratt family's ties to the Confederate spy and courier rings operating in the area and their relationships with Atzerodt and Powell. He also testified about the December 23 meeting with Booth and John (which he also attended) and their subsequent meeting with Booth at Booth's room at the National Hotel. Finally, he told the military tribunal about the general excitement in the boarding house in March 1865 after the failed attempt to kidnap Lincoln.
Other prosecution witnesses reinforced Weichmann's testimony. Lodger Honora Fitzpatrick confirmed visits by Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell to the boarding house. Emma Offut, Lloyd's sister-in-law, testified that she saw (but did not hear) Surratt speaking for long periods of time with Lloyd on April 11 and 14. Government agents testified about their arrest of Surratt, Powell's arrival, and her denial that she knew Powell. The fact that Powell sought refuge in the boarding house after Lincoln's murder left a bad impression of her. Surratt's refusal (or failure) to recognize him also weighed against her. The agents also testified about their search of the house, and the evidence (the photographs, the weapons, etc.) discovered there. Lloyd's testimony was the most important for the prosecution's case, for it indicated that she had played an active role in the conspiracy in the days before Lincoln's death. The prosecution rested its case on May 22.
The defense strategy was to impeach the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses: Lloyd and Weichmann. It also wished to show that she was loyal to the Union, her trips to Surrattsville were of an innocent nature, and she had not been aware of Booth's plans. There were 31 witnesses who testified for the defense. George H. Calvert testified that he had pressed Surratt to pay a debt, Bennett Gwynn said Surratt had sought payment from John Nothey to satisfy the Calvert debt, and Nothey agreed that he had received a letter from Surratt for him to appear at the tavern on April 11 to pay what was owed. Several witnesses impugned Lloyd's character by testifying about his alcoholism, while others said he was too intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's assassination to remember that day clearly. Augustus Howell, a Confederate agent, testified Weichmann was an untrustworthy witness, as he had sought to become a Confederate spy himself. (The prosecution had attempted to show that Howell was a Confederate spy and should not be trusted.)
Anna Surratt testified that it was Weichmann who had brought Atzerodt into the boarding house, that the photograph of Booth was hers, and that she owned photographs of Union political and military leaders. Anna denied ever overhearing any discussions of disloyal activities or ideas in the boarding house, and that Booth's visits to the house were always short. Anna explained her mother's failure to recognize Powell by asserting she could not see well. Augusta Howell, a former servant, and Honora Fitzpatrick, a former slave, testified to Mary's poor eyesight as well. The former servant and the former slave both said Surratt had given Union soldiers food. Numerous witnesses were called at the end of the defense's case to testify to her loyalty to the Union, her deep Christian faith, and her kindness. During the prosecution's rebuttal, government lawyers called four witnesses to the stand, who testified as to Weichmann's unimpeachable character.
Johnson and Aiken presented the closing arguments for the defense. Johnson attacked the jurisdiction of a military tribunal over civilians, as had Mudd's attorney. Aiken also challenged the court's jurisdiction. He also reiterated that Lloyd and Weichmann were unreliable witnesses and that the evidence against her was all circumstantial. The only evidence linking Surratt to the conspiracy to kill Lincoln, he said, came from Lloyd and Weichmann, and neither man was telling the truth. (Dorothy Kunhardt has written that there is evidence the latter's perjured testimony was suborned by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.)
Judge Advocate John Bingham presented the closing argument for the prosecution. The military tribunal had jurisdiction, he said, not only because the court itself had ruled at the beginning of the trials that it did but because they were crimes committed in a military zone, during a time of war, and against high government officials in carrying out treasonous activities. Bingham pointed out that the Surratt boarding house was where the conspiracy was planned, and Atzerodt, Booth, and Powell had all met with Surratt. Booth had paid for the rental of the carriage that took Surratt to Surrattsville each time, and Bingham said that was evidence that Surratt's trips were critical to the conspiracy. Bingham also said that Lloyd's testimony had been corroborated by others and that his unwillingness to reveal the cache of weapons in the tavern was prompted by his subservient tenant relationship to Surratt. Bingham concluded by reiterating the government's key point: Powell had returned to the Surratt house seeking Surratt, and that alone was proof of her guilt. Bingham also pointed out for the tribunal that the charge a person was indicted for was irrelevant. Under the law of conspiracy, if one person carries out a crime, all conspirators are guilty of the same crime.
The trial ended on June 28, 1865. Surratt was so ill the last four days of the trial that she was permitted to stay in her cell. In the opinion of historian Roy Z. Chamlee, both legal teams appeared to have flaws in their cases, and except for Reverdy Johnson, neither team employed highly skilled attorneys. The government's case was hindered by its failure to call as a witness the man who shared Lloyd's carriage when he talked with Surratt and could have verified Lloyd's version of the "shooting irons" story or Metropolitan Police Chief A.C. Richards whose investigation had had the most success in the early days of the investigation. The government did not fully investigate Booth's meetings with Surratt at noon or the evening of the murder, and its questioning and cross-examination of witnesses was poorly prepared and weak. What is most important, according to historian Roy Z. Chamber Jr., is that the government had botched the attempt to apprehend John Jr. The defense's case, too, had a problem. The defense never followed up on inconsistencies in Weichmann's chronology of Mary's last visit to the tavern, which could have undermined Weichmann's entire credibility.
The military tribunal considered guilt and sentencing on June 29 and 30. Surratt's guilt was the second-last to be considered, as her case had problems of evidence and witness reliability. The sentence was handed down on June 30. The military tribunal found her guilty on all charges but two. A death sentence required six of the nine votes of the judges. Surratt was sentenced to death, the first woman executed by the federal government. The sentence was announced publicly on July 5. When Powell learned of his sentence, he declared that she was completely innocent of all charges. The night before the execution, Surratt's priests and Anna Surratt both visited Powell and elicited from him a strong statement declaring Mary innocent. Although it was delivered to Captain Christian Rath, who was overseeing the execution, Powell's statement had no effect on anyone with authority to prevent Surratt's death. George Atzerodt bitterly condemned her, implicating her even further in the conspiracy. Powell's was the only statement by any conspirator exonerating Surratt.
Anna Surratt pleaded repeatedly for her mother's life with Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, but he refused to consider clemency. She also attempted to see President Andrew Johnson several times to beg for mercy but was not granted permission to see him.
Five of the nine judges signed a letter asking President Johnson to give Surratt clemency and commute her sentence to life in prison because of her age and sex. Holt did not deliver the recommendation to Johnson until July 5, two days before Surratt and the others were to hang. Johnson signed the order for execution but did not sign the order for clemency. Johnson later said he never saw the clemency request; Holt said he showed it to Johnson, who refused to sign it. Johnson, according to Holt, said in signing the death warrant that she had "kept the nest that hatched the egg."
Execution
Construction of the gallows for the hanging of the conspirators condemned to death began immediately on July 5, after the execution order was signed. It was constructed in the south part of the Arsenal courtyard, was high and about in size. Rath, who oversaw the preparations for the executions, made the nooses. Tired of making nooses and thinking that the government would never hang a woman, he made Surratt's noose the night before the execution with five loops rather than the regulation seven. He tested the nooses that night by tying them to a tree limb and a bag of buckshot and then tossing the bag to the ground (the ropes held). Civilian workers did not want to dig the graves out of superstitious fear, so Rath asked for volunteers among the soldiers at the Arsenal and received more help than he needed.
At noon on July 6, Surratt was informed she would be hanged the next day. She wept profusely. She was joined by two Catholic priests (Jacob Walter and B.F. Wiget) and her daughter Anna. Father Jacob remained with her almost until her death. Her menstrual problems had worsened, and she was in such pain and suffered from such severe cramps that the prison doctor gave her wine and medication. She repeatedly asserted her innocence. She spent the night on her mattress, weeping and moaning in pain and grief, ministered to by the priests. Anna left her mother's side at 8 A.M. on July 7 and went to the White House to beg for her mother's life one last time. Her entreaty rejected, she returned to the prison and her mother's cell at about 11 A.M. The soldiers began testing the gallows about 11:25 A.M.; the sound of the tests unnerved all the prisoners. Shortly before noon, Mary Surratt was taken from her cell and then allowed to sit in a chair near the entrance to the courtyard. The heat in the city that day was oppressive. By noon, it had already reached . The guards ordered all visitors to leave at 12:30 P.M. When she was forced to part from her mother, Anna's hysterical screams of grief could be heard throughout the prison.
Clampitt and Aiken had not finished trying to save their client, however. On the morning of July 7, they asked a District of Columbia court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the military tribunal had no jurisdiction over their client. The court issued the writ at 3 A.M., and it was served on General Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock was ordered to produce Surratt by 10 A.M. General Hancock sent an aide to General John F. Hartranft, who commanded the Old Capitol Prison, ordering him not to admit any US marshal, as that would prevent the marshal from serving a similar writ on Hartranft. Johnson was informed that the court had issued the writ and promptly cancelled it at 11:30 A.M. under the authority granted to him by the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act of 1863. General Hancock and United States Attorney General James Speed personally appeared in court and informed the judge of the cancellation of the writ.
On July 7, 1865, at 1:15 P.M., a procession led by General Hartranft escorted the four condemned prisoners through the courtyard and up the steps to the gallows. Each prisoner's ankles and wrists were bound by manacles. Surratt led the way, wearing a black bombazine dress, black bonnet, and black veil. More than 1,000 people, including government officials, members of the US armed forces, friends and family of the accused, official witnesses, and reporters, watched. General Hancock limited attendance to those who had a ticket, and only those who had a good reason to be present were given a ticket. (Most of those present were military officers and soldiers, as fewer than 200 tickets had been printed.)
Alexander Gardner, who had photographed the body of Booth and taken portraits of several of the male conspirators while they were imprisoned aboard naval ships, photographed the execution for the government. Hartranft read the order for their execution. Surratt, either weak from her illness or swooning in fear (perhaps both), had to be supported by two soldiers and her priests. The condemned were seated in chairs, Surratt almost collapsing into hers. She was seated to the right of the others, the traditional "seat of honor" in an execution. White cloth was used to bind their arms to their sides and their ankles and thighs together. The cloths around Surratt's legs were tied around her dress below the knees. Each person was ministered to by a member of the clergy. From the scaffold, Powell said, "Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us." Fathers Jacob and Wiget prayed over her and held a crucifix to her lips. About 16 minutes elapsed from the time the prisoners entered the courtyard until they were ready for execution.
A white bag was placed over the head of each prisoner after the noose was put in place. Surratt's bonnet was removed, and the noose put around her neck by a U.S. Secret Service officer. She complained that the bindings about her arms hurt, and the officer preparing said, "Well, it won't hurt long." Finally, the prisoners were asked to stand and move forward a few feet to the nooses. The chairs were removed. Her last words, spoken to a guard as he moved her forward to the drop, were "Please don't let me fall."
Surratt and the others stood on the drop for about 10 seconds, and then Captain Rath clapped his hands. Four soldiers of Company F of the 14th Veteran Reserves knocked out the supports holding the drops in place, and the condemned fell. Surratt, who had moved forward enough to barely step onto the drop, lurched forward and slid partway down the drop, her body snapping tight at the end of the rope, swinging back and forth. She appeared to die relatively quickly with little struggle. Atzerodt's stomach heaved once and his legs quivered; then, he was still. Herold and Powell struggled for nearly five minutes, strangling to death.
Burial
Each body was inspected by a physician to ensure that death had occurred. The bodies of the executed were allowed to hang for about 30 minutes and soldiers began to cut them down at 1:53 p.m. A corporal raced to the top of the gallows and cut down Atzerodt's body, which fell to the ground with a thud. He was reprimanded, and the other bodies were cut down more gently. Herold's body was next, followed by Powell's. Surratt's body was cut down at 1:58 p.m. As Surratt's body was cut loose, her head fell forward. A soldier joked, "She makes a good bow" and was rebuked by an officer for his poor use of humor.
Upon examination, the military surgeons determined that no one's neck had been broken by the fall. The manacles and cloth bindings were removed but not the white execution masks, and the bodies were placed into the pine coffins. The name of each person was written on a piece of paper by acting Assistant Adjutant R. A. Watts, and inserted in a glass vial, which was placed into the coffin. The coffins were buried against the prison wall in shallow graves, just a few feet from the gallows. A white picket fence marked the burial site. The night that she died, a mob attacked the Surratt boarding house and began stripping it of souvenirs until the police stopped them.
Anna Surratt unsuccessfully asked for her mother's body for four years. In 1867, the War Department decided to tear down the portion of the Washington Arsenal where the bodies of Surratt and the other executed conspirators lay. On October 1, 1867, the coffins were disinterred and reburied in Warehouse No. 1 at the Arsenal, with a wooden marker placed at the head of each burial vault. Booth's body lay alongside them. In February 1869, Edwin Booth asked Johnson for the body of his brother. Johnson agreed to turn the body over to the Booth family, and on February 8 Surratt's body was turned over to the Surratt family. She was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1869. Lloyd is buried from her grave in the same cemetery.
Surviving family and home
Anna Surratt moved from the townhouse on H Street and lived with friends for a few years, ostracized from society. She married William Tonry, a government clerk. They lived in poverty for a while after he was dismissed from his job, but in time, he became a professor of chemistry in Baltimore and the couple became better off. The strain of her mother's death left Anna mentally unbalanced, and she suffered from periods of extreme fear that bordered on insanity. She died in 1904.
After the dismissal of charges against him, John Jr. married and he and his family lived in Baltimore near his sister, Anna. Isaac Surratt also returned to the United States and lived in Baltimore. He died unmarried in 1907. Isaac and Anna were buried on either side of their mother in Mount Olivet Cemetery. John Jr. was buried in Baltimore in 1916. In 1968, a new headstone with a brass plaque replaced the old, defaced headstone over Mary Surratt's grave.
Mary Surratt's boarding house still stands and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Those interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society. The Surrattsville tavern and house are historical sites run today by the Surratt Society. The Washington Arsenal is now Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Portrayals
Surratt was portrayed by actress Virginia Gregg in the 1956 episode "The Mary Surratt Case," telecast as part of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. She was portrayed by Robin Wright in the 2011 film The Conspirator, which was directed by Robert Redford.
References
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External links
Anna Surratt, daughter
Surratt Society and Museum
Read through the Lincoln Assassination Papers about evidence against Mary Surratt
Historic Marker at the Surratt Boarding House
Brief Mary Surratt Biography (written by a retired teacher especially for students and schools)
1820s births
1865 deaths
19th-century American women
19th-century executions by the United States
19th-century executions of American people
American slave owners
Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Executed American women
Executed people from Maryland
Lincoln assassination conspirators
People executed by the United States federal government by hanging
People from Clinton, Maryland
People of Maryland in the American Civil War
Women in the American Civil War
Catholics from Maryland | false | [
"Maria Tschetschulin (1852–1917), was a Finnish clerk. She was the first woman to attend university in Finland.\n\nMaria Tschetschulin, who was of Russian descent through her Russian father, was the daughter of the steam boat owner Feodor Tschetschulin and Hilda Eckstein in Helsinki. After the death of her father and the bankruptcy of her family, she applied for a permission to study to support her family, having three younger sisters. In 1870, she became the first female university student in Finland at the University of Helsinki. Women were not allowed to study there, but she was given special dispensation to do so, and thus became the first woman in the Nordic countries to do so: though women in Sweden was given the right to attend university the same year, the first woman, Betty Pettersson, did not enlist at university until the year after. Maria Tschetschulin was the first female to study at university, but she discontinued her studies in 1873 without taking her exam, and the first female graduate was Emma Irene Åström in 1882; she described herself as an anti-feminist, and did not wish to attend lectures in the company of only men. After her studies, she successfully worked within the steam boat business of her family.\n\nShe was sister of the violinist, composer and music teacher Agnes Tschetschulin.\n\nReferences\n\n kansallisbiografia Suomen kansallisbiografia (National Biography of Finland)\n\n1852 births\n1917 deaths\nPeople from Helsinki\nPeople from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)\nFinnish people of Russian descent\n19th-century Finnish women",
"This is an incomplete list of presidential electors in the United States presidential election of 1792.\n\nMaryland \nAll 8 electors who attended voted for George Washington and John Adams.\nWestern Shore\nJohn Eager Howard\nThomas Sim Lee\nAlexander Contee Hanson\nRichard Potts \nWilliam Smith, elected but did not attend\nSamuel Hughes, elected but did not attend\nEastern Shore\nWilliam Richardson \nDonaldson Yates \nJohn Seney \nLevin Winder\n\nRhode Island\n Samuel J. Potter\n\nSee also \n 1792 United States presidential election\n\nReferences \n\n \n1792"
] |
[
"Lord Voldemort",
"Character development"
] | C_5d1d762da8bb4c618b47b38a36d58922_1 | What was Voldermort's character like? | 1 | What was Lord Voldermort's character like? | Lord Voldemort | In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since." In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death." Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel states that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death", and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors. CANNOTANSWER | Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter | Lord Voldemort (, in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.
Character development
In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."
Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.
In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.
Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.
In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.
Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.
Appearances in other material
In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.
Portrayals within films
Voldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.
Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research." Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.
Characterisation
Outward appearance
After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.
Personality
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years". She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."
Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".
Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.
Magical abilities and skills
Rowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.
In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.
On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.
Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".
Family
Notes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.
Riddle family
The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.
Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.
House of Gaunt
Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.
Marvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.
Dumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.
Merope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.
Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.
The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.
Reception
Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people." Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press." Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.
Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.
IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".
In popular culture
Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".
Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as "Lord Montymort". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as "Lord Moldybutt", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.
"Continuing the Magic", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.
In a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.
During the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, "Trump is worse".
Voldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.
Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.
A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.
Voldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.
An upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.
Notes
References
External links
Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon
Fictional characters with disfigurements
Fictional characters with immortality
Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities
Fictional dictators
Fictional English people
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional illeists
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional necromancers
Fictional offspring of rape
Fictional patricides
Fictional terrorists
Fictional torturers
Harry Potter characters
Literary characters introduced in 1997
Male film villains
Male literary villains
Orphan characters in film
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Psychopathy in fiction
Film supervillains | true | [
"Hugh Culber is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. He appears in the television series Star Trek: Discovery. Culber is portrayed by actor Wilson Cruz. Originally introduced as a recurring character in the first season of the series, Culber is promoted to a main character in the second season. Within Discoverys narrative, he is the ship's senior medical doctor and partner to its engineer Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp).\n\nConcept and casting \nIn July 2016, Wilson Cruz was cast as Culber, Paul Stamets' love interest, after having previously worked with Anthony Rapp on the musical Rent. Cruz was revealed to be reprising his role of Culber for the series' second season, as well as being promoted to the main cast, in July 23, 2018. The character's appearance in the third season was confirmed in October 2019, a year before its premiere. In October 2020, just prior to the third season's premiere, Culber's role in the fourth season was confirmed, when it was announced that the series was renewed.\n\nCharacterization \nAbout the character in an interview about being promoted to the main cast in season two with Anthony Pascale, Cruz said: \"this season for this couple [Culber and Stamets] is really about deepening them individually. We get to find out a lot about Culber–who he is, what he wants, what makes him tick, what his ambitions are–separate and apart from this relationship. But we get to learn a lot about this relationship and it is put through the test.\" Cruz also confirmed that the reason he was only in the recurring cast because he was in 13 Reasons Why at the same time.\n\nCulber is one-half of the first openly gay regular character couple in a Star Trek television series. On creating the first gay couple in a Star Trek series, Cruz said he \"felt like it was a long time coming ... What's great about the way that the show is handling it is it's not like we are having a special two-hour episode about gay relationships in space. It's not that. They just happen to be in love, and they happen to be coworkers. And, I hope by the time we get to [the 23rd] century that it will be exactly like that.\" In the season three episode \"Su'Kal\", Culber appears a member of the Bajoran alien race briefly in a hologram simulation.\n\nTalking toward the fourth season, Michelle Paradise noted that Stamets and Culber would form a \"really lovely\" family unit with the non-binary Adira Tal, who was introduced in the previous season, and their transgender boyfriend Gray.\n\nFictional biography\nIn the first season, Culber treats Ash Tyler, who is struggling to contain his alternate Klingon personality, but is later killed by his patient. In the second season, Stamets travels into the mycelium to find a copy of Culber, and brings him back to life.\n\nReception \nVarious publications described how the character set a precedent in both the Star Trek world and generally in media as a depiction of a gay character. In 2019, Hugh Culber was ranked the 10th-sexiest Star Trek character by Syfy.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nFictional characters displaced in time\nFictional LGBT characters in television\nFictional lieutenant commanders\nFictional scientists\nLGBT Star Trek characters\nStar Trek: Discovery characters\nTelevision characters introduced in 2017\nTime travelers\nStarfleet medical personnel",
"Reham Abdel Ghafour () (born 6 September 1978 in El Mahalla El Kubra) is an Egyptian actress and the daughter of famous Egyptian actor Ashraf Abdel Ghafour. She is graduated from Faculty of Commerce-English section. She appeared with Mohamed Henedi and Ashraf Abdel Baki in the film Saheb Sahbo.\n\nReham acts in many TV series and films like Mallaki Eskinderiya, Kan yom Hobak, Gayy fel Saree''', BelAraby cinderella. She also participated in plays like Bint Bonoot, AlMalek Lear (i.e. King Lear) with the star Yehia El-Fakharany and Hamlet play at Egyptian theaters.\n\n Films \n The Academy (2009)\n Alghaba (i.e. The Wild) (2008) her character was named \"Gamila\",streets princess\n Alia ElTarab bel3 (2007) her character was named \"Mona\"\n Ga'alatny Mogreman (i.e. She made me a criminal) (2006) her character was named \"Saly\"\n Zay ElHawa (i.e. Same as the air) (2006) her character was named \"Nour\"\n BelAraby Cindrella (i.e. Arabic cinderella) (2006) her character was named \"Tokka\" (Starring role)\n Gy Fe ElSaree3 (i.e. Coming fast) (2005) her character was named \"Abeer\" (Starring role)\n Hareem Kareem (i.e. Kareem's girls) (2005) her character was named \"Nevien\" featuring Moustafa Amar.\n Malaky Eskendria (i.e. Private Alex) (2005) her character was named \"Rasha Nos-hi\"\n Kan Yom Hobak (i.e. The day I loved you) her character was named \"Hannan\"\n Sehr El oyon (i.e. Eyes' Magic) her character was named \"Dina\"\n Saheb Sahbo (i.e. true friend or Friend of his Friend)) her character was named \"Shapinam\" (Starring role)\n\n TV series Shekh El Arab Hammam (i.e. Hammam the Arab's Shekh) (2010) her character was named \"Ward Elyaman\", Hammam's daughterMesh Alf Lella w Lella (i.e. Not 1001 Nights) (2010) her character was \"Shahrazad\" the famous literature character of One Thousand and One NightsBent Bonot (i.e. Virgin) (2006) her character was named \"Noha\"Mn Gher Ma'ad (i.e. Without arrangement) (2006) her character was named \"Sahar\" (starring role)Andaleb Hekayet Sha'b (i.e. Abdel Halim Hafez's Biography ) (2006) She portrays Faten Hamama, the Egyptian actressAmeel 1001 (i.e. Client 1001) (2006) her character was named \"Rachel\"Amaken Fe ElAlb (i.e. Places in my heart) (2005) her character was named \"Margeret\"\nBent Mn Shubra (i.e. Girl from Shubra) her character was named \"Lena\"\nAlHakeka w AlSarab (i.e. The reality and the fantasy ) her character was named \"Salwa\"\nAlAmma Nour (i.e. Aunt Nour)\nHadith ElSabah W AlMasa' (i.e. Morning and Evening stories) her character was named \"Sedriah\"\nMas'alet Mabda2 (i.e. Just a Principle)\nFares Bela Gawad (i.e. A Knight Without a Horse)\nShams Yom Gedid (i.e. New future)\nZizenia\nAlA'ela w AlNas (i.e. The Family and the community)\n\n Plays King Lear her character was the youngest daughter CordeliaHamlet'' her character was Olivia\n\nReferences\n\n1978 births\nReham\nLiving people\nEgyptian television actresses\nEgyptian stage actresses\nPeople from El Mahalla El Kubra"
] |
[
"Lord Voldemort",
"Character development",
"What was Voldermort's character like?",
"Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter"
] | C_5d1d762da8bb4c618b47b38a36d58922_1 | What are some of his character traits? | 2 | What are some of Lord Voldemort's character traits? | Lord Voldemort | In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since." In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death." Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel states that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death", and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors. CANNOTANSWER | Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. | Lord Voldemort (, in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.
Character development
In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."
Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.
In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.
Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.
In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.
Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.
Appearances in other material
In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.
Portrayals within films
Voldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.
Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research." Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.
Characterisation
Outward appearance
After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.
Personality
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years". She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."
Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".
Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.
Magical abilities and skills
Rowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.
In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.
On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.
Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".
Family
Notes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.
Riddle family
The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.
Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.
House of Gaunt
Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.
Marvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.
Dumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.
Merope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.
Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.
The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.
Reception
Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people." Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press." Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.
Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.
IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".
In popular culture
Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".
Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as "Lord Montymort". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as "Lord Moldybutt", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.
"Continuing the Magic", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.
In a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.
During the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, "Trump is worse".
Voldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.
Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.
A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.
Voldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.
An upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.
Notes
References
External links
Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon
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Film supervillains | true | [
"Moral character or character is an analysis of an individual's steady moral qualities. The concept of character can express a variety of attributes including the presence or lack of virtues such as empathy, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits, these attributes are also a part of one's soft skills. Moral character primarily refers to the collection of qualities that differentiate one individual from anotheralthough on a cultural level, the group of moral behaviors to which a social group adheres can be said to unite and define it culturally as distinct from others. Psychologist Lawrence Pervin defines moral character as \"a disposition to express behavior in consistent patterns of functions across a range of situations\". Same as, the philosopher Marie I. George refers to moral character as the \"sum of one’s moral habits and dispositions\". Aristotle has said, \"we must take as a sign of states of character the pleasure or pain that ensues on acts.\"\n\nOverview\nThe word \"character\" is derived from the Ancient Greek word \"charaktêr\", referring to a mark impressed upon a coin. Later it came to mean a point by which one thing was told apart from others. There are two approaches when dealing with moral character: Normative ethics involve moral standards that exhibit right and wrong conduct. It is a test of proper behavior and determining what is right and wrong. Applied ethics involve specific and controversial issues along with a moral choice, and tend to involve situations where people are either for or against the issue.\n\nIn 1982 V. Campbell and R. Bond proposed the following as major sources in influencing character and moral development: heredity, early childhood experience, modeling by important adults and older youth, peer influence, the general physical and social environment, the communications media, the teachings of schools and other institutions, and specific situations and roles that elicit corresponding behavior.\n\nThe field of business ethics examines moral controversies relating to the social responsibilities of capitalist business practices, the moral status of corporate entities, deceptive advertising, insider trading, employee rights, job discrimination, affirmative action and drug testing.\n\nIn the military field, character is considered particularly relevant in the leadership development area. Military leaders should not only \"know\" theoretically the moral values but they must embody these values.\n\nHistory\n\nThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a historical account of some important developments in philosophical approaches to moral character. A lot of attention is given to Plato, Aristotle, and Karl Marx's views, since they all follow the idea of moral character after the Greeks. Marx accepts Aristotle's insight that virtue and good character are based on a sense of self-esteem and self-confidence.\n\nPlato believed that the soul is divided into three parts of desire: Rational, Appetitive, or Spirited. In order to have moral character, we must understand what contributes to our overall good and have our spirited and appetitive desires educated properly, so that they can agree with the guidance provided by the rational part of the soul.\n\nAristotle tells us that there are good people in the world. These are those who exhibit excellences – excellences of thought and excellences of character. His phrase for excellences of character – êthikai aretai – we usually translate as moral virtue or moral excellence. When we speak of a moral virtue or an excellence of character, the emphasis is on the combination of qualities that make an individual the sort of ethically admirable person that he is. Aristotle defines virtuous character at the beginning of Book II in Nicomachean Ethics: \"Excellence of character, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect”. In Aristotle's view, good character is based on two naturally occurring psychological responses that most people experience without difficulty: our tendency to take pleasure from self-realizing activity and our tendency to form friendly feelings toward others under specific circumstances. Based on his view, virtually everyone is capable of becoming better and they are the ones responsible for actions that express (or could express) their character.\n\nAbraham Lincoln once said, \"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.\"\n\nIn 1919, Albert Einstein wrote in a letter to his friend, Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz, about his disillusionment concerning the inhumane consequences of World War I. He noted “We must remember that, on the average, men’s moral qualities do not greatly vary from country to country”.\n\nReligious views\n\nChristian character is also defined as presenting the \"Fruit of the Holy Spirit\": love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Doctrines of grace and total depravity assert that – due to original sin – mankind, entirely or in part, was unable to be good without God's intervention; otherwise at best, one could only ape good behavior for selfish reasons.\n\nScientific experiments\nIn one experiment that was done in the United States in 1985, the moral character of a person was based on whether or not a person had found a dime in a public phone booth. The findings were that 87% of subjects who found a dime in a phone booth mailed a sealed and addressed envelope that was left at the booth in an apparent mistake by someone else, while only 4% of those who did not find a dime helped. Some found it very troubling that people would be influenced by such morally trivial factors in their choice whether to provide low-cost assistance to others. John M. Doris raises the issue of ecological validity – do experimental findings reflect phenomena found in natural contexts. He recognizes that these results are counterintuitive to the way most of us think about morally relevant behavior.\n\nAnother experiment that was done that asked college students at Cornell to predict how they would behave when faced with one of several moral dilemmas, and to make the same predictions for their peers. Again and again, people predicted that they would be more generous and kind than others. Yet when put into the moral dilemma, the subjects did not behave as generously or as kindly as they had predicted. In psychological terms, the experimental subjects were successfully anticipating the base rate of moral behavior and accurately predicting how often others, in general, would be self-sacrificing.\n\nCriticism\nIn the 1990s and 2000s, a number of philosophers and social scientists began to question the very presuppositions that theories of moral character and moral character traits are based on. Due to the importance of moral character to issues in philosophy, it is unlikely that the debates over the nature of moral character will end anytime soon.\n\nSituationism can be understood as composed of three central claims:\n Non-robustness Claim: moral character traits are not consistent across a wide spectrum of trait-relevant situations. Whatever moral character traits an individual has are situation specific.\n Consistency Claim: while a person's moral character traits are relatively stable over time, this should be understood as consistency of situation specific traits, rather than robust traits.\n Fragmentation Claim: a person's moral character traits do not have the evaluative integrity suggested by the Integrity Claim. There may be considerable disunity in a person's moral character among his or her situation-specific character traits.\n\nAccording to Situationists, the empirical evidence favors their view of moral character over the Traditional View. Hugh Hartshorne and M. A. May's study of the trait of honesty among school children found no cross-situational correlation. A child may be consistently honest with his friends, but not with his parents or teachers. From this and other studies, Hartshorne and May concluded that character traits are not robust but rather \"specific functions of life situations\".\n\nThese recent challenges to the Traditional View have not gone unnoticed. Some have attempted to modify the Traditional View to insulate it from these challenges, while others have tried to show how these challenges fail to undermine the Traditional View at all. For example, Dana Nelkin (2005), Christian Miller (2003), Gopal Sreenivasan (2002), and John Sabini and Maury Silver (2005), among others, have argued that the empirical evidence cited by the Situationists does not show that individuals lack robust character traits.\n\nA second challenge to the traditional view can be found in the idea of moral luck. This idea is that moral luck occurs when the moral judgment of an agent depends on factors beyond the agent's control. Fiery Cushman clarifies that this is judgement of an outcome comprising both the agent's character and an unanticipated circumstance, rather than an agent's intent. There are number of ways that moral luck can motivate criticisms of moral character. It is similar to \"the kind of problems and situations one faces\" If all of an agent's moral character traits are situation-specific rather than robust, what traits an agent manifests will depend on the situation that she finds herself in. But what situations an agent finds herself in is often beyond her control and thus a matter of situational luck. Whether moral character traits are robust or situation-specific, some have suggested that what character traits one has is itself a matter of luck. If our having certain traits is itself a matter of luck, this would seem to undermine one's moral responsibility for one's moral character, and thus the concept of moral character altogether. As Owen Flanagan and Amélie Oksenberg Rorty write:\n\nA moral character trait is a character trait for which the agent is morally responsible. If moral responsibility is impossible, however, then agents cannot be held responsible, depending on age, for their character traits or for the behaviors that they do as a result of those character traits.\n\nA similar argument has also recently been advocated by Bruce Waller. According to Waller, no one is \"morally responsible for her character or deliberative powers, or for the results that flow from them.… Given the fact that she was shaped to have such characteristics by environmental (or evolutionary) forces far beyond her control, she deserves no blame [nor praise]\".\n\nSee also\n\n Character education\n Ethics\n Moral enhancement\n Moral identity\n Moral psychology\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n Blum, Lawrence (2003). \"Review of Doris's Lack of Character\", Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.\n Homiak, Marcia (2008). \"Moral Character\", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).\n Huitt, William (2004). \n Pervin, Lawrence (1994). \"A Critical Analysis of Current Trait Theory\", Psychological Inquiry 5, pp. 103–113.\n\nExternal links\n \n\nCharacter\nMoral psychology\nChristian ethics\nVirtue ethics\nLeadership",
"Character orientation is how people relate to the world by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by relating to self and others (socialization), and they can do so either nonproductively or productively. Erich Fromm is a theorist who came up with six different character orientations; Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding, Necrophilous, Marketing and Productive.\n\nHistory \nGerman-American psychoanalyst Erich Fromm was influenced by Freudian ideologies when coming up with the theory of character orientation. The basis of character orientation comes from Freud who said that character traits underlie behavior and that they must be inferred from it. These character traits can be powerful forces which are totally unconscious to the person. Fromm along with Freud believed that the most important aspect in one's character was not a single character trait, but rather, the total character organization from where many single character traits follow. These character traits can be understood as a syndrome resulting from a particular character orientation. In other words, the character of any given person is a blend of all, or some of the orientations, but where one is more predominant.\n\nNonproductive orientation\n\nReceptive orientation\nThey receive satisfaction from outside factors, and thus they passively wait for others to provide them with things that they need. For example, they want someone to provide them with love and attention. They are not the ones to give these things away and often lose loved ones who are close to them because of their inabilities to talk about their feelings or troubles. They find it hard to let go of past issues, often trivial, and develop a feeling of a secure present and future. They tend to see minor, innocent things as a threat to their security with a spouse or loved one. A receptive person is known for his huge lack of creativity.\n\nExploitative orientation\nExploitative-oriented people aggressively take what they want rather than passively receiving it. These types of people do whatever they can to get what they want; even if it includes stealing, or snatching something away from somebody else just to get it.\n\nHoarding orientation\nHoarding-oriented people save what they already have obtained, including their opinions, feelings, and material possessions. It may be love, power, or someone’s time.\n\nMarketing orientation\nPeople who are marketing orientated see themselves as commodities and value themselves against the criterion of their ability to sell themselves. They have fewer positive qualities than the other orientations because they are essentially empty.\n\nNecrophilous orientation\nConcerning this, Fromm wrote:\nThe capacity for the attraction to death is one which is given in any human being if he fails in development of what I would call his primary potentiality, namely to be related to life as something which is interesting, something which is joyful, or to develop his powers of love and reason. If all of these things remain incomplete, then man is prone to develop another form of relatedness, that of destroying life.\n\nProductive orientation\nThere is a healthy personality as well, which Erich Fromm occasionally refers to as \"the person without a mask\". This is the type of person who, without disavowing his or her biological and social nature, does not avoid freedom and responsibility. This person most likely comes out of a family that loves, which prefers reason to rules, and freedom to conformity.\n\nSee also\n Erich Fromm\n Personality\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nBoeree, C. George. Personality Theories: Erich Fromm 1997, 2006.\nFromm, E. (1947). Man For Himself. Canada:Holt, Rinehart, and Winston of Canada Limited.\n (Fromm online)\n\nPersonality traits"
] |
[
"Lord Voldemort",
"Character development",
"What was Voldermort's character like?",
"Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter",
"What are some of his character traits?",
"Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself."
] | C_5d1d762da8bb4c618b47b38a36d58922_1 | How did they base decide what his character was going to be like? | 3 | How did the author base decide what Lord Voldemort's character was going to be like? | Lord Voldemort | In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since." In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death." Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel states that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death", and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lord Voldemort (, in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.
Character development
In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."
Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.
In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.
Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.
In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.
Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.
Appearances in other material
In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.
Portrayals within films
Voldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.
Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research." Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.
Characterisation
Outward appearance
After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.
Personality
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years". She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."
Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".
Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.
Magical abilities and skills
Rowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.
In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.
On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.
Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".
Family
Notes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.
Riddle family
The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.
Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.
House of Gaunt
Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.
Marvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.
Dumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.
Merope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.
Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.
The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.
Reception
Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people." Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press." Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.
Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.
IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".
In popular culture
Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".
Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as "Lord Montymort". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as "Lord Moldybutt", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.
"Continuing the Magic", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.
In a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.
During the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, "Trump is worse".
Voldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.
Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.
A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.
Voldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.
An upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.
Notes
References
External links
Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon
Fictional characters with disfigurements
Fictional characters with immortality
Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities
Fictional dictators
Fictional English people
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional illeists
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional necromancers
Fictional offspring of rape
Fictional patricides
Fictional terrorists
Fictional torturers
Harry Potter characters
Literary characters introduced in 1997
Male film villains
Male literary villains
Orphan characters in film
Orphan characters in literature
Psychopathy in fiction
Film supervillains | false | [
"Frankie Stone is a fictional character from the American daytime drama All My Children. Portrayed by Elizabeth Hendrickson from September 27 to November 28, 2001, the character was one of the more popular additions to the series, having gained a significant following after only three months. When she was killed off, the popularity and loyal following the character had obtained resulted in Hendrickson being brought back as the character's identical twin sister, Maggie Stone.\n\nBackground\n\nAudition and character concept\nThe writers scripted Frankie's birth date to be on April 26, 1982, two years older than Bianca.\n\nActress Elizabeth Hendrickson had been auditioning for All My Children for over a year before acquiring the role of Frankie, and had originally auditioned for the role of Bianca Montgomery. The producers, however, felt that she was better suited for the part of Frankie Stone, a new character head writer Richard Culliton was scripting for an upcoming murder mystery storyline. Hendrickson approached the audition in a calm demeanor. \"Going into this audition,\" she stated, \"I was very relaxed, not only because I've been there like a dozen times, but I thought I had no shot at all. Frankie's character is nothing like me!! I was told she was tomboyish yet sexy. I thought to myself, how can I pull that off? So I threw on a tight little baseball shirt and just went in and did it.\" Hendrickson further relayed, \"About two weeks later, my agent told me that it was between me and another girl and my tape was going to be tested. I for sure thought I didn't get the part. I always make my best impression in person. I feel that audition tapes are so impersonal. About a week later, I found out the news and believe me I was ecstatic.\"\n\nCharacterization and introduction\nThe writers detailed Frankie to be a wisecracking tomboy with feminine sex appeal. Hendrickson described the character as someone who \"would never in her right mind get all dolled up.\" So when a scene finally called for the character to, in fact, wear a dress, Hendrickson stated that it did not feel right. \"I've really become that character when I'm on set,\" she revealed. \"So I played that uncomfortable feeling throughout the scene, I think it worked.\"\n\nOther aspects adding depth to Frankie were her \"rough around the edges\" personality and vulnerability, the character being a complex blend of both, something Hendrickson found challenging but admired: \"I really wanted to get that across. Even though her intentions were not always good, she always yearned for love from unexpected places.\"\n\nFrankie's debut on the series is what Hendrickson describes as her most memorable day as part of the All My Children cast. She was nervous about playing opposite legendary soap opera diva Susan Lucci, and did not know how to introduce herself:\n\nPortrayal\nPortraying Frankie called for Hendrickson to be somewhat androgynous. She was not sure herself of her character's sexual orientation or true motives when interacting with most characters. \"At first,\" she cited, \"in the description of the character, they alluded to the fact that she was a lesbian. Then when I started working, I went to Jean (Dadario Burke), the executive producer, and I asked 'Is she?' She said, 'Well, she's a con artist. You read your script and make the decision yourself.'\"\n\nHendrickson theorized that when the writers saw the chemistry between Bianca and Frankie, \"that's when they started pushing the fact that she was a lesbian.\" When it came down to Frankie's true purpose on the show, however, she was merely a plot device, a soon-to-be victim in order to initiate a murder mystery storyline. At the time, Hendrickson found humor in her character's demise, citing that a character can always come back. Though the obstacle to resurrecting Frankie was the fact that Frankie's dead body was seen onscreen and on the floor for hours, this did not stop Hendrickson and her co-stars from speculating: \"Frankie's body was found. We have this running joke that it wasn't Frankie, it was Maggie this whole time, posing as Frankie. Maggie knew that she was in trouble, so she called Frankie to come, and in reality Maggie was the one who was killed and Frankie is still alive.\"\n\nWhen asked in an interview if she had any reservations about taking the part of Frankie due to the character's potential romance with Bianca, Hendrickson stated that she did not, and that she loves roles that are challenging. This one happened to be a type of role she had never portrayed before.\n\nReception \nFrankie had an immediate impact on viewers. Within a week, fans were fond of the character. \n\nFrankie's death also had an impact; fans believed she was killed off due to the show's fear of portraying a homosexual romance, since the character was already being developed as a romantic interest for Bianca. Head writer at the time, Richard Culliton, however, stated that he had already planned for Frankie to die in his murder mystery storyline. Despite Culliton's explanation, viewers were largely disappointed. The character's identical twin sister, Maggie Stone, was brought on instead, as a result of fans campaigning for Hendrickson's return.\n\nReferences\n\nAll My Children characters\nFictional con artists\nFictional lesbians\nFictional identical twins\nTelevision characters introduced in 2001\nFemale characters in television\nFictional LGBT characters in television\nFictional criminals in soap operas",
"Wesley Alba Sturges (1893-1962) was a professor of law at the Yale Law School from 1924 to 1961, and served as dean of the law school from 1945 to 1954. He received his LL.B. from Yale in 1923. He retired from Yale in 1961 to become dean of the University of Miami School of Law. He was a prominent figure in Yale's Legal Realism movement. In his article (with Samuel Clark), Legal Theory and Real Property Mortgages, 37 Yale L. J. 691 (1928), he sought to make the Legal Realist point that doctrinal distinctions between \"lien theory\" and \"title theory\" did not have any actual effect on how courts ruled in litigation about mortgage disputes. His casebook, Cases and Materials on the Law of Credit Transactions, emphasized the contradictions in judicial decision-making and sought to dispel the view that \"what judges said in one case with its setting can be used to [predict] what they will decide in another case\" with a different factual setting.\n\nFrom 22 Oct 1938, Sturges fulfilled the role of Executive Director of the Distilled Spirits Institute and gave evidence to the US Congress Investigation of Concentration of Economic Power (Parts 6-8 Liquor Industry) between 14 and 17 March 1939. As 'czar' of the nation's distilled liquor industry, Sturges drew up a code of practice to reform commercial practices, maintain an open competitive market, to end the system of secret rebates and other corner-cutting dodges, and to balance the field between larger and smaller operations.\n\nAfter he stepped down from the deanship, Sturges taught only three courses, annually in rotation, one semester each year—arbitration, real-property credit transactions, and chattel credit transactions. Using an advanced form of the Socratic method, he sought in these courses to teach students rhetoric and advocacy rather than substantive law—what he termed \"learning to stand up on your hind legs and make noises like a lawyer.\" He was famous at Yale for his technique of calling upon a student to recite what a case held, asking him whether he agreed or disagreed with the court's ruling, and regardless of how the student replied, slowly forcing him by pointing out difficulties in that position, to adopt the contrary view, whereupon Sturges would by the same technique then argue the student back to conceding the validity of his original position. The point was to teach students both how to make noises like a lawyer and not to get led down the primrose path by an adversary.\n\nProfessor Grant Gilmore said of Wesley Sturges:\n\nWhat did Wesley teach us?...He taught us forever to be on our guard against the slippery generality, the received principle, the authoritative proposition. He taught us to trust no one's judgment except our own--and not to be too sure of that. He taught us how to live by our wits. He taught us, in a word, how to be lawyers.\n\nProfessor Ralph S. Brown said of Sturges:\n\nSturges was the most compelling teacher of my time. He was just a master of the Socratic method. You never knew what ball was under that shell. . . .\n\nReferences \n\n1893 births\n1962 deaths\nAmerican legal scholars\nYale Law School alumni\nYale Law School faculty\nDeans of Yale Law School\nPhilosophers of law"
] |
[
"Lord Voldemort",
"Character development",
"What was Voldermort's character like?",
"Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter",
"What are some of his character traits?",
"Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself.",
"How did they base decide what his character was going to be like?",
"I don't know."
] | C_5d1d762da8bb4c618b47b38a36d58922_1 | What did Voldemort accomplish? | 4 | What did Lord Voldemort accomplish? | Lord Voldemort | In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since." In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death." Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel states that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death", and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Lord Voldemort (, in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.
Character development
In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."
Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.
In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.
Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.
In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.
Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.
Appearances in other material
In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.
Portrayals within films
Voldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.
Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research." Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.
Characterisation
Outward appearance
After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.
Personality
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years". She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."
Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".
Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.
Magical abilities and skills
Rowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.
In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.
On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.
Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".
Family
Notes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.
Riddle family
The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.
Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.
House of Gaunt
Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.
Marvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.
Dumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.
Merope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.
Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.
The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.
Reception
Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people." Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press." Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.
Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.
IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".
In popular culture
Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".
Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as "Lord Montymort". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as "Lord Moldybutt", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.
"Continuing the Magic", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.
In a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.
During the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, "Trump is worse".
Voldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.
Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.
A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.
Voldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.
An upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.
Notes
References
External links
Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon
Fictional characters with disfigurements
Fictional characters with immortality
Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities
Fictional dictators
Fictional English people
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional illeists
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional necromancers
Fictional offspring of rape
Fictional patricides
Fictional terrorists
Fictional torturers
Harry Potter characters
Literary characters introduced in 1997
Male film villains
Male literary villains
Orphan characters in film
Orphan characters in literature
Psychopathy in fiction
Film supervillains | false | [
"Voldemort is a distributed data store that was designed as a key-value store used by LinkedIn for highly-scalable storage. It is named after the fictional Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort.\n\nOverview\nVoldemort does not try to satisfy arbitrary relations and the ACID properties, but rather is a big, distributed, persistent hash table.\nA 2012 study comparing systems for storing application performance management data reported that Voldemort, Apache Cassandra, and HBase all offered linear scalability in most cases, with Voldemort having the lowest latency and Cassandra having the highest throughput.\n\nIn the parlance of Eric Brewer's CAP theorem, Voldemort is an AP type system.\n\nVoldemort's creator and primary corporate contributor, LinkedIn, has migrated all of their systems off of Voldemort as of approximately August 2018, with no replacement sponsor .\n\nProperties\nVoldemort uses in-memory caching to eliminate a separate caching tier. It has a storage layer that is possible to emulate. Voldemort reads and writes scale horizontally. The API decides data replication and placement and accommodates a wide range of application-specific strategies.\n\nThe Voldemort distributed data store supports pluggable placement strategies for distribution across data centers. Data is automatically replicated across servers. Data is partitioned meaning a single server contains only a portion of the total data. Each data node is independent to avoid central point of failure. Pluggable serialization allows rich keys and values including lists and tuples with named fields, as well as the integration with common serialisation frameworks such as Avro, Java Serialization, Protocol Buffers, and Thrift. Server failures are handled transparently. Data items are versioned, which maximizes data integrity.\n\nSee also\n\n Distributed data store\n NoSQL\n Riak\n Redis\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Project Voldemort - A distributed database\n Project Voldemort Real Time Discussions\n\nDistributed data stores\nLinkedIn software\nNoSQL\nMicrosoft free software\nSoftware using the Apache license\n2009 software",
"Lord Voldemort (, in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.\n\nVoldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has \"the power to vanquish the Dark Lord\". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as \"You-Know-Who\", \"He Who Must Not Be Named\", or \"the Dark Lord\". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.\n\nCharacter development \nIn a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. \"The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since.\"\n\nIn the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: \"Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does.\" In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as \"a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering\". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: \"Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death.\"\n\nThroughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as \"You-Know-Who\" or \"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named\" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a \"taboo\" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means \"flight of death\" or \"theft of death\".\n\nAppearances\n\nHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone \n\nVoldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.\n\nIn the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.\n\nHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets \nIn the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write \"I am Lord Voldemort\", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.\n\nHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban \nVoldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: \"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master...\" Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.\n\nHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire \nIn the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: \"tall and skeletally thin\", with a face \"whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils\". Rowling writes that his \"hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness\". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.\n\nHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix \nVoldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: \"[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down.\" In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.\n\nHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince \nVoldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.\n\nRowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.\n\nIn the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.\n\nHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows \n\nIn Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for \"stealing magic\" from the \"pure blood\" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.\n\nLater, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.\n\nRowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.\n\nAppearances in other material\n\nIn Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.\n\nPortrayals within films \n\nVoldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.\n\nIn Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).\n\nIn Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.\n\nFiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: \"I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before.\" In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: \"I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research.\" Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.\n\nFiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.\n\nCharacterisation\n\nOutward appearance \nAfter he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.\n\nPersonality \nRowling described Voldemort as \"the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years\". She elaborated that he is a \"raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering\", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.\nHe feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as \"Lord Voldemort\". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is \"incredibly power hungry. Racist, really\", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see \"Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants.\"\n\nRowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is \"a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union\".\n\nLike most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.\n\nMagical abilities and skills \n\nRowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.\n\nIn the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has \"pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before\". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.\n\nOn her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.\n\nRowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him \"tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind\".\n\nFamily \n\nNotes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.\n\nRiddle family \nThe Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.\n\nRowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been \"hoodwinked\" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.\n\nIn Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.\n\nHouse of Gaunt \nMost of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's \"memory\" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.\n\nMarvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.\n\nDumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.\n\nMerope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked \"like the most defeated person he had ever seen\". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.\n\nGormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or \"Hag's Glen\", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.\n\nThe Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.\n\nReception \nSeveral people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was \"a sort of\" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said \"...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people.\" Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that \"Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press.\" Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.\n\nVoldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.\n\nIGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him \"truly frightening\".\n\nIn popular culture \nSeveral campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. \"Lord Voldemort\" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as \"The Dark Lord Lament\" and \"Flesh, Blood, and Bone\".\n\nVoldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, \"Treehouse of Horror XII\", Montgomery Burns appears as \"Lord Montymort\". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as \"Lord Moldybutt\", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for \"Best Comedy\" of the year 2007 at YouTube.\n\n\"Continuing the Magic\", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the \"Dark Lord of the Dance\", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as \"Tom\", whose middle name is a \"marvel\" and last name is a \"conundrum\") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.\n\nIn a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.\n\nDuring the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, \"Trump is worse\".\n\nVoldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.\n\nOutside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.\n\nA 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.\n\nVoldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.\n\nAn upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon\n\nFictional characters with disfigurements\nFictional characters with immortality\nFictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities\nFictional dictators\nFictional English people\nFictional hypnotists and indoctrinators\nFictional illeists\nFictional mass murderers\nFictional necromancers\nFictional offspring of rape\nFictional patricides\nFictional terrorists\nFictional torturers\nHarry Potter characters\nLiterary characters introduced in 1997\nMale film villains\nMale literary villains\nOrphan characters in film\nOrphan characters in literature\nPsychopathy in fiction\nFilm supervillains"
] |
[
"Lord Voldemort",
"Character development",
"What was Voldermort's character like?",
"Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter",
"What are some of his character traits?",
"Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself.",
"How did they base decide what his character was going to be like?",
"I don't know.",
"What did Voldemort accomplish?",
"I don't know."
] | C_5d1d762da8bb4c618b47b38a36d58922_1 | What else is interesting information? | 5 | What else is interesting information about Lord Voldemort other than character traits and accomplishments? | Lord Voldemort | In a 2001 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter (the protagonist of the novels), and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry--he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And--so--but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since." In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death." Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. Some literary analysts have considered possible meanings in the name: Philip Nel states that Voldemort is derived from the French for "flight of death", and in a 2002 paper, Nilsen and Nilsen suggest that readers get a "creepy feeling" from the name Voldemort, because of the French word "mort" ("death") within it and that word's association with cognate English words derived from the Latin mors. CANNOTANSWER | Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. | Lord Voldemort (, in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". He attempts to murder the boy, but instead kills his parents, Lily and James Potter, and leaves Harry with a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nearly every witch or wizard dares not utter his name and refers to him instead with such monikers as "You-Know-Who", "He Who Must Not Be Named", or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of the wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.
Character development
In a 1999 interview, Rowling said Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's backstory at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."
In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the BBC, Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering". In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person. In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."
Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a "taboo" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In the second book, Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. The name Voldemort is derived from the French vol de mort which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who tried to kill Harry Potter because the boy was prophesied to destroy him. Voldemort murdered Harry's parents, James and Lily, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survived when Voldemort tried to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort was disembodied, and Harry was left with a mysterious, lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead as a result.
In the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching onto the back of the latter's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to write "I am Lord Voldemort", Riddle is revealed as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord. Riddle states he has grown strong on Ginny's fears and eventually possesses her, using her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats the manifestation of Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Voldemort does not appear in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, either in person or as a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story, Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master..." Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, for the 12 years since Voldemort's fall, has been disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort reappears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry's favour. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry under Dumbledore's watch as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Voldemort appears at the climax of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, having again plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there's a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries regarding Harry and himself. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where the Order of the Phoenix meets them. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. When Dumbledore gets the upper hand, Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds incomprehensible, and which he detests as weakness: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge in the next book.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although his presence and actions are felt: he once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.
Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort was the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and a Muggle called Tom Riddle. Riddle abandoned Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope died. After living in an orphanage, young Riddle met Dumbledore, who told him he was a wizard and arranged for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle was outwardly a model student, but was in reality a psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murdered his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of Muggles, his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion symbolises the coercive circumstances under which he was brought into the world.
In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to kill Dumbledore. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and re-doubled agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco could not force himself to do so.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Draco's father Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.
Later, Voldemort finds out that Harry and his friends are hunting and destroying his Horcruxes when informed of their heist on the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts in search for Hufflepuff's Cup. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Diadem. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry's body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry Harry's apparently lifeless body back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Refusing to believe this, Voldemort casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, finally dies. His body is laid in a different chamber from all the others who died battling him.
Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he cannot become a ghost.
Appearances in other material
In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it is revealed that Bellatrix gave birth to Voldemort's daughter Delphi in Malfoy Manor before the Battle of Hogwarts. Twenty-two years later, Delphi poses as Cedric's cousin and manipulates Harry and Ginny's second son Albus Severus Potter and his friend, Draco and Astoria Greengrass's son Scorpius Malfoy, into stealing a prototype Time Turner with which she hopes to resurrect her father. Using the Time Turner, Scorpius accidentally creates an alternative timeline where Voldemort killed Harry at the battle and now rules the wizarding world. In an attempt to achieve this future, Delphi travels to Godric's Hollow on the night Voldemort killed Harry's parents, hoping to avert the prophecy that led to her father's downfall. After receiving a message from his son, Harry, together with Ron, Hermione and Draco (who by now has become friends with Harry after they join forces to save their respective sons) transfigures himself into Voldemort so that he can distract Delphi, allowing them to overpower her. The real Voldemort kills Harry's parents as prophesied, and Delphi is sent to Azkaban.
Portrayals within films
Voldemort appears in every Harry Potter film, with the exception of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Several actors have portrayed him in his varying incarnations and ages.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Voldemort's manifestation is as a face on the back of Quirrell's head, an effect achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film, provided the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen drinking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer, though his face is never seen. His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the 16-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson).
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. As in the book, Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and emaciated, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not cat-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear (his eyes do briefly take on a snake-like appearance when he opens them after turning human, but quickly turn normal). As in the book, the film version of Voldemort has snake-like slit nostrils with the flesh of his nose significantly pressed back. Ralph Fiennes' nose was not covered in makeup on the set, but was digitally removed in post-production. In this first appearance, Voldemort also has a forked tongue, but this element was removed for the subsequent films.
Fiennes stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climactic showdown scene where he is gloating over a terrified Harry, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel Goblet of Fire, but jokingly conceded: "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research." Fiennes reprised his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
Fiennes's nephew, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, portrayed Tom Riddle as a child in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time filming arrived Christian Coulson was 29, and not considered suitable to return as the adolescent Riddle. Thomas James Longley was originally scheduled to take over the role, but last minute renegotiations saw Frank Dillane cast instead.
Characterisation
Outward appearance
After he regains his body in the fourth book, Rowling describes Voldemort as having pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. As mentioned in the first chapter of the seventh book, he also has no hair or lips. Earlier in life, as seen through flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was handsome and tall with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark brown eyes. He could charm many people with his looks. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been the result of creating his Horcruxes and becoming less human as he continued to divide his soul. In the films, Voldemort's eyes are blue with round pupils.
Personality
Rowling described Voldemort as "the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years". She elaborated that he is a "raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering", and whose only ambition in life is to become all-powerful and immortal. He is also a sadist who hurts and murders people—especially Muggles—for his own amusement. He has no conscience, feels no remorse or empathy, and does not recognise the worth and humanity of anybody except himself.
He feels no need for human companionship or friendship, and cannot comprehend love or affection for another. He believes he is superior to everyone around him, to the point that he frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Lord Voldemort". Rowling also stated that Voldemort is "incredibly power hungry. Racist, really", and that if Voldemort were to look into the Mirror of Erised, in which one sees one's greatest desire, he would see "Himself, all-powerful and eternal. That's what he wants."
Rowling also stated that Voldemort's conception by influence of Amortentia—a love potion administered by his mother, a witch named Merope Gaunt, to the Muggle Tom Riddle—is related to his inability to understand love; it is "a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union—but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can't be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union".
Like most archetypical villains, Voldemort's arrogance leads to his downfall. He also suffers from a pathological fear of death, which he regards as a shameful and ignominious human weakness. According to Rowling, his Boggart would be his own corpse. Rowling also said that the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry accepts mortality, and thus Harry is, in the end, stronger than his nemesis.
Magical abilities and skills
Rowling establishes Voldemort throughout the series as an extremely powerful, intelligent, and ruthless dark wizard, described as the greatest and most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. He is known as one of the greatest Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens; he can read minds and shield his own from penetration. Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.
In the final book, Voldemort flies unsupported, something that amazes those who see it. Voldemort, like his ancestral family, the Gaunts, is a Parselmouth, meaning he can converse with serpents. This skill was inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. The Gaunt family speak Parseltongue among themselves. This highly unusual trait may be preserved through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family to maintain their blood's purity. When Voldemort attempts to kill Harry his ability to speak Parseltongue is passed to Harry through the small bit of the former's soul. After that bit of soul is destroyed, Harry loses this ability. In a flashback in the sixth novel, Voldemort boasts to Dumbledore during a job interview that he has "pushed the boundaries of magic farther than they had ever before". Dumbledore states that Voldemort's knowledge of magic is more extensive than any wizard alive and that even Dumbledore's most powerful protective spells and charms would likely be insufficient if Voldemort returned to full power. Dumbledore also said that Voldemort was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Although Voldemort remains highly accomplished and prodigious in skill, he is enormously lacking and highly inept in the most powerful magic, love. This inability to love and trust others proves to be Voldemort's greatest weakness in the series. Voldemort initially voices scepticism that his own magic might not be the most powerful, but upon returning to power, he admits to his Death Eaters that he had overlooked the ancient and powerful magic which Lily Potter invoked and that would protect Harry from harm.
On her website, Rowling wrote that Voldemort's wand is made of yew, whose sap is poisonous and which symbolises death. It forms a deliberate contrast to Harry's wand, which is made of holly, which she chose because holly is alleged to repel evil.
Rowling establishes in the books that Voldemort is magically connected to Harry via Harry's forehead scar. He disembodies himself when his Killing Curse targeting Harry rebounds on him, leaving the scar on Harry's forehead. In the books, and to a lesser extent in the films, Harry's scar serves as an indicator of Voldemort's presence: it burns when the Dark Lord is near or when Voldemort is feeling murderous or exultant. According to Rowling, by attacking Harry when he was a baby Voldemort gave him "tools [that] no other wizard possessed—the scar and the ability it conferred, a magical window into Voldemort's mind".
Family
Notes: The names 'Thomas' and 'Mary' Riddle are taken from the films. The Potter Family is not shown.
Riddle family
The Riddle family, an old gentry family, consisted of Thomas and Mary Riddle and their son, Tom Riddle, Esq. They owned over half of the valley that the town of Little Hangleton lay in, and Thomas was the most prominent inhabitant of that town. They lived in a large house with fine gardens, but were unpopular amongst the local residents due to their snobbish attitudes. Tom, the only child of Thomas and Mary, was known as a playboy, his main interests being womanizing and horse-riding.
Rowling revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that young Merope Gaunt fell in love with Riddle, peering at him through the windows and bushes at every opportunity. Merope's brother Morfin disapproved of his sister's affection for Tom and hexed him as he rode by, covering him in hives. This breach of wizarding law, and the ensuing violent struggle with Ministry of Magic officials, led to Marvolo and Morfin being imprisoned in Azkaban. As surmised by Dumbledore, once Merope was alone and no longer dominated by her father, she could make her move for Tom. She offered him a drink laced with a love potion, and he became infatuated with her; they soon eloped and, within three months of the marriage, Merope became pregnant. Merope decided to stop giving Tom the love potion, having come to the belief such enchantment of a man was tantamount to slavery. She also revealed her witch status to Tom, believing either that he had fallen in love with her on his own or he would at least stay for their unborn child. She was wrong, and Tom quickly left his pregnant wife and went home to his parents, claiming to have been "hoodwinked" and tricked into marrying Merope. Tom Marvolo Riddle, their son, was born on 31 December 1926 Merope died in childbirth, leaving the baby to grow up alone in an orphanage.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it is revealed that Voldemort murdered his father and grandparents, leaving himself the only surviving member of the Riddle family.
House of Gaunt
Most of the exposition of the House of Gaunts background occurs in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, through the medium of Dumbledore's Pensieve. The Gaunts were once a powerful and influential family, and are the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. However, a vein of mental instability and violence within the family, reinforced through cousin marriages intended to preserve the pureblood line, had reduced them to poverty and squalor, as shown in the Pensieve's "memory" that Harry and Dumbledore witnessed. Like Salazar Slytherin, the Gaunts spoke Parseltongue. At the time of the story, the Gaunts' only material asset is a ramshackle shanty in Little Hangleton, that stood in a thicket in a valley opposite the Riddle House. Like the Riddles, the Gaunts were also unpopular with the local residents, with a reputation for being vulgar and intimidating.
Marvolo Gaunt was the last family patriarch. He was sentenced to a short term in Azkaban for his and his son's assault upon a Ministry of Magic official; this affected his health and he died soon after returning home. His signet ring passed to his son, Morfin Gaunt, who was convicted of assaulting a Muggle, and later died in Azkaban, convicted this time as a party to the murder of Tom Riddle Jr. and Riddle's parents.
Dumbledore discovers the real culprit while visiting Morfin in Azkaban to gather information about Voldemort. After Dumbledore successfully extracts Morfin's memory of his encounter with his nephew, he tries to use the evidence to have Morfin released, but Morfin dies before the decision can be made. The House of Gaunt ended with Morfin's death.
Merope Gaunt () was the daughter of Marvolo, and sister of Morfin. Harry's first impression of her was that she looked "like the most defeated person he had ever seen". She married Tom Riddle Jr and became pregnant within three months of the wedding. It is suggested that she tricked her husband into loving her by using a love potion, but when she became pregnant, she chose to stop administering the potion. It is implied that Merope had grown tired of living the lie and thought that her husband might have grown to love her, or that he might have stayed for the sake of their unborn child; however, he left her. Desperate, Merope wandered through the streets of London. The only thing she had left was the heavy gold locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, one of her family's most treasured items, which she sold for a small amount. When she was due to give birth, she stumbled into a Muggle orphanage, where she gave birth to her only son. She died within the next hour.
Gormlaith Gaunt was a 17th-century descendant of Salazar Slytherin, and like Salazar, a Parselmouth. Her wand was that which once belonged to Salazar himself. Educated at Hogwarts, Gormlaith lived in Ireland in the early 1600s. In about 1608, Gormlaith killed her estranged unnamed sister, and her sister's husband, William Sayre (a descendant of the Irish witch Morrigan), and kidnapped their five-year-old daughter, Isolt Sayre, raising her in the neighbouring valley of Coomcallee, or "Hag's Glen", because she felt that her parents' association with Muggles would badly influence Isolt. Fanatical and cruel, Gormlaith used Dark magic to isolate Isolt from others, forbade her a wand, and did not allow her to attend Hogwarts as she herself had, disgusted that it was now filled with Muggle-borns. After twelve years with Gormlaith, Isolt stole Gormlaith's wand and fled to the Colonies and settled in Massachusetts, where she founded the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When Gormlaith learned of the school, she pursued her niece in Massachusetts, where she was killed by Isolt's friend, William the Pukwudgie, with a venom-tipped arrow.
The Gaunts, including Voldemort, are distantly related to Harry because they are descendants of the Peverell brothers.
Reception
Several people have drawn a parallel between Voldemort and some politicians. Rowling has said that Voldemort was "a sort of" Adolf Hitler, and that there is some parallel with Nazism in her books. Rowling also compared Voldemort to Joseph Stalin. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban compared Voldemort to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein, who he said "...have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people." Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance compare media consolidation in the US to Voldemort's regime in Deathly Hallows and its control over the Daily Prophet and other media saying that "Once Voldemort took over every form of media in the wizarding world, Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix formed an independent media movement called 'Potterwatch'. Now the HP Alliance and Wizard Rock have come together to fight for a Potterwatch movement in the real world to fight back against Big VoldeMedia from further pushing out local and foreign news, minority representation, and the right to a Free Press." Julia Turner of Slate Magazine also noted similarities between the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the War on Terror. She said that Voldemort commits acts of terrorism such as destroying bridges, murdering innocents, and forcing children to kill their elders.
Voldemort has also been compared with other characters within fiction, for example Sauron from The Lord of the Rings; they are, during the time when the main plot takes place, seeking to recover their lost power after having been considered dead or at least no longer a threat, and are also so feared that they are sometimes unnamed.
IGN listed Voldemort as their seventh favourite Harry Potter character, calling him "truly frightening".
In popular culture
Several campaigns have used Voldemort to compare his evil to the influence of politicians, large media and corporations. "Lord Voldemort" is a nickname sometimes used for Peter Mandelson. Voldemort is also a recurring theme among wizard rock bands. Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! is the second album from Harry and the Potters, and the character is mentioned in songs such as "The Dark Lord Lament" and "Flesh, Blood, and Bone".
Voldemort has been parodied in various venues. In The Simpsons 13th season's premiere, "Treehouse of Horror XII", Montgomery Burns appears as "Lord Montymort". A parody of Voldemort appears in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as "Lord Moldybutt", an enemy of Nigel Planter (a parody of Harry). Voldemort also appears in the Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes including him was the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube.
"Continuing the Magic", an article in the 21 May 2007 issue of Time, includes mock book covers designed by author Lon Tweeten, laced with pop culture references. One of them, the "Dark Lord of the Dance", shows Voldemort teaming up with Harry on Broadway. In the MAD Magazine parodies of the films, the character is called Lord Druckermort, a backwards reference to the magazine's longtime caricaturist Mort Drucker. In Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1969, a young Tom Marvolo Riddle (introduced as "Tom", whose middle name is a "marvel" and last name is a "conundrum") appears, and becomes the new avatar of Oliver Haddo at the story's conclusion. In A Very Potter Musical, Voldemort is played by actor Joe Walker.
In a segment celebrating British children's literature at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, an inflatable Voldemort appeared alongside other villains, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, and Cruella de Vil, to haunt children's dreams, before the arrival of a group of over thirty Mary Poppins who descended with their umbrellas to defeat them.
During the 2016 United States elections, Daniel Radcliffe was asked by Sky News journalist Craig Dillon if he would compare Donald Trump to Lord Voldemort; Radcliffe responded, "Trump is worse".
Voldemort appears in The Lego Batman Movie as one of the prisoners in the Phantom Zone that Joker recruits to take over Gotham City. Though Ralph Fiennes is featured in this movie as the voice of the British butler Alfred Pennyworth, he does not reprise his role as Voldemort. Instead, Voldemort is voiced by Eddie Izzard.
Outside of the Harry Potter video games, Voldemort is also a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with archive audio of Fiennes' portrayal in the films used for his voiceovers.
A 2018 Italian fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir depicts the story of Tom Riddle's rise to power.
Voldemort appears in Space Jam: A New Legacy, in the crowd for the game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad.
An upcoming French fan-made short-film titled The House of Gaunt - Lord Voldemort Origins explores the origin story of Voldemort and The Gaunt family.
Notes
References
External links
Lord Voldemort at Harry Potter Lexicon
Fictional characters with disfigurements
Fictional characters with immortality
Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities
Fictional dictators
Fictional English people
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional illeists
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional necromancers
Fictional offspring of rape
Fictional patricides
Fictional terrorists
Fictional torturers
Harry Potter characters
Literary characters introduced in 1997
Male film villains
Male literary villains
Orphan characters in film
Orphan characters in literature
Psychopathy in fiction
Film supervillains | true | [
"DiscoveryBox is a children's magazine by Bayard Presse. It is targeted at children from 9 to 12 years old. Inside there are topics about science, animals, current events, nature, history and the world. It also includes games and quizzes. It is designed for the completely independent reader and is the 3rd and final instalment of the Box series (after StoryBox and AdventureBox).\n\nDiscoveryBox is mostly non fictional and is designed to answer questions and expand the knowledge of its readers in the subjects that it covers each month.\n\nThere is a current shortage in this type of information rich magazine for this age group at the moment and children find the magazine very interesting. It is designed to build on what they have learned in School and it takes many of its subjects from the British Curriculum so reinforces what they have learned as well as adding additional interesting facts that they may not have previously known about.\n\nBecause there is a shortage of information magazines for children this age, both ESL and English speaking students like to read this book as the information is specially presented for them. As it is specifically designed for the ages 9 to 12 the magazine takes subjects that they would find interesting such as The Olympic Games, Space Exploration and Avalanches being just a few of the previous topics covered.\n\nIn July 2009 DiscoveryBox collaborated with the movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with a behind-the-scenes look at 3D animation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n DiscoveryBox Website\n DiscoveryBox Information Page\n Bayard English magazine Website\n\nChildren's magazines published in France\nFrench-language magazines\nMonthly magazines published in France\nMagazines established in 1995",
"\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"Post-World Series"
] | C_3ba17d92a35a4d1390cc52e46f0fa29a_0 | What did Gaston do after the world series? | 1 | What did Cito Gaston do after the world series? | Cito Gaston | Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which merged with founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably. Yet, the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by GM Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the 1997 season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. He finished his first stint as manager with a 683-636 regular season record and 18-16 post-season record. Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003-2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, a former Blue Jays player, had Gaston as one of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillen. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey. CANNOTANSWER | Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season | Clarence Edwin "Cito" Gaston (; born March 17, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. His major league career as a player lasted from 1967 to 1978, most notably with the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. He spent his entire managerial career with the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series title.
Cito Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997, then again from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he managed the Blue Jays to four American League East division titles (1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), two American League pennants (1992 and 1993) and two World Series titles (1992 and 1993).
Personal life
Gaston grew up in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a semi-truck driver. His career ambitions were either to be a truck driver like his father, or make it into the Major Leagues. He adopted his nickname 'Cito' in preference to his given name 'Clarence'. Gaston later told Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters the name was taken from a Mexican-American wrestler he watched as a young man in Texas. Other reports state Gaston was given this nickname from a friend named Carlos Thompson who thought Gaston resembled a well known Mexican wrestler named "Cito".
As a player with the Atlanta Braves, he was the roommate of Hank Aaron. Gaston credits Aaron with teaching him "how to be a man; how to stand on my own."
Gaston has been married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce with Gaston citing his baseball career as the reason. His second marriage to a Canadian woman, Denise, lasted from the early 80s to the early 2000s. Since 2003, Gaston has been married to Lynda, both residing in Oldsmar, Florida. When in Toronto, Gaston lives in a downtown condominium which he sublets to former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Tim Hunter.
Playing career
United States
Primarily a center fielder, Gaston began his decade-long playing career in with the Atlanta Braves, appearing in nine games. The following year he was selected by the San Diego Padres in the expansion draft, first playing for them in . He had his best individual season in , when he batted .318 (the highest batting average by a Padre prior to Tony Gwynn's arrival) with 29 home runs, 92 runs scored and 93 RBI, and was selected to the National League All-Star team. The rest of Gaston's career did not live up to his All-Star season success. Gaston never hit more than 17 home runs or knocked in more than 61 runs in any season with the Padres (until ) or the Braves (–).
Venezuela
In the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, Cito Gaston played with the Cardenales de Lara (1967–68), the Navegantes del Magallanes (1968–72, 1975–76) and the Tiburones de La Guaira (1976–77). Gaston hit 31 home runs and drove in 207 runs in 310 games (regular season).
Managerial career
Pre-World Series seasons
Gaston became the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in , and remained the hitting instructor until 15 May , when he took over managerial duties from Jimy Williams, when the team was suffering through an unexpectedly bad start. Gaston originally declined the offer to be manager when Williams was fired. He told Ebony magazine: "When I was offered the job as manager, I didn't want it. I was happy working as the team's hitting instructor". It was only when his players encouraged him to take the job did he reconsider the offer.
The Blue Jays won their first division title in 1985 with Gaston as hitting coach. Gaston was able to take superstars and mold them into a team. Under Gaston's leadership, Toronto transformed from a sub-.500 team (12–24 under Jimy Williams) to the eventual division winners, going 89–73 (77–49 under Gaston). Toronto's success under Gaston was not short-lived, as they finished second in the division behind Boston the following year and won the division again in , and .
World Series seasons
As a coach and manager, Gaston was considered a player's manager. He was a soft-spoken and steady influence during years that saw a large group of talented, high-salaried players grace the Blue Jays uniform. The franchise led the Major Leagues in attendance each year from 1989 to 1992, setting new records each of the latter three years, riding high from a dedicated fan base and following the Blue Jays' move into the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager. The resulting financial success allowed for major free agent signings, including Jack Morris and Dave Winfield ahead of the 1992 season, and Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor for 1993. The Blue Jays also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Carter credits Gaston for the team's championships:
Cito knows how to work with each individual, treating everyone like a human being. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, what to do and how to go about doing it. When you have a manager like that, it makes you want to play for the guy. We'd go to war for him. What Cito has done for the Blue Jays can't be taken lightly.
Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and did the same as manager. He was known for his open communication with his players. He was a successful game strategist, effectively handling National League rules during World Series games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. In the six road games during World Series play, the Jays went 4–2, including the title clincher in Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta. The 1992 World Series victory was the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series, an impressive feat, given that the Jays had lost starting position players Manuel Lee, Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado and Dave Winfield, starting pitchers Jimmy Key, David Cone and Dave Stieb, relievers Tom Henke and David Wells and bench players Derek Bell and Pat Tabler during the off-season following 1992.
All-Star manager
Gaston managed the American League team in the 1993 and 1994 All-Star Games, since he was the manager of the American League champions in 1992 and 1993. He was criticized for selecting six Blue Jays to the 1993 roster, but was unapologetic, stating all six were World Champions and two were future Hall of Famers. Gaston's prediction proved correct, as two of those players (Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor) have been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the 1993 All-Star Game held at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, he was criticized for not getting Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina into the game. Mussina got up in the ninth inning to warm up in the bullpen. Mussina later claimed that he was simply doing a between-start workout, but some interpreted it as an attempt to force Gaston to put him into the game. As angry fans jeered in dismay, incredulous that Gaston would not use the popular local player and believing Mussina had been sent to warm up for no reason, Gaston instead allowed Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward to close out the victory for the American League. Orioles fans did not like this perceived snub, later wearing T-shirts that said "Cito sucks" and carrying signs with the phrase, "Will Rogers never met Cito Gaston", referencing Rogers' famous line, "I never met a man yet that I didn't like."
Post-World Series
Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which acquired founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably, but the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by Gillick's successor as general manager, Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. Gaston finished his first stint as manager with a 683–636 regular season record and 18–16 post–season record.
Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999–2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003–2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, who had played under Gaston in Toronto, had him as of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillén. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston turned down an opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.
Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the season under manager Buck Martinez but was not retained after a disappointing campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey.
Managerial return
On June 20, 2008, Gaston was rehired as the manager of the Blue Jays to replace John Gibbons. It was his first managerial job at the major-league level since being fired by the Blue Jays 11 years earlier, which was unusual for a World Series-winning manager. The team's record was 35–39 when Gaston and his coaching staff took over, after which the Blue Jays went 51–37 for the remainder of the season which included a late ten-game winning streak and the team finished fourth in the American League East. On September 25, 2008, it was announced that Gaston had signed a two-year extension that would keep him as manager until 2010. He announced on October 30, 2009 that he would retire after the 2010 season.
Managerial record
Controversies
In April 1997, during a pre-game interview, Gaston accused specific members of Toronto's sports media (Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons, The Globe and Mail sports editor Dave Langford, and Fan 590 sports talk show host Bob McCown) of racism against him, stating "There's a couple (of sports writers) who continue to take shots at me for no reason at all. I just wonder if they would take the same shot at me if I was white." After the game against the Oakland A's on April 17, Gaston spoke briefly about his pre-game comments. "I've got one statement that I'm going to say, and I'm not going to say another word", Gaston said. "Whatever has been said, whatever has been written, if it has offended someone and it's unjustly offended them, I apologize. If it hasn't, then I don't apologize."
On October 3, 2009, an online column by Fox Sports baseball writer Ken Rosenthal reported of a mutiny in the Blue Jays' clubhouse against Gaston by his players and some members of his coaching staff. Rosenthal cited unnamed sources who claimed that the mutiny was a result of his impatience with the players after they started losing, partially reflected with players getting less playing time, his lack of communication, including his inability to properly communicate substitutions, and his negativity, especially when it came to the younger players who required more positive reinforcement. A day after the report, Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay was quoted as being one of the players who was surprised over his lack of playing time as well as wanting Gaston to improve his communication. "More than anything, I want to try to figure out what to expect for next year. It kind of caught me off-guard a little bit when I wasn't playing. ... (Gaston) never really said a lot. As we were winning, he was kind of sitting on the back burner, watching us play good." When asked about the report on the clubhouse mutiny, Gaston replied that he was surprised that such criticism existed. "If you've got two or three or four guys in there that have a problem, then you don't have to win anything, do you? You might have to certainly deal with those guys, but you don't have to win the clubhouse back. I don't think that you can ... rely (on a few) players to find out (if there's a problem). I think you need to talk to all of them. If it comes up to 50 percent, then, hey, maybe we've got a problem. I'd like to know what the problem is because I can't be any fairer than I've been."
On June 1, 2010, Fan 590 broadcaster Mike Wilner had an argument during a media scrum with Gaston about his field level decision making. Wilner detailed the confrontation on his blog. The following day, Fan 590 - a station of Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications - announced he would not be covering the team for several days, but refused to specify the reason.
Awards and honors
In 1970, Gaston was selected for the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder.
Also in 1970, Gaston received the San Diego Padres team MVP award.
In 1989, Gaston was the "Baseball Man of the Year" in Canada.
In 1993, Gaston was voted "Sportsman of the Year".
Managed the American League team in the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Managed the American League team in the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The University of Toronto granted Gaston an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in June 1994.
In 1999, Gaston's Blue Jays uniform name and number (#43) were honoured by addition to the Rogers Centre's Blue Jays "Level of Excellence".
In 2002, Gaston was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gaston was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 2008, Gaston was presented a Negro League Hall of Fame Legacy Award (Jackie Robinson Award).
In 2011, Gaston was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Notes
External links
Canadian Press article
SABR Biography Project
1944 births
Living people
African-American baseball coaches
African-American baseball managers
African-American baseball players
American expatriate baseball people in Canada
American expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Arizona Instructional League Athletics players
Arizona Instructional League Braves players
Atlanta Braves players
Austin Braves players
Baseball coaches from Texas
Baseball players from San Antonio
Batavia Trojans players
Binghamton Triplets players
Bravos de León players
Cachorros de León players
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Cardenales de Lara players
Greenville Braves players
Major League Baseball outfielders
National League All-Stars
Navegantes del Magallanes players
American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
People from Oldsmar, Florida
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Richmond Braves players
San Diego Padres players
Santo Domingo Azucareros players
Shreveport Braves players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
Toronto Blue Jays coaches
Toronto Blue Jays managers
West Palm Beach Braves players
World Series-winning managers
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"Clarence Edwin \"Cito\" Gaston (; born March 17, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. His major league career as a player lasted from 1967 to 1978, most notably with the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. He spent his entire managerial career with the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series title.\n\nCito Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997, then again from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he managed the Blue Jays to four American League East division titles (1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), two American League pennants (1992 and 1993) and two World Series titles (1992 and 1993).\n\nPersonal life\nGaston grew up in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a semi-truck driver. His career ambitions were either to be a truck driver like his father, or make it into the Major Leagues. He adopted his nickname 'Cito' in preference to his given name 'Clarence'. Gaston later told Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters the name was taken from a Mexican-American wrestler he watched as a young man in Texas. Other reports state Gaston was given this nickname from a friend named Carlos Thompson who thought Gaston resembled a well known Mexican wrestler named \"Cito\".\n\nAs a player with the Atlanta Braves, he was the roommate of Hank Aaron. Gaston credits Aaron with teaching him \"how to be a man; how to stand on my own.\"\n\nGaston has been married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce with Gaston citing his baseball career as the reason. His second marriage to a Canadian woman, Denise, lasted from the early 80s to the early 2000s. Since 2003, Gaston has been married to Lynda, both residing in Oldsmar, Florida. When in Toronto, Gaston lives in a downtown condominium which he sublets to former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Tim Hunter.\n\nPlaying career\n\nUnited States \nPrimarily a center fielder, Gaston began his decade-long playing career in with the Atlanta Braves, appearing in nine games. The following year he was selected by the San Diego Padres in the expansion draft, first playing for them in . He had his best individual season in , when he batted .318 (the highest batting average by a Padre prior to Tony Gwynn's arrival) with 29 home runs, 92 runs scored and 93 RBI, and was selected to the National League All-Star team. The rest of Gaston's career did not live up to his All-Star season success. Gaston never hit more than 17 home runs or knocked in more than 61 runs in any season with the Padres (until ) or the Braves (–).\n\nVenezuela \nIn the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, Cito Gaston played with the Cardenales de Lara (1967–68), the Navegantes del Magallanes (1968–72, 1975–76) and the Tiburones de La Guaira (1976–77). Gaston hit 31 home runs and drove in 207 runs in 310 games (regular season).\n\nManagerial career\n\nPre-World Series seasons\nGaston became the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in , and remained the hitting instructor until 15 May , when he took over managerial duties from Jimy Williams, when the team was suffering through an unexpectedly bad start. Gaston originally declined the offer to be manager when Williams was fired. He told Ebony magazine: \"When I was offered the job as manager, I didn't want it. I was happy working as the team's hitting instructor\". It was only when his players encouraged him to take the job did he reconsider the offer.\n\nThe Blue Jays won their first division title in 1985 with Gaston as hitting coach. Gaston was able to take superstars and mold them into a team. Under Gaston's leadership, Toronto transformed from a sub-.500 team (12–24 under Jimy Williams) to the eventual division winners, going 89–73 (77–49 under Gaston). Toronto's success under Gaston was not short-lived, as they finished second in the division behind Boston the following year and won the division again in , and .\n\nWorld Series seasons\nAs a coach and manager, Gaston was considered a player's manager. He was a soft-spoken and steady influence during years that saw a large group of talented, high-salaried players grace the Blue Jays uniform. The franchise led the Major Leagues in attendance each year from 1989 to 1992, setting new records each of the latter three years, riding high from a dedicated fan base and following the Blue Jays' move into the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager. The resulting financial success allowed for major free agent signings, including Jack Morris and Dave Winfield ahead of the 1992 season, and Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor for 1993. The Blue Jays also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Carter credits Gaston for the team's championships:\nCito knows how to work with each individual, treating everyone like a human being. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, what to do and how to go about doing it. When you have a manager like that, it makes you want to play for the guy. We'd go to war for him. What Cito has done for the Blue Jays can't be taken lightly.\nGaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and did the same as manager. He was known for his open communication with his players. He was a successful game strategist, effectively handling National League rules during World Series games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. In the six road games during World Series play, the Jays went 4–2, including the title clincher in Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta. The 1992 World Series victory was the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series, an impressive feat, given that the Jays had lost starting position players Manuel Lee, Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado and Dave Winfield, starting pitchers Jimmy Key, David Cone and Dave Stieb, relievers Tom Henke and David Wells and bench players Derek Bell and Pat Tabler during the off-season following 1992.\n\nAll-Star manager\nGaston managed the American League team in the 1993 and 1994 All-Star Games, since he was the manager of the American League champions in 1992 and 1993. He was criticized for selecting six Blue Jays to the 1993 roster, but was unapologetic, stating all six were World Champions and two were future Hall of Famers. Gaston's prediction proved correct, as two of those players (Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor) have been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.\n\nIn the 1993 All-Star Game held at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, he was criticized for not getting Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina into the game. Mussina got up in the ninth inning to warm up in the bullpen. Mussina later claimed that he was simply doing a between-start workout, but some interpreted it as an attempt to force Gaston to put him into the game. As angry fans jeered in dismay, incredulous that Gaston would not use the popular local player and believing Mussina had been sent to warm up for no reason, Gaston instead allowed Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward to close out the victory for the American League. Orioles fans did not like this perceived snub, later wearing T-shirts that said \"Cito sucks\" and carrying signs with the phrase, \"Will Rogers never met Cito Gaston\", referencing Rogers' famous line, \"I never met a man yet that I didn't like.\"\n\nPost-World Series\nGaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which acquired founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably, but the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by Gillick's successor as general manager, Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. Gaston finished his first stint as manager with a 683–636 regular season record and 18–16 post–season record.\n\nGaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999–2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003–2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, who had played under Gaston in Toronto, had him as of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillén. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston turned down an opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.\n\nGaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the season under manager Buck Martinez but was not retained after a disappointing campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey.\n\nManagerial return\nOn June 20, 2008, Gaston was rehired as the manager of the Blue Jays to replace John Gibbons. It was his first managerial job at the major-league level since being fired by the Blue Jays 11 years earlier, which was unusual for a World Series-winning manager. The team's record was 35–39 when Gaston and his coaching staff took over, after which the Blue Jays went 51–37 for the remainder of the season which included a late ten-game winning streak and the team finished fourth in the American League East. On September 25, 2008, it was announced that Gaston had signed a two-year extension that would keep him as manager until 2010. He announced on October 30, 2009 that he would retire after the 2010 season.\n\nManagerial record\n\nControversies\nIn April 1997, during a pre-game interview, Gaston accused specific members of Toronto's sports media (Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons, The Globe and Mail sports editor Dave Langford, and Fan 590 sports talk show host Bob McCown) of racism against him, stating \"There's a couple (of sports writers) who continue to take shots at me for no reason at all. I just wonder if they would take the same shot at me if I was white.\" After the game against the Oakland A's on April 17, Gaston spoke briefly about his pre-game comments. \"I've got one statement that I'm going to say, and I'm not going to say another word\", Gaston said. \"Whatever has been said, whatever has been written, if it has offended someone and it's unjustly offended them, I apologize. If it hasn't, then I don't apologize.\"\nOn October 3, 2009, an online column by Fox Sports baseball writer Ken Rosenthal reported of a mutiny in the Blue Jays' clubhouse against Gaston by his players and some members of his coaching staff. Rosenthal cited unnamed sources who claimed that the mutiny was a result of his impatience with the players after they started losing, partially reflected with players getting less playing time, his lack of communication, including his inability to properly communicate substitutions, and his negativity, especially when it came to the younger players who required more positive reinforcement. A day after the report, Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay was quoted as being one of the players who was surprised over his lack of playing time as well as wanting Gaston to improve his communication. \"More than anything, I want to try to figure out what to expect for next year. It kind of caught me off-guard a little bit when I wasn't playing. ... (Gaston) never really said a lot. As we were winning, he was kind of sitting on the back burner, watching us play good.\" When asked about the report on the clubhouse mutiny, Gaston replied that he was surprised that such criticism existed. \"If you've got two or three or four guys in there that have a problem, then you don't have to win anything, do you? You might have to certainly deal with those guys, but you don't have to win the clubhouse back. I don't think that you can ... rely (on a few) players to find out (if there's a problem). I think you need to talk to all of them. If it comes up to 50 percent, then, hey, maybe we've got a problem. I'd like to know what the problem is because I can't be any fairer than I've been.\"\nOn June 1, 2010, Fan 590 broadcaster Mike Wilner had an argument during a media scrum with Gaston about his field level decision making. Wilner detailed the confrontation on his blog. The following day, Fan 590 - a station of Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications - announced he would not be covering the team for several days, but refused to specify the reason.\n\nAwards and honors\n\n In 1970, Gaston was selected for the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder.\n Also in 1970, Gaston received the San Diego Padres team MVP award.\n In 1989, Gaston was the \"Baseball Man of the Year\" in Canada.\n In 1993, Gaston was voted \"Sportsman of the Year\".\n Managed the American League team in the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.\n Managed the American League team in the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.\n The University of Toronto granted Gaston an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in June 1994.\n In 1999, Gaston's Blue Jays uniform name and number (#43) were honoured by addition to the Rogers Centre's Blue Jays \"Level of Excellence\".\n In 2002, Gaston was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.\n Gaston was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.\n In 2008, Gaston was presented a Negro League Hall of Fame Legacy Award (Jackie Robinson Award).\n In 2011, Gaston was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links\n\nCanadian Press article\nSABR Biography Project\n\n1944 births\nLiving people\nAfrican-American baseball coaches\nAfrican-American baseball managers\nAfrican-American baseball players\nAmerican expatriate baseball people in Canada\nAmerican expatriate baseball players in Mexico\nArizona Instructional League Athletics players\nArizona Instructional League Braves players\nAtlanta Braves players\nAustin Braves players\nBaseball coaches from Texas\nBaseball players from San Antonio\nBatavia Trojans players\nBinghamton Triplets players\nBravos de León players\nCachorros de León players\nCanadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees\nCardenales de Lara players\nGreenville Braves players\nMajor League Baseball outfielders\nNational League All-Stars\nNavegantes del Magallanes players\nAmerican expatriate baseball players in Venezuela\nPeople from Oldsmar, Florida\nPittsburgh Pirates players\nRichmond Braves players\nSan Diego Padres players\nSanto Domingo Azucareros players\nShreveport Braves players\nTiburones de La Guaira players\nToronto Blue Jays coaches\nToronto Blue Jays managers\nWest Palm Beach Braves players\nWorld Series-winning managers\n21st-century African-American people\n20th-century African-American sportspeople",
"{{Infobox graphic novel| \ntitle= Gaston Lagaffe #R1 Gala de gaffes à gogo\n|englishtitle=\n|foreigntitle= \n|image=Cover of Gala de gaffes à gogo.jpg\n|caption=Cover of the Belgian edition\n|publisher=Dupuis\n|date=1970\n|series=Gaston Lagaffe \n|origlanguage=French\n|origpublication=Spirou\n|origissues= \n|origdate= \n|origisbn= 2-8001-0093-1 \n|transtitle=\n|transpublisher=\n|transdate=\n|transseriestitle= \n|transisbn= \n|translator=\n|writers=Franquin \n|artists=Franquin Jidéhem \n|colorists=\n|previssue= \n|nextissue= Le bureau des gaffes en gros\n}}Gala de gaffes à gogo', written and drawn by Franquin and Jidéhem, is an album of the original Gaston Lagaffe series, numbered R1. It is made up of 59 pages and was published by Dupuis. It consists of a series of one-strip gags.\n\nStory\nMonsieur De Mesmeaker appear for the first time and try to sign contracts, in vain. The Gaston-Latex also appear, causing running gags. Finally, Prunelle and Lebrac appear at the end of the album, but they do not play an important role as yet, and most strips feature only Fantasio and Gaston.\n\nInventions\nelectric hammer: it must be fixed to the wall\nrubber chair: chair that collapse when someone sits on it\nGaston Latex: rubber replica of Gaston\nMastigaston: saves someone from chewing before swallowing foods\n\nBackground\nThis album was first published in the Italian format. As these albums were sold out, Dupuis decided to reprint it at the common Franco-Belgian album format. This album is made up of the original albums numbered 2 and 3. It was numbered R1 to distinguish it from the album #1, \"R\" being a French abbreviation for \"réédition\" (re-publication'').\n\nReferences\n\n Gaston Lagaffe classic series on the official website\n Publication in Spirou on bdoubliées.com.\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website \n\n1970 graphic novels\nComics by André Franquin"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"Post-World Series",
"What did Gaston do after the world series?",
"Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season"
] | C_3ba17d92a35a4d1390cc52e46f0fa29a_0 | Where did he work? | 2 | Where did Cito Gaston work? | Cito Gaston | Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which merged with founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably. Yet, the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by GM Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the 1997 season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. He finished his first stint as manager with a 683-636 regular season record and 18-16 post-season record. Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003-2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, a former Blue Jays player, had Gaston as one of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillen. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey. CANNOTANSWER | Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign | Clarence Edwin "Cito" Gaston (; born March 17, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. His major league career as a player lasted from 1967 to 1978, most notably with the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. He spent his entire managerial career with the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series title.
Cito Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997, then again from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he managed the Blue Jays to four American League East division titles (1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), two American League pennants (1992 and 1993) and two World Series titles (1992 and 1993).
Personal life
Gaston grew up in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a semi-truck driver. His career ambitions were either to be a truck driver like his father, or make it into the Major Leagues. He adopted his nickname 'Cito' in preference to his given name 'Clarence'. Gaston later told Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters the name was taken from a Mexican-American wrestler he watched as a young man in Texas. Other reports state Gaston was given this nickname from a friend named Carlos Thompson who thought Gaston resembled a well known Mexican wrestler named "Cito".
As a player with the Atlanta Braves, he was the roommate of Hank Aaron. Gaston credits Aaron with teaching him "how to be a man; how to stand on my own."
Gaston has been married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce with Gaston citing his baseball career as the reason. His second marriage to a Canadian woman, Denise, lasted from the early 80s to the early 2000s. Since 2003, Gaston has been married to Lynda, both residing in Oldsmar, Florida. When in Toronto, Gaston lives in a downtown condominium which he sublets to former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Tim Hunter.
Playing career
United States
Primarily a center fielder, Gaston began his decade-long playing career in with the Atlanta Braves, appearing in nine games. The following year he was selected by the San Diego Padres in the expansion draft, first playing for them in . He had his best individual season in , when he batted .318 (the highest batting average by a Padre prior to Tony Gwynn's arrival) with 29 home runs, 92 runs scored and 93 RBI, and was selected to the National League All-Star team. The rest of Gaston's career did not live up to his All-Star season success. Gaston never hit more than 17 home runs or knocked in more than 61 runs in any season with the Padres (until ) or the Braves (–).
Venezuela
In the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, Cito Gaston played with the Cardenales de Lara (1967–68), the Navegantes del Magallanes (1968–72, 1975–76) and the Tiburones de La Guaira (1976–77). Gaston hit 31 home runs and drove in 207 runs in 310 games (regular season).
Managerial career
Pre-World Series seasons
Gaston became the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in , and remained the hitting instructor until 15 May , when he took over managerial duties from Jimy Williams, when the team was suffering through an unexpectedly bad start. Gaston originally declined the offer to be manager when Williams was fired. He told Ebony magazine: "When I was offered the job as manager, I didn't want it. I was happy working as the team's hitting instructor". It was only when his players encouraged him to take the job did he reconsider the offer.
The Blue Jays won their first division title in 1985 with Gaston as hitting coach. Gaston was able to take superstars and mold them into a team. Under Gaston's leadership, Toronto transformed from a sub-.500 team (12–24 under Jimy Williams) to the eventual division winners, going 89–73 (77–49 under Gaston). Toronto's success under Gaston was not short-lived, as they finished second in the division behind Boston the following year and won the division again in , and .
World Series seasons
As a coach and manager, Gaston was considered a player's manager. He was a soft-spoken and steady influence during years that saw a large group of talented, high-salaried players grace the Blue Jays uniform. The franchise led the Major Leagues in attendance each year from 1989 to 1992, setting new records each of the latter three years, riding high from a dedicated fan base and following the Blue Jays' move into the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager. The resulting financial success allowed for major free agent signings, including Jack Morris and Dave Winfield ahead of the 1992 season, and Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor for 1993. The Blue Jays also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Carter credits Gaston for the team's championships:
Cito knows how to work with each individual, treating everyone like a human being. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, what to do and how to go about doing it. When you have a manager like that, it makes you want to play for the guy. We'd go to war for him. What Cito has done for the Blue Jays can't be taken lightly.
Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and did the same as manager. He was known for his open communication with his players. He was a successful game strategist, effectively handling National League rules during World Series games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. In the six road games during World Series play, the Jays went 4–2, including the title clincher in Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta. The 1992 World Series victory was the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series, an impressive feat, given that the Jays had lost starting position players Manuel Lee, Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado and Dave Winfield, starting pitchers Jimmy Key, David Cone and Dave Stieb, relievers Tom Henke and David Wells and bench players Derek Bell and Pat Tabler during the off-season following 1992.
All-Star manager
Gaston managed the American League team in the 1993 and 1994 All-Star Games, since he was the manager of the American League champions in 1992 and 1993. He was criticized for selecting six Blue Jays to the 1993 roster, but was unapologetic, stating all six were World Champions and two were future Hall of Famers. Gaston's prediction proved correct, as two of those players (Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor) have been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the 1993 All-Star Game held at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, he was criticized for not getting Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina into the game. Mussina got up in the ninth inning to warm up in the bullpen. Mussina later claimed that he was simply doing a between-start workout, but some interpreted it as an attempt to force Gaston to put him into the game. As angry fans jeered in dismay, incredulous that Gaston would not use the popular local player and believing Mussina had been sent to warm up for no reason, Gaston instead allowed Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward to close out the victory for the American League. Orioles fans did not like this perceived snub, later wearing T-shirts that said "Cito sucks" and carrying signs with the phrase, "Will Rogers never met Cito Gaston", referencing Rogers' famous line, "I never met a man yet that I didn't like."
Post-World Series
Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which acquired founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably, but the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by Gillick's successor as general manager, Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. Gaston finished his first stint as manager with a 683–636 regular season record and 18–16 post–season record.
Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999–2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003–2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, who had played under Gaston in Toronto, had him as of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillén. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston turned down an opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.
Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the season under manager Buck Martinez but was not retained after a disappointing campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey.
Managerial return
On June 20, 2008, Gaston was rehired as the manager of the Blue Jays to replace John Gibbons. It was his first managerial job at the major-league level since being fired by the Blue Jays 11 years earlier, which was unusual for a World Series-winning manager. The team's record was 35–39 when Gaston and his coaching staff took over, after which the Blue Jays went 51–37 for the remainder of the season which included a late ten-game winning streak and the team finished fourth in the American League East. On September 25, 2008, it was announced that Gaston had signed a two-year extension that would keep him as manager until 2010. He announced on October 30, 2009 that he would retire after the 2010 season.
Managerial record
Controversies
In April 1997, during a pre-game interview, Gaston accused specific members of Toronto's sports media (Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons, The Globe and Mail sports editor Dave Langford, and Fan 590 sports talk show host Bob McCown) of racism against him, stating "There's a couple (of sports writers) who continue to take shots at me for no reason at all. I just wonder if they would take the same shot at me if I was white." After the game against the Oakland A's on April 17, Gaston spoke briefly about his pre-game comments. "I've got one statement that I'm going to say, and I'm not going to say another word", Gaston said. "Whatever has been said, whatever has been written, if it has offended someone and it's unjustly offended them, I apologize. If it hasn't, then I don't apologize."
On October 3, 2009, an online column by Fox Sports baseball writer Ken Rosenthal reported of a mutiny in the Blue Jays' clubhouse against Gaston by his players and some members of his coaching staff. Rosenthal cited unnamed sources who claimed that the mutiny was a result of his impatience with the players after they started losing, partially reflected with players getting less playing time, his lack of communication, including his inability to properly communicate substitutions, and his negativity, especially when it came to the younger players who required more positive reinforcement. A day after the report, Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay was quoted as being one of the players who was surprised over his lack of playing time as well as wanting Gaston to improve his communication. "More than anything, I want to try to figure out what to expect for next year. It kind of caught me off-guard a little bit when I wasn't playing. ... (Gaston) never really said a lot. As we were winning, he was kind of sitting on the back burner, watching us play good." When asked about the report on the clubhouse mutiny, Gaston replied that he was surprised that such criticism existed. "If you've got two or three or four guys in there that have a problem, then you don't have to win anything, do you? You might have to certainly deal with those guys, but you don't have to win the clubhouse back. I don't think that you can ... rely (on a few) players to find out (if there's a problem). I think you need to talk to all of them. If it comes up to 50 percent, then, hey, maybe we've got a problem. I'd like to know what the problem is because I can't be any fairer than I've been."
On June 1, 2010, Fan 590 broadcaster Mike Wilner had an argument during a media scrum with Gaston about his field level decision making. Wilner detailed the confrontation on his blog. The following day, Fan 590 - a station of Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications - announced he would not be covering the team for several days, but refused to specify the reason.
Awards and honors
In 1970, Gaston was selected for the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder.
Also in 1970, Gaston received the San Diego Padres team MVP award.
In 1989, Gaston was the "Baseball Man of the Year" in Canada.
In 1993, Gaston was voted "Sportsman of the Year".
Managed the American League team in the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Managed the American League team in the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The University of Toronto granted Gaston an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in June 1994.
In 1999, Gaston's Blue Jays uniform name and number (#43) were honoured by addition to the Rogers Centre's Blue Jays "Level of Excellence".
In 2002, Gaston was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gaston was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 2008, Gaston was presented a Negro League Hall of Fame Legacy Award (Jackie Robinson Award).
In 2011, Gaston was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Notes
External links
Canadian Press article
SABR Biography Project
1944 births
Living people
African-American baseball coaches
African-American baseball managers
African-American baseball players
American expatriate baseball people in Canada
American expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Arizona Instructional League Athletics players
Arizona Instructional League Braves players
Atlanta Braves players
Austin Braves players
Baseball coaches from Texas
Baseball players from San Antonio
Batavia Trojans players
Binghamton Triplets players
Bravos de León players
Cachorros de León players
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Cardenales de Lara players
Greenville Braves players
Major League Baseball outfielders
National League All-Stars
Navegantes del Magallanes players
American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
People from Oldsmar, Florida
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Richmond Braves players
San Diego Padres players
Santo Domingo Azucareros players
Shreveport Braves players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
Toronto Blue Jays coaches
Toronto Blue Jays managers
West Palm Beach Braves players
World Series-winning managers
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"Knut Guttormsen (1830—1900) was a Norwegian builder and architect. He is most famous for the many churches he built and renovated.\n\nKnut Guttormsen was married to Sara Sofie Andersdtter Haugaskjæret and together they had five children: Sofus Emil Guttormsen, Richard Gotfred Guttormsen, Olav Guttormsen, Karl Guttormsen, and Olaf Marinius Guttormsen.\n\nKnut Guttormsen was born on the homestead Sigurdstøyl in Morgedal in Telemark county. He was confirmed at the Kviteseid Church in 1845. The same year he traveled to Christiania where an older half-brother had settled earlier. He became a stonemason, bricklayer, and builder. He helped build a bridge over Sarpsfossen in Sarpsborg. While in Sarpsborg, he met Sofie Andersdatter Haugaskjæret from Time in Østfold. For a time he also did work on the Gamle Aker Church.\n\nThe family moved to Trondheim in the 1860s where he received several large construction assignments. Eventually, Knut Guttormsen was appointed construction manager for the restoration work at Nidaros Cathedral. He also did work on many churches including Åfjord Church, Rissa Church, Melhus Church, and Ytterøy Church.\n\nReferences\n\n1830 births\n1900 deaths\n\nNorwegian architects",
"Simone Zaggia is an Italian astronomer. He was born in 1965 and did undergraduate work at the \nUniversity of Padua, where he also received his Ph.D. in 1996. He has done post-doctoral work at the\nEuropean Southern Observatory and the Capodimonte Observatory, he worked at Trieste Observatory and currently (2007) works at Padua Observatory.\nZaggia's research interest include the dynamics of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters.\n\nSee also\nList of Italian scientists\n\nReferences\n\n1965 births\n21st-century Italian astronomers\nPeople from the Province of Padua\nLiving people"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"Post-World Series",
"What did Gaston do after the world series?",
"Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season",
"Where did he work?",
"Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign"
] | C_3ba17d92a35a4d1390cc52e46f0fa29a_0 | Where did he go in 2001? | 3 | Where did Cito Gaston go in 2001? | Cito Gaston | Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which merged with founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably. Yet, the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by GM Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the 1997 season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. He finished his first stint as manager with a 683-636 regular season record and 18-16 post-season record. Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003-2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, a former Blue Jays player, had Gaston as one of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillen. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey. CANNOTANSWER | In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey. | Clarence Edwin "Cito" Gaston (; born March 17, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. His major league career as a player lasted from 1967 to 1978, most notably with the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. He spent his entire managerial career with the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series title.
Cito Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997, then again from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he managed the Blue Jays to four American League East division titles (1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), two American League pennants (1992 and 1993) and two World Series titles (1992 and 1993).
Personal life
Gaston grew up in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a semi-truck driver. His career ambitions were either to be a truck driver like his father, or make it into the Major Leagues. He adopted his nickname 'Cito' in preference to his given name 'Clarence'. Gaston later told Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters the name was taken from a Mexican-American wrestler he watched as a young man in Texas. Other reports state Gaston was given this nickname from a friend named Carlos Thompson who thought Gaston resembled a well known Mexican wrestler named "Cito".
As a player with the Atlanta Braves, he was the roommate of Hank Aaron. Gaston credits Aaron with teaching him "how to be a man; how to stand on my own."
Gaston has been married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce with Gaston citing his baseball career as the reason. His second marriage to a Canadian woman, Denise, lasted from the early 80s to the early 2000s. Since 2003, Gaston has been married to Lynda, both residing in Oldsmar, Florida. When in Toronto, Gaston lives in a downtown condominium which he sublets to former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Tim Hunter.
Playing career
United States
Primarily a center fielder, Gaston began his decade-long playing career in with the Atlanta Braves, appearing in nine games. The following year he was selected by the San Diego Padres in the expansion draft, first playing for them in . He had his best individual season in , when he batted .318 (the highest batting average by a Padre prior to Tony Gwynn's arrival) with 29 home runs, 92 runs scored and 93 RBI, and was selected to the National League All-Star team. The rest of Gaston's career did not live up to his All-Star season success. Gaston never hit more than 17 home runs or knocked in more than 61 runs in any season with the Padres (until ) or the Braves (–).
Venezuela
In the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, Cito Gaston played with the Cardenales de Lara (1967–68), the Navegantes del Magallanes (1968–72, 1975–76) and the Tiburones de La Guaira (1976–77). Gaston hit 31 home runs and drove in 207 runs in 310 games (regular season).
Managerial career
Pre-World Series seasons
Gaston became the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in , and remained the hitting instructor until 15 May , when he took over managerial duties from Jimy Williams, when the team was suffering through an unexpectedly bad start. Gaston originally declined the offer to be manager when Williams was fired. He told Ebony magazine: "When I was offered the job as manager, I didn't want it. I was happy working as the team's hitting instructor". It was only when his players encouraged him to take the job did he reconsider the offer.
The Blue Jays won their first division title in 1985 with Gaston as hitting coach. Gaston was able to take superstars and mold them into a team. Under Gaston's leadership, Toronto transformed from a sub-.500 team (12–24 under Jimy Williams) to the eventual division winners, going 89–73 (77–49 under Gaston). Toronto's success under Gaston was not short-lived, as they finished second in the division behind Boston the following year and won the division again in , and .
World Series seasons
As a coach and manager, Gaston was considered a player's manager. He was a soft-spoken and steady influence during years that saw a large group of talented, high-salaried players grace the Blue Jays uniform. The franchise led the Major Leagues in attendance each year from 1989 to 1992, setting new records each of the latter three years, riding high from a dedicated fan base and following the Blue Jays' move into the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager. The resulting financial success allowed for major free agent signings, including Jack Morris and Dave Winfield ahead of the 1992 season, and Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor for 1993. The Blue Jays also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Carter credits Gaston for the team's championships:
Cito knows how to work with each individual, treating everyone like a human being. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, what to do and how to go about doing it. When you have a manager like that, it makes you want to play for the guy. We'd go to war for him. What Cito has done for the Blue Jays can't be taken lightly.
Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and did the same as manager. He was known for his open communication with his players. He was a successful game strategist, effectively handling National League rules during World Series games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. In the six road games during World Series play, the Jays went 4–2, including the title clincher in Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta. The 1992 World Series victory was the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series, an impressive feat, given that the Jays had lost starting position players Manuel Lee, Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado and Dave Winfield, starting pitchers Jimmy Key, David Cone and Dave Stieb, relievers Tom Henke and David Wells and bench players Derek Bell and Pat Tabler during the off-season following 1992.
All-Star manager
Gaston managed the American League team in the 1993 and 1994 All-Star Games, since he was the manager of the American League champions in 1992 and 1993. He was criticized for selecting six Blue Jays to the 1993 roster, but was unapologetic, stating all six were World Champions and two were future Hall of Famers. Gaston's prediction proved correct, as two of those players (Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor) have been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the 1993 All-Star Game held at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, he was criticized for not getting Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina into the game. Mussina got up in the ninth inning to warm up in the bullpen. Mussina later claimed that he was simply doing a between-start workout, but some interpreted it as an attempt to force Gaston to put him into the game. As angry fans jeered in dismay, incredulous that Gaston would not use the popular local player and believing Mussina had been sent to warm up for no reason, Gaston instead allowed Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward to close out the victory for the American League. Orioles fans did not like this perceived snub, later wearing T-shirts that said "Cito sucks" and carrying signs with the phrase, "Will Rogers never met Cito Gaston", referencing Rogers' famous line, "I never met a man yet that I didn't like."
Post-World Series
Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which acquired founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably, but the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by Gillick's successor as general manager, Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. Gaston finished his first stint as manager with a 683–636 regular season record and 18–16 post–season record.
Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999–2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003–2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, who had played under Gaston in Toronto, had him as of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillén. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston turned down an opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.
Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the season under manager Buck Martinez but was not retained after a disappointing campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey.
Managerial return
On June 20, 2008, Gaston was rehired as the manager of the Blue Jays to replace John Gibbons. It was his first managerial job at the major-league level since being fired by the Blue Jays 11 years earlier, which was unusual for a World Series-winning manager. The team's record was 35–39 when Gaston and his coaching staff took over, after which the Blue Jays went 51–37 for the remainder of the season which included a late ten-game winning streak and the team finished fourth in the American League East. On September 25, 2008, it was announced that Gaston had signed a two-year extension that would keep him as manager until 2010. He announced on October 30, 2009 that he would retire after the 2010 season.
Managerial record
Controversies
In April 1997, during a pre-game interview, Gaston accused specific members of Toronto's sports media (Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons, The Globe and Mail sports editor Dave Langford, and Fan 590 sports talk show host Bob McCown) of racism against him, stating "There's a couple (of sports writers) who continue to take shots at me for no reason at all. I just wonder if they would take the same shot at me if I was white." After the game against the Oakland A's on April 17, Gaston spoke briefly about his pre-game comments. "I've got one statement that I'm going to say, and I'm not going to say another word", Gaston said. "Whatever has been said, whatever has been written, if it has offended someone and it's unjustly offended them, I apologize. If it hasn't, then I don't apologize."
On October 3, 2009, an online column by Fox Sports baseball writer Ken Rosenthal reported of a mutiny in the Blue Jays' clubhouse against Gaston by his players and some members of his coaching staff. Rosenthal cited unnamed sources who claimed that the mutiny was a result of his impatience with the players after they started losing, partially reflected with players getting less playing time, his lack of communication, including his inability to properly communicate substitutions, and his negativity, especially when it came to the younger players who required more positive reinforcement. A day after the report, Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay was quoted as being one of the players who was surprised over his lack of playing time as well as wanting Gaston to improve his communication. "More than anything, I want to try to figure out what to expect for next year. It kind of caught me off-guard a little bit when I wasn't playing. ... (Gaston) never really said a lot. As we were winning, he was kind of sitting on the back burner, watching us play good." When asked about the report on the clubhouse mutiny, Gaston replied that he was surprised that such criticism existed. "If you've got two or three or four guys in there that have a problem, then you don't have to win anything, do you? You might have to certainly deal with those guys, but you don't have to win the clubhouse back. I don't think that you can ... rely (on a few) players to find out (if there's a problem). I think you need to talk to all of them. If it comes up to 50 percent, then, hey, maybe we've got a problem. I'd like to know what the problem is because I can't be any fairer than I've been."
On June 1, 2010, Fan 590 broadcaster Mike Wilner had an argument during a media scrum with Gaston about his field level decision making. Wilner detailed the confrontation on his blog. The following day, Fan 590 - a station of Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications - announced he would not be covering the team for several days, but refused to specify the reason.
Awards and honors
In 1970, Gaston was selected for the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder.
Also in 1970, Gaston received the San Diego Padres team MVP award.
In 1989, Gaston was the "Baseball Man of the Year" in Canada.
In 1993, Gaston was voted "Sportsman of the Year".
Managed the American League team in the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Managed the American League team in the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The University of Toronto granted Gaston an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in June 1994.
In 1999, Gaston's Blue Jays uniform name and number (#43) were honoured by addition to the Rogers Centre's Blue Jays "Level of Excellence".
In 2002, Gaston was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gaston was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 2008, Gaston was presented a Negro League Hall of Fame Legacy Award (Jackie Robinson Award).
In 2011, Gaston was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Notes
External links
Canadian Press article
SABR Biography Project
1944 births
Living people
African-American baseball coaches
African-American baseball managers
African-American baseball players
American expatriate baseball people in Canada
American expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Arizona Instructional League Athletics players
Arizona Instructional League Braves players
Atlanta Braves players
Austin Braves players
Baseball coaches from Texas
Baseball players from San Antonio
Batavia Trojans players
Binghamton Triplets players
Bravos de León players
Cachorros de León players
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Cardenales de Lara players
Greenville Braves players
Major League Baseball outfielders
National League All-Stars
Navegantes del Magallanes players
American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
People from Oldsmar, Florida
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Richmond Braves players
San Diego Padres players
Santo Domingo Azucareros players
Shreveport Braves players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
Toronto Blue Jays coaches
Toronto Blue Jays managers
West Palm Beach Braves players
World Series-winning managers
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople | true | [
"Where Did They Go is a 1971 album by Peggy Lee. It was arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky and Al Capps.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Where Did They Go\" (Harry Lloyd, Gloria Sklerov) - 3:53\n\"My Rock and Foundation\" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) - 2:37\n\"Help Me Make It Through the Night\" (Kris Kristofferson) - 2:45\n\"All I Want\" (Steve Clayton [aka P. Tedesco], Gladys Shelley) - 2:40\n\"I Don't Know How to Love Him\" (Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber) - 3:24\n\"Goodbye Again\" (Donald J. Addrissi, Richard P. Addrissi) - 2:33\n\"Sing\" (Joe Raposo) - 2:25\n\"I Was Born in Love with You\" (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand) - 4:01\n\"Losing My Mind\" (Stephen Sondheim) - 2:43\n\"My Sweet Lord\" (George Harrison) - 2:55\n\nNotes\nThe recording sessions for this album took place at the Capitol Tower in Hollywood, California.\n\nWhere Did They Go was Peggy Lee's first album not to make the Billboard 200 chart since her Grammy-winning hit \"Is That All There Is?\" in 1969.\n\nBurt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the song \"My Rock And Foundation\" specifically for Lee.\n\nCapitol Records released \"Where Did They Go\" (backed by \"All I Want\") as a 45\" single in 1971. The single did not make the charts.\n\nLee performed songs from this album, including \"Where Did They Go\" and \"My Sweet Lord,\" during her June 1971 engagement at The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.\n\nAfter completing work on Where Did They Go, Peggy Lee did not return to the recording studio again until nearly a year later, when she began recording Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota in April 1972.\n\nThis album was released on 8-track, along with LP.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Peggy Lee Discography\n\n1971 albums\nCapitol Records albums\nPeggy Lee albums\nAlbums arranged by Don Sebesky\nAlbums produced by Snuff Garrett",
"\"Go, Jimmy, Go\" is a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and performed by Jimmy Clanton. It reached #5 on the U.S. pop chart on July 12, 1959, and #19 on the U.S. R&B chart. It was featured on Clanton's 1961 album My Best to You. The song ranked #33 on Billboard magazine's Top 100 singles of 1960.\n\nProduction\nDoc Pomus and Mort Shuman originally wrote a song titled \"Go, Bobby, Go\" for Bobby Rydell who sung it \"half-heartedly\" due to not being interested in singing a song with his name in it. Rydell did record the song, but he did not release it. Pomus later rode in a taxi to Fox Theater in Brooklyn where a rock and roll show with Alan Freed was happening, wbere he offered the song to Jimmy Clanton while he was backstage. Pomus changed the title to \"Go, Jimmy, Go\" and said that the song was written for Clanton. Wayne Harada wrote in The Honolulu Advertiser that the song is \"one of the few upbeat tunes in Jim's repertoire.\"\n\nReception\nA Billboard review said, \"Go, Jimmy, Go\" is a swinging side that that finds Clanton in fine form. The rocker has lots to attract teens, and the side appears a likely winner.\" Charles J. Schreiber wrote a negative review in The Gazette stating, \"Although Jimmy can do better, this will still be a big hit. His public doesn't care so long as Jimmy sings.\"\n\nIn November 1959, Clanton told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that \"his most recent release, \"Go, Jimmy, Go\", has given indications on the Mainland of being a potential hit.\" The title of the 1959 musical comedy film Go, Johnny, Go! was inspired by the song's title.\n\nReferences\n\n1959 songs\n1959 singles\nJimmy Clanton songs\nSongs with lyrics by Doc Pomus\nSongs with music by Mort Shuman\nNumber-one singles in Canada\nAce Records (United States) singles"
] |
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"What did Gaston do after the world series?",
"Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season",
"Where did he work?",
"Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign",
"Where did he go in 2001?",
"In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey."
] | C_3ba17d92a35a4d1390cc52e46f0fa29a_0 | How long did he stay there? | 4 | How long did Cito Gaston stay at the Jays? | Cito Gaston | Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which merged with founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably. Yet, the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by GM Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the 1997 season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. He finished his first stint as manager with a 683-636 regular season record and 18-16 post-season record. Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999-2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003-2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, a former Blue Jays player, had Gaston as one of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillen. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the 1999 season but was not retained after a disappointing 2001 campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Clarence Edwin "Cito" Gaston (; born March 17, 1944) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. His major league career as a player lasted from 1967 to 1978, most notably with the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves. He spent his entire managerial career with the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series title.
Cito Gaston managed the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989 to 1997, then again from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he managed the Blue Jays to four American League East division titles (1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), two American League pennants (1992 and 1993) and two World Series titles (1992 and 1993).
Personal life
Gaston grew up in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Texas, where his father was a semi-truck driver. His career ambitions were either to be a truck driver like his father, or make it into the Major Leagues. He adopted his nickname 'Cito' in preference to his given name 'Clarence'. Gaston later told Toronto Blue Jays broadcasters the name was taken from a Mexican-American wrestler he watched as a young man in Texas. Other reports state Gaston was given this nickname from a friend named Carlos Thompson who thought Gaston resembled a well known Mexican wrestler named "Cito".
As a player with the Atlanta Braves, he was the roommate of Hank Aaron. Gaston credits Aaron with teaching him "how to be a man; how to stand on my own."
Gaston has been married three times. His first marriage ended in divorce with Gaston citing his baseball career as the reason. His second marriage to a Canadian woman, Denise, lasted from the early 80s to the early 2000s. Since 2003, Gaston has been married to Lynda, both residing in Oldsmar, Florida. When in Toronto, Gaston lives in a downtown condominium which he sublets to former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Tim Hunter.
Playing career
United States
Primarily a center fielder, Gaston began his decade-long playing career in with the Atlanta Braves, appearing in nine games. The following year he was selected by the San Diego Padres in the expansion draft, first playing for them in . He had his best individual season in , when he batted .318 (the highest batting average by a Padre prior to Tony Gwynn's arrival) with 29 home runs, 92 runs scored and 93 RBI, and was selected to the National League All-Star team. The rest of Gaston's career did not live up to his All-Star season success. Gaston never hit more than 17 home runs or knocked in more than 61 runs in any season with the Padres (until ) or the Braves (–).
Venezuela
In the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, Cito Gaston played with the Cardenales de Lara (1967–68), the Navegantes del Magallanes (1968–72, 1975–76) and the Tiburones de La Guaira (1976–77). Gaston hit 31 home runs and drove in 207 runs in 310 games (regular season).
Managerial career
Pre-World Series seasons
Gaston became the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in , and remained the hitting instructor until 15 May , when he took over managerial duties from Jimy Williams, when the team was suffering through an unexpectedly bad start. Gaston originally declined the offer to be manager when Williams was fired. He told Ebony magazine: "When I was offered the job as manager, I didn't want it. I was happy working as the team's hitting instructor". It was only when his players encouraged him to take the job did he reconsider the offer.
The Blue Jays won their first division title in 1985 with Gaston as hitting coach. Gaston was able to take superstars and mold them into a team. Under Gaston's leadership, Toronto transformed from a sub-.500 team (12–24 under Jimy Williams) to the eventual division winners, going 89–73 (77–49 under Gaston). Toronto's success under Gaston was not short-lived, as they finished second in the division behind Boston the following year and won the division again in , and .
World Series seasons
As a coach and manager, Gaston was considered a player's manager. He was a soft-spoken and steady influence during years that saw a large group of talented, high-salaried players grace the Blue Jays uniform. The franchise led the Major Leagues in attendance each year from 1989 to 1992, setting new records each of the latter three years, riding high from a dedicated fan base and following the Blue Jays' move into the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager. The resulting financial success allowed for major free agent signings, including Jack Morris and Dave Winfield ahead of the 1992 season, and Dave Stewart and Paul Molitor for 1993. The Blue Jays also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Carter credits Gaston for the team's championships:
Cito knows how to work with each individual, treating everyone like a human being. He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, what to do and how to go about doing it. When you have a manager like that, it makes you want to play for the guy. We'd go to war for him. What Cito has done for the Blue Jays can't be taken lightly.
Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and did the same as manager. He was known for his open communication with his players. He was a successful game strategist, effectively handling National League rules during World Series games in Atlanta and Philadelphia. In the six road games during World Series play, the Jays went 4–2, including the title clincher in Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta. The 1992 World Series victory was the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series, an impressive feat, given that the Jays had lost starting position players Manuel Lee, Kelly Gruber, Candy Maldonado and Dave Winfield, starting pitchers Jimmy Key, David Cone and Dave Stieb, relievers Tom Henke and David Wells and bench players Derek Bell and Pat Tabler during the off-season following 1992.
All-Star manager
Gaston managed the American League team in the 1993 and 1994 All-Star Games, since he was the manager of the American League champions in 1992 and 1993. He was criticized for selecting six Blue Jays to the 1993 roster, but was unapologetic, stating all six were World Champions and two were future Hall of Famers. Gaston's prediction proved correct, as two of those players (Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor) have been voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the 1993 All-Star Game held at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, he was criticized for not getting Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina into the game. Mussina got up in the ninth inning to warm up in the bullpen. Mussina later claimed that he was simply doing a between-start workout, but some interpreted it as an attempt to force Gaston to put him into the game. As angry fans jeered in dismay, incredulous that Gaston would not use the popular local player and believing Mussina had been sent to warm up for no reason, Gaston instead allowed Blue Jays pitcher Duane Ward to close out the victory for the American League. Orioles fans did not like this perceived snub, later wearing T-shirts that said "Cito sucks" and carrying signs with the phrase, "Will Rogers never met Cito Gaston", referencing Rogers' famous line, "I never met a man yet that I didn't like."
Post-World Series
Gaston's fortunes, like those of the Blue Jays franchise as a whole, faded after the championship years. The World Series winning clubs had dissipated because of aging players, increased post-Series salary demands, and the failure of new owner Interbrew (which acquired founding owner Labatt in 1995) to raise the budget substantially. After Major League Baseball solved its labor problems in 1994, Pat Gillick and eventually Paul Beeston left the organization and annual attendance began to drop considerably, but the Blue Jays were still trying to compete in the American League East and in 1997 signed free agent Roger Clemens. When the team could barely break the .500 mark all season, Gaston was fired by Gillick's successor as general manager, Gord Ash. He had failed to lead the team to a winning record since 1993 and seemed uninterested in keeping his position. Gaston forced Ash's hand by telling his boss that he was taking a vacation at season's end and would not be around for the usual post season evaluation process. He was replaced by then-pitching coach Mel Queen on an interim basis for the last week of the season. Joe Carter wore Gaston's No. 43 on his jersey for the remainder of the season in part to honor him and in part to express his displeasure at his firing. Gaston finished his first stint as manager with a 683–636 regular season record and 18–16 post–season record.
Gaston was a final candidate for the Detroit Tigers manager's job in the 1999–2000 season and was the runner-up in the Chicago White Sox manager position in the 2003–2004 off season. Sox GM Kenny Williams, who had played under Gaston in Toronto, had him as of two finalists for the job but decided to hire Ozzie Guillén. Gaston had several offers to rejoin major league teams as a hitting instructor, namely the Kansas City Royals, but declined offers. After interviewing unsuccessfully for several other managerial jobs, Gaston said that he would only manage again if he were hired directly without an interview. Gaston turned down an opportunity with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004.
Gaston rejoined the team as a hitting coach after the season under manager Buck Martinez but was not retained after a disappointing campaign and the sale of the franchise to Rogers Communications. In 2002, he was hired by the Jays for a third time, as special assistant to president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey.
Managerial return
On June 20, 2008, Gaston was rehired as the manager of the Blue Jays to replace John Gibbons. It was his first managerial job at the major-league level since being fired by the Blue Jays 11 years earlier, which was unusual for a World Series-winning manager. The team's record was 35–39 when Gaston and his coaching staff took over, after which the Blue Jays went 51–37 for the remainder of the season which included a late ten-game winning streak and the team finished fourth in the American League East. On September 25, 2008, it was announced that Gaston had signed a two-year extension that would keep him as manager until 2010. He announced on October 30, 2009 that he would retire after the 2010 season.
Managerial record
Controversies
In April 1997, during a pre-game interview, Gaston accused specific members of Toronto's sports media (Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons, The Globe and Mail sports editor Dave Langford, and Fan 590 sports talk show host Bob McCown) of racism against him, stating "There's a couple (of sports writers) who continue to take shots at me for no reason at all. I just wonder if they would take the same shot at me if I was white." After the game against the Oakland A's on April 17, Gaston spoke briefly about his pre-game comments. "I've got one statement that I'm going to say, and I'm not going to say another word", Gaston said. "Whatever has been said, whatever has been written, if it has offended someone and it's unjustly offended them, I apologize. If it hasn't, then I don't apologize."
On October 3, 2009, an online column by Fox Sports baseball writer Ken Rosenthal reported of a mutiny in the Blue Jays' clubhouse against Gaston by his players and some members of his coaching staff. Rosenthal cited unnamed sources who claimed that the mutiny was a result of his impatience with the players after they started losing, partially reflected with players getting less playing time, his lack of communication, including his inability to properly communicate substitutions, and his negativity, especially when it came to the younger players who required more positive reinforcement. A day after the report, Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay was quoted as being one of the players who was surprised over his lack of playing time as well as wanting Gaston to improve his communication. "More than anything, I want to try to figure out what to expect for next year. It kind of caught me off-guard a little bit when I wasn't playing. ... (Gaston) never really said a lot. As we were winning, he was kind of sitting on the back burner, watching us play good." When asked about the report on the clubhouse mutiny, Gaston replied that he was surprised that such criticism existed. "If you've got two or three or four guys in there that have a problem, then you don't have to win anything, do you? You might have to certainly deal with those guys, but you don't have to win the clubhouse back. I don't think that you can ... rely (on a few) players to find out (if there's a problem). I think you need to talk to all of them. If it comes up to 50 percent, then, hey, maybe we've got a problem. I'd like to know what the problem is because I can't be any fairer than I've been."
On June 1, 2010, Fan 590 broadcaster Mike Wilner had an argument during a media scrum with Gaston about his field level decision making. Wilner detailed the confrontation on his blog. The following day, Fan 590 - a station of Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications - announced he would not be covering the team for several days, but refused to specify the reason.
Awards and honors
In 1970, Gaston was selected for the All-Star Game as a reserve outfielder.
Also in 1970, Gaston received the San Diego Padres team MVP award.
In 1989, Gaston was the "Baseball Man of the Year" in Canada.
In 1993, Gaston was voted "Sportsman of the Year".
Managed the American League team in the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Managed the American League team in the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The University of Toronto granted Gaston an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in June 1994.
In 1999, Gaston's Blue Jays uniform name and number (#43) were honoured by addition to the Rogers Centre's Blue Jays "Level of Excellence".
In 2002, Gaston was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Gaston was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
In 2008, Gaston was presented a Negro League Hall of Fame Legacy Award (Jackie Robinson Award).
In 2011, Gaston was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Notes
External links
Canadian Press article
SABR Biography Project
1944 births
Living people
African-American baseball coaches
African-American baseball managers
African-American baseball players
American expatriate baseball people in Canada
American expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Arizona Instructional League Athletics players
Arizona Instructional League Braves players
Atlanta Braves players
Austin Braves players
Baseball coaches from Texas
Baseball players from San Antonio
Batavia Trojans players
Binghamton Triplets players
Bravos de León players
Cachorros de León players
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Cardenales de Lara players
Greenville Braves players
Major League Baseball outfielders
National League All-Stars
Navegantes del Magallanes players
American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
People from Oldsmar, Florida
Pittsburgh Pirates players
Richmond Braves players
San Diego Padres players
Santo Domingo Azucareros players
Shreveport Braves players
Tiburones de La Guaira players
Toronto Blue Jays coaches
Toronto Blue Jays managers
West Palm Beach Braves players
World Series-winning managers
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople | false | [
"\"Stay Out of My Life\" is a 1987 hit single by British pop group Five Star. It was the fifth release from their number one selling LP Silk & Steel, and reached no.9 in the UK singles chart.\n\nThe song's B-side, \"How Dare You (Stay Out of My Life)\", was used as the theme tune to the 1980s children's television series made by Tyne Tees TV called How Dare You, presented by Carrie Grant.\n\nTrack listings\n7” Single:\n\n1. \"Stay Out of My Life\"\n\n2. \"(How Dare You) Stay Out of My Life\" **\n\n12” Single:\n\n1. \"Stay Out of My Life\" (Extended Version) *\n\n2. \"If I Say Yes\" (Lew Hahn U.S. Dub Remix)\n\n3. \"(How Dare You) Stay Out of My Life\" **\n\n* Available on CD on the cd single of There's A Brand New World PD42236\n\n** Released in CD format on the Cherry Pop 2012 reissue of Five Star's 1987 Between the Lines album.\n\nReferences\n\nFive Star songs\n1987 singles\nSongs written by Denise Pearson",
"\"Llangollen Market\" is a song from early 19th century Wales. It is known to have been performed at an eisteddfod at Llangollen in 1858.\n\nThe text of the song survives in a manuscript held by the National Museum of Wales, which came into the possession of singer Mary Davies, a co-founder of the Welsh Folk-Song Society.\n\nThe song tells the tale of a young man from the Llangollen area going off to war and leaving behind his broken-hearted girlfriend. Originally written in English, the song has been translated into Welsh and recorded by several artists such as Siân James, Siobhan Owen, Calennig and Siwsann George.\n\nLyrics\nIt’s far beyond the mountains that look so distant here,\nTo fight his country’s battles, last Mayday went my dear;\nAh, well shall I remember with bitter sighs the day,\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nAh, cruel was my father that did my flight restrain,\nAnd I was cruel-hearted that did at home remain,\nWith you, my love, contented, I’d journey far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nWhile thinking of my Owen, my eyes with tears do fill,\nAnd then my mother chides me because my wheel stands still,\nBut how can I think of spinning when my Owen’s far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nTo market at Llangollen each morning do I go,\nBut how to strike a bargain no longer do I know;\nMy father chides at evening, my mother all the day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did I stay?\n\nOh, would it please kind heaven to shield my love from harm,\nTo clasp him to my bosom would every care disarm,\nBut alas, I fear, 'tis distant - that happy, happy day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did stay?\n\nReferences\n\nWelsh folk songs"
] |
[
"Stan Laurel",
"20th Century Fox"
] | C_c23860af2294497ebab7a4d20dad0811_1 | when did he get a contract wiht 20th century fox? | 1 | when did Stan Laurel get a contract with 20th century fox? | Stan Laurel | In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make ten films over five years. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise. In 1947, Laurel returned to England when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom, and the duo were mobbed wherever they went. Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe. Around this time, Stan found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Ollie to find solo projects and he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films. In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks. In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Laurel suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, his partner Hardy had a massive stroke on 14 September 1956, which resulted in his being unable to return to acting. CANNOTANSWER | In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox | Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was part of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. He appeared with his comic partner Oliver Hardy in the film short The Lucky Dog in 1921, although they did not become an official team until late 1927. He then appeared exclusively with Hardy until retiring following his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In April 1961, on the 33rd Academy Awards, Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laurel and Hardy were ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians' Comedian. In 2019, Laurel topped a list of the greatest British comedians compiled by a panel on the television channel Gold. In 2009, a bronze statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurel's home town of Ulverston.
Early life
Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents' house on 16 June 1890 in Argyle Street, Ulverston, Lancashire, to Arthur J. Jefferson, an actor and theatre manager from Bishop Auckland, and Margaret (née Metcalfe), an actress from Ulverston. He was one of five children. One of them was Edward, an actor who would appear in four of Stan's shorts.
His parents were both active in the theatre and always very busy. In his early years, Laurel spent much time living with his maternal grandmother, Sarah Metcalfe. He attended school at King James I Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the King's School in Tynemouth, Northumberland.
He moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel began work. His boyhood hero was Dan Leno, one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural affinity for the theatre, Laurel gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow at the age of sixteen, where he polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. It was the music hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat and nonsensical understatement.
In 1912 Laurel worked together with Ted Desmond on tour in Netherlands and Belgium as a comedy double act known as the Barto Bros. Their act, which involved them dressing as Romans, finished when Laurel was offered a spot in an American touring troupe. After Laurel left England for America the pair maintained a life-long friendship, sending letters and photos that documented Laurel's rise from an unknown British comedy actor in 1913 to one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1950s. The correspondence, spanning around 50 years and including photos of them being reunited in the US, was put up for auction by Desmond's grandson Geoffrey Nolan in 2018.
He joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors in 1910 with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson"; the troupe also included a young Charlie Chaplin. The music hall nurtured him, and he acted as Chaplin's understudy for some time. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. During the First World War, Laurel registered for military service in America on 5 June 1917, as required under the Selective Service Act. He was not called up; his registration card states his status as resident alien and his deafness as exemptions.
The Karno troupe broke up in the spring of 1914. Stan joined with two other former Karno performers, Edgar Hurley and his wife Ethel (known as "Wren") to form "The Three Comiques". On the advice of booking agent Gordon Bostock, they called themselves "the Keystone Trio". Stan started to do his character as an imitation of Charlie Chaplin, and the Hurleys began to do their parts as silent comedians Chester Conklin and Mabel Normand. They played successfully from February through October 1915, until the Hurleys and Stan parted ways. Between 1916 and 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became his lifelong friends, to form the Stan Jefferson Trio.
Amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in the silent film short The Lucky Dog (1921), before the two were a team. It was around this time that Laurel met Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time, he adopted the stage name of Laurel at Dahlberg's suggestion that his stage name Stan Jefferson was unlucky, due to it having thirteen letters. The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75 a week to star in two-reel comedies. After making his first film Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films in which Dahlberg and Laurel appeared together was the 1922 parody Mud and Sand.
By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had one unusual stipulation: that Dahlberg was not to appear in any of the films. Rock thought that her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, she started interfering with Laurel's work, so Rock offered her a cash settlement and a one-way ticket back to her native Australia, which she accepted. The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up (1924), Detained (1924), Monsieur Don't Care (1924), West of Hot Dog (1924), Somewhere in Wrong (1925), Twins (1925), Pie-Eyed (1925), The Snow Hawk (1925), Navy Blue Days (1925), The Sleuth (1925), Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925) and Half a Man (1925).
Like his future mate, Hardy, Laurel was credited for directing or co-directing ten silent shorts (between 1925 and 1927). But, unlike Hardy, Laurel appeared in none of them. It was Hardy, however, who appeared in three of the shorts directed by Laurel, which are: Yes, Yes, Nanette! (1925), Wandering Papas (1926) and Madame Mystery (1926).
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel next signed with the Hal Roach studio, where he began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette (in which Oliver Hardy had a part under the name "Babe" Hardy). It had been his intention to work primarily as a writer and director.
The same year, Hardy, a member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and hospitalised. Because he was unable to work on the scheduled film, Get 'Em Young, Laurel was asked to return to acting to fill in. Starting early in 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in several short films, including Duck Soup, Slipping Wives and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.
Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in the lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature The Rogue Song. Their first starring feature Pardon Us was released in 1931. They continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Trouble at Roach Studio
During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach which resulted in the termination of his contract. Roach maintained separate contracts for Laurel and Hardy that expired at different times, so Hardy remained at the studio and was "teamed" with Harry Langdon for the 1939 film Zenobia. The studio discussed a series of films co-starring Hardy with Patsy Kelly to be called "The Hardy Family". But Laurel sued Roach over the contract dispute. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. The first film that Laurel and Hardy made after Laurel returned was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach.
Second World War
In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century-Fox to make ten films over five years. Laurel found, to his shock, that he and Hardy were hired only as actors, and were not expected to contribute to the staging, writing, or editing of the productions. When the films proved very successful, Laurel and Hardy were granted more freedom and gradually added more of their own material. They had made six Fox features when the studio suddenly abandoned B-picture production in December 1944. The team signed another contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942, resulting in two more features.
Revisiting his music hall days, Laurel returned to England in 1947 when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom performing in variety shows. Mobbed wherever they went, Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Variety Performance in front of King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe.
Around this time, Laurel found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Hardy to find solo projects, which he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films.
In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks.
In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Hardy suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, Hardy had another stroke on 14 September 1956, and was unable to return to acting.
Hardy's death
Oliver Hardy died on 7 August 1957. People who knew Laurel said that he was absolutely devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered from it; his wife told the press that he became physically ill upon hearing that Hardy was dying. Laurel was in fact too ill to attend his funeral and said, "Babe would understand". Although he continued to socialize with his fans, he refused to perform on stage or act in another film from then on as he had no interest in working without Hardy, turning down every offer he was given for a public appearance.
After Laurel and Hardy
In 1961, Stan Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy". Laurel was introduced by Bob Hope, and the award was accepted by Danny Kaye. Laurel had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small flat in the Oceana Apartments in Santa Monica, California. Laurel was gracious to fans and spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was also listed in the telephone directory and he would take calls from fans.
Jerry Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, and Lewis received suggestions from him for the production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well. Dick Van Dyke told a similar story. When he was just starting his career, he looked up Laurel's phone number, called him, and then visited him at his home. Van Dyke played Laurel on "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Laurel was offered a cameo role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but declined. He reportedly said he
did not want to be on screen in his old age, especially without Hardy. It appears, however, his involvement reached the stage of filming a background matching shot of his old time convertible, with a stand-in seated, at the wheel, donning a derby hat. The cameo appearance was then given to Jack Benny, who wore Laurel's signature derby in the scene.
Personal life
Laurel and Mae Dahlberg never married but lived together as common-law husband and wife from 1919 to 1925, before Dahlberg accepted a one-way ticket from Joe Rock to go back to her native Australia. In November 1937, Dahlberg was back in the US and suing Laurel for financial support. At the time, Laurel's second marriage was in the process of a divorce, with Dahlberg's legal suit adding to Laurel's woes. The matter was settled out of court. Dahlberg was described as a "relief project worker" by the court. Laurel was one of several popular British actors in Hollywood who never became a naturalised US citizen.
Laurel had four wives and married one of them a second time after their divorce. His first wife was Lois Neilson, whom he married on 13 August 1926. Together they had a daughter, Lois, who was born on . Their second child, Stanley, was born two months premature in May 1930, but died after nine days. Laurel and Neilson divorced in December 1934. Their daughter Lois died on aged 89.
In 1935, Laurel married Virginia Ruth Rogers (known as Ruth). In 1937, he filed for divorce, confessing that he was not over his ex-wife Lois, but Lois decided against a reconciliation. On New Year's Day 1938, Laurel married Vera Ivanova Shuvalova (known as Illeana), and Ruth accused him of bigamy, but their divorce had been finalised a couple of days before his new marriage. The new marriage was very volatile, and Illeana accused him of trying to bury her alive in the back yard of their San Fernando Valley home. He and Illeana separated in 1939 and divorced in 1940, with Illeana surrendering all claim to the Laurel surname on 1 February 1940 in exchange for $6,500. In 1941, Laurel remarried Virginia Ruth Rogers; they were divorced for the second time in early 1946. On 6 May 1946, he married Ida Kitaeva Raphael to whom he remained married until his death.
Death
Laurel was a smoker until suddenly quitting around 1960. In January 1965, he underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack. Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.
At his funeral service at Church of the Hills, Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Legacy and honours
Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1989, a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902. The steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In a 2005 UK poll, Comedians' Comedian, Laurel and Hardy were ranked top double act, and seventh overall. Along with Hardy, Laurel was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Neil Brand wrote a radio play entitled Stan, broadcast in 2004 on BBC Radio 4 and subsequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra, starring Tom Courtenay as Stan Laurel, in which Stan visits Oliver Hardy after Hardy has suffered his stroke and tries to say the things to his dying friend and partner that have been left unsaid. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Brand's radio play, in which Laurel meets Hardy on his deathbed and reminisces about their career.
A plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, marks Laurel and Hardy appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952, and staying with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub. In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre. In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston.
There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. There are two Laurel and Hardy museums in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia. One is operated by the town of Harlem, and the other is a private museum owned and operated by Gary Russeth, a Harlem resident. Jefferson Drive in Ulverston is named after him.
In 2013 Gail Louw and Jeffrey Holland debuted a short one-man play "...And this is my friend Mr Laurel" at the Camden Fringe festival. The play, starring Holland as Laurel, was taken on tour of the UK in 2014 until June 2015.
In the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, Steve Coogan portrayed Laurel (a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role) and John C. Reilly played Hardy. Developed by BBC Films, the film is set in the twilight of their careers, and focuses on their farewell tour of Britain and Ireland's variety halls in 1953.
In 2019 Laurel was voted the greatest ever British comedian by a panel on the British television channel Gold.
Filmography
Stan Laurel filmography (films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
Laurel and Hardy filmography (filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Bergen, Ronald. The Life and Times of Laurel and Hardy. New York: Smithmark, 1992. .
Bowers, Judith. Stan Laurel and Other Stars of the Panopticon: The Story of the Britannia Music Hall. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2007. .
Louvish, Simon. Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 2001. .
Marriot, A. J. Laurel & Hardy: The British Tours. Hitchen, Herts, UK: AJ Marriot, 1993. .
Levy, Joe, ed. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. New York: Wenner Books, 2005. .
McCabe, John. Babe: The Life of Oliver Hardy. London: Robson Books Ltd., 2004. .
McCabe, John. Comedy World of Stan Laurel. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975. .
McCabe, John. Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy: An Affectionate Biography. London: Robson Books, 2004, First edition 1961, .
Stone, Rob. Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Temecula, California: Split Reel Books, 1996
Okuda, Ted, and James L. Neibaur. Stan Without Ollie: The Stan Laurel Solo Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2012
Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel. New York: Stein and Day., 1980
External links
The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood article at Brenton Film by Danny Lawrence, Stan Laurel's biographer
The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project
English male comedians
Comedians from Lancashire
British male comedy actors
English entertainers
English male film actors
English male silent film actors
English male stage actors
English stunt performers
Music hall performers
Silent film comedians
Vaudeville performers
1890 births
1965 deaths
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
20th Century Fox contract players
Hal Roach Studios actors
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
English emigrants to the United States
British expatriate male actors in the United States
People educated at The King's School, Tynemouth
People educated at Stonelaw High School
People from Ulverston
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Articles containing video clips
19th-century English people
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
Hal Roach Studios short film series
People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School | false | [
"Witland is a seldom-used name for a historical region in the south-east Baltic region inhabited by Prussians (Aestii), called Estum in the text of Wulfstan. The name appears in King Alfred's adapted version of Orosius, in which the traveller Wulfstan's accounts were incorporated.\n\nAccording to Wulfstan, \"the Vistula is a very large river, and near it lie Witland and Weonodland (Wendland); and Witland belongs to the Esthonians.\"\n\nAccording to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 1022, King Canute set sail for Isle of Wight (Old English: Wiht/Wihtlande). Some historians argue that the \"Wiht/Wihtlande\" in this case is actually Witland.\n\nReferences\n\nBaltic region\n \nHistorical Baltic peoples",
"I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing is the self-produced ninth album by American R&B singer Barry White, released in 1979 on the 20th Century-Fox Records label.\n\nI Love to Sing the Songs I Sing fulfilled White's 20th Century-Fox Records contract. White was increasingly dissatisfied with that label's management when Russ Regan left the label to form Millennium Records and felt that he was being ignored in terms of promotion at the time. He then left the company and signed a custom label contract with CBS Records to release future material under his own Unlimited Gold imprint. White's first album on his new label, The Message Is Love, was released seven months and six days after I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing. With attention and interest focused on his well-publicized CBS deal, I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing passed by largely unnoticed. It was the least successful album of his 20th Century career, only reaching #40 on the R&B chart, which six of his eight previous albums had topped. None of the single releases made any impact either.\n\nTrack listing \n \"I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing\" (Barry White, Paul Politi, Frank Wilson) - 2:50\n \"Girl, What's Your Name\" (White, Danny Pearson, Wilson) - 4:08\n \"Once Upon a Time (You Were a Friend of Mine)\" (Rahn Coleman) - 6:01\n \"Oh Me, Oh My (I'm Such a Lucky Guy)\" (White, Wilson, Politi, Raymond Cooksey) - 5:04\n \"I Can't Leave You Alone\" (White, Tony Sepe, Wilson) - 3:25\n \"Call Me Baby\" (Coleman) - 8:04\n \"How Did You Know It Was Me?\" (Coleman) - 6:47\n\nPersonnel\nBarry White - lead vocals, arranger\nJohn Roberts, Ronald Coleman - orchestration \nTechnical\nFrank Kejmar, Paul Elmore - engineer\nGlen Christensen - art direction, design\n\nSingles \n \"I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing\" (US R&B #53)\n \"How Did You Know It Was Me?\" (US R&B #64)\n\nReferences\n\nBarry White albums\n1979 albums\n20th Century Fox Records albums"
] |
[
"Stan Laurel",
"20th Century Fox",
"when did he get a contract wiht 20th century fox?",
"In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox"
] | C_c23860af2294497ebab7a4d20dad0811_1 | What is something interesting that happened during this period? | 2 | What is something interesting that happened during 1941 in regards to Stan Laurel? | Stan Laurel | In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make ten films over five years. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise. In 1947, Laurel returned to England when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom, and the duo were mobbed wherever they went. Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe. Around this time, Stan found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Ollie to find solo projects and he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films. In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks. In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Laurel suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, his partner Hardy had a massive stroke on 14 September 1956, which resulted in his being unable to return to acting. CANNOTANSWER | During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise. | Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was part of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. He appeared with his comic partner Oliver Hardy in the film short The Lucky Dog in 1921, although they did not become an official team until late 1927. He then appeared exclusively with Hardy until retiring following his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In April 1961, on the 33rd Academy Awards, Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laurel and Hardy were ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians' Comedian. In 2019, Laurel topped a list of the greatest British comedians compiled by a panel on the television channel Gold. In 2009, a bronze statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurel's home town of Ulverston.
Early life
Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents' house on 16 June 1890 in Argyle Street, Ulverston, Lancashire, to Arthur J. Jefferson, an actor and theatre manager from Bishop Auckland, and Margaret (née Metcalfe), an actress from Ulverston. He was one of five children. One of them was Edward, an actor who would appear in four of Stan's shorts.
His parents were both active in the theatre and always very busy. In his early years, Laurel spent much time living with his maternal grandmother, Sarah Metcalfe. He attended school at King James I Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the King's School in Tynemouth, Northumberland.
He moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel began work. His boyhood hero was Dan Leno, one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural affinity for the theatre, Laurel gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow at the age of sixteen, where he polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. It was the music hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat and nonsensical understatement.
In 1912 Laurel worked together with Ted Desmond on tour in Netherlands and Belgium as a comedy double act known as the Barto Bros. Their act, which involved them dressing as Romans, finished when Laurel was offered a spot in an American touring troupe. After Laurel left England for America the pair maintained a life-long friendship, sending letters and photos that documented Laurel's rise from an unknown British comedy actor in 1913 to one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1950s. The correspondence, spanning around 50 years and including photos of them being reunited in the US, was put up for auction by Desmond's grandson Geoffrey Nolan in 2018.
He joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors in 1910 with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson"; the troupe also included a young Charlie Chaplin. The music hall nurtured him, and he acted as Chaplin's understudy for some time. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. During the First World War, Laurel registered for military service in America on 5 June 1917, as required under the Selective Service Act. He was not called up; his registration card states his status as resident alien and his deafness as exemptions.
The Karno troupe broke up in the spring of 1914. Stan joined with two other former Karno performers, Edgar Hurley and his wife Ethel (known as "Wren") to form "The Three Comiques". On the advice of booking agent Gordon Bostock, they called themselves "the Keystone Trio". Stan started to do his character as an imitation of Charlie Chaplin, and the Hurleys began to do their parts as silent comedians Chester Conklin and Mabel Normand. They played successfully from February through October 1915, until the Hurleys and Stan parted ways. Between 1916 and 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became his lifelong friends, to form the Stan Jefferson Trio.
Amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in the silent film short The Lucky Dog (1921), before the two were a team. It was around this time that Laurel met Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time, he adopted the stage name of Laurel at Dahlberg's suggestion that his stage name Stan Jefferson was unlucky, due to it having thirteen letters. The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75 a week to star in two-reel comedies. After making his first film Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films in which Dahlberg and Laurel appeared together was the 1922 parody Mud and Sand.
By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had one unusual stipulation: that Dahlberg was not to appear in any of the films. Rock thought that her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, she started interfering with Laurel's work, so Rock offered her a cash settlement and a one-way ticket back to her native Australia, which she accepted. The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up (1924), Detained (1924), Monsieur Don't Care (1924), West of Hot Dog (1924), Somewhere in Wrong (1925), Twins (1925), Pie-Eyed (1925), The Snow Hawk (1925), Navy Blue Days (1925), The Sleuth (1925), Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925) and Half a Man (1925).
Like his future mate, Hardy, Laurel was credited for directing or co-directing ten silent shorts (between 1925 and 1927). But, unlike Hardy, Laurel appeared in none of them. It was Hardy, however, who appeared in three of the shorts directed by Laurel, which are: Yes, Yes, Nanette! (1925), Wandering Papas (1926) and Madame Mystery (1926).
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel next signed with the Hal Roach studio, where he began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette (in which Oliver Hardy had a part under the name "Babe" Hardy). It had been his intention to work primarily as a writer and director.
The same year, Hardy, a member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and hospitalised. Because he was unable to work on the scheduled film, Get 'Em Young, Laurel was asked to return to acting to fill in. Starting early in 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in several short films, including Duck Soup, Slipping Wives and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.
Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in the lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature The Rogue Song. Their first starring feature Pardon Us was released in 1931. They continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Trouble at Roach Studio
During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach which resulted in the termination of his contract. Roach maintained separate contracts for Laurel and Hardy that expired at different times, so Hardy remained at the studio and was "teamed" with Harry Langdon for the 1939 film Zenobia. The studio discussed a series of films co-starring Hardy with Patsy Kelly to be called "The Hardy Family". But Laurel sued Roach over the contract dispute. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. The first film that Laurel and Hardy made after Laurel returned was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach.
Second World War
In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century-Fox to make ten films over five years. Laurel found, to his shock, that he and Hardy were hired only as actors, and were not expected to contribute to the staging, writing, or editing of the productions. When the films proved very successful, Laurel and Hardy were granted more freedom and gradually added more of their own material. They had made six Fox features when the studio suddenly abandoned B-picture production in December 1944. The team signed another contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942, resulting in two more features.
Revisiting his music hall days, Laurel returned to England in 1947 when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom performing in variety shows. Mobbed wherever they went, Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Variety Performance in front of King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe.
Around this time, Laurel found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Hardy to find solo projects, which he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films.
In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks.
In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Hardy suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, Hardy had another stroke on 14 September 1956, and was unable to return to acting.
Hardy's death
Oliver Hardy died on 7 August 1957. People who knew Laurel said that he was absolutely devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered from it; his wife told the press that he became physically ill upon hearing that Hardy was dying. Laurel was in fact too ill to attend his funeral and said, "Babe would understand". Although he continued to socialize with his fans, he refused to perform on stage or act in another film from then on as he had no interest in working without Hardy, turning down every offer he was given for a public appearance.
After Laurel and Hardy
In 1961, Stan Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy". Laurel was introduced by Bob Hope, and the award was accepted by Danny Kaye. Laurel had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small flat in the Oceana Apartments in Santa Monica, California. Laurel was gracious to fans and spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was also listed in the telephone directory and he would take calls from fans.
Jerry Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, and Lewis received suggestions from him for the production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well. Dick Van Dyke told a similar story. When he was just starting his career, he looked up Laurel's phone number, called him, and then visited him at his home. Van Dyke played Laurel on "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Laurel was offered a cameo role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but declined. He reportedly said he
did not want to be on screen in his old age, especially without Hardy. It appears, however, his involvement reached the stage of filming a background matching shot of his old time convertible, with a stand-in seated, at the wheel, donning a derby hat. The cameo appearance was then given to Jack Benny, who wore Laurel's signature derby in the scene.
Personal life
Laurel and Mae Dahlberg never married but lived together as common-law husband and wife from 1919 to 1925, before Dahlberg accepted a one-way ticket from Joe Rock to go back to her native Australia. In November 1937, Dahlberg was back in the US and suing Laurel for financial support. At the time, Laurel's second marriage was in the process of a divorce, with Dahlberg's legal suit adding to Laurel's woes. The matter was settled out of court. Dahlberg was described as a "relief project worker" by the court. Laurel was one of several popular British actors in Hollywood who never became a naturalised US citizen.
Laurel had four wives and married one of them a second time after their divorce. His first wife was Lois Neilson, whom he married on 13 August 1926. Together they had a daughter, Lois, who was born on . Their second child, Stanley, was born two months premature in May 1930, but died after nine days. Laurel and Neilson divorced in December 1934. Their daughter Lois died on aged 89.
In 1935, Laurel married Virginia Ruth Rogers (known as Ruth). In 1937, he filed for divorce, confessing that he was not over his ex-wife Lois, but Lois decided against a reconciliation. On New Year's Day 1938, Laurel married Vera Ivanova Shuvalova (known as Illeana), and Ruth accused him of bigamy, but their divorce had been finalised a couple of days before his new marriage. The new marriage was very volatile, and Illeana accused him of trying to bury her alive in the back yard of their San Fernando Valley home. He and Illeana separated in 1939 and divorced in 1940, with Illeana surrendering all claim to the Laurel surname on 1 February 1940 in exchange for $6,500. In 1941, Laurel remarried Virginia Ruth Rogers; they were divorced for the second time in early 1946. On 6 May 1946, he married Ida Kitaeva Raphael to whom he remained married until his death.
Death
Laurel was a smoker until suddenly quitting around 1960. In January 1965, he underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack. Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.
At his funeral service at Church of the Hills, Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Legacy and honours
Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1989, a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902. The steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In a 2005 UK poll, Comedians' Comedian, Laurel and Hardy were ranked top double act, and seventh overall. Along with Hardy, Laurel was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Neil Brand wrote a radio play entitled Stan, broadcast in 2004 on BBC Radio 4 and subsequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra, starring Tom Courtenay as Stan Laurel, in which Stan visits Oliver Hardy after Hardy has suffered his stroke and tries to say the things to his dying friend and partner that have been left unsaid. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Brand's radio play, in which Laurel meets Hardy on his deathbed and reminisces about their career.
A plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, marks Laurel and Hardy appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952, and staying with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub. In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre. In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston.
There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. There are two Laurel and Hardy museums in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia. One is operated by the town of Harlem, and the other is a private museum owned and operated by Gary Russeth, a Harlem resident. Jefferson Drive in Ulverston is named after him.
In 2013 Gail Louw and Jeffrey Holland debuted a short one-man play "...And this is my friend Mr Laurel" at the Camden Fringe festival. The play, starring Holland as Laurel, was taken on tour of the UK in 2014 until June 2015.
In the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, Steve Coogan portrayed Laurel (a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role) and John C. Reilly played Hardy. Developed by BBC Films, the film is set in the twilight of their careers, and focuses on their farewell tour of Britain and Ireland's variety halls in 1953.
In 2019 Laurel was voted the greatest ever British comedian by a panel on the British television channel Gold.
Filmography
Stan Laurel filmography (films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
Laurel and Hardy filmography (filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Bergen, Ronald. The Life and Times of Laurel and Hardy. New York: Smithmark, 1992. .
Bowers, Judith. Stan Laurel and Other Stars of the Panopticon: The Story of the Britannia Music Hall. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2007. .
Louvish, Simon. Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 2001. .
Marriot, A. J. Laurel & Hardy: The British Tours. Hitchen, Herts, UK: AJ Marriot, 1993. .
Levy, Joe, ed. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. New York: Wenner Books, 2005. .
McCabe, John. Babe: The Life of Oliver Hardy. London: Robson Books Ltd., 2004. .
McCabe, John. Comedy World of Stan Laurel. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975. .
McCabe, John. Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy: An Affectionate Biography. London: Robson Books, 2004, First edition 1961, .
Stone, Rob. Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Temecula, California: Split Reel Books, 1996
Okuda, Ted, and James L. Neibaur. Stan Without Ollie: The Stan Laurel Solo Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2012
Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel. New York: Stein and Day., 1980
External links
The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood article at Brenton Film by Danny Lawrence, Stan Laurel's biographer
The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project
English male comedians
Comedians from Lancashire
British male comedy actors
English entertainers
English male film actors
English male silent film actors
English male stage actors
English stunt performers
Music hall performers
Silent film comedians
Vaudeville performers
1890 births
1965 deaths
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
20th Century Fox contract players
Hal Roach Studios actors
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
English emigrants to the United States
British expatriate male actors in the United States
People educated at The King's School, Tynemouth
People educated at Stonelaw High School
People from Ulverston
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Articles containing video clips
19th-century English people
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
Hal Roach Studios short film series
People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School | false | [
"The Last Passenger is a 2013 novel written by Manel Loureiro. The plot is about a British journalist named Kate Kilroy who wants to finish her late husband's last story, which tells the story of the Valkyrie, a German 1930's ocean liner where mysterious disappearances have occurred since its maiden voyage. With the desire to finish the story and some curiosity, Kate decides to board the vessel on its new voyage, a voyage from which she might never return. Kate Kilroy boards the Valkyrie in Hamburg, Germany. 20 days after its publishing, The Last Passenger was listed on Amazon US's Best Sellers and is the first Spanish author to achieve this.\n\nPlot \nAugust 28, 1939. A coal-cargo ship named Pass of Ballaster is heading towards Bristol when it finds an abandoned-looking ocean liner named Valkyrie. A rescue team is assembled and sent to check the mysterious ship. When they board, they find a very interesting puzzle: a deserted ship, with recently cooked meals in the dining room; a few months-old baby dropped in the ballroom; and something else, something evil that no one can identify.\n\nPresent Day. Journalist Kate Kilroy is recovering from her husband's sudden death. In his memory, she decides to finish and publish the story he was working on before his death, the Valkyrie. She starts to research it and goes to an old naval base in northern England for some information. The local officers tell Kate the story of the Valkyrie and her ghostly legacy. She also learns that the ship's new owner is a multi-millionaire man named Isaac Feldman, who does anything to get what he wants. Kate meets an old man who was on board the Pass of Ballaster the night she found the Valkyrie. He tells her what happened on the ship when they first boarded, and what happened to the others from the crew. After trying to break into Isaac Feldman's house, Kate tells him what she knows about the ship and he reveals that he was the baby found in Valkyrie's ballroom. When she goes back to see the old man with Feldman, she finds him mutilated and deceased. Now being the only person who knows the whole story, Kate is invited by Feldman to join his team on the new voyage of the Valkyrie, to find out what really happened in 1939.\n\nReferences\n\n21st-century Spanish novels\n2013 novels",
"Something Happened is Joseph Heller's second novel (published in 1974, thirteen years after Catch-22). Its main character and narrator is Bob Slocum, a businessman who engages in a stream of consciousness narrative about his job, his family, his childhood, his sexual escapades, and his own psyche.\n\nPlot\n\nWhile there is an ongoing plot about Slocum preparing for a promotion at work, most of the book focuses on detailing various events from his life, ranging from early childhood to his predictions for the future, often in non-chronological order and with little if anything to connect one anecdote to the next. Near the end of the book, Slocum starts worrying about the state of his own sanity as he finds himself hallucinating or remembering events incorrectly, suggesting that some or all of the novel might be the product of his imagination, making him an unreliable narrator.\n\nSomething Happened has failed to achieve the renown of Catch-22 but has a cult following, with some considering it one of Heller's finest works.\n\nReception\nSomething Happened has frequently been criticized as overlong, rambling, and deeply unhappy. These sentiments are echoed in a review of the novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., but are balanced with praise for the novel's prose and the meticulous patience Heller took in the creation of the novel, stating, \"Is this book any good? Yes. It is splendidly put together and hypnotic to read. It is as clear and hard-edged as a cut diamond. Mr. Heller's concentration and patience are so evident on every page that one can only say that 'Something Happened' is at all points precisely what he hoped it would be.\" In a contemporary write-up for Kirkus Reviews, the reviewer states that \"there is none of the rogue absurdism or imaginative verve\" of Heller's previous novel, but praises the book's \"bravura, expertise and cumulative hook\".\n\nSomething Happened has since garnered a small base of devoted fans. In 2015, Carmen Petaccio referred to it as the \"most criminally overlooked great novel of the past half century [...] one of the most pleasurable, engrossing, and in retrospect moving American novels ever written.\" Naturi Thomas-Millard called it the \"best book you've never read\"; while agreeing that it is overlong, she billed it as \"an invaluable study in how to portray the horror of everyday life.\" Novelist Jonathan Franzen prefers Something Happened to Catch-22, and Christopher Buckley referred to the work as \"dark and brilliant\". Comedian Richard Lewis claims he \"happily lost most of [his] hope\" after reading the novel.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nKurt Vonnegut on 'Something Happened' from The New York Times Book Review (1974).\n\n1974 American novels\nNovels by Joseph Heller\nAlfred A. Knopf books\nFiction with unreliable narrators\nBooks with cover art by Paul Bacon\nBureaucracy in fiction"
] |
[
"Stan Laurel",
"20th Century Fox",
"when did he get a contract wiht 20th century fox?",
"In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox",
"What is something interesting that happened during this period?",
"During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise."
] | C_c23860af2294497ebab7a4d20dad0811_1 | what films did they make during this period? | 3 | what films did Stan Laurel make during 1941 period? | Stan Laurel | In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make ten films over five years. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise. In 1947, Laurel returned to England when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom, and the duo were mobbed wherever they went. Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe. Around this time, Stan found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Ollie to find solo projects and he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films. In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks. In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Laurel suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, his partner Hardy had a massive stroke on 14 September 1956, which resulted in his being unable to return to acting. CANNOTANSWER | The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs | Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was part of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. He appeared with his comic partner Oliver Hardy in the film short The Lucky Dog in 1921, although they did not become an official team until late 1927. He then appeared exclusively with Hardy until retiring following his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In April 1961, on the 33rd Academy Awards, Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laurel and Hardy were ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians' Comedian. In 2019, Laurel topped a list of the greatest British comedians compiled by a panel on the television channel Gold. In 2009, a bronze statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurel's home town of Ulverston.
Early life
Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents' house on 16 June 1890 in Argyle Street, Ulverston, Lancashire, to Arthur J. Jefferson, an actor and theatre manager from Bishop Auckland, and Margaret (née Metcalfe), an actress from Ulverston. He was one of five children. One of them was Edward, an actor who would appear in four of Stan's shorts.
His parents were both active in the theatre and always very busy. In his early years, Laurel spent much time living with his maternal grandmother, Sarah Metcalfe. He attended school at King James I Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the King's School in Tynemouth, Northumberland.
He moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel began work. His boyhood hero was Dan Leno, one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural affinity for the theatre, Laurel gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow at the age of sixteen, where he polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. It was the music hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat and nonsensical understatement.
In 1912 Laurel worked together with Ted Desmond on tour in Netherlands and Belgium as a comedy double act known as the Barto Bros. Their act, which involved them dressing as Romans, finished when Laurel was offered a spot in an American touring troupe. After Laurel left England for America the pair maintained a life-long friendship, sending letters and photos that documented Laurel's rise from an unknown British comedy actor in 1913 to one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1950s. The correspondence, spanning around 50 years and including photos of them being reunited in the US, was put up for auction by Desmond's grandson Geoffrey Nolan in 2018.
He joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors in 1910 with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson"; the troupe also included a young Charlie Chaplin. The music hall nurtured him, and he acted as Chaplin's understudy for some time. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. During the First World War, Laurel registered for military service in America on 5 June 1917, as required under the Selective Service Act. He was not called up; his registration card states his status as resident alien and his deafness as exemptions.
The Karno troupe broke up in the spring of 1914. Stan joined with two other former Karno performers, Edgar Hurley and his wife Ethel (known as "Wren") to form "The Three Comiques". On the advice of booking agent Gordon Bostock, they called themselves "the Keystone Trio". Stan started to do his character as an imitation of Charlie Chaplin, and the Hurleys began to do their parts as silent comedians Chester Conklin and Mabel Normand. They played successfully from February through October 1915, until the Hurleys and Stan parted ways. Between 1916 and 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became his lifelong friends, to form the Stan Jefferson Trio.
Amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in the silent film short The Lucky Dog (1921), before the two were a team. It was around this time that Laurel met Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time, he adopted the stage name of Laurel at Dahlberg's suggestion that his stage name Stan Jefferson was unlucky, due to it having thirteen letters. The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75 a week to star in two-reel comedies. After making his first film Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films in which Dahlberg and Laurel appeared together was the 1922 parody Mud and Sand.
By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had one unusual stipulation: that Dahlberg was not to appear in any of the films. Rock thought that her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, she started interfering with Laurel's work, so Rock offered her a cash settlement and a one-way ticket back to her native Australia, which she accepted. The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up (1924), Detained (1924), Monsieur Don't Care (1924), West of Hot Dog (1924), Somewhere in Wrong (1925), Twins (1925), Pie-Eyed (1925), The Snow Hawk (1925), Navy Blue Days (1925), The Sleuth (1925), Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925) and Half a Man (1925).
Like his future mate, Hardy, Laurel was credited for directing or co-directing ten silent shorts (between 1925 and 1927). But, unlike Hardy, Laurel appeared in none of them. It was Hardy, however, who appeared in three of the shorts directed by Laurel, which are: Yes, Yes, Nanette! (1925), Wandering Papas (1926) and Madame Mystery (1926).
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel next signed with the Hal Roach studio, where he began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette (in which Oliver Hardy had a part under the name "Babe" Hardy). It had been his intention to work primarily as a writer and director.
The same year, Hardy, a member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and hospitalised. Because he was unable to work on the scheduled film, Get 'Em Young, Laurel was asked to return to acting to fill in. Starting early in 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in several short films, including Duck Soup, Slipping Wives and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.
Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in the lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature The Rogue Song. Their first starring feature Pardon Us was released in 1931. They continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Trouble at Roach Studio
During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach which resulted in the termination of his contract. Roach maintained separate contracts for Laurel and Hardy that expired at different times, so Hardy remained at the studio and was "teamed" with Harry Langdon for the 1939 film Zenobia. The studio discussed a series of films co-starring Hardy with Patsy Kelly to be called "The Hardy Family". But Laurel sued Roach over the contract dispute. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. The first film that Laurel and Hardy made after Laurel returned was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach.
Second World War
In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century-Fox to make ten films over five years. Laurel found, to his shock, that he and Hardy were hired only as actors, and were not expected to contribute to the staging, writing, or editing of the productions. When the films proved very successful, Laurel and Hardy were granted more freedom and gradually added more of their own material. They had made six Fox features when the studio suddenly abandoned B-picture production in December 1944. The team signed another contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942, resulting in two more features.
Revisiting his music hall days, Laurel returned to England in 1947 when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom performing in variety shows. Mobbed wherever they went, Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Variety Performance in front of King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe.
Around this time, Laurel found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Hardy to find solo projects, which he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films.
In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks.
In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Hardy suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, Hardy had another stroke on 14 September 1956, and was unable to return to acting.
Hardy's death
Oliver Hardy died on 7 August 1957. People who knew Laurel said that he was absolutely devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered from it; his wife told the press that he became physically ill upon hearing that Hardy was dying. Laurel was in fact too ill to attend his funeral and said, "Babe would understand". Although he continued to socialize with his fans, he refused to perform on stage or act in another film from then on as he had no interest in working without Hardy, turning down every offer he was given for a public appearance.
After Laurel and Hardy
In 1961, Stan Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy". Laurel was introduced by Bob Hope, and the award was accepted by Danny Kaye. Laurel had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small flat in the Oceana Apartments in Santa Monica, California. Laurel was gracious to fans and spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was also listed in the telephone directory and he would take calls from fans.
Jerry Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, and Lewis received suggestions from him for the production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well. Dick Van Dyke told a similar story. When he was just starting his career, he looked up Laurel's phone number, called him, and then visited him at his home. Van Dyke played Laurel on "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Laurel was offered a cameo role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but declined. He reportedly said he
did not want to be on screen in his old age, especially without Hardy. It appears, however, his involvement reached the stage of filming a background matching shot of his old time convertible, with a stand-in seated, at the wheel, donning a derby hat. The cameo appearance was then given to Jack Benny, who wore Laurel's signature derby in the scene.
Personal life
Laurel and Mae Dahlberg never married but lived together as common-law husband and wife from 1919 to 1925, before Dahlberg accepted a one-way ticket from Joe Rock to go back to her native Australia. In November 1937, Dahlberg was back in the US and suing Laurel for financial support. At the time, Laurel's second marriage was in the process of a divorce, with Dahlberg's legal suit adding to Laurel's woes. The matter was settled out of court. Dahlberg was described as a "relief project worker" by the court. Laurel was one of several popular British actors in Hollywood who never became a naturalised US citizen.
Laurel had four wives and married one of them a second time after their divorce. His first wife was Lois Neilson, whom he married on 13 August 1926. Together they had a daughter, Lois, who was born on . Their second child, Stanley, was born two months premature in May 1930, but died after nine days. Laurel and Neilson divorced in December 1934. Their daughter Lois died on aged 89.
In 1935, Laurel married Virginia Ruth Rogers (known as Ruth). In 1937, he filed for divorce, confessing that he was not over his ex-wife Lois, but Lois decided against a reconciliation. On New Year's Day 1938, Laurel married Vera Ivanova Shuvalova (known as Illeana), and Ruth accused him of bigamy, but their divorce had been finalised a couple of days before his new marriage. The new marriage was very volatile, and Illeana accused him of trying to bury her alive in the back yard of their San Fernando Valley home. He and Illeana separated in 1939 and divorced in 1940, with Illeana surrendering all claim to the Laurel surname on 1 February 1940 in exchange for $6,500. In 1941, Laurel remarried Virginia Ruth Rogers; they were divorced for the second time in early 1946. On 6 May 1946, he married Ida Kitaeva Raphael to whom he remained married until his death.
Death
Laurel was a smoker until suddenly quitting around 1960. In January 1965, he underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack. Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.
At his funeral service at Church of the Hills, Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Legacy and honours
Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1989, a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902. The steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In a 2005 UK poll, Comedians' Comedian, Laurel and Hardy were ranked top double act, and seventh overall. Along with Hardy, Laurel was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Neil Brand wrote a radio play entitled Stan, broadcast in 2004 on BBC Radio 4 and subsequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra, starring Tom Courtenay as Stan Laurel, in which Stan visits Oliver Hardy after Hardy has suffered his stroke and tries to say the things to his dying friend and partner that have been left unsaid. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Brand's radio play, in which Laurel meets Hardy on his deathbed and reminisces about their career.
A plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, marks Laurel and Hardy appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952, and staying with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub. In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre. In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston.
There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. There are two Laurel and Hardy museums in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia. One is operated by the town of Harlem, and the other is a private museum owned and operated by Gary Russeth, a Harlem resident. Jefferson Drive in Ulverston is named after him.
In 2013 Gail Louw and Jeffrey Holland debuted a short one-man play "...And this is my friend Mr Laurel" at the Camden Fringe festival. The play, starring Holland as Laurel, was taken on tour of the UK in 2014 until June 2015.
In the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, Steve Coogan portrayed Laurel (a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role) and John C. Reilly played Hardy. Developed by BBC Films, the film is set in the twilight of their careers, and focuses on their farewell tour of Britain and Ireland's variety halls in 1953.
In 2019 Laurel was voted the greatest ever British comedian by a panel on the British television channel Gold.
Filmography
Stan Laurel filmography (films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
Laurel and Hardy filmography (filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Bergen, Ronald. The Life and Times of Laurel and Hardy. New York: Smithmark, 1992. .
Bowers, Judith. Stan Laurel and Other Stars of the Panopticon: The Story of the Britannia Music Hall. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2007. .
Louvish, Simon. Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 2001. .
Marriot, A. J. Laurel & Hardy: The British Tours. Hitchen, Herts, UK: AJ Marriot, 1993. .
Levy, Joe, ed. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. New York: Wenner Books, 2005. .
McCabe, John. Babe: The Life of Oliver Hardy. London: Robson Books Ltd., 2004. .
McCabe, John. Comedy World of Stan Laurel. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975. .
McCabe, John. Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy: An Affectionate Biography. London: Robson Books, 2004, First edition 1961, .
Stone, Rob. Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Temecula, California: Split Reel Books, 1996
Okuda, Ted, and James L. Neibaur. Stan Without Ollie: The Stan Laurel Solo Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2012
Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel. New York: Stein and Day., 1980
External links
The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood article at Brenton Film by Danny Lawrence, Stan Laurel's biographer
The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project
English male comedians
Comedians from Lancashire
British male comedy actors
English entertainers
English male film actors
English male silent film actors
English male stage actors
English stunt performers
Music hall performers
Silent film comedians
Vaudeville performers
1890 births
1965 deaths
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
20th Century Fox contract players
Hal Roach Studios actors
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
English emigrants to the United States
British expatriate male actors in the United States
People educated at The King's School, Tynemouth
People educated at Stonelaw High School
People from Ulverston
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Articles containing video clips
19th-century English people
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
Hal Roach Studios short film series
People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School | false | [
"Stir is a 1980 Australian film directed by Stephen Wallace in his feature directorial debut. The prison film was written by Bob Jewson, based upon his own experience, while incarcerated, of the 1974 prison riot at Bathurst Correctional Complex and the subsequent Royal Commission into New South Wales Prisons. The film was shot in Clare Valley, Gladstone and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. It premiered at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.\n\nCast\n Bryan Brown as China Jackson\n Max Phipps as orton\n Gary Waddell as Dave\n Phil Motherwell as Alby\n Robert Noble as Riley\n\nProduction\nBob Jewson was a prisoner in Bathurst Gaol at the time of the riot and wrote a script, originally called Bathurst, based on the event. Martha Ansara who was working for the Prison Action Group read it and introduced Jewson to Stephen Wallace, who decided to make the film. Other accounts have Tony Green making the introduction.\n\nThe New South Wales Film Corporation was looking at investing in some films made by directors who had made successful short films. Wallace had just made the acclaimed one-hour drama The Love Letters from Teralba Road and they asked him if he had any projects. He told them about his prison drama.\n\nAs part of his preparations, Wallace had the actors do a clown workshop for four days and a longer workshop of three weeks. Most of them disliked the clown workshop which Wallace later admitted was a mistake.\n\nThe original drafts of the script had some female characters, such as a social worker and a girlfriend of Bryan Brown's character, but these were dropped.\n \nThe film was shot over five weeks in October and November 1979 in South Australia at an abandoned prison in Gladstone. The makers had trouble sourcing enough extras and had to fly them in from Adelaide; some of the actors who did appear had been to prison. Wallace tried to get more Aboriginal extras but was unable.\n\nDuring filming the movie was known as The Promotion of Mr Smith until Jewson suggested the shorter title Stir. Wallace:\nBob Jewson said one thing - and I think this is what we tried to make the theme of the film, although it was very hidden - that riots don't happen out of the blue. The prison authorities make you believe that all these criminals that are incarcerated are at all times dangerous and they're trying to get out. But Bob said that's never true; most of them have accepted their lot and they're trying to serve their time. They only get into a riot situation when they're treated badly and unfairly over a long period. He said most people don't want a riot; they know what it's going to mean, longer in jail.\n\nReception\nThe film was reasonably popular and according to Wallace it made a profit.\n\nCritical reception\nDavid O'Connell of In Film Australia:\n\nAccolades\n\nAt the 1980 Australian Film Institute Awards, Stir, received 13 nominations but did not win any categories.\n\nDVD availability\nThe DVD is available from Umbrella Entertainment and contains a new 16:9 aspect ratio transfer, a 50-minute interview feature with key cast and crew, as well as the original theatrical trailer.\n\nSee also\nCinema of Australia\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n Sir at Australian Screen Online\n Stir at Oz Movies\n\n1980 films\n1980 drama films\n1980s prison films\nAustralian films\nAustralian drama films\nEnglish-language films\nFilms shot in Flinders Ranges\nFilms directed by Stephen Wallace\nAustralian action adventure films\n1980 directorial debut films\nAustralian LGBT-related films\nLGBT-related drama films\n1980 LGBT-related films",
"The Katy series is a set of novels by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, writing under the pen-name of Susan Coolidge. The first in the series, What Katy Did, was published in 1872 and followed the next year by What Katy Did at School. What Katy Did Next was released in 1886. Two further novels, Clover (1888) and In the High Valley (1890), focused upon other members of the eponymous character's family. The series was popular with readers in the late 19th century.\n\nThe series was later adapted into a TV series entitled Katy in 1962, and two films, one also called Katy in 1972 and What Katy Did in 1999.\n\nNovels\n What Katy Did\n What Katy Did at School\n What Katy Did Next\n Clover\n In the High Valley\n\nAdaptions\n Katy (TV series, 1962)\n Katy (film, 1972)\n What Katy Did (film, 1999)\n\nLiterary Criticism\nCritics are divided about how much the series played into period gender norms and often compare the series to Little Women. Foster and Simmons argue for its subversion of gender in their book What Katy Read: Feminist Re-Readings of ‘Classic’ Stories for Girls by suggesting the series “deconstructs family hierarchies”.\n\nInfluence\nThe series is unusual for its time by having an entry which focuses not on the family life at home but at school in What Katy Did at School.\n\nIn a 1995 survey, What Katy Did was voted as one of the top 10 books for 12-year-old girls.\n\nSee also\n\nSarah Chauncey Woolsey\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSeries details at Fantastic Fiction\n\nKaty series\n1870s novels\nNovel series\nSeries of children's books\nNovels by Susan Coolidge\n1880s novels\n1890s novels\n1962 American television series debuts\n1972 films\n1999 films"
] |
[
"Stan Laurel",
"20th Century Fox",
"when did he get a contract wiht 20th century fox?",
"In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox",
"What is something interesting that happened during this period?",
"During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise.",
"what films did they make during this period?",
"The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs"
] | C_c23860af2294497ebab7a4d20dad0811_1 | how long was he with 20th century fox? | 4 | how long was Stan Laurel with 20th century fox? | Stan Laurel | In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make ten films over five years. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise. In 1947, Laurel returned to England when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom, and the duo were mobbed wherever they went. Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe. Around this time, Stan found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Ollie to find solo projects and he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films. In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks. In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Laurel suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, his partner Hardy had a massive stroke on 14 September 1956, which resulted in his being unable to return to acting. CANNOTANSWER | CANNOTANSWER | Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was part of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. He appeared with his comic partner Oliver Hardy in the film short The Lucky Dog in 1921, although they did not become an official team until late 1927. He then appeared exclusively with Hardy until retiring following his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In April 1961, on the 33rd Academy Awards, Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laurel and Hardy were ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians' Comedian. In 2019, Laurel topped a list of the greatest British comedians compiled by a panel on the television channel Gold. In 2009, a bronze statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurel's home town of Ulverston.
Early life
Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents' house on 16 June 1890 in Argyle Street, Ulverston, Lancashire, to Arthur J. Jefferson, an actor and theatre manager from Bishop Auckland, and Margaret (née Metcalfe), an actress from Ulverston. He was one of five children. One of them was Edward, an actor who would appear in four of Stan's shorts.
His parents were both active in the theatre and always very busy. In his early years, Laurel spent much time living with his maternal grandmother, Sarah Metcalfe. He attended school at King James I Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the King's School in Tynemouth, Northumberland.
He moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel began work. His boyhood hero was Dan Leno, one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural affinity for the theatre, Laurel gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow at the age of sixteen, where he polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. It was the music hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat and nonsensical understatement.
In 1912 Laurel worked together with Ted Desmond on tour in Netherlands and Belgium as a comedy double act known as the Barto Bros. Their act, which involved them dressing as Romans, finished when Laurel was offered a spot in an American touring troupe. After Laurel left England for America the pair maintained a life-long friendship, sending letters and photos that documented Laurel's rise from an unknown British comedy actor in 1913 to one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1950s. The correspondence, spanning around 50 years and including photos of them being reunited in the US, was put up for auction by Desmond's grandson Geoffrey Nolan in 2018.
He joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors in 1910 with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson"; the troupe also included a young Charlie Chaplin. The music hall nurtured him, and he acted as Chaplin's understudy for some time. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. During the First World War, Laurel registered for military service in America on 5 June 1917, as required under the Selective Service Act. He was not called up; his registration card states his status as resident alien and his deafness as exemptions.
The Karno troupe broke up in the spring of 1914. Stan joined with two other former Karno performers, Edgar Hurley and his wife Ethel (known as "Wren") to form "The Three Comiques". On the advice of booking agent Gordon Bostock, they called themselves "the Keystone Trio". Stan started to do his character as an imitation of Charlie Chaplin, and the Hurleys began to do their parts as silent comedians Chester Conklin and Mabel Normand. They played successfully from February through October 1915, until the Hurleys and Stan parted ways. Between 1916 and 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became his lifelong friends, to form the Stan Jefferson Trio.
Amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in the silent film short The Lucky Dog (1921), before the two were a team. It was around this time that Laurel met Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time, he adopted the stage name of Laurel at Dahlberg's suggestion that his stage name Stan Jefferson was unlucky, due to it having thirteen letters. The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75 a week to star in two-reel comedies. After making his first film Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films in which Dahlberg and Laurel appeared together was the 1922 parody Mud and Sand.
By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had one unusual stipulation: that Dahlberg was not to appear in any of the films. Rock thought that her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, she started interfering with Laurel's work, so Rock offered her a cash settlement and a one-way ticket back to her native Australia, which she accepted. The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up (1924), Detained (1924), Monsieur Don't Care (1924), West of Hot Dog (1924), Somewhere in Wrong (1925), Twins (1925), Pie-Eyed (1925), The Snow Hawk (1925), Navy Blue Days (1925), The Sleuth (1925), Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925) and Half a Man (1925).
Like his future mate, Hardy, Laurel was credited for directing or co-directing ten silent shorts (between 1925 and 1927). But, unlike Hardy, Laurel appeared in none of them. It was Hardy, however, who appeared in three of the shorts directed by Laurel, which are: Yes, Yes, Nanette! (1925), Wandering Papas (1926) and Madame Mystery (1926).
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel next signed with the Hal Roach studio, where he began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette (in which Oliver Hardy had a part under the name "Babe" Hardy). It had been his intention to work primarily as a writer and director.
The same year, Hardy, a member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and hospitalised. Because he was unable to work on the scheduled film, Get 'Em Young, Laurel was asked to return to acting to fill in. Starting early in 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in several short films, including Duck Soup, Slipping Wives and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.
Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in the lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature The Rogue Song. Their first starring feature Pardon Us was released in 1931. They continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Trouble at Roach Studio
During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach which resulted in the termination of his contract. Roach maintained separate contracts for Laurel and Hardy that expired at different times, so Hardy remained at the studio and was "teamed" with Harry Langdon for the 1939 film Zenobia. The studio discussed a series of films co-starring Hardy with Patsy Kelly to be called "The Hardy Family". But Laurel sued Roach over the contract dispute. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. The first film that Laurel and Hardy made after Laurel returned was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach.
Second World War
In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century-Fox to make ten films over five years. Laurel found, to his shock, that he and Hardy were hired only as actors, and were not expected to contribute to the staging, writing, or editing of the productions. When the films proved very successful, Laurel and Hardy were granted more freedom and gradually added more of their own material. They had made six Fox features when the studio suddenly abandoned B-picture production in December 1944. The team signed another contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942, resulting in two more features.
Revisiting his music hall days, Laurel returned to England in 1947 when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom performing in variety shows. Mobbed wherever they went, Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Variety Performance in front of King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe.
Around this time, Laurel found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Hardy to find solo projects, which he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films.
In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks.
In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Hardy suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, Hardy had another stroke on 14 September 1956, and was unable to return to acting.
Hardy's death
Oliver Hardy died on 7 August 1957. People who knew Laurel said that he was absolutely devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered from it; his wife told the press that he became physically ill upon hearing that Hardy was dying. Laurel was in fact too ill to attend his funeral and said, "Babe would understand". Although he continued to socialize with his fans, he refused to perform on stage or act in another film from then on as he had no interest in working without Hardy, turning down every offer he was given for a public appearance.
After Laurel and Hardy
In 1961, Stan Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy". Laurel was introduced by Bob Hope, and the award was accepted by Danny Kaye. Laurel had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small flat in the Oceana Apartments in Santa Monica, California. Laurel was gracious to fans and spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was also listed in the telephone directory and he would take calls from fans.
Jerry Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, and Lewis received suggestions from him for the production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well. Dick Van Dyke told a similar story. When he was just starting his career, he looked up Laurel's phone number, called him, and then visited him at his home. Van Dyke played Laurel on "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Laurel was offered a cameo role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but declined. He reportedly said he
did not want to be on screen in his old age, especially without Hardy. It appears, however, his involvement reached the stage of filming a background matching shot of his old time convertible, with a stand-in seated, at the wheel, donning a derby hat. The cameo appearance was then given to Jack Benny, who wore Laurel's signature derby in the scene.
Personal life
Laurel and Mae Dahlberg never married but lived together as common-law husband and wife from 1919 to 1925, before Dahlberg accepted a one-way ticket from Joe Rock to go back to her native Australia. In November 1937, Dahlberg was back in the US and suing Laurel for financial support. At the time, Laurel's second marriage was in the process of a divorce, with Dahlberg's legal suit adding to Laurel's woes. The matter was settled out of court. Dahlberg was described as a "relief project worker" by the court. Laurel was one of several popular British actors in Hollywood who never became a naturalised US citizen.
Laurel had four wives and married one of them a second time after their divorce. His first wife was Lois Neilson, whom he married on 13 August 1926. Together they had a daughter, Lois, who was born on . Their second child, Stanley, was born two months premature in May 1930, but died after nine days. Laurel and Neilson divorced in December 1934. Their daughter Lois died on aged 89.
In 1935, Laurel married Virginia Ruth Rogers (known as Ruth). In 1937, he filed for divorce, confessing that he was not over his ex-wife Lois, but Lois decided against a reconciliation. On New Year's Day 1938, Laurel married Vera Ivanova Shuvalova (known as Illeana), and Ruth accused him of bigamy, but their divorce had been finalised a couple of days before his new marriage. The new marriage was very volatile, and Illeana accused him of trying to bury her alive in the back yard of their San Fernando Valley home. He and Illeana separated in 1939 and divorced in 1940, with Illeana surrendering all claim to the Laurel surname on 1 February 1940 in exchange for $6,500. In 1941, Laurel remarried Virginia Ruth Rogers; they were divorced for the second time in early 1946. On 6 May 1946, he married Ida Kitaeva Raphael to whom he remained married until his death.
Death
Laurel was a smoker until suddenly quitting around 1960. In January 1965, he underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack. Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.
At his funeral service at Church of the Hills, Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Legacy and honours
Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1989, a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902. The steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In a 2005 UK poll, Comedians' Comedian, Laurel and Hardy were ranked top double act, and seventh overall. Along with Hardy, Laurel was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Neil Brand wrote a radio play entitled Stan, broadcast in 2004 on BBC Radio 4 and subsequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra, starring Tom Courtenay as Stan Laurel, in which Stan visits Oliver Hardy after Hardy has suffered his stroke and tries to say the things to his dying friend and partner that have been left unsaid. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Brand's radio play, in which Laurel meets Hardy on his deathbed and reminisces about their career.
A plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, marks Laurel and Hardy appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952, and staying with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub. In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre. In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston.
There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. There are two Laurel and Hardy museums in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia. One is operated by the town of Harlem, and the other is a private museum owned and operated by Gary Russeth, a Harlem resident. Jefferson Drive in Ulverston is named after him.
In 2013 Gail Louw and Jeffrey Holland debuted a short one-man play "...And this is my friend Mr Laurel" at the Camden Fringe festival. The play, starring Holland as Laurel, was taken on tour of the UK in 2014 until June 2015.
In the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, Steve Coogan portrayed Laurel (a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role) and John C. Reilly played Hardy. Developed by BBC Films, the film is set in the twilight of their careers, and focuses on their farewell tour of Britain and Ireland's variety halls in 1953.
In 2019 Laurel was voted the greatest ever British comedian by a panel on the British television channel Gold.
Filmography
Stan Laurel filmography (films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
Laurel and Hardy filmography (filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Bergen, Ronald. The Life and Times of Laurel and Hardy. New York: Smithmark, 1992. .
Bowers, Judith. Stan Laurel and Other Stars of the Panopticon: The Story of the Britannia Music Hall. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2007. .
Louvish, Simon. Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 2001. .
Marriot, A. J. Laurel & Hardy: The British Tours. Hitchen, Herts, UK: AJ Marriot, 1993. .
Levy, Joe, ed. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. New York: Wenner Books, 2005. .
McCabe, John. Babe: The Life of Oliver Hardy. London: Robson Books Ltd., 2004. .
McCabe, John. Comedy World of Stan Laurel. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975. .
McCabe, John. Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy: An Affectionate Biography. London: Robson Books, 2004, First edition 1961, .
Stone, Rob. Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Temecula, California: Split Reel Books, 1996
Okuda, Ted, and James L. Neibaur. Stan Without Ollie: The Stan Laurel Solo Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2012
Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel. New York: Stein and Day., 1980
External links
The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood article at Brenton Film by Danny Lawrence, Stan Laurel's biographer
The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project
English male comedians
Comedians from Lancashire
British male comedy actors
English entertainers
English male film actors
English male silent film actors
English male stage actors
English stunt performers
Music hall performers
Silent film comedians
Vaudeville performers
1890 births
1965 deaths
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
20th Century Fox contract players
Hal Roach Studios actors
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
English emigrants to the United States
British expatriate male actors in the United States
People educated at The King's School, Tynemouth
People educated at Stonelaw High School
People from Ulverston
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Articles containing video clips
19th-century English people
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
Hal Roach Studios short film series
People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School | false | [
"Tony Destra (September 20, 1954 – February 8, 1987), was an American drummer who played for the glam metal bands Cinderella and Britny Fox. Before Cinderella or Britny Fox, Tony was the drummer for another popular Philadelphia area band called Enforcer. The singer for Enforcer was Bill Mattson who would gain later recognition as the frontman for Tangier. Tony played on Cinderella's indy 45 of \"Shake Me\" and \"Somebody Save Me\". After he left Cinderella, he joined Britny Fox in 1985. He played on the Britny Fox demo In America in 1986. Tony died in a car accident on February 8, 1987.\n\nIn Cinderella, he was replaced by drummer Jim Drnec. In Britny Fox he was replaced by drummer Adam F Ferraioli who was then himself replaced by long-term drummer Johnny Dee.\n\nDiscography\n\nWith Cinderella\nDemos\n\nWith Britny Fox\nIn America (demo) (1986)\n\nReferences\n\n1954 births\n1987 deaths\nRoad incident deaths in Pennsylvania\nAmerican rock drummers\nGlam metal musicians\nCinderella (band) members\nBritny Fox members\n20th-century American drummers\nAmerican male drummers\n20th-century American male musicians",
"20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1994 to 2020; from 1958 to 1985, 20th Century-Fox Television and from 1949 to 1958, TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is a part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company.\n\nThe first and original incarnation of 20th Television was the syndication and distribution arm of 20th Century Fox Television until it was folded into Disney–ABC Domestic Television on August 10, 2020.\n\nThe company was originally established as the television production unit of 20th Century Studios (previously 20th Century Fox) since 1949. The original copyright holder for 20th Television's library was under 20th Century Fox until December 2020. The studio is best known for being the original programming supplier of the Fox network, and being the television distributor for the 20th Century Studios' film library.\n\n20th Television was part of The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets. Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox was completed on March 20, 2019. The company's current name was adopted on August 10, 2020. On December 4, 2020, the company started using 20th Television, Inc. for the copyright of 20th Television and 20th Television Animation productions as a Disney subsidiary.\n\nHistory\n\nTCF Television Productions, Inc. (1949–1958) \n20th Century Fox Television was originally formed in 1949 by 20th Century-Fox as other studios were branching out into television production. The company was known as TCF Television Productions, Inc. from its inception until 1958. Its first TV series was Crusade in Europe, which was produced for ABC.\n\nIn 1955, Fox intended to set up a TV film subsidiary on the company's Western Avenue lot in Hollywood, but it never materialized.\n\nFox did not produce another TV show until 1955, when it launched its very first series, The 20th Century-Fox Hour on CBS, after the success of ABC's hit show Disneyland. In 1956, Fox sold its second show to CBS, My Friend Flicka, which is based on the Flicka film series.\n\nLater that year, Irving Asher, who was a very successful film producer, was made general manager of TCF Television Productions. In 1956, Fox sold the Broken Arrow TV project, which is based on the 1950 film of the same name, to ABC.\n\nIn 1957, Fox cemented a pact with National Telefilm Associates (NTA) to produce How to Marry a Millionaire, which was based on the 1953 movie of the same name, and Man Without a Gun. NTA served as distributor of the series, which were to play on the NTA Film Network.\n\n20th Century-Fox Television (1958–1985) \nIn 1958, the company was renamed to 20th Century-Fox Television. Around the same time, Martin Manulis, producer of CBS' Playhouse 90, joined 20th Century-Fox as head of television. Under Manulis' watch, the company developed Adventures in Paradise for ABC, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis for CBS and Five Fingers for NBC. In the following year, Fox also sold the drama Hong Kong to ABC.\n\nBy 1960, Roy Huggins, who was lured from Warner Bros. Television, was tapped to join 20th Century-Fox Television as vice president in charge of production. During Huggins' watch, he is known for refreshing the Hong Kong show. He also oversaw the development of the three programs for ABC, which were the comedy Margie and dramas Follow the Sun and Bus Stop. In 1961, William Self was appointed to replace Huggins.\n\nIn 1962, the company decreased its output to one show, then produced no shows by 1963. Roy Huggins departed to join Revue Studios. During the short-lived dark period in 1963, the company had signed Hal Kanter and Paul Monash to production deals. Later that year, highly successful feature film producer Irwin Allen was moved from its feature film unit to its television unit to serve as producer for the studio.\n\nThe company had returned to producing prime-time programs by 1964. The first shows were the ABC sitcom Valentine's Day, the ABC dramas Peyton Place, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and 12 O'Clock High; and the NBC drama Daniel Boone. Later that year, William Dozier and his Greenway Productions studio signed a deal with 20th Century-Fox to develop TV shows. By 1965, Fox was producing several new shows for primetime, such as The Legend of Jesse James, The Long, Hot Summer, The Loner and Irwin Allen's science-fiction drama Lost in Space, to be followed by Batman, which is based on the comic book series, and Blue Light.\n\nThe 1966–67 season was not a good year for Fox's TV unit, which was producing the ABC sitcom The Tammy Grimes Show and the ABC dramas The Man Who Never Was, The Felony Squad, The Green Hornet and Irwin Allen's science-fiction show The Time Tunnel. Although most of the new shows in the season did not last long, Felony Squad turned out to be a hit. The 1967–68 season was similarly poor for Fox, as it only had two new shows, Custer and Judd, for the Defense, both for ABC. Although Custer bombed, Judd, for the Defense was initially popular. It was cancelled after only two seasons. Fox also expanded its output to commission a Saturday morning show in collaboration with Filmation, Journey to the Center of the Earth.\n\nThe 1968–69 season was an even worse year for 20th Century-Fox Television, which saw the British co-production Journey to the Unknown and Irwin Allen's final science-fiction drama to be produced, Land of the Giants, for ABC; the CBS drama Lancer; and the NBC sitcoms The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and Julia. Although Julia was deemed a hit, most of the shows in the season crumbled. Fox did have one additional Saturday morning cartoon for Filmation, Fantastic Voyage. In 1969, Fox entered the game show fray by signing a deal to distribute Beat the Clock, a revival of the instantly popular 1950s game show. The decade closed out with the 1969-70 TV season and two new programs, Room 222 for ABC and Bracken's World for NBC. Also that year, Grant Tinker was hired to join the studio. Two years later, he quit due to conflicts with running MTM Enterprises.\n\nThe 1970s was not a good decade for Fox's TV unit. Though the studio started strong this decade with the shows Nanny and the Professor on ABC and Arnie for CBS, the studio did have one hit for the decade, M*A*S*H, and later on, in 1979, produced another hit, Trapper John, M.D., which was immediately popular in the 1980s. Other Fox shows for the 1970s, like the dramas Cade's County, Planet of the Apes, The New Perry Mason, Irwin Allen's The Swiss Family Robinson, Young Dan'l Boone, James at 15, W.E.B., The Paper Chase, Anna and the King, Roll Out, Karen, Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Husbands, Wives & Lovers and Billy all bombed, although The Paper Chase became a cult classic and gave Showtime additional seasons.\n\nFox also distributed the game show Masquerade Party, produced by Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall Productions, aired for the 1974–75 season. From 1976 to 1978, Fox distributed Liar's Club for two years, and also distributed Celebrity Sweepstakes, both of these were produced by Ralph Andrews Productions. In 1973, Fox is distributing the syndicated Canadian videotape production The Starlost, produced by Glen-Warren Productions.\n\nIn 1980, television producer Glen A. Larson quit Universal and joined 20th Century-Fox Television. The first show was The Fall Guy, which was a hit and the only Fox/Larson show to do so. The other Fox/Larson collaborations Trauma Center, Manimal, Automan, Masquerade, Cover Up and Half Nelson did not fare well due to poor ratings. By August 1980, other producers and agencies, like Clyde Phillips (Blue Hill Avenue Productions), former employee of Bob Banner Associates and Marc Merson (Brownstone Productions), former employee of Lorimar Productions had struck a deal with the studio.\n\nOther series of the early 80s, like Hagen, Breaking Away, Ladies' Man, Jessica Novak, 9 to 5, It's Not Easy, Emerald Point N.A.S. and AfterMASH did not fare well in the ratings, although AfterMASH ended up being a minor hit, especially in its first season, and 9 to 5 going well in syndication after being a minor network hit in its original ABC run. In 1984, James L. Brooks and his Gracie Films company was moved to 20th Century-Fox for a film and TV partnership, creating a long relationship that lasted until the early 1990s when he moved to Sony.\n\n20th Century Fox Television and the Metromedia buyout/Murdoch era (1985–1989) \nFrom 1985, the hyphen was permanently deleted from the brand name from both its movie and television counterparts, with 20th Century-Fox changing to 20th Century Fox. In 1985, after Steven Bochco left MTM and the Hill Street Blues program, he moved to 20th Century Fox Television to start the NBC crime drama L.A. Law and the ABC dramedy Hooperman, and marked the return of success for its television studio. During that same year, Fox returned to success with the sitcom Mr. Belvedere, which was an instantly popular hit. Also that same year, Fox has sold its sitcom Charlie & Co. to CBS, which tanked after only one season. The second new sitcom under the Murdoch regime was Fathers and Sons, which was sold to NBC, which also flopped after one season.\n\nIn 1986, Fox had purchased the assets of Metromedia, including its television stations and the distribution subsidiary, Metromedia Producers Corporation, who has currently distributing the series at that time, Small Wonder. Fox has also sold The Wizard to CBS, and Heart of the City to ABC for the 1986-1987 television season in addition to L.A. Law on NBC, which helped save the television industry of Fox. Fox also introduced the sitcom The Tracey Ullman Show, produced by Gracie Films for the Fox network, which introduced The Simpsons, that the success spawned a spinoff in 1989 that saved Fox's struggling television unit. Fox also distributed the sitcom The New Adventures of Beans Baxter, produced internally by Fox Square Productions.\n\nFor the 1987–88 season, Fox has sold the sitcom Second Chance to the then-new Fox television network, and sold the drama Leg Work to CBS, and the sitcom Pursuit of Happiness to ABC, in addition to Hooperman. In the mid-1980s, John Ritter and his Adam Productions company signed a contract with Fox to produce material. In addition of Hooperman, his Adam Productions company, in partnership with Fox is selling two sitcoms Anything But Love and Have Faith to ABC. From 1986 to 2019, 20th Century Fox Television (along with the two successors below) served as the Fox television network's official production arm (with Fox Television Studios being viewed as the network's unofficial television production division), producing the bulk of television series airing on the television network.\n\n20th Television (production arm) (1989–1994) \nIn 1989, 20th Century Fox Television's functions were taken over by Twentieth Television Corporation, a separate entity from 20th Century Fox. Both companies were subsidiaries of News Corporation unit Fox Inc.; the move was made to separate the television productions from the movie studio in order to increase the latter's output.\n\nFor the 1989–90 season, 20th Television was distributing programs from Steven Bochco Productions that were aired on ABC. The first to come out of the deal was Doogie Howser, M.D., which lasted four seasons on the air. Also introduced this season was to sell Alien Nation to the Fox network, and introduced Sister Kate to the NBC network, in addition to The Simpsons. In mid-1990, Twentieth Television had sold the sitcom Working Girl to the NBC television network. Twentieth Television also offered the variety series In Living Color to the Fox television network, which introduced the talent of stars like Keenan Ivory Wayans and David Alan Grier.\n\nAlso that same year, Kevin Wendle, vice president of the Fox Entertainment Group has quit to start Sleepy Hollow Productions struck a deal with Twentieth Television to produce projects that was made for the studio.\n\nFor the 1990-91 television season, 20th Television has sold Working It Out to NBC, and has also sold the sitcoms Babes, Good Grief and True Colors to the new Fox network. Twentieth Television also distributed the show Cop Rock, produced by Steven Bochco Productions for ABC via development deal this same season. Also at midseason, Twentieth Television had purchased The Sunday Comics to the Fox television network. Also, at the end of 1990, it is announced that Joseph F. Greene would leave the company to become an independent consultant to the company. At the same time, Keenan Ivory Wayans received an exclusive deal with the studio.\n\nBy the 1991–92 season, the Twentieth Television production company has sold the comedy Drexell's Class to the Fox television network, and distributed the Steven Bochco crime drama Civil Wars to the ABC television network. Twentieth Television also distributed the midseason cartoon Capitol Critters, a joint production of Hanna-Barbera and Steven Bochco, to the ABC television network in the spring of 1992, along with the Fox comedy Stand By Your Man, which is part of a contract between Twentieth Television and British producer WitzEnd Productions.\n\nAlso in 1991, David E. Kelley, who had produced two shows for Steven Bochco, L.A. Law and Doogie Howser, M.D., announced that he was quit to sign a joint agreement with CBS, who aired the networks, and Twentieth Television, who was distributing the programs. The first program to come out of the deal was the family dramedy Picket Fences, which premiered in the 1992–93 season. In 1992, Peter Roth, who had left Stephen J. Cannell's production company joined 20th Television, and instrumental in the development of the subsequent seasons.\n\nIn the 1992–93 season, Twentieth Television has sold the sitcom Rhythm & Blues to the NBC television network, but it failed to catch on in the ratings. This was followed by a joint production between British-based WitzEnd Productions, Twentieth Television and CBS Entertainment Productions, Dudley, which was a vehicle for Dudley Moore, which aired in the spring of 1993, but it also failed to catch on in the ratings. The company had also distributed the half-hour crime drama Likely Suspects for the Fox network, which was produced by Four Point Entertainment. In mid-1992, actor Chevy Chase received a deal with 20th Television to star in a late night comedy show, only to be tanked after only one season on the air.\n\nBy the 1993–94 season, Twentieth Television has sold The X-Files to the Fox television network, becoming the division's most profitable television show and the biggest ambitious television project, spawning 9 seasons, a revival series and a multimedia franchise. That same season, Twentieth Television is distributing a cop show and another high-profile project NYPD Blue to the ABC television network, produced by Steven Bochco Productions, which would go on to last for twelve seasons. Fox has also sold South Central, originally proposed by CBS, to the Fox television network for the spring of 1994. Also, for the spring of 1994, Fox is distributing the Steven Bochco-produced drama The Byrds of Paradise, which was aired on the ABC television network.\n\nBy the 1994–95 season, Chicago Hope, which happens to be the second show out of the Kelley/CBS/20th Television deal, was sold and went on to be a hit, lasting for 6 seasons on the air. The Twentieth Television production company also sold The 5 Mrs. Buchanans to CBS, and Wild Oats, to the Fox television network.\n\n20th Century Fox Television and the New World era (1994–2019) \nFollowing a 1994 restructuring of Fox's television production companies, 20th Television was refocused on syndication and \"non-traditional programs\", while network television programming once more came under the 20th Century Fox Television banner and returned to being a division of the movie studio.\n\nFor the 1995–96 season, the new 20th Century Fox Television production company is selling the sitcoms The Crew and The Preston Episodes to the Fox television network, Cleghorne! to The WB television network, and the adventure series Space: Above and Beyond, to the Fox television network. It distributed the crime drama Murder One, produced by Steven Bochco Productions, which has just been sold to the ABC television network during the season. Also on October 17, 1995, Fox had signed long-term deals with comedy writers including Danny Jacobson, Chuck Lorre, Jeff Greenstein and Jeff Strauss, and Eric Gilliland to produce television series, and in June, signed a contract with Vic Rauseo and Linda Morris.\n\nOn December 4, 1995, David E. Kelley, who produces existing TV shows such as Picket Fences and Chicago Hope, had reached a 5-year agreement with the studio, with the ability to produce television series, the first and third to be on the ABC television network and the second and fourth to be on the Fox television network, and so on. The first two projects to come out of the deal were ABC's The Practice and Fox's Ally McBeal. In 1996, Peter Roth was transferred to becoming president of Fox Entertainment. Chris Carter, writer/producer of The X-Files also extended its contract with 20th Century Fox Television. The first project to come out of the new contract was the science-fiction fantasy drama Millennium. In the summer of 1996, Fox and the production company bought out L.A. Firefighters for a summer run on the Fox television network.\n\nIn 1996, New World Communications was bought out by Fox, which included its television stations, New World/Genesis Distribution and New World Entertainment. The deal ended up being finalized on January 22, 1997, and took the program Access Hollywood there. Shortly afterwards, Cannell bought back his library of rights from Fox in 1998. Also that same year, Steven Levitan, producers of Just Shoot Me! had signed a contract with 20th Century Fox Television. Also that same year, Fox had struck a deal with More-Medavoy Productions to produce television series.\n\nLater on, in 1997, MTM Enterprises became part of 20th Century Fox Television, and thus remains an in-name only division of TCFTV as part of its purchase of International Family Entertainment, MTM's parent company. MTM at that time is currently producing three shows The Pretender for NBC, and Good News and Sparks for UPN, at primetime, after layoffs hit at MTM's syndicated unit. Later that year, Fox established another television production company, Fox Television Studios to house smaller production units, under executive David Grant. Also, producer Barbara Hall inked an overall deal with the studio.\n\nIn 1998, actor Luke Perry received a development deal with the studio. Also, Davis Entertainment, who had a contract with the studio struck a deal with Fox to produce TV shows. Also in 1998, the film studio Jersey Films, owned by Danny DeVito had launched a television unit with a deal at 20th Century Fox Television. Later that year, Seth MacFarlane, creator of the then-upcoming Family Guy series has an overall deal with the studio. In 2000, Fox and Imagine Entertainment struck an overall deal to produce television shows after a contract with Disney has been expired. Also that year, producers Nicole Yorkin and Dawn Prestwich inked a deal with the studio. In 2002, Original Television, a unit of Neal H. Moritz and Marty Adelstein's Original management company received a Fox overall deal to produce television series. In 2003, 3 Arts Entertainment, a talent/agency company had received an overall deal with 20th Century Fox.\n\nIn 2005, The Shield writer/producer Shawn Ryan and his MiddKid Productions company inked a three-year pact with the company. In 2006, TCFTV produced the first two series that aired on Fox's sister network, MyNetworkTV: the telenovelas Desire and Fashion House. In 2007, Nip/Tuck writer/producer Ryan Murphy received an overall deal with the studio. During the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, Fox had terminated overall deals with various writers/producers. In 2009, Peter Chernin left Fox to set up Chernin Entertainment with a film and television deal at 20th Century Fox. In 2010, David Graziano, who was writer of the show In Plain Sight had struck a deal with 20th Century Fox Television to develop various television projects. In 2011, Mike Royce, successful TV producer had inked a rich deal with the company to produce TV shows.\n\nIn 2012, 20th Century Fox Television was reorganized as a separate unit of News Corporation; 20th Century Fox Television chairs Dana Walden and Gary Newman reported to Chase Carey, COO of 21st Century Fox. In 2013, Lord Miller Productions, a company owned by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had inked a deal with the company to produce television shows.\n\nIn July 2014, it was announced that the operations of the Fox Broadcasting Company and 20th Century Fox Television would merge into a new unit, the Fox Television Group, which was overseen by Walden and Newman. In early 2015, Mythology Entertainment signed a first look deal with the company and fellow company Fox 21 Television Studios while announcing its TV division head.\n\nUnder Disney Television Studios\nIn March 2019, 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Television and Fox Television Animation were acquired by the Walt Disney Company and integrated into Walt Disney Television as part of Disney Television Studios, after which the president Greg Meidel was laid off. As a result, Newman departed and Walden was made head of Disney programming. Jonnie Davis and Howard Kurtzman, who previously held high ranking positions with the Fox Television Group, became the co-heads of 20th Century Fox Television. In July 2019, Disney promoted Davis to the position of President of ABC Studios. Carolyn Cassidy succeeded Davis as President of Creative Affairs at 20th Century Fox Television, running the studio jointly with Kurtzman. In January 2020, Kurtzman announced that he would retire by June 2020. CBS Television Studios executive Dan Kupetz has been named the new executive vice president of business affairs and operations and will be joining 20th TV in March 2020. He is reporting to Cassidy, who assumes solo leadership and work closely with Kurtzman until he departs.\n\nThe company signed in 2019 a four-year overall deal with Liz Meriwether, co-creator of Bless This Mess. This was followed by a production deal with Lake Bell Productions in February 2020.\n\nOn January 17, 2020, it was announced that the \"Fox\" name would be dropped from several of the Fox assets acquired by Disney. However, the renaming of 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Television, and Fox 21 Television Studios, as well as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (became 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) and Fox Networks Group International, was not made clear.\n\nOn August 10, 2020, 20th Century Fox Television and 20th Television were merged into one unit as part of a restructuring plan by Disney regarding their television production units, the merged entity took the former's name to avoid branding confusion of then-current formed, Fox Corporation. On December 1, 2020, Disney announced that the Touchstone Television label was folded into 20th Television.\n\nAn new deal with Lee Daniels was revealed in May 2021. It is also announced in November 2021 that British writers Jed Mercurio and Jimmy Mulville through HTM Television received a first look deal with 20th Television. Linda Yvette Chavez, who was showrunner on Gentefied, had inked an overall deal with 20th Television, also in November 2021.\n\nPredecessors\n\n20th Television (distribution arm)\n\nThe original incarnation of 20th Television was the name of the television distribution arm of 20th Century Fox Television and the 20th Century Fox movie studio. It was formed in 1989 in order to separate television production from the 20th Century Fox division which oversaw film production. During this time, 20th Television and 20th Century Fox served as two of Fox's four main units, along with the Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Television Stations. Following a 1994 restructuring of Fox's television production companies, 20th Television was refocused on syndication and \"non-traditional programs\"; its network television division was moved back to 20th Century Fox and retook the 20th Century Fox Television name.\n\n20th Television distributes almost all programming and documentaries from the television production unit and its subsidiaries and the motion picture studio's output (and their own subdivisions). It owns programming from other production companies and studios they have acquired, including MTM Enterprises, most by Metromedia Producers Corporation, and most by New World Entertainment (including those by Four Star Television and Genesis Entertainment).\n\nThe company also syndicates and/or co-syndicates product from partners such as Regency Television and Debmar-Mercury (until April 2019). The Lincolnwood Drive subsidiary of 20th Television has been used to produce the syndicated court series Divorce Court since the 2014–15 season, mainly for tax reasons.\n\nIn 1992, Greg Meidel became president of 20th Television, serving until 1995. Meidel was president of MyNetworkTV when he add 20th Television's same position to his responsibility in 2009.\n\nAs part of the restructuring that stemmed from News Corporation spinning off its entertainment assets into 21st Century Fox, it was announced on July 8, 2013, that 20th Television will operate under the management of 20th Century Fox Television; it was previously under Fox Television Stations. As a result, the former company's president reported to the latter's chairmen.\n\nOn August 10, 2020, 20th Television as a syndication and distribution arm and first incarnation, was merged into Disney–ABC Domestic Television.\n\nTouchstone Television\n\nThe second incarnation of Touchstone Television (formerly known as Fox 21 Television Studios) was an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. It was founded in 2014 from the merger of Fox Television Studios and Fox 21, and given its second name in mid-2020 following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney.\n\nOn December 1, 2020, Disney announced that the label was folded into 20th Television.\n\n20th Century Fox Television Distribution\n\n20th Century Fox Television Distribution was a television distribution arm of 20th Century Fox Television for all Fox-produced and/or acquired programming, operated from 2011 until its closure in January 2020 due to Disney's decision to drop the \"Fox\" name from the acquired assets to avoid brand confusion with the Fox Corporation as part of the merger requirement.\n\nBlair Entertainment\n\nBlair Entertainment (formerly Rhodes Productions) was a television production/distribution company founded by Jack E. Rhodes, operated from 1970 until 1992, a year before New World Communications' acquisition and folding of SCI Television in 1993.\n\nRhodes Productions was originally formed in 1970 by Jack E. Rhodes as a subsidiary of Taft Broadcasting Company in New York City, to distribute Hanna-Barbera cartoons. In 1971, Rhodes expanded by distributing the syndicated version of the game show Hollywood Squares. Also at the same time, the company's headquarters was moved from New York City to Los Angeles.\n\nIn 1975, the original Rhodes Productions was renamed by Taft to Taft H-B Program Sales, and Jack E. Rhodes has moved to Filmways to serve as chief of the domestic syndication arm launch Rhodes Production Company. Rhodes took the nighttime Hollywood Squares with them, and also launched the nighttime version of the game show High Rollers. Under the Filmways regime, Rhodes Productions also launched the soap opera spoof for late night viewing, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which is produced by Norman Lear and his T.A.T. Communications Company in 1976. In 1977, Rhodes Productions debuted its breakout property Second City Television (SCTV), which was originated in Canada.\n\nIn 1978, Rhodes Productions was split off from Filmways, and began operating as an independent production company and syndicator. Rhodes opted to keep Second City Television and Disco Break, while Filmways was forming the new syndication company Filmways Enterprises. In 1980, Rhodes purchased the syndication rights of Let's Make a Deal, the 1980 revival that was originated in Canada. This was followed up in 1981 by another acquisition of a Canadian game show Pitfall.\n\nJohn Blair & Company through Blair Television acquired Rhodes Productions in 1983, and renamed it into Blair Entertainment. Blair had retained distribution rights of several shows like The Cisco Kid and SCTV, as well as a revival of Divorce Court. In 1985, Blair Entertainment had introduced the new game show Break the Bank in partnership with broadcasting groups Storer Communications and Hubbard Broadcasting. This was followed in 1986 by another game show property Strike It Rich. In 1986, they also expanded their production activities with launches of several TV series.\n\nDivorce Court has been highly profitable, among other hit syndicated series in Blair's lineup. In 1990, Blair Entertainment, in collaboration with RHI Entertainment and advertising sales agent Action Media Group is launching a new drama Dracula. It also signed a new reality program Detectives in White to cable. In 1991, Blair Entertainment debuted a new program in collaboration with GRB Entertainment and All American Television, Stuntmasters. In 1992, Blair Entertainment has shut down its operations.\n\nProductions\n\nNotable shows produced by 20th Television include Batman, M*A*S*H, The Simpsons, L.A. Law, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Bob's Burgers, Empire, Family Guy, 24, Modern Family, This Is Us, American Dad!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, New Girl, American Horror Story, The X-Files, Reba, In Living Color, The Bernie Mac Show, King of the Hill, Futurama, Malcolm in the Middle, The Cleveland Show, Ally McBeal, Love, Victor, and Last Man Standing.\n\nSee also\n Walt Disney Television\n 20th Television Animation\n ABC Signature\n Touchstone Television\n FX Productions\n Disney Platform Distribution\n Disney–ABC Domestic Television\n Fox Entertainment\n Bento Box Entertainment\n MarVista Entertainment\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n20th Television\n20th Century Studios\n1949 establishments in California\nDisney production studios\nDisney acquisitions\nCompanies based in Los Angeles\nEntertainment companies based in California\nEntertainment companies established in 1949\nMass media companies established in 1949\nPeabody Award winners\nTelevision production companies of the United States\nFormer News Corporation subsidiaries\nDisney Television Studios"
] |
[
"Stan Laurel",
"20th Century Fox",
"when did he get a contract wiht 20th century fox?",
"In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox",
"What is something interesting that happened during this period?",
"During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise.",
"what films did they make during this period?",
"The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs",
"how long was he with 20th century fox?",
"I don't know."
] | C_c23860af2294497ebab7a4d20dad0811_1 | did he have any problems during this time period? | 5 | did Stan Laurel have any problems during his time with 20th Century Fox? | Stan Laurel | In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century Fox to make ten films over five years. During the war years, their work became more standardised and less successful, though The Bullfighters and Jitterbugs did receive some praise. In 1947, Laurel returned to England when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom, and the duo were mobbed wherever they went. Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe. Around this time, Stan found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Ollie to find solo projects and he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films. In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks. In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Laurel suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, his partner Hardy had a massive stroke on 14 September 1956, which resulted in his being unable to return to acting. CANNOTANSWER | In 1947, Laurel returned to England when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom, and the duo were mobbed wherever they went. | Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was part of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.
Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement. His performances polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. He was a member of "Fred Karno's Army", where he was Charlie Chaplin's understudy. He and Chaplin arrived in the United States on the same ship from the United Kingdom with the Karno troupe. Laurel began his film career in 1917 and made his final appearance in 1951. He appeared with his comic partner Oliver Hardy in the film short The Lucky Dog in 1921, although they did not become an official team until late 1927. He then appeared exclusively with Hardy until retiring following his comedy partner's death in 1957.
In April 1961, on the 33rd Academy Awards, Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award for his pioneering work in comedy, and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laurel and Hardy were ranked top among best double acts and seventh overall in a 2005 UK poll to find the Comedians' Comedian. In 2019, Laurel topped a list of the greatest British comedians compiled by a panel on the television channel Gold. In 2009, a bronze statue of the duo was unveiled in Laurel's home town of Ulverston.
Early life
Arthur Stanley Jefferson was born in his grandparents' house on 16 June 1890 in Argyle Street, Ulverston, Lancashire, to Arthur J. Jefferson, an actor and theatre manager from Bishop Auckland, and Margaret (née Metcalfe), an actress from Ulverston. He was one of five children. One of them was Edward, an actor who would appear in four of Stan's shorts.
His parents were both active in the theatre and always very busy. In his early years, Laurel spent much time living with his maternal grandmother, Sarah Metcalfe. He attended school at King James I Grammar School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and the King's School in Tynemouth, Northumberland.
He moved with his parents to Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed his education at Rutherglen Academy. His father managed Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel began work. His boyhood hero was Dan Leno, one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural affinity for the theatre, Laurel gave his first professional performance on stage at the Panopticon in Glasgow at the age of sixteen, where he polished his skills at pantomime and music hall sketches. It was the music hall from where he drew his standard comic devices, including his bowler hat and nonsensical understatement.
In 1912 Laurel worked together with Ted Desmond on tour in Netherlands and Belgium as a comedy double act known as the Barto Bros. Their act, which involved them dressing as Romans, finished when Laurel was offered a spot in an American touring troupe. After Laurel left England for America the pair maintained a life-long friendship, sending letters and photos that documented Laurel's rise from an unknown British comedy actor in 1913 to one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1950s. The correspondence, spanning around 50 years and including photos of them being reunited in the US, was put up for auction by Desmond's grandson Geoffrey Nolan in 2018.
He joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors in 1910 with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson"; the troupe also included a young Charlie Chaplin. The music hall nurtured him, and he acted as Chaplin's understudy for some time. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country. During the First World War, Laurel registered for military service in America on 5 June 1917, as required under the Selective Service Act. He was not called up; his registration card states his status as resident alien and his deafness as exemptions.
The Karno troupe broke up in the spring of 1914. Stan joined with two other former Karno performers, Edgar Hurley and his wife Ethel (known as "Wren") to form "The Three Comiques". On the advice of booking agent Gordon Bostock, they called themselves "the Keystone Trio". Stan started to do his character as an imitation of Charlie Chaplin, and the Hurleys began to do their parts as silent comedians Chester Conklin and Mabel Normand. They played successfully from February through October 1915, until the Hurleys and Stan parted ways. Between 1916 and 1918, he teamed up with Alice Cooke and Baldwin Cooke, who became his lifelong friends, to form the Stan Jefferson Trio.
Amongst other performers, Laurel worked briefly alongside Oliver Hardy in the silent film short The Lucky Dog (1921), before the two were a team. It was around this time that Laurel met Mae Dahlberg. Around the same time, he adopted the stage name of Laurel at Dahlberg's suggestion that his stage name Stan Jefferson was unlucky, due to it having thirteen letters. The pair were performing together when Laurel was offered $75 a week to star in two-reel comedies. After making his first film Nuts in May, Universal offered him a contract. The contract was soon cancelled during a reorganisation at the studio. Among the films in which Dahlberg and Laurel appeared together was the 1922 parody Mud and Sand.
By 1924, Laurel had given up the stage for full-time film work, under contract with Joe Rock for 12 two-reel comedies. The contract had one unusual stipulation: that Dahlberg was not to appear in any of the films. Rock thought that her temperament was hindering Laurel's career. In 1925, she started interfering with Laurel's work, so Rock offered her a cash settlement and a one-way ticket back to her native Australia, which she accepted. The 12 two-reel comedies were Mandarin Mix-Up (1924), Detained (1924), Monsieur Don't Care (1924), West of Hot Dog (1924), Somewhere in Wrong (1925), Twins (1925), Pie-Eyed (1925), The Snow Hawk (1925), Navy Blue Days (1925), The Sleuth (1925), Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925) and Half a Man (1925).
Like his future mate, Hardy, Laurel was credited for directing or co-directing ten silent shorts (between 1925 and 1927). But, unlike Hardy, Laurel appeared in none of them. It was Hardy, however, who appeared in three of the shorts directed by Laurel, which are: Yes, Yes, Nanette! (1925), Wandering Papas (1926) and Madame Mystery (1926).
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel next signed with the Hal Roach studio, where he began directing films, including a 1926 production called Yes, Yes, Nanette (in which Oliver Hardy had a part under the name "Babe" Hardy). It had been his intention to work primarily as a writer and director.
The same year, Hardy, a member of the Hal Roach Studios Comedy All Star players, was injured in a kitchen mishap and hospitalised. Because he was unable to work on the scheduled film, Get 'Em Young, Laurel was asked to return to acting to fill in. Starting early in 1927, Laurel and Hardy began sharing the screen in several short films, including Duck Soup, Slipping Wives and With Love and Hisses. The two became friends and their comic chemistry soon became obvious. Roach Studios' supervising director Leo McCarey noticed the audience reaction to them and began teaming them, leading to the creation of the Laurel and Hardy series later that year.
Together, the two men began producing a huge body of short films, including The Battle of the Century, Should Married Men Go Home?, Two Tars, Be Big!, Big Business, and many others. Laurel and Hardy successfully made the transition to talking films with the short Unaccustomed As We Are in 1929. They also appeared in their first feature in one of the revue sequences of The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and the following year they appeared as the comic relief in the lavish all-colour (in Technicolor) musical feature The Rogue Song. Their first starring feature Pardon Us was released in 1931. They continued to make both features and shorts until 1935, including their 1932 three-reeler The Music Box, which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.
Trouble at Roach Studio
During the 1930s, Laurel was involved in a dispute with Hal Roach which resulted in the termination of his contract. Roach maintained separate contracts for Laurel and Hardy that expired at different times, so Hardy remained at the studio and was "teamed" with Harry Langdon for the 1939 film Zenobia. The studio discussed a series of films co-starring Hardy with Patsy Kelly to be called "The Hardy Family". But Laurel sued Roach over the contract dispute. Eventually, the case was dropped and Laurel returned to Roach. The first film that Laurel and Hardy made after Laurel returned was A Chump at Oxford. Subsequently, they made Saps at Sea, which was their last film for Roach.
Second World War
In 1941, Laurel and Hardy signed a contract at 20th Century-Fox to make ten films over five years. Laurel found, to his shock, that he and Hardy were hired only as actors, and were not expected to contribute to the staging, writing, or editing of the productions. When the films proved very successful, Laurel and Hardy were granted more freedom and gradually added more of their own material. They had made six Fox features when the studio suddenly abandoned B-picture production in December 1944. The team signed another contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942, resulting in two more features.
Revisiting his music hall days, Laurel returned to England in 1947 when he and Hardy went on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom performing in variety shows. Mobbed wherever they went, Laurel's homecoming to Ulverston took place in May, and the duo were greeted by thousands of fans outside the Coronation Hall. The Evening Mail noted: "Oliver Hardy remarked to our reporter that Stan had talked about Ulverston for the past 22 years and he thought he had to see it." The tour included a Royal Variety Performance in front of King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth in London. The success of the tour led them to spend the next seven years touring the UK and Europe.
Around this time, Laurel found out that he had diabetes, so he encouraged Hardy to find solo projects, which he did, taking parts in John Wayne and Bing Crosby films.
In 1950, Laurel and Hardy were invited to France to make a feature film. The film was a disaster, a Franco-Italian co-production titled Atoll K. (The film was entitled Utopia in the US and Robinson Crusoeland in the UK.) Both stars were noticeably ill during the filming. Upon returning to the United States, they spent most of their time recovering. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy toured Europe successfully, and they returned in 1953 for another tour of the continent. During this tour, Laurel fell ill and was unable to perform for several weeks.
In May 1954, Hardy had a heart attack and cancelled the tour. In 1955, they were planning to do a television series called Laurel and Hardy's Fabulous Fables based on children's stories. The plans were delayed after Hardy suffered a stroke on 25 April 1955, from which he recovered. But as the team was planning to get back to work, Hardy had another stroke on 14 September 1956, and was unable to return to acting.
Hardy's death
Oliver Hardy died on 7 August 1957. People who knew Laurel said that he was absolutely devastated by Hardy's death and never fully recovered from it; his wife told the press that he became physically ill upon hearing that Hardy was dying. Laurel was in fact too ill to attend his funeral and said, "Babe would understand". Although he continued to socialize with his fans, he refused to perform on stage or act in another film from then on as he had no interest in working without Hardy, turning down every offer he was given for a public appearance.
After Laurel and Hardy
In 1961, Stan Laurel was given an Academy Honorary Award "for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy". Laurel was introduced by Bob Hope, and the award was accepted by Danny Kaye. Laurel had achieved his lifelong dream as a comedian and had been involved in nearly 190 films. He lived his final years in a small flat in the Oceana Apartments in Santa Monica, California. Laurel was gracious to fans and spent much time answering fan mail. His phone number was also listed in the telephone directory and he would take calls from fans.
Jerry Lewis was among the comedians to visit Laurel, and Lewis received suggestions from him for the production of The Bellboy (1960). Lewis paid tribute to Laurel by naming his main character Stanley in the film, and having Bill Richmond play a version of Laurel as well. Dick Van Dyke told a similar story. When he was just starting his career, he looked up Laurel's phone number, called him, and then visited him at his home. Van Dyke played Laurel on "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Laurel was offered a cameo role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), but declined. He reportedly said he
did not want to be on screen in his old age, especially without Hardy. It appears, however, his involvement reached the stage of filming a background matching shot of his old time convertible, with a stand-in seated, at the wheel, donning a derby hat. The cameo appearance was then given to Jack Benny, who wore Laurel's signature derby in the scene.
Personal life
Laurel and Mae Dahlberg never married but lived together as common-law husband and wife from 1919 to 1925, before Dahlberg accepted a one-way ticket from Joe Rock to go back to her native Australia. In November 1937, Dahlberg was back in the US and suing Laurel for financial support. At the time, Laurel's second marriage was in the process of a divorce, with Dahlberg's legal suit adding to Laurel's woes. The matter was settled out of court. Dahlberg was described as a "relief project worker" by the court. Laurel was one of several popular British actors in Hollywood who never became a naturalised US citizen.
Laurel had four wives and married one of them a second time after their divorce. His first wife was Lois Neilson, whom he married on 13 August 1926. Together they had a daughter, Lois, who was born on . Their second child, Stanley, was born two months premature in May 1930, but died after nine days. Laurel and Neilson divorced in December 1934. Their daughter Lois died on aged 89.
In 1935, Laurel married Virginia Ruth Rogers (known as Ruth). In 1937, he filed for divorce, confessing that he was not over his ex-wife Lois, but Lois decided against a reconciliation. On New Year's Day 1938, Laurel married Vera Ivanova Shuvalova (known as Illeana), and Ruth accused him of bigamy, but their divorce had been finalised a couple of days before his new marriage. The new marriage was very volatile, and Illeana accused him of trying to bury her alive in the back yard of their San Fernando Valley home. He and Illeana separated in 1939 and divorced in 1940, with Illeana surrendering all claim to the Laurel surname on 1 February 1940 in exchange for $6,500. In 1941, Laurel remarried Virginia Ruth Rogers; they were divorced for the second time in early 1946. On 6 May 1946, he married Ida Kitaeva Raphael to whom he remained married until his death.
Death
Laurel was a smoker until suddenly quitting around 1960. In January 1965, he underwent a series of x-rays for an infection on the roof of his mouth. He died on 23 February 1965, aged 74, four days after suffering a heart attack. Minutes before his death, he told his nurse that he would not mind going skiing, and she replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!" A few minutes later he died quietly in his armchair.
At his funeral service at Church of the Hills, Buster Keaton said, "Chaplin wasn't the funniest. I wasn't the funniest; this man was the funniest." Dick Van Dyke gave the eulogy as a friend, protégé, and occasional impressionist of Laurel during his later years; he read The Clown's Prayer. Laurel had quipped, "If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I'll never speak to him again." He was interred in Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
Legacy and honours
Laurel and Hardy are featured on the cover of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1989, a statue of Laurel was erected in Dockwray Square, North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, where he lived at No. 8 from 1897 to 1902. The steps down from the Square to the North Shields Fish Quay were said to have inspired the piano-moving scene in The Music Box. In a 2005 UK poll, Comedians' Comedian, Laurel and Hardy were ranked top double act, and seventh overall. Along with Hardy, Laurel was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Neil Brand wrote a radio play entitled Stan, broadcast in 2004 on BBC Radio 4 and subsequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra, starring Tom Courtenay as Stan Laurel, in which Stan visits Oliver Hardy after Hardy has suffered his stroke and tries to say the things to his dying friend and partner that have been left unsaid. In 2006, BBC Four showed a drama called Stan, based on Brand's radio play, in which Laurel meets Hardy on his deathbed and reminisces about their career.
A plaque on the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, England, marks Laurel and Hardy appearing in Nottingham over Christmas 1952, and staying with Laurel's sister, Olga, who was the landlady of the pub. In 2008, a statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on the site of the Eden Theatre. In April 2009, a bronze statue of Laurel and Hardy was unveiled in Ulverston.
There is a Laurel and Hardy Museum in Stan's hometown of Ulverston. There are two Laurel and Hardy museums in Hardy's hometown of Harlem, Georgia. One is operated by the town of Harlem, and the other is a private museum owned and operated by Gary Russeth, a Harlem resident. Jefferson Drive in Ulverston is named after him.
In 2013 Gail Louw and Jeffrey Holland debuted a short one-man play "...And this is my friend Mr Laurel" at the Camden Fringe festival. The play, starring Holland as Laurel, was taken on tour of the UK in 2014 until June 2015.
In the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, Steve Coogan portrayed Laurel (a performance which saw him nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role) and John C. Reilly played Hardy. Developed by BBC Films, the film is set in the twilight of their careers, and focuses on their farewell tour of Britain and Ireland's variety halls in 1953.
In 2019 Laurel was voted the greatest ever British comedian by a panel on the British television channel Gold.
Filmography
Stan Laurel filmography (films of Stan Laurel as an actor without Oliver Hardy)
Laurel and Hardy filmography (filmography of Laurel and Hardy together)
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
Bergen, Ronald. The Life and Times of Laurel and Hardy. New York: Smithmark, 1992. .
Bowers, Judith. Stan Laurel and Other Stars of the Panopticon: The Story of the Britannia Music Hall. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 2007. .
Louvish, Simon. Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 2001. .
Marriot, A. J. Laurel & Hardy: The British Tours. Hitchen, Herts, UK: AJ Marriot, 1993. .
Levy, Joe, ed. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. New York: Wenner Books, 2005. .
McCabe, John. Babe: The Life of Oliver Hardy. London: Robson Books Ltd., 2004. .
McCabe, John. Comedy World of Stan Laurel. London: Robson Books, 2005, First edition 1975. .
McCabe, John. Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy: An Affectionate Biography. London: Robson Books, 2004, First edition 1961, .
Stone, Rob. Laurel or Hardy: The Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Temecula, California: Split Reel Books, 1996
Okuda, Ted, and James L. Neibaur. Stan Without Ollie: The Stan Laurel Solo Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2012
Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Stan: The Life of Stan Laurel. New York: Stein and Day., 1980
External links
The Making of Stan Laurel: Echoes of a British Boyhood article at Brenton Film by Danny Lawrence, Stan Laurel's biographer
The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project
English male comedians
Comedians from Lancashire
British male comedy actors
English entertainers
English male film actors
English male silent film actors
English male stage actors
English stunt performers
Music hall performers
Silent film comedians
Vaudeville performers
1890 births
1965 deaths
Academy Honorary Award recipients
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
20th Century Fox contract players
Hal Roach Studios actors
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
English emigrants to the United States
British expatriate male actors in the United States
People educated at The King's School, Tynemouth
People educated at Stonelaw High School
People from Ulverston
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Articles containing video clips
19th-century English people
20th-century English male actors
20th-century English comedians
Hal Roach Studios short film series
People educated at Queen's Park Secondary School | false | [
"Alp Yürek was the second bey of the Chobanids.\n\nReign \nIt is thought that the period of his reign was short and there was no significant development in the Principality during this time. The reason for this silence can be cited as the fact that the Chobanids, after the Battle of Kösedağ, did not cause any problems to the new ruler of Anatolia, the Ilkhanate, and accepted to pay taxes to them. Although it is not known when and how Alp Yurek died, it can be accepted that he died in a war since he is referred to as a martyr in the sources. After him, his son Muzaffereddin Yavlak Arslan became the head of the principality .\n\nReferences \n\n13th-century people of the Ottoman Empire\n Chobanids\n History of Kastamonu",
"In psychology, incubation refers to the unconscious processing of problems, when they are set aside for a period of time, that may lead to insights. It was originally proposed by Graham Wallas in 1926 as one of his four stages of the creative process: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Incubation is related to intuition and insight in that it is the unconscious part of a process whereby an intuition may become validated as an insight. Incubation substantially increases the odds of solving a problem, and benefits from long incubation periods with low cognitive workloads.\n\nThe experience of leaving a problem for a period of time and then finding that the difficulty evaporates on returning to the problem, or, even more striking, that the solution \"comes out of the blue\" when thinking about something else, is widespread. Many guides to effective thinking and problem solving advise the reader to set problems aside for a time.\n\nParadigm for investigation\nThe most widely adopted paradigm for investigating incubation involves comparing problems on which participants take a break during solving with problems on which participants work for a continuous period. The total time spent on each problem is equated across the conditions, and the incubation period is usually filled with unrelated activity to prevent further conscious work on the problem. Superior performance on problems for which work is split over two sessions is taken as evidence for the incubation effect, which is thus operationally defined as any benefit of a break during problem solving.\n\nEffects of emotion and sleep\nWhen discussing the relation between incubation effect, emotions, and creativity, researchers found that positive mood enhances creativity at work. That means that a given day's creativity would be expected to follow reliably from the previous day's mood, above and beyond any carry-over of that previous day's mood. Theory and research on incubation, long recognized as a part of the creative process, suggest such cross-day effects. Thus, if positive mood on a particular day increases the number and scope of available thoughts, those additional thoughts may incubate overnight, increasing the probability of creative thoughts the following day.\n \nRecent advances in neuroscience provide intriguing evidence of the mechanisms underlying incubation effects, particularly those that occur during sleep. This research reveals that people's experiences while awake can be consolidated into memory and result in enhanced performance the next day without any additional practice or engagement in the task. Moreover, there is mounting evidence that sleep can facilitate the types of memory and learning processes, such as associative memory, that contribute to creative problem solving. In one relevant experiment, researchers demonstrated that problem-solving insight can be dramatically enhanced by a period of sleep following initial work on a problem.\n\nEffects of dreams\n\nIn the 1970s, Stanford Sleep Lab Director William Dement gave 500 undergraduate students three \"brain-teaser\" problems to read over before going to sleep and had them note whether they had solutions in their dreams that night; seven students had a dream containing the solution. In 1993, Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett conducted research asking college students to incubate answers to real-life homework and other objective problems on which they were working, finding that, in one week's time, half had dreamed about their topic and a quarter had a dream which provided an answer. Barrett also interviewed modern artists and scientists about their use of their dreams, documenting dramatic anecdotes including winners of Nobel Prizes and MacArthur \"Genius Grants\" whose ideas originated in dreams. Her research concludes that, while anything—math, musical composition, business dilemmas—may get solved during dreaming, the two areas dreams are especially likely to help are 1) anything where vivid visualization contributes to the solution, whether in artistic design or invention of 3-D technological devices and 2) any problem where the solution lies in thinking outside the box—i.e. where the person is stuck because the conventional wisdom on how to approach the problem is wrong.\n\nNot everybody agrees about the usefulness of dreams in solving problems. In the August 2004 article \"Dreams: The Case Against Problem-Solving\", G. William Domhoff concluded: When all is said and done, there is only occasional anecdotal evidence for the idea that recalled dreams have any role in solving or detecting problems. This evidence is not impressive when it is arrayed against the small percentage of dreams that are recalled and the even smaller percentage of recalled dreams that might be construed as having a solution to a problem. Dreams may on occasion be useful to waking consciousness as a basis for thinking about problems in a new way, or as a basis for discussing personal problems, as some clinical research shows (Fiss, 1991; Greenberg et al., 1992). And dreams that have a dramatic emotional impact create a strong subjective sense that they must have a useful message. However, it does not follow from clinical usefulness or a waking impression of importance that dreaming has an adaptive function (Antrobus, 1993).\n\nSee also\n Broaden-and-build\n Emotion and memory\n\nReferences cited \n\nCreativity"
] |
[
"Skunk Anansie",
"Reunion: 2009-2010"
] | C_4d9d37cea365442bb011ddbddba8f926_0 | When was the reunion? | 1 | When was the reunion of Skunk Anansie? | Skunk Anansie | Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (November 2008 issue), and said that the band planned to release a "best of" compilation as well as new material. Ace later set up an official page for the band on MySpace. On 2 and 3 April 2009, two shows took place at the Monto Water Rats (the former venue of the Splash Club) in London, under the alias SCAM (Skin, Cass, Ace, Mark) and sold out in 20 minutes. The band began their "Greatest Hits" tour on Friday, 9 October 2009 at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, with other dates across Europe. It was their first actual tour in eight years. A "greatest hits" album, Smashes and Trashes, was released 2 November 2009. It is a 15-track career-embracing album and includes three brand new tracks: "Because of You", "Tear the Place Up" and "Squander". A best-of remixes companion album was also released digitally. On 3 July 2009, the music video for "Tear the Place Up" was presented exclusively on MySpace, before on 10 August 2009, a new video for "Because of You" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com. It was released 14 September 2009 in the UK and was the first single to be released from Smashes and Trashes. The single was a top 10 hit in Italy, before its follow-up "Squander" was a top 75 success in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Their fifth album Wonderlustre was released internationally on 13 September 2010, preceded by the first single "My Ugly Boy", which was released in the UK on 16 August 2010 and in Europe July/August. The video for "My Ugly Boy" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com on 23 July 2010. Wonderlustre reached number one on the Italian albums chart on 1 October 2010 and placed in the top 10 in charts all over Europe including in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Poland. In May 2010 they were a supporting act for Rammstein, during two concerts in Berlin. The second single from Wonderlustre, "Over the Love" was released internationally in November 2010. In November 2010 the band played on Idolos, a Portuguese equivalent to the UK's Pop Idol. "You Saved Me", the third single from Wonderlustre was released internationally in March 2011. CANNOTANSWER | Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (November 2008 issue), | Skunk Anansie are a British rock band whose members include Skin (lead vocals, guitar), Cass (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Ace (guitar, backing vocals) and Mark Richardson (drums and percussion).
Skunk Anansie formed in 1994, disbanded in 2001 and reformed in 2009. The name "Skunk Anansie" is taken from Akan folk tales of Anansi the spider-man of Ghana, with "Skunk" added to "make the name nastier".
They have released six studio albums: Paranoid & Sunburnt (1995), Stoosh (1996), Post Orgasmic Chill (1999), Wonderlustre (2010), Black Traffic (2012) and Anarchytecture (2016); one compilation album, Smashes and Trashes (2009); and several hit singles, including "Charity", "Hedonism", "Selling Jesus" and "Weak".
They are often grouped as part of the Britrock movement, as opposed to the contemporary Britpop of their early years due to their overall harder sound. The band, in 2004, was named as one of the most successful UK chart acts between 1952 and 2003 by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, with a total of 142 weeks on both the singles and album charts ranking them at No. 491. When the book first published this annual top 500 list in 2000, it only involved weeks spent on the singles chart until 2004's 17th edition.
History
Formation and early career: 1994–2001
The group played its first gig at London's Splash club in March 1994. In 1995 they were voted Best New British Band by the readers of Kerrang! magazine. At the award ceremony that year drummer Mark Richardson met the band who were looking for a permanent replacement for Robbie France, so an audition was set up and the band was reformed. Soon after that, two of their songs, "Feed" and "Selling Jesus", appeared on the soundtrack of the film Strange Days in 1995. "Selling Jesus" became Skunk Anansie's controversial second song to receive radio play, following their first radio release "Little Baby Swastikkka". After hearing this song, radio personality Howard Stern claimed that the band would become a huge hit. Success continued for the band and they were also voted Kerrang!'s Best British Live Act in 1996. In 1997 they were nominated for Best Live Act and Best Group at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
The group played its first gig at London's Splash club in March 1994, subsequently taking six weeks to record its debut album, Paranoid & Sunburnt, with producer Sylvia Massy at a "haunted house" outside the city. The band's first single, "Selling Jesus," was featured on the soundtrack of the film Strange Days; Stoosh followed in 1996. Both albums were released by One Little Indian Records. After switching to the Virgin label in 1998, their third album, Post Orgasmic Chill, was released in 1999.
In 1996, the band played a set at the Coppid Beech Hotel, Bracknell during a record label event.
In 1999, the band were the last band of the 20th Century to headline Glastonbury Festival; closing the Pyramid Stage on Sunday 27 June.
Throughout the 1990s, the group toured globally with such bands as U2, Aerosmith, Feeder, Lenny Kravitz, Bad Religion, Rollins Band, Therapy?, Rammstein, Killing Joke, Soulfly, Sevendust, Oomph!, Muse, Staind, Powerman 5000, Veruca Salt, Marion and A Perfect Circle.
Side projects: 2002–2008
After their split in 2001, Skin embarked on a solo career. Her debut solo album Fleshwounds, co-written with longtime songwriting partner Len Arran was released in September 2003 and Fake Chemical State was released in March 2006. She has also provided vocals for a number of other acts' songs.
Ace released a low-key album, Still Hungry, under the name Ace Sounds, which featured many collaborations including Shingai Shoniwa from Noisettes and Skye from Morcheeba. He later joined a band called "Inner Mantra". Ace is also a tutor at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music
In 2002 Cass recorded the album Scars with Gary Moore, and played bass and performed backing vocals. Cass also played various instruments on Skin's first solo album. When not recording he concentrates on photography.
Mark recorded sessions for various artists including Skin before joining Feeder after the death of their original drummer, Jon Lee. Mark has also been tutoring at the Brighton Institute with bandmate Ace.
Reunion: 2009–2010
Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (November 2008 issue), and said that the band planned to release a "best of" compilation as well as new material. Ace later set up an official page for the band on MySpace.
On 2 and 3 April 2009, two shows took place at the Monto Water Rats (the former venue of the Splash Club) in London, under the alias SCAM (Skin, Cass, Ace, Mark) and sold out in 20 minutes. The band began their "Greatest Hits" tour on Friday, 9 October 2009 at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, with other dates across Europe. It was their first actual tour in eight years. A "greatest hits" album, Smashes and Trashes, was released 2 November 2009. It is a 15-track career-embracing album and includes three brand new tracks: "Because of You", "Tear the Place Up" and "Squander". A best-of remixes companion album was also released digitally.
On 3 July 2009, the music video for "Tear the Place Up" was presented exclusively on MySpace, before on 10 August 2009, a new video for "Because of You" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com. It was released 14 September 2009 in the UK and was the first single to be released from Smashes and Trashes. The single was a top 10 hit in Italy, before its follow-up "Squander" was a top 75 success in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.
Their fifth album Wonderlustre was released internationally on 13 September 2010, preceded by the first single "My Ugly Boy", which was released in the UK on 16 August 2010 and in Europe July/August. The video for "My Ugly Boy" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com on 23 July 2010. Wonderlustre reached number one on the Italian albums chart on 1 October 2010 and placed in the top 10 in charts all over Europe including in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Poland.
In May 2010 they were a supporting act for Rammstein, during two concerts in Berlin. The second single from Wonderlustre, "Over the Love" was released internationally in November 2010. In November 2010 the band played on Ídolos, a Portuguese equivalent to the UK's Pop Idol.
"You Saved Me", the third single from Wonderlustre was released internationally in March 2011.
Continuing career: 2011–present
On 12 June 2011, the band performed at an open air 'Rock over Volga' at Samara, Russia. The performance was exceptionally well-received.
The band also appeared on Friday 12 August at Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary playing a mixed set of hits and newer material. This was their first appearance at Sziget. Sziget's own website reporting "nobody had any doubts who the Queen of this year's Sziget turned out to be".
Skunk Anansie was on stage when the tragedy occurred at Pukkelpop in Belgium on 18 August 2011. As the band was performing a small tornado hit the venue and artists and revellers alike were sent running for their lives. Five were killed whilst several more were injured. Singer Skin described the incident as the most terrifying of her life.
Former drummer Robbie France died on 14 January 2012 in Spain. He was 52.
On 11 June 2012, Skunk Anansie revealed the title for their 5th studio album: Black Traffic. The band's follow-up to 2010's critically acclaimed Wonderlustre was recorded in London and produced by Skunk Anansie and Chris Sheldon and mixed by Jeremy Wheatley and Adrian Bushby.
Black Traffic became the band's first independent release via their own label working in partnership with 100% Records. The album was released in September 2012 release and was backed by the first leg of an extensive 20 date European Tour. On 29 June 2012, the band released the lyric video for a new track called 'Sad, Sad, Sad'. Nick Bassett praised the track on his site The Re-View:
"Thrashing percussion and Skin's vocal - she remains one of the UK's greatest and most underrated female vocalists - are all in check as the band return to the heavy rock sound that first shot them into the mainstream in the mid-nineties."
In September 2013, the band released their seventh album, An acoustic Skunk Anansie - Live in London which was recorded live at Cadogan Hall in April of that year. The album was also released as a live DVD and was described by the band as 'a family affair' as it featured Skin's longtime writing partner Len Arran on guitar and Erika Footman, Mark's wife on backing vocals and keyboards.
On 15 January 2016, Skunk Anansie released their sixth studio album Anarchytecture, and embarked upon an extensive European tour in February 2016 and throughout Summer 2016.
In 2017, Skunk Anansie turned their influence to help young aspiring musicians and launched the first ever Skunk Anansie scholarship in conjunction with The Academy of Contemporary Music. The band pick one successful applicant from either ACM Guildford, ACM London or ACM Birmingham and offer them £27,000 of funding for their degree course. The scholarship was again awarded the following year.
In September 2018, the band announced they’d be releasing the very special live album, 25LIVE@25 through Republic of Music in celebration of their forthcoming 25th anniversary. It was released 25 January 2019 and features 25 tracks taken from across their six studio albums, which were captured live from various performances on their 2017 tour.
Continuing the 25th anniversary celebrations Skunk Anansie will be touring Europe throughout the summer of 2019, headlining festivals and their own shows, finishing with a string of UK shows
Across the UK and European media the importance of the band in today's culture has been given renewed prominence. The UK media have embraced the band once more with Skin appearing in interviews for the likes of Channel 4 News, Newsnight, The One Show, ITN, and Radio 2 discussing current political and social issues. The band have also been hailed as one of the most important rock bands of the modern age rock across a broad spectrum of UK press titles, and were the recipients of the Hall of Fame Award at the 2019 Kerrang! Awards on 19 June 2019.
2019 saw the release of the single "What You Do For Love". The black and white video for the song shows Skunk Anansie in concert. This was followed by the single "This Means War" in 2020. At the beginning of 2022, a new single - "Piggy" - was released.
Influences
Skin has described Skunk Anansie as a "clit-rock" group, which Allmusic clarifies as "an amalgam of heavy metal and black feminist rage". Members Skin and Ace have mentioned the Sex Pistols, Blondie, dub, reggae, electronica, hip-hop and world music as significant influences.
Other media
The band also covered The Stooges' song "Search and Destroy" specifically for the soundtrack of Zack Snyder's film Sucker Punch, released on 25 March 2011. The soundtrack also includes a Skunk Anansie remix of the song "Army of Me" by Björk.
Band members
Deborah "Skin" Dyer – lead vocals, guitar, theremin (1994–2001; 2009–present)
Martin "Ace" Kent – guitar, backing vocals (1994–2001; 2009–present)
Richard "Cass" Lewis – bass, guitar, backing vocals (1994–2001; 2009–present)
Mark Richardson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1995–2001; 2009–present)
Former members
Robbie France – drums, percussion (1994–1995; died 2012)
Touring members
Erika Footman – keyboards
Discography
Studio albums
Paranoid & Sunburnt (1995)
Stoosh (1996)
Post Orgasmic Chill (1999)
Wonderlustre (2010)
Black Traffic (2012)
Anarchytecture (2016)
References
External links
Review of 'Squander' on the Daily Music Guide
Official Website
Review of 'Because Of You' on the Daily Music Guide
Skinmusic.net - Lead singer's official site containing Skunk Anansie content
Lisbon concert review
English alternative rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
British alternative metal musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 2001
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups from London
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
One Little Independent Records artists
Virgin Records artists
Epic Records artists
V2 Records artists
Musical quartets | true | [
"Reunion is genealogy software made by Leister Productions, Inc., a privately held firm established by Frank Leister in 1984 located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The company operates as a genealogy (family tree) software developer exclusively for macOS and iOS. Reunion was initially a Macintosh application, programmed in Apple's HyperCard. Version 4 was available for Windows and Macintosh until the Windows version was sold to Sierra in 1997.\n\nReunion provides methods to create, manipulate and generate reports about a family history. It has the capability to produce charts depicting family relationships and the ability to produce Web pages for publishing a family history online. Reunion can also be used to gather family statistics. It allows integration of images and movies into Reunion family files.\n\nReunion version history \nThe announcement pages for the respective versions offer more details as to the exact changes.\n\nReunion 13 was announced in November 2020. Updates added MacOS Big Sur support and native support for Apple M1 CPUs.\n\nReunion 12 was updated in May 2018. New features include a new Duplicate Check, further improvements to syncing with Reunion's mobile app \"ReunionTouch\" for iOS, a new Citations List, improvements to Sorting, and a number of other upgrades.\n\nReunion 11 was announced in April 2015. New features include better syncing with Reunion's mobile app, Book creator to automatically generate PDF books, improved editing, and \"on-the-fly\" relationships identification.\n\nReunion 10 was announced in May 2012. New features include web searching, mapping of places, a tree view, a nav bar and a sidebar, image dragging from a web browser, side-by-side matching and merging people, and graphic relationship charts.\n\nReunion 9 was announced in March 2007. This version became a universal binary Cocoa-based application, which runs under OS X. New features include Unicode support and a less \"modal\" design, allowing index and source windows to remain open for easier access.\n\nReunion 8 was announced in September 2002. This version became a Mac OS X native application, providing users of OS X and prior versions of the Macintosh operating system the ability to utilize the software. Charting was significantly enhanced with the move to Reunion 8.\n\nReunion 7 was announced in May 2000 and among the changes seen at this time was the integration of SuperChart into a single Reunion application and the ability to have multiple family files open at one time.\n\nReunion 6 was announced in November 1998 and saw the genealogy software change to include pictures into the family card view and introduced the Match & Merge tool that can be used to detect and remove duplicate records in the family file.\n\nReunion 5 was announced in September 1997 and saw the introduction of drag and drop capabilities when working with the family card. Editing also became easier with start of tabbed windows to allow for faster, more efficient data entry.\n\nReunion 4 was the last version available for Windows.\n\nLanguages \n English\n The following translations have been completed by Reunion users:\n Dutch (version 8 & 9)\n French (version 8 & 9)\n German\n Norwegian\n Swedish\n\nExternal Tools \nThird party utilities/add-ons - for Reunion.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nReunion Software - for macOS and iOS\nReunionTalk - Forum\nSoftware Review on GenealogyTools.com\n\nReunion",
"The Porsche Rennsport Reunion is an automotive event and the world's largest meeting of classic Porsche racing cars and their drivers. Porsche has been organising the Rennsport Reunion since 2001 to honour its own motorsport tradition. The event has been conceived by the former British racing driver Brian Redman and former Porsche Cars North America’s press spokesperson Bob Carlson.\n\nHistory \nRennsport Reunion is an event hosted since 2001 every 3 to 4 years in the United States. After the first three events were held on the east coast of the US, two events at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida in 2004 and 2007 followed, before the event moved for Rennsport Reunion IV to the west coast in 2011.\n\nRennsport Reunion I \nThe first Porsche Rennsport Reunion event was held at Lime Rock Park, Connecticut in 2001.\n\nRennsport Reunion II \nThe Porsche Rennsport Reunion II was held at the Daytona International Speedway in 2004.\n\nRennsport Reunion III \nThe Porsche Rennsport Reunion III was held at the Daytona International Speedway in 2007.\n\nRennsport Reunion IV \n\nThe Porsche Rennsport Reunion IV was held at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California in 2011.\n\nRennsport Reunion V \n\nThe Porsche Rennsport Reunion V was held at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California in 2015.\n\nRennsport Reunion VI \nThe Porsche Rennsport Reunion VI was held at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California in September 2018 with 81,550 attendees.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nPorsche in motorsport\nAuto shows in the United States"
] |
[
"Skunk Anansie",
"Reunion: 2009-2010",
"When was the reunion?",
"Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (November 2008 issue),"
] | C_4d9d37cea365442bb011ddbddba8f926_0 | Did they produce any albums? | 2 | Did Skunk Anansie produce any albums? | Skunk Anansie | Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (November 2008 issue), and said that the band planned to release a "best of" compilation as well as new material. Ace later set up an official page for the band on MySpace. On 2 and 3 April 2009, two shows took place at the Monto Water Rats (the former venue of the Splash Club) in London, under the alias SCAM (Skin, Cass, Ace, Mark) and sold out in 20 minutes. The band began their "Greatest Hits" tour on Friday, 9 October 2009 at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, with other dates across Europe. It was their first actual tour in eight years. A "greatest hits" album, Smashes and Trashes, was released 2 November 2009. It is a 15-track career-embracing album and includes three brand new tracks: "Because of You", "Tear the Place Up" and "Squander". A best-of remixes companion album was also released digitally. On 3 July 2009, the music video for "Tear the Place Up" was presented exclusively on MySpace, before on 10 August 2009, a new video for "Because of You" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com. It was released 14 September 2009 in the UK and was the first single to be released from Smashes and Trashes. The single was a top 10 hit in Italy, before its follow-up "Squander" was a top 75 success in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Their fifth album Wonderlustre was released internationally on 13 September 2010, preceded by the first single "My Ugly Boy", which was released in the UK on 16 August 2010 and in Europe July/August. The video for "My Ugly Boy" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com on 23 July 2010. Wonderlustre reached number one on the Italian albums chart on 1 October 2010 and placed in the top 10 in charts all over Europe including in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Poland. In May 2010 they were a supporting act for Rammstein, during two concerts in Berlin. The second single from Wonderlustre, "Over the Love" was released internationally in November 2010. In November 2010 the band played on Idolos, a Portuguese equivalent to the UK's Pop Idol. "You Saved Me", the third single from Wonderlustre was released internationally in March 2011. CANNOTANSWER | A "greatest hits" album, Smashes and Trashes, was released 2 November 2009. | Skunk Anansie are a British rock band whose members include Skin (lead vocals, guitar), Cass (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Ace (guitar, backing vocals) and Mark Richardson (drums and percussion).
Skunk Anansie formed in 1994, disbanded in 2001 and reformed in 2009. The name "Skunk Anansie" is taken from Akan folk tales of Anansi the spider-man of Ghana, with "Skunk" added to "make the name nastier".
They have released six studio albums: Paranoid & Sunburnt (1995), Stoosh (1996), Post Orgasmic Chill (1999), Wonderlustre (2010), Black Traffic (2012) and Anarchytecture (2016); one compilation album, Smashes and Trashes (2009); and several hit singles, including "Charity", "Hedonism", "Selling Jesus" and "Weak".
They are often grouped as part of the Britrock movement, as opposed to the contemporary Britpop of their early years due to their overall harder sound. The band, in 2004, was named as one of the most successful UK chart acts between 1952 and 2003 by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, with a total of 142 weeks on both the singles and album charts ranking them at No. 491. When the book first published this annual top 500 list in 2000, it only involved weeks spent on the singles chart until 2004's 17th edition.
History
Formation and early career: 1994–2001
The group played its first gig at London's Splash club in March 1994. In 1995 they were voted Best New British Band by the readers of Kerrang! magazine. At the award ceremony that year drummer Mark Richardson met the band who were looking for a permanent replacement for Robbie France, so an audition was set up and the band was reformed. Soon after that, two of their songs, "Feed" and "Selling Jesus", appeared on the soundtrack of the film Strange Days in 1995. "Selling Jesus" became Skunk Anansie's controversial second song to receive radio play, following their first radio release "Little Baby Swastikkka". After hearing this song, radio personality Howard Stern claimed that the band would become a huge hit. Success continued for the band and they were also voted Kerrang!'s Best British Live Act in 1996. In 1997 they were nominated for Best Live Act and Best Group at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
The group played its first gig at London's Splash club in March 1994, subsequently taking six weeks to record its debut album, Paranoid & Sunburnt, with producer Sylvia Massy at a "haunted house" outside the city. The band's first single, "Selling Jesus," was featured on the soundtrack of the film Strange Days; Stoosh followed in 1996. Both albums were released by One Little Indian Records. After switching to the Virgin label in 1998, their third album, Post Orgasmic Chill, was released in 1999.
In 1996, the band played a set at the Coppid Beech Hotel, Bracknell during a record label event.
In 1999, the band were the last band of the 20th Century to headline Glastonbury Festival; closing the Pyramid Stage on Sunday 27 June.
Throughout the 1990s, the group toured globally with such bands as U2, Aerosmith, Feeder, Lenny Kravitz, Bad Religion, Rollins Band, Therapy?, Rammstein, Killing Joke, Soulfly, Sevendust, Oomph!, Muse, Staind, Powerman 5000, Veruca Salt, Marion and A Perfect Circle.
Side projects: 2002–2008
After their split in 2001, Skin embarked on a solo career. Her debut solo album Fleshwounds, co-written with longtime songwriting partner Len Arran was released in September 2003 and Fake Chemical State was released in March 2006. She has also provided vocals for a number of other acts' songs.
Ace released a low-key album, Still Hungry, under the name Ace Sounds, which featured many collaborations including Shingai Shoniwa from Noisettes and Skye from Morcheeba. He later joined a band called "Inner Mantra". Ace is also a tutor at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music
In 2002 Cass recorded the album Scars with Gary Moore, and played bass and performed backing vocals. Cass also played various instruments on Skin's first solo album. When not recording he concentrates on photography.
Mark recorded sessions for various artists including Skin before joining Feeder after the death of their original drummer, Jon Lee. Mark has also been tutoring at the Brighton Institute with bandmate Ace.
Reunion: 2009–2010
Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (November 2008 issue), and said that the band planned to release a "best of" compilation as well as new material. Ace later set up an official page for the band on MySpace.
On 2 and 3 April 2009, two shows took place at the Monto Water Rats (the former venue of the Splash Club) in London, under the alias SCAM (Skin, Cass, Ace, Mark) and sold out in 20 minutes. The band began their "Greatest Hits" tour on Friday, 9 October 2009 at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, with other dates across Europe. It was their first actual tour in eight years. A "greatest hits" album, Smashes and Trashes, was released 2 November 2009. It is a 15-track career-embracing album and includes three brand new tracks: "Because of You", "Tear the Place Up" and "Squander". A best-of remixes companion album was also released digitally.
On 3 July 2009, the music video for "Tear the Place Up" was presented exclusively on MySpace, before on 10 August 2009, a new video for "Because of You" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com. It was released 14 September 2009 in the UK and was the first single to be released from Smashes and Trashes. The single was a top 10 hit in Italy, before its follow-up "Squander" was a top 75 success in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.
Their fifth album Wonderlustre was released internationally on 13 September 2010, preceded by the first single "My Ugly Boy", which was released in the UK on 16 August 2010 and in Europe July/August. The video for "My Ugly Boy" was presented exclusively on Kerrang.com on 23 July 2010. Wonderlustre reached number one on the Italian albums chart on 1 October 2010 and placed in the top 10 in charts all over Europe including in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Poland.
In May 2010 they were a supporting act for Rammstein, during two concerts in Berlin. The second single from Wonderlustre, "Over the Love" was released internationally in November 2010. In November 2010 the band played on Ídolos, a Portuguese equivalent to the UK's Pop Idol.
"You Saved Me", the third single from Wonderlustre was released internationally in March 2011.
Continuing career: 2011–present
On 12 June 2011, the band performed at an open air 'Rock over Volga' at Samara, Russia. The performance was exceptionally well-received.
The band also appeared on Friday 12 August at Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary playing a mixed set of hits and newer material. This was their first appearance at Sziget. Sziget's own website reporting "nobody had any doubts who the Queen of this year's Sziget turned out to be".
Skunk Anansie was on stage when the tragedy occurred at Pukkelpop in Belgium on 18 August 2011. As the band was performing a small tornado hit the venue and artists and revellers alike were sent running for their lives. Five were killed whilst several more were injured. Singer Skin described the incident as the most terrifying of her life.
Former drummer Robbie France died on 14 January 2012 in Spain. He was 52.
On 11 June 2012, Skunk Anansie revealed the title for their 5th studio album: Black Traffic. The band's follow-up to 2010's critically acclaimed Wonderlustre was recorded in London and produced by Skunk Anansie and Chris Sheldon and mixed by Jeremy Wheatley and Adrian Bushby.
Black Traffic became the band's first independent release via their own label working in partnership with 100% Records. The album was released in September 2012 release and was backed by the first leg of an extensive 20 date European Tour. On 29 June 2012, the band released the lyric video for a new track called 'Sad, Sad, Sad'. Nick Bassett praised the track on his site The Re-View:
"Thrashing percussion and Skin's vocal - she remains one of the UK's greatest and most underrated female vocalists - are all in check as the band return to the heavy rock sound that first shot them into the mainstream in the mid-nineties."
In September 2013, the band released their seventh album, An acoustic Skunk Anansie - Live in London which was recorded live at Cadogan Hall in April of that year. The album was also released as a live DVD and was described by the band as 'a family affair' as it featured Skin's longtime writing partner Len Arran on guitar and Erika Footman, Mark's wife on backing vocals and keyboards.
On 15 January 2016, Skunk Anansie released their sixth studio album Anarchytecture, and embarked upon an extensive European tour in February 2016 and throughout Summer 2016.
In 2017, Skunk Anansie turned their influence to help young aspiring musicians and launched the first ever Skunk Anansie scholarship in conjunction with The Academy of Contemporary Music. The band pick one successful applicant from either ACM Guildford, ACM London or ACM Birmingham and offer them £27,000 of funding for their degree course. The scholarship was again awarded the following year.
In September 2018, the band announced they’d be releasing the very special live album, 25LIVE@25 through Republic of Music in celebration of their forthcoming 25th anniversary. It was released 25 January 2019 and features 25 tracks taken from across their six studio albums, which were captured live from various performances on their 2017 tour.
Continuing the 25th anniversary celebrations Skunk Anansie will be touring Europe throughout the summer of 2019, headlining festivals and their own shows, finishing with a string of UK shows
Across the UK and European media the importance of the band in today's culture has been given renewed prominence. The UK media have embraced the band once more with Skin appearing in interviews for the likes of Channel 4 News, Newsnight, The One Show, ITN, and Radio 2 discussing current political and social issues. The band have also been hailed as one of the most important rock bands of the modern age rock across a broad spectrum of UK press titles, and were the recipients of the Hall of Fame Award at the 2019 Kerrang! Awards on 19 June 2019.
2019 saw the release of the single "What You Do For Love". The black and white video for the song shows Skunk Anansie in concert. This was followed by the single "This Means War" in 2020. At the beginning of 2022, a new single - "Piggy" - was released.
Influences
Skin has described Skunk Anansie as a "clit-rock" group, which Allmusic clarifies as "an amalgam of heavy metal and black feminist rage". Members Skin and Ace have mentioned the Sex Pistols, Blondie, dub, reggae, electronica, hip-hop and world music as significant influences.
Other media
The band also covered The Stooges' song "Search and Destroy" specifically for the soundtrack of Zack Snyder's film Sucker Punch, released on 25 March 2011. The soundtrack also includes a Skunk Anansie remix of the song "Army of Me" by Björk.
Band members
Deborah "Skin" Dyer – lead vocals, guitar, theremin (1994–2001; 2009–present)
Martin "Ace" Kent – guitar, backing vocals (1994–2001; 2009–present)
Richard "Cass" Lewis – bass, guitar, backing vocals (1994–2001; 2009–present)
Mark Richardson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1995–2001; 2009–present)
Former members
Robbie France – drums, percussion (1994–1995; died 2012)
Touring members
Erika Footman – keyboards
Discography
Studio albums
Paranoid & Sunburnt (1995)
Stoosh (1996)
Post Orgasmic Chill (1999)
Wonderlustre (2010)
Black Traffic (2012)
Anarchytecture (2016)
References
External links
Review of 'Squander' on the Daily Music Guide
Official Website
Review of 'Because Of You' on the Daily Music Guide
Skinmusic.net - Lead singer's official site containing Skunk Anansie content
Lisbon concert review
English alternative rock groups
English hard rock musical groups
British alternative metal musical groups
English heavy metal musical groups
Musical groups disestablished in 2001
Musical groups established in 1994
Musical groups from London
Musical groups reestablished in 2009
One Little Independent Records artists
Virgin Records artists
Epic Records artists
V2 Records artists
Musical quartets | true | [
"Get Into It is the seventh album by rapper/DJ, The Egyptian Lover. The album was released on June 2, 1998 for Egyptian Empire Records and was produced by Egytpian Lover. The album was a mild success and marked the first time since 1988's Filthy that Egyptian Lover made it to the Billboard Charts, making it to #72 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album, however, did not produce any hit singles.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Love Theme\" – 4:16\n\"Got Me Goin' (Crazy)\" – 6:49\n\"\"Me\"\" – 3:32\n\"90's Ladies\" – 3:26\n\"Let's Get It On\" – 3:47\n\"Get Into It\" – 2:42\n\"$\" – 5:09\n\"Tear The Roof Off\" – 4:36\n\"Dance Music\" – 5:13\n\"Jam\" – 4:09\n\nReferences\n\nEgyptian Lover albums\n1990 albums\nAlbums produced by Egyptian Lover",
"Back From the Tomb is the fourth studio album and fifth overall by rapper/DJ, Egyptian Lover. The album was released in 1994 for Egyptian Empire Records and was produced by Egyptian Lover. The album was Egyptian Lover's first since 1988's Filthy, however due to Gangsta rap dominating the charts and air waves, the album was a critical and commercial failure and did not make it on any billboard charts or produce any singles.\n\nTrack listing\n\"I'm So Freaky\" – 4:19\n\"Bounce That Bootie\" – 3:50\n\"I Need a Freak\" – 4:51\n\"Gotta Have Ya\" – 4:24\n\"My Lil Telephone Freak (Dial-A-Freak, Pt. 2)\" – 4:32\n\"Make It Talk to Me Baby\" – 3:35\n\"Work, Freak, Pump That Body\" – 7:52\n\"Yea!\" – 4:39\n\"World of Girls\" – 5:18\n\"Release to the Beat\" – 4:39\n\nReferences \n\nEgyptian Lover albums\n1994 albums\nAlbums produced by Egyptian Lover"
] |
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